Group working to bring state of the art community hub to Waterside

The Waterside Miners Charitable Society (WMCS) was resurrected in 2022 after the closure of the Waterside Miners Club in March 2020 and Waterside Subscription School left local residents with "nowhere" to hold community events or activities.

Ian Bowman, chair of the group, said: "I’ve been campaigning in and around Kirkintilloch for a number of years now.

"I got involved in the community council in Waterside and made a lot of friends there and then we were told the Waterside Miners Club was closing its doors in 2020 which really meant there was absolutely nowhere in the village for groups to meet.

"So we decided to look into what could be done to resurrect the charity."

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Waterside Miners Club (Image: Gordon Terris, Newsquest)

Last year, the WMCS carried out a survey in the Waterside area and asked local residents what they felt the area needed from a new Waterside Community Hub.

They received more than 300 responses with the vast majority of people saying they needed a place for events and meetings, youth clubs and after school groups, private parties, sports and fitness activities, practical and educational classes, special interest clubs, activities for babies and toddlers and social gatherings for groups.

Ian, who is semi-retired, said: "The community came back to us and told us there’s nothing for them and that’s true.

"We’ve got kids running about late at night because they’ve nowhere to go.

"I used to be involved with youth clubs and thought the focus should be to make sure we had a facility where we could have youth clubs and the kids in the village could come off the streets, into a safe environment and get some recreation and education."

The 71-year-old continued: "There’s a new development which is right next to the social club, I think they’re building 230 houses there.

"So there’s housing getting building all around Waterside, that wee village has become the hub, but there’s no facilities for these residents to do whatever they want to do."

The WMCS has since been granted permission to knock down the existing derelict Waterside Miners Club.

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A Just Giving page has been launched with the aim of raising £80,000 by the end of April for the demolition and subsequent the development of the site.

So far, more than £1200 has been raised on that.

There has also been a local fundraising group which has held events such as car boot sales and a sponsored walk to help towards raising the funds.   

Artists impression of new Waterside Community Hub (Image: Supplied)

Ian explained: "This year will be all about the funding.

"We’ve got a team of three people who are working on the big funding.

"We have a template to apply for funding, we’ve got a business plan and we got funding from Business Gateway to carry that out.

"They gave us three days consultation with a business plan specialist free of charge.

"Then the next stage is a meeting with the architects to put in place a planning application."

The group is aiming to raise around £2million in total to build the Waterside Community Hub, which it’s hoped will be completed within the next three years.

Ian added: "Don’t get me wrong, to raise £2million is going to be no small feat but I’m pretty confident the team can do it."

You can view the Waterside Community Hub stage 1: demolish derelict buildings Just Giving page at justgiving.com/campaign/waterside-hub.

The fundraiser closes on Tuesday, April 30.