Stephen O'Connor's Blog

A week of ups and downs for me.  As you read this blog, I hope you see that I’ve put it together as a “sh!t sandwich”.  Sorry for the crude term, but by that I mean you get the good news, then the bad news, then finished off with more good news!  At least, I think it’s good news.

As a campaigner to Save and Preserve Cumbernauld House I was elated with the news that our application to become a charity was finally granted, and we obtained our coveted Charity number from OSCR.  From the day we had applied for the status, the group had brainstormed many ideas around the creation of the charity, how to raise funds, how to publicise this, how to make as big an impact as possible.  Some of the ideas may have seemed ridiculous, but somehow they all seemed achievable.  Suggestions of Festivals in the surrounding park, offers of assistance from Janey Godley with comedy nights, and Scottish musicians offering their support, theatrical performance of Rachel Ogilvy’s one woman show, and our passion to bring a cinema screen into Cumbernauld in whatever way possible to show Gregory’s Girl.  An idea to have a weekend festival over 4 entertaining nights.  Comedy, Theatre, Music and Film crammed into a weekend, to really make the town see how great a community we all can be when we put our heads together. 

{Cue loud thunder, flashes of lightning, rumbles of earthquakes and any other disastrous things you can think of from a Hollywood disaster movie}  Thursday 26th of August 2010, a little bit of me died!  Dramatic is that may sound, I received a phone call from Adam, one of our Committee members, telling me that he was down visiting Cumbernauld House with his Aunt, and was told he couldn’t get access to the car park, as the house had been sold.  During the conversation with the site agent, he was told that “it’s no longer owned by the council” (it hadn’t been for a very long time).  “We are converting it into flats, and building more ’round the back…it will take about a year and a half to complete”.  As he relayed this story to me, I felt sick, followed shortly by anger, then that feeling of “are you taking the p…?”.  But a phone call to the agents confirmed the sale.  I followed that up with another quick call to NLC Planning dept, who confirmed that no planning application had been submitted, and I raised the alarm (might have been prematurely) about work being carried out on a Grade A Listed building without consent.  Our local planning officer made a visit and was assured that the only work being carried out where minor repairs to glazing, replacing putty around the windows, and grass cutting and cutting back some bushes.  He was happy to share the contact details for the new owner, and has since facilitated a meeting for all interested local groups and the new owner’s representative. 

I met with members of the group on Thursday evening, and we had a little trip down to the house to see the latest developments.  After only one day of working, they had cut all of the grass, removed some of the security shutters from the windows and to our surprise, had erected a 6ft fence around the front car park.  We wandered around the outer boundary of the house, looking from a distance and all feeling quite deflated about our efforts in the past 6 months.  Time for some reflection.  Time to regroup.  Time to look at the future.

Friday brought a new day, full of self-induced headaches from grinding my teeth and having a terrible sleep.  I put it down to my passion for this project.  Sad as that may sound.  It’s hard to not feel emotional about it, when you learn so much more about the history of the house, the stories regarding castles, royalty, Admirals, love stories, songs written about the house, the surrounding trees, how large the estate was, and how the estate is the foundation of the town I was born and bred in.  My love for the house and park started at a young age, with memories of running around the fields following a trip to the “Cottage Theatre” to see Charlotte’s Web.  (I’m drifting in to my wee dream world here)

Pulling the blog back to the second good part of my sh!te sandwich, leads me to the work we have achieved since we found out about the sale of the house.  We continued to update all interested members of the facebook group.  Posted photos of developments.  Passed on information as soon as we found anything out.  Spoke to the press and Scottish news networks.  Met with our MP.  Oh, and we’ve also realised that our campaign isn’t over.  That’s the biggest thing we have learned from previous community groups.  When they felt a deal was complete, through no fault of their own, they presumed the house was safe, in the hands of responsible owners, and allowed the new landlords to enjoy their new purchase.  It seems that they felt all was lost when the house was originally sold.  We feel that although the house is under new ownership, it still requires our vigilance to ensure the future of the house.  To keep pressure on the new owners to maintain this stunning historical building.  Ensure that no changes are made to the building without full consent, and that any applications are scrutinised not only by the planning department, but by members of the Cumbernauld Community.

We are now a registered charity, and the only real difference is that the house has changed hands.  We still have work to do.  We still have the ability to commit to the objects stated in our charity registration.  We can still hope to achieve our community events, our civic pride, and the many community projects we would like to assist with.  Realistically, we could still look at owning Cumbernauld House.  You might think that’s now impossible, but CHB Developments aren’t the first company to buy the house and find that they had to sell it on.