whaurs yer Glen Cinema noo?

Facelift for old music hall in £1.2m revamp

THE Glasgow theatre credited with discovering Stan Laurel is to get a £630,000 facelift.
The revamp of the Britannia Panopticon Music Hall is part of a £1.2million investment by Scottish Enterprise Glasgow in the Merchant City.

The A-listed Trongate theatre is where comic Stan Laurel made his stage debut in 1906 and where Hollywood legend Cary Grant performed in 1920 as acrobat Archie Leach.
And it was the only Glasgow building to be featured in BBC2s Restoration series in 2003.
This is the latest project in the drive to turn the Merchant City into a cultural hub and thriving cafe scene.
SE Glasgow's operations director Stuart Patrick said: "If we are serious about creating a thriving cultural quarter then conserving the outlook of the finest surviving example of a Victorian music hall in the country must be on our list."
The £1.2m is going to the Townscape Heritage Initiative - a joint venture between SE Glasgow, city council and Heritage Lottery.
The £630,000 slice will help restore the exterior and shop frontage of the former theatre.
There are talks with owner Bradley Mitchell about bringing the upper floors back into use.
Merchant City councillor Gordon Matheson welcomed the new cash.
He said: "I warmly welcome this latest investment by SE Glasgow."

Evening Times Publication date 31/08/06

Hi Folks,

I might be wrong but I am sure that there is a group in Paisley that is campaigning to have the Glen Cinema converted from a furniture shop back into a cinematic resource centre similar to the story above. Aparently there was quite a big splash about it 2 years ago during the 75th anniversary of the disaster at the cinema.

But all that happened was the the provost got his face on telly and the memorial at the cemetry got a much needed face lift.

I am informed that the group got no further with the council on the project other than being allowed to have the provost lead the memorial procession through the town to the Abbey.

What we need in the town, apart from ripping down the Piazza, is a centre for the cinematic arts, this would create an inflow of people to visit it thereby bringing in further investment to Paisley.

What is a centre for the cinematic arts? I hear you ask, its a U.S.P. that means a Unique Selling Point. Something different that we would have that no other town in Scotland would have. Dundee is the city of Discovery, you know why, because they have the boat called that, there. sounds good eh?

Read the article again.....cultural hub and thriving cafe scene.... "If we are serious about creating a thriving cultural quarter then conserving the outlook of the finest surviving example of a Victorian music hall in the country must be on our list." ...... Ring any bells? now read the bit I did earlier about the Vision board.

Vison my Butt!!!

For over two years the Glen Cinema has been in national focus, has the "Vision Board" seen fit to look into the possiblity? Not a bloody dickie bird.

I am reliably informed that several approaches were made to the board and various members of the council and even our parlimentary representatives were asked to promote this unique part of our town.

Ask your local representative, what are you lot thinking about? Tell them in no uncertain terms do something or you will not be elected again.

Tell them you mean it.

Paisley in the Herald 2

Click the link above

Well, what do you know?

The Herald reveals that the infamous Paisley Vision Bored (sic) (the barely acceptable face of the half wit Renfrewshire Council) has resurrected a plan that has lain hidden in their ideas biscuit tin for over 15 years.

A university quarter for Paisley is the latest headline. This lame plan was not taken up 15 years ago because it is precisely that, a lame plan.

Why is this being brought out now when it failed to surface all these years? Well it don’t need me to point out again, that the University of Paisley, due to financial pressure is going to merge with Bell college in Hamilton to create a West of Scotland University with over 18,000 students.

Also, this Plan was probably conceived by some fly by night 'Consultant' at the going rate of about 50k a pop, but the board were too embarrased to let this idea escape at the time. Now seems the ideal opportunity to use this expensive piece of think tankery to divert the attention away from the council and the board.

Why is this significant? Well the ‘ambitious’ £50m student quarter plan will not see the light of day and who will get the blame?

Not the Council who have let Paisley decline into a state of paralysis. Not the seemingly, newly unearthed 'Paisley Vision Board' who have been strangley silent ever since they were formed as the Town Centre Management Trust, about a thousand years ago and have slept soundly ever since, while Paisley perished.

The University thats who.

The council has used the former Paisley College of Technology as a cash cow for years. Now that the seemingly endless stream of funds are going to dry up, its time for a panic.

am sick o it!

Save Paisley, Demolish the Piazza

Click the link above

Hi Folks.

Drastic stuff eh? No, its not drastic, its bloody essential. If Paisley is to survive we need to remove this eyesore and reveal again the river cart below, regenerate the river side and attract people to live in the town centre. Further, doing this will cause the town's downward spiral to reverse. People living in the town centre will attract shops to service their needs, these shops will in turn attract other quality shops and businesses. Ok It's a long term thing, but since when have our elected representatives thought in the long term? All they think about(most of them)is the short term issues of their positions on the council and Parliament.

Hey! Its a democracy (the last time I looked), ask your elected representative 'what do you think we should do to regenerate Paisley'?

