It's not lost on Alex and me that we are pensioners too, humphing bags of books up and down stairs. We have our own challenges in health terms. For example, my joints are knackered but I'm lucky to be working with Alex who does a lot of the heavy lifting while I do the driving.
It's the people I most love in Govan. It's the way they are treated I most dislike. At the moment, Govan is not in great shape. There have been many upheavals in the last 50 years: loss of industry; loss of community with people being decanted to out-lying housing schemes like Pollok and Castlemilk; a major house building programme that seems to be endless but not joined up; the influx of a very small number of asylum seekers and migrant workers from eastern Europe whose presence discombobulates a lot of the older people (and there are a lot of older people in Govan). And now, just to finish us all off, the new Southern General Hospital has opened. Sorry, I know it has a new name but it's always going to be the Southern - or Suffrin - to us.
Let's talk traffic. The whole of Ibrox has already been re-organised to accommodate football traffic around the Glasgow Rangers Stadium. No right turns between Edmiston Drive and the motorway access at Helen Street to accommodate access to and from the M8 motorway on match days, despite the fact that 13 days out of 14 there is no stadium traffic. Now we are getting a clearway from the city centre over the Squinty Bridge to the new hospital along Govan Road. Roads are being re-aligned, new roundabouts put in, etc. I'm told people in Linthouse have a new game: find the bus stop. They can now walk from Linthouse to Golspie Street before finding one.
The hospital is also getting a 'transport hub,' which involves closing Govan bus station for over 18 months and re-siting it for that period to a point that is just about inaccessible to pedestrians. There are carparks at Govan Cross, but we notice recently they are all full. Could that be the staff of the Southern parking and taking a 10 minute bus trip along the road to their work at the new hospital? Quite likely, because the morons who designed the hospital failed to provide proper parking for staff.
There's also been an outbreak of yellow lines all over Govan. All doublers. And in my opinion quite unnecessary. For instance, Alex and I deliver talking books to a lady who is just about blind right at Govan Cross. Her block of retirement flats has no visitor parking and there's no parking for deliveries anywhere near this or other buildings, one of which is the PI, the Pearce Institute, home to many social agencies including Govan Law Centre. But round the back is a wee lane backing onto a bit of derelict land beside the Clyde. We've parked here for years. It probably takes us 20 minutes once a month to make this delivery. We've noticed in the past a lot of people use this area for similar short-term stays. You can imagine our outrage when we turned into the lane last week and found this:
Like the rest of the vehicles here, Alex and I ignored the double yellows and did our delivery anyway and we will continue to do so. We're not obstructing the clearway along Govan Road. I reckon I could put up a good case if I get caught parking illegally, the most important of which are: we were here before the fancy-shmancy new hospital and the service we provide is just as important.
Of course, the hospital could buy the derelict land leading down to the Clyde and turn it into a car park. But, as one resident put it to us today: that would be too easy.
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