‘Rain Gardens’ Update

Measures to improve surface water drainage were given planning permission. The measures include ‘rain gardens’ on the roadside on Aikenhead Road and Kings Park Avenue.  See our previous post on this topic here. As of July 2018, it was anticipated that work would start January 2019.

Here we pass on answers to issues raised by MoFloCoCo, received from a GCC Development and Regeneration Services official in July 2018.

Mount Florida Community Council: Traffic flow on Hampden event days. On event days there is no parking on Aikenhead Road and all 4 lanes are used. Residents believe that removing the two nearside lanes for the rain gardens will have a significant negative impact on event days. You did not carry out a traffic assessment.
GCC Development and Regeneration Services: We have consulted with the Council’s Transport Planning team and Police Scotland and received no adverse comment.

MFCC: Traffic flow at junctions, every day not just on event days. Some of the proposed rain gardens are located at junctions, where the nearside lane is used to pass vehicles waiting to turn right. We are concerned the rain gardens will make this impossible, especially for buses.
GCC-DRS: Careful consideration has gone into the design of the rain gardens especially at junctions. It is considered that those junctions are wide enough for the rain gardens not to cause an obstruction. No concerns have been raised by the Council’s Transport Planning team.

MFCC: The continuing very low level of public awareness – ‘doing development to communities, rather than with them’. Your consultations were so poorly attended because the leaflets were uninformative and said almost nothing about what was proposed. You can say no consultation was required because it is a minor/ local applicaiton but your consultant told us that you split the proposal into three applications specifically to circumvent the PAC requirement of major applications. Online searches for ‘glasgow surface water management’ found no website that an ordinary citizen could be expected to use to understand the scheme.
GCC-DRS: It is believed that the level of consultation undertaken was appropriate for the scale of the proposed works. This has included two rounds of community consultation with the 2nd round of consultation supported by targeted leaflets distributed to households in close proximity to the proposed works. It should be noted that if you enter ‘glasgow surface water management’ into Google the 3rd hit is a link to the Glasgow City Council Water Management proposed supplementary planning guidance that includes relevant information to the proposed project and the 4th link is to the Metropolitan Glasgow Strategic Drainage Partnership (MGSDP) which is the umbrella organisation delivering these projects within the city.

MFCC: No maintenance schedule or budget has been published.
GCC-DRS: A maintenance schedule and budget are not requirements for the planning application. It is understood that at the community council meeting reference was made to the North Toryglen SuDS Pond as evidence that surface water management assets are maintained.

MFCC: The impact on parking at night time (when residents are at home) has not been assessed.
GCC-DRS: GCC have had access to a parking survey , but do not hold the intellectual property rights to this information and as such it was not possible to publish it with the planning application. The parking survey demonstrated that there was capacity to remove parking spaces.

MFCC: Can residents influence the choice of shrubs vs trees?
GCC-DRS: Yes, the feedback received to date that the preference would be for shrubs rather than trees will be taken on board.

MFCC: Please share the parking assessment.
GCC-DRS: Unfortunately, as noted previously, GCC do not hold the intellectual property rights for the parking survey.

MFCC: What alternatives were considered in the feasibility study?
GCC-DRS: A long list of options were considered a copy of which is attached.

MFCC: What is your plan to raise public awareness? For example this may include through press releases, sponsored ads/video on social media and a non-technical web page?
GCC-DRS: A communication plan will be developed and implemented prior to construction works starting, This will be in partnership with the contractor who will be appointed after the tender process has been completed.

MFCC: Could you please tell me the status of the application? Has it been approved or when will it go to committee?
GCC-DRS: The application will be brought to the Planning Committee in August after the recess. It is intended that there would be a site start in January 2019.

MFCC: Will you be seeking a Traffic Regulation Order in order to change the road layout and introduce the formalised parking?
GCC-DRS: Advice on this matter has been sought and this is not considered necessary.