He/She will harp on about the Council/ Parliament have plans to attract inward investment by reinforcing the work done up to date in the revamping of Paisley's town centre, we are just waiting for the effects of this to filter through, and when it does, it will increase footfall in the town centre by 179%.

Bugger me does that no just sound like a councilor? Maybe I'll stand. No, No, No,

The people of Paisley don't want platitudes we want action. This mob is not giving us it, dump the whole useless shower of them. We have the power, we are their gaffers, they are in their jobs because we elected them. So de elect them, get a whole new bunch in, but before you vote (and please go and vote, for staying away from the polls perpetuates the status quo)ask them this, what will you do to make Paisley great again? If they start to give the old soft shoe shuffle, say straight to their face

I'M NO VOTING FOR YOU YA BAMPOT!!!

What prompted this tirade against the elected members of Paisley? Copy and paste the link below to your browser bar to see what other towns and cities are doing with their river fronts.

what's different about Paisley? I'll tell you. We elected a bunch of shortsighted no imagination or drive layabouts, with no real concern for the town they represent.

Harsh words? No harsh enough.

Am aff noo!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4786513.stm

nice thing

hi folks

Someone called Shara left a nice comment on one of my entries and asked if I would link to their site, copy and paste below to go

http://arts-collection.blogspot.com

airts n pairts

ta ta

Paisley in The Herald

...........The objectives are to encourage town centres to become the community hubs they once were. However, for many, the horse may already have bolted.
Paisley, once one of Scotland's busiest and wealthiest towns, is now a textbook example of the decline.
The crumbling grandeur of the Victorian architecture is obscured by countless signs declaring "Lease For Sale" and "To Let, Generous Incentives Available".

A generation ago, it would have been unthinkable that shops could lie vacant for years on the main street in a town the size of Paisley. Now, empty units sit cheek-by-jowl with charity shops........

....Since the massive shopping mall opened on the outskirts of Renfrew in 1999, local traders have witnessed a steady, unrelenting decline. The opening of the Silverburn centre in nearby Pollok, home to the largest supermarket in the country, will only worsen the situation....................

The full Herald article can be read here

http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/67005.html

Senior officials from Paisley University and Bell College in Hamilton are currently holding talks about merging the two institutions and creating a new university for 18,000 students.
Called the University of the West of Scotland, the new institution, planned for next year, will operate from four campuses located at Paisley, Hamilton, Ayr, and Dumfries.
The idea is to create a university which is large enough to tackle the chronic problems of under-representation in higher education in the west of Scotland.
The merger of the two schools of health and nursing currently run separately by Bell and Paisley would also make the new university the biggest provider of nurses and midwives in Scotland............However, the fact the town of Paisley will no longer have a university named after it has caused concern among local politicians.

MP Douglas Alexander, Scottish Secretary, and MSP Hugh Henry, the executive's Deputy Justice Minister, have launched a petition to keep the university's existing name.
"Paisley is Scotland's largest town and has given the university its original existence and identity. For the university to turn its back on Paisley would be an act of betrayal," said Mr Alexander.

Paisley University was founded in 1897 as Paisley College of Technology.

For the full Herald Article click here

http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/67054.html

What have the two articles got in common? The bottom line is, it's business that makes the University based in Paisley to diversify. They are faced with a declining market and ever increasing pressure to make money and money is precisely what the traders in the town have not been making for a good few years, even before Braehead.

Paisley has been in decline for over 20 years. The Council has done nothing to arrest this reversal of fortune. You did not need to be an astrologer to foresee that was going to happen. You could say that's why we have a planning department, to plan for the future needs of the town. For the departments in the council to do their jobs they need a clear line of direction.

Forget the posturing that the MSP/MP's have been indulging in. A petition? Don't make me laugh. A last desperate effort to place the blame somewhere else

Forget them, but what direction has the bunch of losers known as our councillors been indicating all these years? The only direction these nohopers have been indicating has been away from them.

It's no our fault, its Braehead, it's no our fault that the County Buildings in County Square were demolished, the river Cart paved over and a monstrosity built in its place, it's no our fault that the BAA were not told to have Paisley in the title of our Airport.

IT WAS A BIG BOY THAT DONE IT AND THEN HE RAN AWAY!!! NO FECKIN WAY. OUR COUNCIL IS RESPONSIBLE. Or are they???

The blame for the way the town is today falls squarely on us, the Voters of the town. Like sheep we trot along to the polling stations (or more increasingly, stay away, which is even worse) to put our hoof prints were we have been told. What we fail to realise time and time again, that those half wit Councillors, MSP,s and MPs are our employees, we elect them, they should do what we say, but we are content to let them ruin our beautiful town without saying a word.

People of Paisley, I tell you, we must get up, off our apathetic arses and do something about it. Organise yourselves and sieze control, don't put up with lame, half arsed excuses, the destiny of the people of Paisley is in your hands. If you personally were drowning you would clutch at any means to escape your predicament.

What? Are you waiting for a new elected bunch in next years elections to save your arse? Forget it.

You have the power, use it.