Does our community need a new, flexible community space? That's the question we asked in our latest Community Vote and the answer, from the majority of people who voted, was yes.
The suggestion that the Gorbals needs a modern community hub isn't new; it's something that we've heard from lots of local people over the last 5 years and it was an idea put forward during our Your Priorities process in January this year - the process that led to our latest Community Vote. In fact it was one of the most popular ideas posted during that process.
We had a total of £60,000 to allocate to the Your Priorities process and we felt that this wouldn't be enough money to give the Gorbals a venue that it wants and deserves but we wanted to find out other peoples' views.
Through Community Conversation meetings and online surveys we asked people what their priorities were for a new Community Facility:
85% said the most important thing when planning a new facility was to make sure it met the communities needs for a long time to come;
76% said an accessible and flexible space was very important;
80% of people said they want a warm, welcoming and friendly space;
75% said we need an affordable space to hold meetings, events and activities.
It was clear from our research that people want something that will cost much more than £60,000. We discussed how we might go about helping drive forward the community facility issue and decided that we could use the Community Vote as an opportunity to ask the question more widely and of the 526 people who voted, 66% of them said YES, they would support a new Community Facility in the Gorbals.
We're going to use this as a starting point to do more community engagement and research around this issue, we want to find out what the real challenges are, if and how these could be overcome using existing spaces, or if there's a case for a new Community Facility for the Gorbals.
Would you like to help us, or do you have an opinion you want to share about community spaces in the Gorbals? Drop us an email at info@gorbalsideas.org.uk!