IT took a 55 day sit in from a team of dedicated locals and 21 years ago campaigners saved a community facility from closure.

 

Now as the Kinning Park Complex (KPC) celebrates a milestone birthday, they look back on those days while getting ready to open their doors for a day of fun.

 

The facility, which focuses on neighbourhood engagement through arts and sport, was occupied by locals protesting against its closure following severe council service cuts at the time.

 

After an Evening Times backed campaign helped save the building, it has gone on to host weekly workshops, social evenings and musical events.

 

The celebrations on Sunday July 16 will include a parade from Pacific Quay that will end with a Barbeque, face-painting and live music at the KPC.

 

Organisers hope that the event will invite new people to not only honour the centre’s past, but participate in current activities and future plans.

 

The KPC’s Events and Communications Office, Clare McIntyre, said: “The whole point of the celebration week is not just about the sit in, the occupation or the past, but about our future and what the KPC still has to offer the local community.

 

“We thought the march would be a really nice way to involve other organisations that have been a part of the buildings history. There are some organisations that started in this building after we took over management, so it’s a way of bringing everybody together and promoting what they’re doing as well.”

 

When the news broke in 1996 that the council would no longer fund the centre, a group of young mothers and local campaigners, who relied on the after-school service at KPC, claimed the building belonged to the taxpayer and blocked the entrance.

 

After the police failed to disperse the demonstration the deadlock continued for 55 days until the decision was taken to give control to the community.

 

The Evening Times was praised for raising awareness and persuading the council of the need to foster local passion at community centres in Scotland.

 

Tasked with a heavy cost burden, the community eventually gave control over to the Scotland in Europe Organisation who helped set up a management group of local users.

 

Helen Kyle, one of the original campaigners who went on to run the KPC until 2008, helped establish an arts organisation, as well as attracting support from trade unions that assisted in securing the centre’s future.

 

She said: “There had to be a constant and imaginative way of getting through the days, and

 

we did this by organizing small events in the complex such as dance nights, music shows, fundraisers, performed by local people living in the area but not directly involved in the sit in.

 

“Some of the community activists from differing political parties could be quite intimidating so it was important that the people who were directly affected by the closure got to make the final decision to the way forward.

 

“Overall there were a few clashes of personalities but nothing that could not be sorted out after a good blether.

 

“What this building and what everyone round here has been fighting for is to start making sure that grassroots planning is taken seriously. That’s what the hub of this building is about.

 

“We got involved in what was called the structure of the politics and decision making of the area, and we were able to sit in as chair people within committees who then made decisions as to how funds could be spent.

 

“The artist Peter Howson was actually one of the first to have a studio here as a war painter after the Bosnia war, so it does have its own history.

 

She added: “I think one of the nicest things, if we can make it happen, is have the kids who were in the after school 21 years ago come to the celebrations. Wouldn’t it be lovely if they brought their kids on the march?”

 

The priority for the current management group is to eventually buy the building, while also attracting different communities in an attempt to increase local engagement.

 

Martin Alva, KPC’s Development Director, said: “This building is not just about community, but a place where lots of different communities come together. That’s not just nationality, but artists, musicians and other organisations as well.

 

“We actually had some big new solar panels installed as we got money from a fund set up in Prince’s memory, and had a big purple powered solar Sunday event a couple weeks ago, so it shows what can be done.

 

“But it has to be a two way process, so what we would like to get across during these celebrations is the need to invite new people in, not just to celebrate the last 21 years, but to help shape the future as well.”

 

For more information visit www.kinningparkcomplex.org