MARGARET Jaconelli was forcibly evicted from her home in Dalmarnock, Glasgow after a compulsory purchase order was placed on it by Glasgow City Council in the leadup to the 2014 Commonwealth Games, after an eight-year battle to stay.
She moved back to Dalmarnock three years ago which has since regenerated into the Athletes Village.
Dalmarnock still consistently ranks as one of the most deprived areas in Scotland. Despite this the east end area has been dubbed “one of the most significant regeneration schemes ever to have been constructed in the UK” by Scottish construction company CCG - a moniker Jaconelli deeply disagrees with.
“There is no legacy for the 2014 games. There never has been a legacy for any Games. In Dalmarnock they've still not even got a shop. The roads that they've done? Those roads are all full of potholes.
“They promised that we would have new shops, that we would have this, they would have that, and it ended up that some people never even got any houses.
“It was gentrification, a lot of gentrification “When you look at it, half the stuff that they said they were doing has not been done. They say it has a lasting legacy, there is no legacy.
“[In the leadup to 2014] it was like victimisation, terror, that's what they did, this is what the games do. Before the start of the Commonwealth Games, I had a phone call from security services saying 'Mrs Jaconelli, it's just to let you know Special Branch has got your photo and your husband's photo - in case you try to do anything for the Commonwealth Games.'
“I wasn’t going to make a disturbance, but after how I was treated I wish I did.”
The 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow had a total budget of £575.6 million, which included £472.3m for the games themselves and £90m for security.
In an official statement, Commonwealth Games Scotland (CGS) Chairman, Ian Reid CBE, revealed that the games “won’t be funded by the public purse” following John Swinney's statement this week that no public funds would be available for the games.
CGS claims its financial plan for hosting the games is “innovative, cost-effective and sustainable” and would not require any government money to bring the Games to Glasgow.
The update claims that the Games “will be funded by private income rather than the public purse, with the majority of costs covered by the CGF, using money secured in a compensation negotiation with the Victorian Government following their withdrawal as hosts in July 2023.”
Jaconelli shared her dismay at this, believing that any money spent on the proposed Games should be used to help local communities: “They're saying they're getting money from the Commonwealth Fund, right?
“But they're still going to have to put money out. There’s homeless on the streets. There are people sleeping in tents outside shops. It's actually shocking. It's actually disgraceful. And I can't believe it.”
Jaconelli revealed that she’s worried a similar situation to her ordeal will happen to people in the lead up to the proposed 2026 Games.
“Where are they going to put these people to stay? What happened to me was totally appalling. What they'd done to us [as a community] was totally appalling. We were left with nothing. We'd been fighting with them for nine years, trying to get a bit of help.”
“[Organisers] need to look at the structure of the Commonwealth Games for what happens to the people getting displaced. Not just the people of Dalmarnock, but of course for all the people that have also been forced out of their homes for The Games over the years “The athletes that go in for a wee medal? They don't realise that the people suffer and what the people in that area go through for a wee shiny medal.”
