Responses to the Three Wishes survey have begun to come in from Weaver’s Brae, Fauldhead, Woodilee and Waterside – these will help shape a Local Place Plan. A very high proportion mention the need to demolish Waterside Miners Club and build a community hub.

Here’s a selection of those wishes:

• A thriving community centre with meeting rooms, mother and baby groups
• Community cafe. Space for youth club and arts groups
• A centre open to use for clubs/classes both children and adults
• A community and wellness hub for classes and workshops at affordable prices
• A cafe to meet other members of the community
• Local activities for all ages
• Better youth opportunities
• Demolish the old miner’s club and replace it with a modern, purpose-built community hub. Add a pavement for pedestrians to the currently dangerous Old Duntiblae Road.
• Safe space for young people to gather
• Youth zone to support youths not being on the street
• A small hall where groups could meet regularly
• More affordable activities for children in our community
• Something constructive and meaningful for all young people – primary to 20 years old
• History and story of the place to be on display
• Be nice to have a community hall/ venue where you can drop in for a lunch or drink. Something like an upgrade to previous welfare club.
• A space that can be used/hired for exercise based activities and classes (indoor and outdoor)
• A community space. Could hold exercise/dance classes, tool library and repair cafe

14/06/2025 Kirkintilloch Gala Day, with prizes galore on the Waterside Community Hub stall amassed by team member and tombola queen Heather Stalker, with a little help from friends and family as well as the hub team

June 2025 Funding research and applications ongoing. Trustees’ Annual Report nearly completed

31/05/2025 By end of month, just under 200 Gartconner Primary School children have returned ‘Three Wishes for My Community’ cards, providing invaluable information for both the Waterside Community Hub project and the area’s Local Place Plan

21/05/2025 Useful meeting with CISWO (Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation). Funding and other help likely to be available in the future.

May 2025 Funding research and applications ongoing; complete water rate exemption secured

21/04/2025 Easter Monday means fun: duck race, orienteering, Eco-Museum rock trail, Easter bonnet competition, bring-your-own-boat race and a massive raffle (with prizes generously provided by local people and businesses), organized by the charity.

The day wasn’t all about fun; there was fundraising too: Lisa at Archie’s sold 568 ducks, bringing in £1,136 for the hub project. The raffle brought in a further £633, and generous local coach company LA Travel donated £100. So the total for the day was a whopping £1,869.

Enormous thanks to everyone who took part and contributed, bringing us a step closer to our goal of building a community hub.

For more details about this community fun and fundraising event, see https://watersidecommunityhub.co.uk/ducks-and-boats-to-water/

15/04/2025 At the charity’s monthly meeting, last-minute details of the 2025 Waterside Easter Duck Race were finalized.

29/03/2025 Waterside Miners Charitable Society hosts a walk around the Eco-Museum of Scottish Mining Landscapes Route 50, the ramble around the relics of Waterside’s mining history plotted by local historian, photographer and now walk leader Edward Z. Smith with the help of Matt Wilson and the Eco-Museum’s Catherine Mills and Aileen McFarlan. For the online version of the tour, see https://www.mining-landscapes.org/route/50

16/03/2025 Ducks all sorted and numbers checked for the 2025 Waterside Easter Duck Race, taking place on Easter Monday (21 April), with all profits going to the Waterside Community Hub project

13/03/2025 Confirmation comes from Clear Business that 2023-2026 charity exemptions for water charges are being applied

03/03/2025 CD Architects sends image illustrating current plans for the hub, revised in the light of feedback from both Planning and potential stakeholders

12/02/2025 Reigart erect security fencing around the former club and demolish dangerous outbuildings at the back.

Stage 2 of demolition is still on for next winter, when the bats have flown. All the charity’s efforts will now be focused on fundraising to raise the remaining £50,000 needed to complete this.

07/02/2025 SGN find that their gas disconnection is already complete, so the work planned for next week is not now required. We’re further on than we thought!

30/01/2025  Preliminary gas disconnection work carried out by SGN

20/01/2025 Starling Learning confirm that neither the erection of the security fencing nor the demolition of the outhouses will disrupt wildlife. However as their ecology survey has identified the presence of a maternity bat roost in the main building, the former club itself cannot be demolished till around December 2025-January 2026

17/01/2025 Reigart given the go-ahead to put up security fencing and demolish outhouses. Timing to be confirmed

17/01/2025 CALA agree to pay for both security fencing and outhouse demolition from the fund they’ve awarded for demolition

09/01/2025 Extension of community exemption for water supply charges agreed with Clear Business (backdated to 1 April 2023)

07/01/2025 Permission requested for CALA Homes to pay for security fencing and outbuilding demolition from agreed demolition fund

07/01/2025 Quotation received from Reigart for the erection of security fencing and the demolition of outhouses at the back of the club building (these having become a health and safety concern)

03/12/2024 Very welcome donation received from AIS Vanguard’s Community Fund. Huge thanks to them!

28/11/2024 SP Energy Networks engineers cut off the electricity supply to the derelict club by digging out component parts ‒ a necessary preliminary step to demolition of the building. Next in the pre-demolition works will be a similar gas disconnection operation scheduled for January 27th

27/11/2024 The Coalfields Regeneration Trust (CRT), a benefactor to and supporter of the community hub project as well as a long-time friend of Waterside and surrounds, marked their 25th anniversary at Holyrood. At this celebration of the CRT’s contribution to its coalfields communities, one of the team offered to help with our Local Place Plan. What a fabulous offer!

23/11/2024 Local shop Archie’s Newsagents was officially reopened 11 months after the fire of December 2023. Charity members can now meet consultants and advisors at Archie’s Shed once more, cheerfully fuelled by rolls and sausage, bacon rolls, scrambled eggs on toast…

22/11/2024 Meeting with Sharon Bairden of Ceartas as part of our ongoing engagement with stakeholders ‒ our aim is to ensure potential hub users have every opportunity to provide input so their needs can be met as far as possible in the hub design

7, 14 & 21/11/2024 Two charity members took the All Things Financial online training with Pamela Redpath, courtesy of East Dunbartonshire Council: a wonderfully useful run-through of the dos and don’ts of building a strong financial foundation; budgeting and sound financial management; and preparing annual accounts

14/11/2024 Meeting with June Grindley of Creatovators ‒ one of a very important series of discussions with potential hub users to ensure their requirements are taken into account where possible in the hub design

14/11/2024 The Waterside Community Hub website and Facebook page are now live!

Below: Any occasion is a potential recruitment opportunity!

31/10/2024 Meeting with EDC councillors and senior officials from the planning department to update them on progress on fundraising and planning application

Also: A Waterside walking route (starting from the charity’s car park) became part of the Eco-Museum of Scottish Mining Landscapes. This walk will bring walkers and historians to the area – potential customers for the eventual Waterside Community Hub cafe and museum

20/09/2024 Charity members attended EDVA’s Thank You, Volunteers dinner, the charity having been nominated for an Organisation of the Year award and awarded a trophy in recognition of this

17/09/2024 Award of £7,040 towards architects’ £9,600 planning application costs made by EDC Community Grants

11/09/2024 Further £500 cost-of-living award (unrestricted funding) made by the Robertson Trust, which had awarded the charity £2,000 in August

07/09/2024 Hub project had stand at Kirkintilloch Festival of Clubs, with slide show of Waterside events of the past by local historian Edward Z. Smith

04/09/2024 Planning Sustainability Report supplied by Hulley & Kirkwood

Also: quantity surveying services provided by Armour Construction Services