OPPONENTS of the Go Ape adventure course in Glasgow's Pollok Park today called for a U-turn on the project after a £7million nightclub planned for the Botanic Gardens was scrapped.

OPPONENTS of the Go Ape adventure course in Glasgow's Pollok Park today called for a U-turn on the project after a £7million nightclub planned for the Botanic Gardens was scrapped.

Campaigners are furious the city council rejected the hugely unpopular project for the Botanic Gardens, while giving the equally unpopular Go Ape plan the go-ahead last month.

Tale of two developments

THE PARKS
Botanic Gardens
The 28-acre park in the West End has the Victoran Kibble Palace glasshouse, landscaped gardens and lawns.

Pollok Park
The 360-acre park on the South Side has attractions including Pollok House, the Burrell Collection and a field of Highland Cows. It is also home to wildlife including deer, has walking and bicycle tracks and a riding school.

THE COMMERCIAL PLANS
Botanic Gardens
Stefan King's G1 group wanted to create a £7million nightclub and restaurant by rebuilding a former station within the park. The club would have been in old railway tunnels and the venue would have held up to 400 people.

Pollok Park
Go Ape's venture will see rope bridges and zip lines strung from around 30 trees in the North Wood behind the Burrell Collection to create a three-hour-long course costing up to £25 a go. It would cost £900,000 to build.

THE SUMS INVOLVED
Botanic Gardens
King had yet to agree terms of the lease, but he wanted 99 years. However, it is believed the council wanted to limit it to 25 years and wanted a profit-sharing agreement.

Pollok Park
The council will charge Go Ape just £2000 in rent in the first year. After four years - when the deal becomes rent and a percentage of turnover - the income generated for the council will be under £120,000 a year if the facility operates at an estimated full capacity of 60,000 visitors.

Potential annual turnover for Go Ape would be £1.3m if at full capacity year-round.

LEVEL OF OPPOSITION
Botanic Gardens
Protest group Save our Botanics collected a 4000-name petition.

More than 1000 people, including actor Robert Carlyle, gathered at a protest when miniature flags were planted where the proposed bar would be built. Alasdair Gray, Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch and Paul Riley, Greg Hemphill and Ford Kiernan also opposed the plan.

Pollok Park
Protest Group Save Pollok Park gathered a 5000-strong petition and there were 900 other written objections. Protests included a silent vigil in the park and a City Chambers protest. Broadcaster Chick Young, MSP Nicola Sturgeon and the architects behind the Burrell are against the plan.

And today they called for council leader Steven Purcell to publicly come out against Go Ape - just as he has done over clubs tycoon Stefan King's bid for a venue in the Botanics.

They say the similarities between the Botanics nightclub plan and Go Ape's Pollok Park venture, and the huge level of opposition to both, mean they should both be rejected.

Danny Alderslow, Green councillor for Southside Central, said: "They are so alike. I will be looking for Steven Purcell to do likewise with Pollok Park. He can say he listened to the people about the Botanics. We want him to listen to the people on Pollok Park."

The Evening Times yesterday told how the proposal by Mr King's G1 group to transform a disused part of the Botanics into an underground nightclub, bar and restaurant was being vetoed.

Bill Fraser, of campaign group Save Pollok Park, said: "The people of the South Side might feel slighted if they don't get the same political support that people in the West End have got.

"The strength of feeling in the South Side is as strong as it is in the West End.

"There are three things we have in common with the Botanics plan. That project was abandoned due to huge local opposition, a lack of consultation and a poor value lease - some of the reasons we oppose Go Ape.

"The Botanics was abandoned due to people power', and with nearly 5000 signatures on our petition and doubts over the sloppy' handling of the planning application, we deserve the same support from our elected representatives."

But deputy planning convener Jonathan Findlay hit back, saying there was no comparison between the two developments.

And he defended giving Go Ape the go-ahead on the grounds it fitted the city's health agenda by encouraging more people to get fit, especially teenagers.

Councillor Findlay said: "There are fundamental differences between leasing part of a public park to Go Ape for a scheme which can be taken down without any impact on the park, and building a nightclub, which is a permanent structure.

"The Botanics plan was dead before it reached the planning stage, but if it had reached that stage, there would have been no comparison to Go Ape.

"You cannot compare a nightclub with an adventure park. They are very different things."

He said a lot of planning committee members - including himself - thought a facility like Go Ape would be a fantastic thing for Pollok Park and the city, and in planning terms there was nothing to prevent the committee allowing it to go ahead.

HE ADDED: "It also ties in with the council's health agenda because we want to encourage more young people to become active.

"There is a perception there is not a lot in parks for the older teenage group and that is the group which will be very attracted to a facility like Go Ape which you can enjoy for the price of a football match."

Save Pollok Park hopes the Scottish Government will overturn the Go Ape plan in the light of the Botanics decision.

A spokesman for Go Ape said: "We are acutely sensitive to the concerns of some individuals and we will continue to actively listen and to see where we can accommodate particular concerns."