Eastwood car park spaces row

The path leading from Eastwood Toll has been used to extend car parking space for visitors to East Renfrewshire Council offices, leisure and theatre spaces and St Ninian’s High.

However, in an open letter to ERC, one angry resident complains about the “wholesale destruction of Eastwood Park”.

Colin Gilchrist writes: “I use the park at least once a day and am disgusted at the council’s disregard for users.

“The land was one of the few beauty spots the park had to offer with a substantial variety of bloom — now stripped out and tarred over. When will you realise there is no more room for traffic and adding more parking will only make it worse?”

The letter follows an incident last week in which traffic entering Eastwood Park was queued back to the Toll — witnessed by Giffnock resident Ruth Zeitlin, who said: “It was mayhem, and the council are going to have to work out some kind of system.

“When the school has an event on, people find it impossible to access the recreational facilities. They have provided extra parking spaces, but I went recently and couldn’t park — I had to walk down from Eastwood House, which is fine for me but not for people who are less able.

“But to make any alterations to within the park, you’re also going to be destroying more of the natural space.”

A council spokeswoman responded: “Eastwood Park is not a ‘park’. When the council offices and school opened in the 1970s, it was designated as an ‘area to accommodate a group of related enterprises’.

“We are working to balance the needs of everyone who uses the area and to support them with the appropriate infrastructure. This includes creating more parking spaces, upgrading lighting and some footways - this has been done with mutural respect between the needs of vehicle users and pedestrians.”

Responding to Mr Gilchrist’s letter this week, environment convener councillor Vincent Waters stated: “I know, from personal experience, the care that our parks staff have for their estate, and how challenging it is for them to respond to the pressure that comes from park users who complain constantly about a lack of parking spaces — while preserving so far as possible the green spaces.”