Glasgow is a miracle city not a midden
Leader claims its reputation has soared on her watch – and she’ll clean up streets..and at the polls
SUSAN Aitken insists Glasgow has become a “miracle city” under her watch as leader – despite claims the council has left the streets in a mess.
The SNP council chief defended her time in office ahead of next week’s elections and said locals were seeing improvements as services resume after lockdown.
In 2017 Aitken became the first SNP leader of Scotland’s largest local authority, ending decades of Labour rule at the City Chambers.
She is confident voters will return her to power when they head to the polls on May 5.
Aitken pointed to Glasgow’s reputation for hosting international events as proof of the high esteem it is held in. “During COP26 the world came to Glasgow and they liked what they saw,” she said.
“Delegates were raving about this place and the welcome they received from Glaswegians.”
The councillor pointed to a review from Dutch politician Frans
Timmermans, the European Commissioner for Climate Change.
“He described Glasgow as a miracle city,” she said. “He talked about having visited the city before and looking at it now. He said what has been achieved is amazing.
“Next year, we have the UCI World Cycling Championships and, the year after, we have the World Indoor Athletics Championships.
“These big event organisers are seeing a vibrant city – yes, with its challenges, but ones they recognise from around the world.
“They want to host events here as they know Glasgow will bring added value to it. The world likes what they see in Glasgow and they are coming back time and again.”
The SNP’s time in office has been marred by a protracted and at times bitter industrial dispute with refuse staff and street cleaners.
GMB union members struck ahead of last year’s COP26 over pay and conditions. One union official accused the council of “constantly goading our members” before a deal was finally agreed last November.
Aitken admitted “the GMB had some legitimate complaints” as a result of a long-term failure to invest in cleansing depots.
She added: “We have a £20million depot investment plan under way that will transform workplaces for that particular workforce.
“Another issue was they were having to lift old ash cans from back courts – they have been replaced in their entirety by green wheelie bins.
“We have also replaced all street bins. There has been a lot of investment. We can’t pretend Covid was not a factor in this. It was probably the single biggest factor.
“There was historic underinvestment which we had started to address. Everything was set back by Covid.”
Asked if Glasgow’s reputation had been tarnished by the cleansing row, and the condition of the city, she said: “I know it hasn’t as I speak to people from elsewhere all the time.
“Our opponents like to claim that but they’re the ones constantly saying Glasgow is a dump. I don’t believe Glasgow is a dump.
“I have always acknowledged we did have significant cleansing challenges during the pandemic. “All cities faced those challenges.” Aitken said the council’s Covid response had meant pulling some cleansing staff off the streets to prioritise domestic bin uplifts.
“So we have catching up to do,” she added. “We have invested in targeted measures to get the service back – not just to where it was but to better than it was.
“The vast majority of the problems we’ve seen in the past two years, have been because of Covid. “We are now emerging from that. “I don’t want to sound overconfident but we are seeing improvements already and we are months from seeing a quite significant transformation in the cleansing service.”