News

'Cash for Castlemilk’ is The Castlemilk Pantry’s Participatory Budgeting programme. It takes place when the Pantry secures relevant funding that enables its team to engage fully with its members.  This engagement sees members discussing ways in which to spend funding, with the only criteria being that food or energy saving is incorporated.

Each time there is funding available, the team bring together a small working group of its members to hear more about it. (‘Participatory Budgeting’ is a democratic process in which citizens decide directly how to spend part of a public budget by way of democratic deliberation and decision-making) Following this, final ideas are presented to the general membership for a final vote. The Pantry are seeing an increasing number of its membership feeling confident enough to get involved which is great.

The latest delivery of ‘Cash for Castlemilk’ has been the most popular to date. Several ideas on how to spend the funding was presented to the Pantry’s members. The winning idea was for members to be able to access vouchers for a Meat Pack (halal and vegetarian packs too), and a fruit and vegetable pack. The funding is allowing the Pantry to issue at least one of these packs to its members.

The Pantry think that working in this way with its membership is the best as it not only enabled them to support its members during the Cost-of-Living Crisis by giving them something additional on top of their weekly shop, but in the process, they have also been able to support local food businesses too.  McCluskey Butchers and Organic Fruit & Vegetable Shop & the suppliers for Halal products were delighted to join in making this idea a reality.  The offer ends on 29^th March 2024.

The Castlemilk Pantry extends its gratitude to the National Lottery (Community Fund) and Energy Re-dress Scheme with a special thanks to its members who took part in the process.

To become a member of The Castlemilk Pantry, there is a £1 one-off joining fee and £2.50 a week thereafter. For that £2.50, members receive around £15 worth of goods. Membership is open to all those with a G45 postcode. The Pantry is open Tuesdays and Wednesdays 10am to 3pm. For more information on membership and the above offer, the address is Castlemilk Community Centre, 121 Castlemilk Drive, Glasgow, G45 9UG. Their email address is community@ardenglen.org.uk.

North View provides a free welfare rights service for all its residents!  If you don’t think that you are getting all the benefits that you should be getting, or you have a query about anything to do with benefits – be it housing or health related – get in touch with Maureen at the Office to arrange an appointment to see Isabel Brodie, our Welfare Rights Officer.

If you need to see you Housing Officer but you can't make it to the Office during opening hours, you can make an appointment to come in outwith working hours.  All you need do to make an arrangement is contact your Housing Officer. 

It is an offence for anyone at anytime to allow their dog to foul on any public open place and fail to remove the faeces.  This law was brought into effect by Dog Fouling (Scotland) Act 2003.

In last June’s tenant satisfaction survey, dog fouling was identified by tenants as being the major problem in our area!  Dog mess is unacceptable, and we are calling on all dog owners to help us address it.  If you own a dog please be responsible for it – pick up your dog’s mess and bin it!  Free dog poo bags are available from our Ofiice!

When your dog needs walked, you take him on his walk!  Don’t just open your front door to let him out to wander free to do his business wherever he likes!

Allowing your dog to foul and not remove the faeces is an act of anti-social behaviour and a breach of your tenancy agreement.  Children are at risk of catching diseases if they play in areas where there have been dog faeces.

What can I do about a dog fouling offence?

If you witness anyone who allows their dogs to foul and fail to remove faeces on a regular basis, then you should take action.It is an offence, and you can report it to Clean Glasgow by telephoning them on 0800 027 7027, and give them the following details

The name and address of the person in charge of the dog

1. A description of the dog
2. Details of the date, time and location of the offence.
3. If the fouling takes place at regular times it may be possible for dog wardens to witness the fouling.

Clean Glasgow

Approximately 10 tonnes of poo is produced by dogs in Glasgow every day! The Clean Glasgow Campaign is helping tackle that by encouraging everyone to play their part in making the city a safer, cleaner and better place to live.  

Officers from Glasgow City Council and Glasgow Community and Safety Services are employing new tactics to crack down on irresponsible owners who don’t clean up after their dogs.   As well as continuing to issue fixed penalty notices of £40 to owners caught in the act, teams will use CCTV and witness statements to issue fixed penalty notices retrospectively.  Dog wardens will lift dogs that are stray or not under proper control.
Clean Glasgow will work with housing associations, like North View, and use anti-social behaviour legislation to tackle persistent offenders.  This may lead to us going to court to remove a dog permanently if offenders fail to deal with the problem.

We, at the North View Housing Association, are aware that keeping our staff members hydrated will aid them to perform at their very best throughout the work day. As a result, we decided to invest in water coolers from AquAid – our unique relationship with AquAid has also given our company the opportunity to help those less fortunate than ourselves.

Our decision to install a water cooler from AquAid means that for each of the machines that we have, we have donated £20 per year per cooler to The Africa Trust. Through our contributions to The Africa Trust, an ‘Elephant Pump’ is being installed in Africa on our behalf. This pump will bring much needed, clean, fresh drinking water and improve the quality of life of those who will have access to our well.

Our company’s name will be displayed proudly on our well and we look forward to adding some photos and letters of thanks from the villages to our site in the near future.

AquAid, along with their sister company www.perfectprintercartridges.co.uk.  Perfect Printer Cartridges have to date, donated over 6 Million Pounds to Charity.

Every North View tenant has a Scottish Secure Tenancy agreement.  It sets out how you are expected to run your home, and also states what you are not allowed to do – the don’ts!  One of the don’ts is that you cannot use your home to store illegal drugs in, or deal drugs from (item 2.6 on page 9 of your tenancy agreement).

At the moment, we have four cases going through the courts where we are taking action to evict tenants on the grounds of them using their property in the process of cultivating, storing, or supplying drugs!  On top of that, three other tenants, who had been done for drugs, gave up their tenancy before we got them to court, and another tenant was evicted for rent arrears before we got her to court for drugs.    

In each of these cases we are talking about drugs with a street value of thousands of pounds.  We are not talking about just a couple of joints!     
We have been consistent in our approach!  If we think we have a strong enough case to evict someone for drugs offences related to their tenancy, then we will take legal action to get the house back.  If you, or someone in your house, use the property to store drugs in, or supply drugs from, then you are running the risk of being evicted!

Another thing, if someone’s growing cannabis in their home, they’ll need a lot of heatlamps and water to nourish the plants.  The electrics of our houses and flats aren’t designed to take that loading, nor can the walls cope with the level of humidity that is produced!  Chances are the humidity is ruining the walls while there is also an increased risk of fire through electric overload.  If your neighbour is growing cannabis, your home could be affected too!

If you want to report someone that you think is involved with drugs, you can do so by phoning the police on 101, Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, or by contacting us.  We’ll pass it on to the police for you.

If you live in a tenement don’t store anything in the close, or leave rubbish bags in the close. Last month a pram that was stored in a close in Ardmaleish Road was set on fire. Fortunately the fire brigade arrived and put out the fire before it spread to any of the flats, but it was extremely dangerous and could have resulted in fatalities. The police attended too, and are investigating the incident.

If there is a fire in a tenement, the close is your only way out. If rubbish is left in the close, it could catch fire and block your exit. In the event of a fire, it is likely the close will become smoky and you wouldn’t be able to see any stuff lying about so chances are you’d trip over it as you leave. That’s not good, so keep your close clear of all stuff!

Also please make sure your close doors are kept shut and not jammed open. We don’t want your flat to end up looking like the one on the right!