Destruction of Football Pitches and Mature Trees in Dundee

Dundee City Council has deemed these football pitches, used by young and old, situated between Gillburn Road and Kingsway, unsuitable for leisure pursuits of the council tax payers but ripe for exploitation by Public Private Partnership mystery figures. Please do not tell me that any councillor or planning department official has taken a bung. Victor Meldrew would not believe and might not be alone with that view.

A new school is being built and is going to be called St. Paul's RC Academy and will replace Lawside RC Academy and St. Saviour's High. Wait a minute! Wouldn't an equidistant site be that of the burnt-down Linlathen High? A site which would inconvenience no-one? Yes, it would, but that site has already been sold to Morrisons supermarkets and planning permission granted despite local protests and the obvious unsuitability of the site for a supermarket. What? The same Morrisons who bought Safeway in Arbroath Road and closed it down pronto? And offered its employees alternative jobs in, er, Arbroath? Something smells of fish.

I have no doubt that Lawside and St. Saviour's will be offered to Tesco or dodgy housing developers willing to pay "the going price" and perhaps a wee bit extra to cover "costs." Mark my words.

Remember, these councillors are elected by you and you can choose whether or not to retain them or not very soon. Planning department officials are not elected and I have no idea what we can do about them. Other than post videos on YouTube.

UPDATE (27th August 2007): I have received a number of messages which I consider to be offensive and have deleted them. Personal abuse will not be tolerated. If you have something to say then make your own video and post your own commentary.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Dundee
• City
• Council
• Corruption
• Lunatics
• Scotland
• Football

[confuser69]

I see now that your original video is from two years ago. Is this what they were building here? A secondary school? That would have been like Kirkton High right? for ages 13 to 16. How about doing an updated video??? I'd like to see my old house and what it looks like now. 74 was right at the end of the street. I looked at Satellite google pics and it looks like the front garden is now a drive way. I live in northern Utah now!. See ya.!

[alanewart]

No, as far as I understand, that would have been Gillburn Primary School on the right. Kirkton High would have been maybe a mile away, due North and is now called Baldragon Academy. I'll try and get out with the camera this weekend and get No.74 and the new RC school in the frame. Kind Regards.

[confuser69]

Let me tell you a story. We left Dundee just after christmas of 79. My dad never made it back to Scotland and died here in the states of cancer around 1994. When he died we had him cremated and the mortuary told us they would hang on to the ashes forever. I'm ready to claim the ashes because I'm coming home in October. My dad used to go trout fishing with my Grandad by the Dighty Burn. I want to drop the ashes here. Do you know where the Dighty Burn is? It's just outside Dundee so I hear.

[alanewart]

Good Grief! It's been a long time since I logged on here. Yes, the Dighty is due north of here. I must try harder to do an updated video soon...

[confuser69]

at :20 seconds if you had turned the camera to your right that would be 74 Gillburn road.. the house I was born in 1969. When I was growing up in the 70's there were huge trees all along the road.. I left Scotland in 1979 with my family and moved to the USA. I believe Gillburn Primary school is now gone.. I remember back in 1975 or so they fixed up all the football pitches.. I remember those massive earth movers they used. Know anyone that might be 39 years old from that area?

[alanewart]

Aye, Gillburn Primary was, I think, abandoned by the education authorities in the late 1990s and, of course, empty schools in Dundee get mysteriously burned to the ground and the land sold off to housing developers. I now live in one of the houses on the site which is fine because it helped me to escape from Hell on Earth (Stobswell.) Things aren't quite so great now - loads of "House For Sale" signs since the new secondary school was built. Sorry - don't know anyone approx 39yo around here!

[MiniZee]

@alanewart I went to Gillburn Primary for a time, just before it was closed. My mum campaigned to keep it open with some other local people, to no avail.

[ThereIsOneILove]

no there is facilities being built on it

[ThereIsOneILove]

thats just for the school though i dont think youcanb just go to it and use it coz you need to be in side the school to get acces to the back of the building to get to the pitches they are called astro turf pitches though

[ThereIsOneILove]

shushh dundee is my hometown its a greeaaatt city right

[ThereIsOneILove]

it has loads of leasure facilitys inside it a gym a dance studio and a swimming pool trust me i go there

[ThereIsOneILove]

its tottally gone now i live like right next to it the metal cross and everything is gone now its really sad i loved the school :{

[ThereIsOneILove]

trueee

[ThereIsOneILove]

its not called kirkton high its called st.pauls but its massive fou

[ThereIsOneILove]

i loved lawside loads better than st.pauls but we have better stuff at st.pauls fou