The Luggiewatch journey as it unfolds - often in conjunction with other people/organisations, to whom we owe great gratitude. Links describe events and information for future events and briefly reports on those gone past. (Note: Luggiewatch Facebook posts are public - they do not require Facebook membership.)
You are most welcome to join in, with any of our events that interest you. We love hearing from you, please get in touch! Click on a previous year for a summary of its key events.
You are most welcome to join in, with any of our events that interest you. We love hearing from you, please get in touch! Click on a previous year for a summary of its key events.
2019
May
5 Luggiewatch cleanup & anouncement of Luggiewatch as an Anchor Group for Battle Upstream. A great turnout, as usual, of big-hearted people of all ages giving their time to rid the natural environment of rubbish and litter. Special guests today were Laura Woolacott - from Keep Scotland Beautiful and her friend Kate. This was part of an exciting week of a concentration of clean-up activities in Central Scotland with KSB, showcasing how we can easily take steps to stop marine litter at source.
Luggiewatch were invited by KSB to become one of 16 anchor groups across Central Scotland, focused on the aim of preventing sea litter flowing into in the River Clyde - at source, in the Upstream Battle campaign. Laura viewed us as an ideal group due to the Luggie Water being a tributary that flows eventually into the River Clyde as well as our proud history of our cleanup activity. See more details below.
Facebook post of today's cleanup
Keep Scotland Beautiful
Upstream Battle
Anchor Groups
1 Luggiewatch bat walk training Thanks to Cordy for arranging this exciting project. Thanks to the Coalfields Regeneration Trust we now have a new bat detector! Cordy has assembled a team to be trained to hold bat-walks - they were trained this evening by Alan Wood from Starling Learning, in the Waterside Club and then around the Luggie! We are very excited about this as Luggiewatch want to highlight the rich natural biodiversity in all things living in and around the Luggie, to help ourselves and others to understand and appreciate more about it and to protect and preserve it.
Facebook post
Starling Learning
April
18 Luggiewatch team meeting Thanks to Aine and Danny for hosting this month's meeting in their house. With a busy beginning to the year it was good to take stock ahead of the busy time ahead. Indeed there are so many things ahead and many in partnership with others, that we are looking forward to the rest of the year.
14 Luggiewatch litter pick Great team doing an official litter survey/pick activity in partnership with Keep Scotland Beautiful - more to be announced in the near future. Slow spring means slow foliage growth, enabling us to still have access to difficult areas. Special thanks to Lisa, Davy and Katie at Archies for the lovely hot filled rolls and drinks.
Facebook post
13 Waterside Community Action Plan Launch
The Waterside Community Council hosted the launch of their village community action plan, as devised with various activity groups. Along with talks from various other community projects, Cordy Lilly gave information about the Luggiewatch bat walks which CRT has helped to fund. Luggiewatch volunteers will be leading with the help of a CRT-funded bat detector and training – these walks will complement the photo and nature ones Luggiewatch already does (in addition to its litter picks and its calendar and schools activities).
Waterside Community Council news page
Coalfields Regeneration Trust
March
21 Luggiewatch team meeting Thanks to Fiona and family for hosting this month's meeting, The long list of agenda items mean we are very busy and excited about upcoming activities. A special welcome went to Jackie Gillespie, who among many roles has provided Streetscene Technical Support, in East Dunbartonshire Council and works closely with Keep Scotland Beautiful. Jackie was able to provide expert support and guidance on a number of themes we are interested in.
Keep Scotland Beautiful
17 Luggiewatch Litter Pick. A 10-strong group came to our March litter pick - quickly following on from the success of our February pick, to help make a real impact on the surrounding area of Waterside village and up to Chryston Road.
We met at the footbridge in Waterside Village at 10.00am and then all of us targetted the disgraceful tip of 59 tyres and other unhygenic rubbish. One item we couldn't move was an upright piano! The obvious question to fly-tippers is "if you're going to put your rubbish into transport then why not drive to the recycling station?" Thanks to Rudy Shannon most of our equipment and gloves were provided by him. Hot food was made available around 12 noon, coutesy of Lisa at Archies. The chat was second to none!
Facebook post
East Dunbartonshire Recycling Centre
North Lanarkshire Recycling Centres
10 Luggiewatch joins Scottish Wildlife Trust for a guided walk. We had our first group foray across the border into North Lanarkshire to SWT's Luggiebank Wood nature reserve, under the expert guidance of Tracy Lambert and her assistant Willie. A fantastic area cared for and developed by the trust is the home to an amazing range of natural heritage . See their website for more. We braved the snow and rain and became oblivious to it thanks to a great walk. You should visit this area any time of the year - its fantastic.
Facebook Post
SWT's page on Luggiebank Wood
Scottish Wildlife Trust website
February
17 Luggiewatch Litter Pick. We had our first litter pick of the year. 16 volunteers turned up and made a huge impact on clearing the environment of new and old waste. A special guest today was Mr Sheerin - a year teacher from St Ninian's High School - who came to see how pupil and Luggiewatcher Rudy Shannon is helping Luggiewatch. Again, thanks to Lisa from Archies for providing us with welcome hot food and drinks afterwards.
Later that day the village also hosted unique football matches on the Waterside playing field. This was to celebrate the importance of keeping such fields in communities. See more at the WCC website. So today Waterside celebrated the wish to save our green and open spaces.
We plan to make another litter pick on March 17th. Come join us!
Facebook post for the litter pick
Waterside Community Council website section on the field
17 Luggiewatch Litter Pick. We had our first litter pick of the year. 16 volunteers turned up and made a huge impact on clearing the environment of new and old waste. A special guest today was Mr Sheerin - a year teacher from St Ninian's High School - who came to see how pupil and Luggiewatcher Rudy Shannon is helping Luggiewatch. Again, thanks to Lisa from Archies for providing us with welcome hot food and drinks afterwards.
Later that day the village also hosted unique football matches on the Waterside playing field. This was to celebrate the importance of keeping such fields in communities. See more at the WCC website. So today Waterside celebrated the wish to save our green and open spaces.
We plan to make another litter pick on March 17th. Come join us!
Facebook post for the litter pick
Waterside Community Council website section on the field
January
16 Luggiewatch meeting. We had our first meeting of the year in the Waterside Club annexe at 7:30pm - and it was great. We've done a lot in recent years and last year was exceptionally busy. So we now have a year ahead with big plans! Watch this space
6 Our stall at the Regent centre (Kirkintilloch) We had a relaxing start to the new year with a Saturday stall at the shopping centre. As well as selling some of our fab calendars we had the great pleasure to meet many people who were interested in what we're doing.
Facebook post
16 Luggiewatch meeting. We had our first meeting of the year in the Waterside Club annexe at 7:30pm - and it was great. We've done a lot in recent years and last year was exceptionally busy. So we now have a year ahead with big plans! Watch this space
6 Our stall at the Regent centre (Kirkintilloch) We had a relaxing start to the new year with a Saturday stall at the shopping centre. As well as selling some of our fab calendars we had the great pleasure to meet many people who were interested in what we're doing.
Facebook post