A Scout troop has raised the roof — at last.
Last year, we told how Paisley’s 33rd Gleniffer Scouts were battling to replace the battered and leaking roof at their meeting place in the town’s Stoney Brae.
The project, dubbed Raise the Roof, urgently needed to be completed to keep the near 60-year-old building in one piece.
The work has now been done, with the new roof in place courtesy of Brolly Roofing.
Simon Lieberman, Scout leader, said everyone was thrilled at the completion of the job, which has secured the future of the hut.
He said: “It’s such a relief to get this done.
“We had water leaking into the hall for over ten years.
“The hall had no insulation in the roof before, so we’ve upgraded that, which has improved the environmental friendliness of the hall considerably, and there will be lower heating bills as well.
“We are planning on windows and doors to go in as well, plus other internal work now the damp problem has been solved.”
The job cost under £25,000 and the money was raised through grants from the National Lottery, the Robertson Trust, and the Glasgow Airport Flightpath Fund.
“We also did the Glasgow Kiltwalk and there were other fundraising activities,” Simon explained.
The completion of the Raise the Roof project was a close-run thing.
In September last year, gusts of almost 60mph brought by Storm Ali ripped off part of the dated roof — making it even more urgent for a new one to be put in place.
There was further trouble when a problem arose with 33rd Gleniffer Scouts’ long-standing account with the TSB at its Neilston Road branch.
When the branch closed, the account was transferred to the banking giant’s High Street
base.
But when Scout leaders tried to pay in cheques at the new branch, they were told they could not do so as their account name had been changed.
The problem was eventually sorted and TSB apologised.
There are now around 70 young people in the 33rd Gleniffer Scouts, which has been in existence since 1940, and the hall has been in Stoney Brae since 1960.
