John Mason, the SNP MSP for Glasgow Shettleston, has rounded on Glasgow City Council who, in a recent residents consultation, ignored almost 90% of residents who called upon Glasgow City Council to close the lane linking Kilmany Gardens and Kilmany Drive in the Shettleston area of his constituency.
Mr Mason has played a leading part in the local campaign, during which residents have consistently asked the Council to close Kilmany Lane. The Shettleston MSP first asked the Council to close the lane in November last year. He also held a public meeting in St Marks Church in late May 2012 to reaffirm residents views, after which the Council eventually agreed to hold a local consultation which concluded on 20th September.
Commenting, Shettleston’s SNP MSP, John Mason, said:
“First of all, I am disappointed that it took the Council almost two months to respond to my letter and the residents’ requests for a breakdown of the consultation responses.
“Once again, we see Glasgow City Council ignoring the 89% of residents who responded and said they wanted the lane closed. The Police are on record saying that they want the lane closed, the residents want it closed but the Council have not listened.
“The Council say ‘the lane poses no danger to the public’ and so they ‘have no powers to promote a closure order’ but I simply don’t accept that. It is very clear that this lane has been posing a danger both to the public and to their property. I have seen a lane closed in Swinton in the past which was causing much less problems than this one.
“This is a slap in the face for local residents opinions and I would implore councillors to challenge Council officials on this. I am afraid that this information just reinforces my view that this is a Council that doesn’t care, won’t listen and won’t take the action residents want.”
Copies of the correspondence between Mr Mason and the Council can be found here.