Fed-up readers call for an end to notorious South Side hostel

Our report on Tuesday revealed a dossier of crimes committed by residents at the Parkview Hotel and prompted a flood of letters, e-mails and calls from readers.

But fed-up neighbours who phoned or wrote to the Evening Times say the 100 arrests by the police in 18 months - for incidents including a stabbing and attacks on locals - represents just a fraction of the trouble.

They also blame rising crime levels on another homeless hostel, the Queen's Park Hotel on nearby Balvicar Drive, which is operated by the same firm that runs Parkview.

Among the unreported or unsolved incidents which were not included in the police dossier are: lAn attack on a nine-year-old girl who needed hospital treatment after being hit on the shoulder with a can of beer thrown from a window at the Parkview.

lA similar assault on a neighbour who had a glass Irn-Bru bottle hurled at him.

lDrunks from the Queen's Park Hotel trying to kick in the door of a children's nursery.

lHeroin being injected on the streets and in back lanes.

lUsed needles being dumped in gardens by clients of both hostels.

lTwo occasions where residents from the Parkview ended up in a neighbour's house and pretended to be "lost".

Today councillors can block the expansion of Parkview, ahead of a decision next month which could see it closed for good.

A licensing application by owners McKever Hotels, which also runs a string of upmarket hotels across Scotland, is to be heard by Glasgow City Council.

The committee of councillors which will make the decision has had mixed views over the past two years. It granted a House of Multiple Occupancy licence to the hostel in February 2006 - but then refused a renewal in November.

McKever - which is paid £30 a night for each person placed at its hostels - has appealed the second decision, and is allowed to continue trading until the hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court next month.

And in the meantime, bosses have applied to extend the operation at the Parkview by effectively adding two linked flats to the current hotel - upping its capacity from 53 to 63.

Councillors will decide whether to grant HMO licences for the flats today, after taking into consideration the police dossier, and the views of 19 neighbours who objected.

Readers who contacted the Evening Times this week are in no doubt what the councillors should do.

One neighbour on Queen's Drive, a 31-year-old man, said: "I hope the councillors are listening. They should reject this latest application.

"Twice this year I have found Parkview clients in my flat. People around here have to keep their doors locked at all times, or they sneak in.

"On one occasion I was in the kitchen and heard something in my lounge. I went in and saw two guys stood there looking around. I asked them to leave, and fortunately they did.

"Exactly the same thing happened a week later. A guy stood in my hall claiming he was looking for a dentist - which was funny, as he had no teeth."

One mum said: "My brother was placed in the Parkview for four days. There were people knocking at his door at all hours, asking for drugs.

"When I went to pick him up about three weeks ago I had my nine-year-old daughter in the car. As I went in she was stood by the car door.

"Some idiot threw a can of beer out of the window and it hit her on the shoulder."

Even if councillors refuse the Parkview licences today, the battle is far from over for residents of the Queen's Park area.

They will be hoping the city councill successfully defends the appeal next month for their decision to refuse a licence for the main part of the Parkview.

And there's still the problem of the Queen's Park Hotel, which police figures show attracts as much - if not more - crime than its sister operation.

The two hostels are used to fill the gap left by the closure of ageing council-run hostels in Glasgow and across Scotland.

However, Glasgow City Council no longer uses the Parkview, meaning all of its clients are placed there by other Scots councils.

Allan Gibson, who lives near the Queen's Park Hotel, which is often used to house people who present themselves at the city's Hamish Allan Centre, said his car had been attacked three times in 18 months.

He said: "The total amount of damage is almost £8000 and each time the police have tracked the crime to residents of the Queen's Park Hotel.

"The latest incident involved a resident of the hostel standing on the bonnet of my car and using a 3ft length of scaffolding pipe to smash the windscreen."

McKever Hotels refused to comment. But today we print your reaction to our article on the impact of the hostels. Your letters and emails about the hostel problem

No notice of application

I am a resident near the Parkview and had not heard about the new HMO licence application.

I find it astonishing that only 19 people have objected to it. I know that if this were made more public everyone in the surrounding area would object.

RUSSELL JOHNSTON Via e-mail

It's very intimidating

Thanks to the Evening Times for highlighting what has been going on at the Parkview.

I live in the same crescent and it is a very intimidating place to live near.

I have had a glass Irn-Bru bottle thrown at me from a window, regularly get verbally accosted as I walk by it and it concerns me when my wife has to walk by on her own.

Is it a good idea to house 53 drug addicts, unsupervised, in the one place, usually 30 miles from where they have any sort of social work support?

CONCERNED NEIGHBOUR Queen's Park

Focus on housing

I stayed in the Queen's Park Hotel for a week. Residents have no access to cooking facilities, are not allowed to have visitors of any kind and have to be in before midnight.

I was told I couldn't attend my grandfather's funeral in Perth or I'd be evicted.

My point is this - there are good people who become homeless through no fault of their own and it's bad enough that they have to live with alcoholics, drug addicts and thugs.

