This post is for everyone that we have worked with over the past two years to give an urgent update on the situation with our key venue for COP26 – Kinning Park Complex (KPC).
.
As you will know, this venue was planned as an operational HQ for civil society during COP – providing hot desks, office space, a volunteer hub, bookable meeting rooms and a social cafe space. It is situated right next to an underground station and is a 15 minute walk from the SEC, where COP will be held. It was also going to serve as a key venue over the two months running up to COP for training volunteers, movement meetings and planning sessions for various groups local, national and international, and as an office space for SCCS, the COP26 Coalition and for groups and individuals visiting Glasgow to recce and to plan for COP26.
.
We had already put back our entry from 1 Sept due to delays in building work and this morning I heard that the building work taking place to refurbish the site is put back until January 2022 due to major issues with the contractors.
.
This, as you can imagine, is a major blow to our planning at just the time we had gone live with our booking system for meeting rooms and event spaces for COP, many of which are in KPC. We do have other spaces, the events hub at Adelaides, rooms at the Albany Centre and an Arts Hub at the dream machine, however these do not replace the Operational Hub functions of KPC.
.
We are appealing to our friends, partners and other civil society groups in Glasgow to help us replace the resource that has been lost .
.
We realise with short notice that it will be impossible to replace this all in one place but we can distribute our activities to different centres – we already have our work somewhat spread out across the city but if you have space you can offer to us for the whole of the two weeks of COP and preferably for some events in the month of October we would like to hear from you
.
Some ideas to help this work in tandem with other centres for civil society during Cop would be:
.
1. spaces in the neighbourhood of our other centres: (though if there are spaces with multiple rooms that can be anywhere)
- The Albany Centre in Woodlands/ west end
- Adelaides near Charing Cross/ city centre
- The Southside
.
2. spaces that have:
- a community cafe as well as some meeting rooms or a hall (or a kitchen and hall space)
- large hall space for 100+
- meeting rooms
.
Thank you for your help and understanding as we negotiate the multiple challenges of civil society organising, during a pandemic and in highly uncertain times.
.
