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"Let's remove national politics from Local Authorities" - Briefing Notes 2013

1. Public meeting on Consultation for a Mosque complex and Halal Butcher on Eastwood High School Campus
2. Consultation to build a joint faith Primary school on the green belt.


Public meeting on Consultation for a Mosque complex and Halal Butcher on Eastwood High School Campus.
As highlighted as far back as the 6th. of October, East Ren Community Council's have come together and for those who aren't already aware of it we're delighted to confirm that on this Monday, 28 October at 7 PM a public meeting will be held jointly by Newton Mearns, Clarkson and Neilston Community Councils to discuss the ERMEC trustees' proposal to build a place of worship on the campus site currently undergoing a £1 million plus contract to deliver outdoor classrooms, leisure and recreational facilities for both the pupils of Eastwood High School and for community use outwith school hours.

This proposal has been put out to public consultation by East Renfrewshire council. The consultation closes 21 days after the public meeting on Monday night and the proposal includes, amongst many other things, a mosque complex and a halal butchers facility.

Speakers will include councillors from ERC, Eastwood High School's Parent Council and community representatives. The public will be given the opportunity to participate in a question and answer session. Representatives from the ERMEC trust which is promoting the mosque complex have also been invited to address the meeting. Submissions and other papers by the ERMEC trust will be displayed and discussed.

The meeting is being held at Mearns Castle High School starting at 7 PM sharp. Admission is strictly by ticket only. To obtain your ticket please email Briefing Notes at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Type the word "ticket" in the subject line and your name and address in the main body of the text. Only one ticket per email address will be permitted. Multiple applications, each accompanied by an individual email address but from the same postal address will be permitted.

We are conscious that this is probably the single most controversial issue we have ever been involved with, judging by the huge number of you who've already contacted Briefing Notes on this subject. Bearing in mind that the outdoor learning, leisure and recreational facilities of Eastwood High are still under construction, this could potentially set a very dangerous precedent for all of our school campuses such as Williamwood High and Mearns Castle High Schools.

Please make every effort to attend and learn for yourself about this proposal and how we as a community should respond to this consultation.

Consultation to build a joint faith Primary school on the green belt.
There is a second consultation to build two new primary schools opposite Mearns Castle High School and they are to be built on yet more of our rapidly diminishing green belt. They are also contrary to the Local Plan and will add considerable traffic to an already over congested traffic hot spot at peak times. For these reasons we recommend that proposal should be strongly resisted and it will be explained on Monday night how you object to same.

We look forward to meeting many of you on Monday night.

Have a good weekend.

Briefing Notes

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On the second point: Consultation to build a joint faith Primary school on the green belt.

I think it is important to get evidence that shows whether or not there is plenty of space in St Ninian's for the proposed new school to feed.

Compare against Cllr Swift's.

The last St Ninian's consultation is still on everyone's minds and folk think they will be rezoned due to this and OLM/Robslee.

I'm not sure folk with young kids would object to a brand new primary school unless they knew of all the problems that could arise.

Concerned ERC Parent wrote:


Lasercow dealing directly with your last sentence, we are not saying don't build a new primary or two. Instead we are saying build it on a brown field site preferably in the centre rather than the extreme edge of the boundary to reduce the distance travelled by pupils within the catchment area. (Think of a circle and the length of the radius rather than the diameter.) Also the traffic around Mearns Castle High is crazy.

It's also more green belt being lost. Plus can that area take the extra traffic?

@DJ - wasn't me, that was cERCp - who definitely isn't my alter-ego

Thornliebank, Robslee and Giffnock are all on the edge of their catchments, it doesn't work, just leads to lots of placement requests.

Calling me Lasercow DJ? Are you at the bullying again

I'm saying don't build it anywhere yet.

Don't build it until planning/education can prove that the Secondary it feeds can cope with it.