The council needs to stop pandering to these sorts and concentrate on housing.

BRIAN FORRESTER Via e-mail

No care for communities

I found Tuesday's report upsetting because of how trapped the neighbours must feel.

It must be horrible, having invested so much money in a property in an affluent area overlooking one of Glasgow's lovely parks, to be unable to feel at ease in your own home.

NAME and address supplied

Fraction of crimes

Thank goodness the police are finally taking action and objecting to the licence renewal of the Parkview.

But the 100 crimes you reported can only be a fraction of the actual crimes committed by "clients" of this hostel.

I lived round the corner from the Parkview for seven years, leaving at the end of 2005, and I experienced many of the issues that other residents have described.

LESLEY MCCLUSKEY Glasgow

Regular tirades of abuse

As a nearby resident, it is an everyday occurrence to see dazed and aggressive residents of this unit shouting, swearing and arguing at all times of the day and night.

Evenings regularly get disturbed by tirades of abuse as they blight the neighbourhood with their outbursts.

You only have to take a walk round the streets of Queen's Park and you are virtually guaranteed to see smashed glass next to cars that have been broken into.

GEORGE BLACK Govanhill

No regulations at QPH

As you pointed out in your article, the Parkview is closely related to the nearby Queen's Park Hotel, which is also run by the McKever group.

A clear difference is that the Parkview has an HMO licence so at least has some form of regulation.

The Queens Park Hotel is another thing altogether. It doesn't have any form of licence and therefore operates without any regulations.

At the start of the month Shawlands and Strathbungo Community Council organised a public meeting about the anti-social behaviour in the area, most of it linked to the Queens Park Hotel.

More than 100 people turned up to explain the problems they suffer. Being threatened or having your property vandalised now seems commonplace in the streets around the Queens Park Hotel.

ANDREW MONTGOMERY Secretary, Shawlands and Strathbungo Community Council

We've witnessed it all

I live near the other McKever hostel mentioned in your article - the Queen's Park Hotel.

Since it opened my husband and I have seen a stabbing, had rocks thrown at us, witnessed people using heroin, had our bins raided and back gate destroyed, seen street fights and a huge increase in street noise, especially drunk and disorderly behaviour.

The hostel has an effect not only on our street, but the park, as well as the shops along Victoria Road.

ALICIA MACRAE Via e-mail

They should all be in jail

It's an absolute disgrace but they have to be homed somewhere.

If the police had any guts everybody in that place would be in jail, and it could then be closed.

BAZ Posted online

Area is going downhill

The whole area, from Calder Street up to the park, is going downhill.

It's all due to multiple occupancy houses and flats like the Parkview.

Some landlords don't care who they rent to as they don't live in the area themselves.

A lot of the residents from the Parkview are from outside Glasgow.

Why are Glasgow hotels allowed to home the dregs of other areas? Though it's a nice move on the part of their councillors to move their undesirable homeless into Glasgow.

TAM M South Side

Safer to be in East End

I used to live near the Parkview and loved being there.

There was never any trouble whatsoever. It's a shame the area is now getting a bad name, as I always felt safe. Now it seems it's safer to live in the East End, where I am now.

SALLY Posted online

Put them all on an island

There is no way to deal with these people.

What are you going to do with a heroin addict who doesn't want to work because he can't earn enough to support his habit?

We can't send them to jail and so the threat of jail is just that - an empty threat - as we have no space.

My suggestion is to convert the island with the worst weather in Scotland as a "junkie and crims" island, so they can rob and steal from each other to their hearts' content.

JONNY BOND, Glasgow

Taste of own medicine

I wonder how the McKever Group would like it if local residents started protesting outside their nice upmarket hotels or owner Alistair McKever's front door?

But councils who just dump homeless people, many of whom have dependency issues, without any support, are just as much to blame as companies like the McKever group.

ANDREW M Shawlands

Mercedes madness

We recently witnessed one man from the Parkview Hotel relieving himself on the boot of someone's Mercedes in the middle of the day, and then walk straight into the hotel.

ANONYMOUS Posted online

Locked in own homes

The decent people in the Queen's Park area are paying a fortune in mortgages and council tax.

Then they come home from work and have to lock themselves in.

The council and the police have to take some responsibility.

ANONYMOUS Posted online

Homeless dumped in city

This is an absolute disgrace. Other councils should provide for their homeless in their areas. I'd love to see what would happen if Glasgow tried to dump its homeless in East Renfrewshire or Edinburgh.

So come on Glasgow, get this place shut down and make the other councils deal with their own problems.

STEVEN Glaswegian Edinburgh

Fears for mum's safety

My mother lives in Shawlands and I am worried about the increasing levels of anti-social behaviour.

There is no sense of community any more. The lefties and do- gooders have created another monster for hard-working people to deal with.

Putting all these kind of people in one place, alongside decent people was never going to work.

TOM McCOIST New York