by Willie McLaughlin

I recently attended the official opening of the revamped Dalmuir Square.

This was the culmination of several projects involving Dalmuir Community Council, the Environment Trust and an excellent landscape design company.

The surrounding area now looks much nicer and provides places to sit and enjoy the good weather and for the children to play.

Together with the completed housing developments by Link Housing, Dalmuir is shaping up as a better place to live for all residents.

We were honoured to have the square officially opened by Isobel Rankin, who was involved from the start, and I apologise for springing this on her at the last minute. You can blame Liz Gill and Craig Edward for that one.

These events are the reward for years of effort and a recognition of the people who have worked hard to better their community.

Isobel will be celebrating a significant birthday soon and has invited her many friends to attend a party at a local hostelry, as the Hydro wasn’t available that night.

Driving around Glasgow I like to look at all the interesting artworks and murals that have appeared around the city.

They brighten up blank walls and drab places and you notice tourists admiring them and taking photos.

I would like to see similar efforts to improve our environment here.

What would you rather look at, a drab gable end or a nice big mural.

The local schools could get involved, the art group at the library, the seniors clubs, disabled groups and all interested members of the community.

Any suggestions would be very welcome.

The most unlikely people can come up with the most amazing ideas sometimes.

I will be discussing these and other plans at our next community council meeting.

If you don’t think it, no one will talk about it and if nobody talks about it then nothing will happen.

So get your thinking caps on and help us to make Dalmuir an even nicer place to live and visit.

It might take a while but I want to see visitors smile when they pass through and perhaps they will even stop to take a closer look.