Seven bids for Levelling Up to improve neighbourhoods
PROJECTS to improve neighbourhood high streets are among seven Glasgow bids for Levelling Up cash from the UK Government. Plans for Drumchapel, Easterhouse, Maryhill and Possilpark are included in the bids for cash from the £800m fund for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Glasgow has also put in bids for cash to refurbish the People’s Palace and the Winter Gardens, for a cap over the M8 at Charing Cross, and to improve transport connections between the SECC, the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and the city centre.
The local community projects focus on the shopping areas, to make them more attractive to customers.
In Drumchapel, the plan is for redevelopment of the shopping centre to take advantage of investment in a local community hub and transport.
In Easterhouse, the cash would be used to improve The Lochs Shopping Centre building at the car park and entrances and make it more accessible from the wider area. The Maryhill bid is to create improved travel links to the city-wide active travel network and the local canal, including the Stockingfield Junction where a new bridge is being built. Possilpark focuses on improving Saracen Street and nearby brownfield sites at Stonyhurst Street and Allander Street on the site of the old secondary school. The garden cap over the M8 between Sauchiehall Street and Bath
Street would create new green space in the city centre and improve connections for walking and cycling between the city centre and the West End.
The People’s Palace and Winter Gardens bid states “the restoration would ensure this invaluable heritage asset can be maintained and preserved for future generations, paving the way for its sustainable future”.
The bids are due in by July 6 and a decision on successful projects will be announced by the UK Government in the autumn. Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “The ambitious new bids to be submitted to the Levelling Up Fund offer the opportunity to bring a range of real economic, environmental and social benefits to either local communities or the wider city. “There is a very strong case being made for these bids, any and all of which would make a difference to Glasgow.” The council can submit seven bids – one per Westminster constituency – with a value of up to £20m.”