BARBER SHOP BOSS BLAMES BRAWLS AND DRUGS USERS FOR CLOSURE
ARENOWNED Glasgow barber has cited drugs misuse and anti-social behaviour in the city centre as the reason that led him to close his shutters for good.
Instead of grief, Alan Findlay felt a wave of relief earlier this month when he locked the doors of Rebel Rebel on Union Street for the last time.
The 48-year-old – who also has shops in Finnieston and in Stirling – opened his first business in the city centre 14 years ago.
But after facing “daily battles” and witnessing the area “rapidly deteriorate”, Alan took the decision to tell his customers the barbers would no longer be taking clients.
He said: “During the pandemic, there was an endless list of problems for us. There were daily running battles in both lockdowns. I was there refurbishing the shop every day.
“In that time, I had my shutters damaged which cost me around £500. People were smashing bottles over each other’s heads on the street in broad daylight and there was a lot of fighting.
“At some stage, you would have thought they were filming World War Z with the amount of conflict that was going on.”
When lockdown was announced last year, hundreds of rough sleepers were brought in off the streets to help slow the spread of Covid-19.
With temporary accommodation across the city filling up, many were placed into hotels by Glasgow City Council.
Alan says that the complex challenges faced by those living with addictions in a nearby hotel led to the living and shopping standards on the street dropping.
The local authority insists that it remains committed to liaising with businesses and hotel owners while those who were put up in temporary accommodation during lockdown are now being moved on into new homes.
“Putting 40 people with drug problems in the one area is not going to help them,” he said.
“It has made other problems for businesses and for people who shop and work in the city centre.
“Eventually, when we opened back up after lockdown, it became a daily case of kicking people out of my doorway who were selling drugs. The pandemic seemed to be the catalyst for the problems. Trying to run a business in the midst of chaos was so stressful.
“Coming to work and wondering ‘what the hell am I going to have to deal with today’ was a daily thought.”
A recent incident involving a resident from the hotel saw Union Street cordoned off for four hours – subsequently costing Alan around £500 in lost appointments.
And only last month, an attack outside Rebel Rebel led to a man being hospitalised with serious injuries.
Alan said: “He had his top off and there was blood all over the place and myself and my customers saw it, it wasn’t nice for them.
“The police came and the whole street was cordoned off again – that was another couple of hundred pounds lost.
“In the last two years, there was hardly any officers to be seen but as soon as COP26 arrives they’re patrolling the building.
“The reputation of the street started to make people stay away and therefore footfall was decreasing. It’s not really an area I want my brand to be associated with anymore because of the deterioration.”
The business owner believes that drug misuse and anti-social behaviour along Union Street could have been dealt with at the beginning of the pandemic, but he argues the issues slipped through the hands of the authorities.
Alan, from Larkhall, said: “I can understand how difficult it is for the council to deal with anti-social behaviour and drugs misuse but I don’t think they have looked at the big picture.
“You balance it up and you think, how much money is being spent on this problem?
“You look at the ambulance service, the policing, courts and prison service who have to deal with the outcome of the problems that arise from putting people into hotels.
“To me, it lacks ambition from the council, police and social services as they don’t seem to be connected in trying to resolve these issues.”
On reflection, Alan has described his last few years of trade in the city centre as a “dark chapter” for Rebel Rebel as he focuses his attention on his other businesses.
He said: “The problems could have been fixed but it’s too late for me now and I’m glad I’m away from it because it was a dark chapter in Rebel Rebel’s history and in my life as well.
“I think if you had asked me five years ago how I would feel about closing up, I’d have been really sad.
“But after everything we have been through in these last few years, I feel relief more than anything else. It was a case of ‘why am I suffering? Let’s get out of here’.
“I have never seen Glasgow have such bad social problems as what it does now – I have really seen the deterioration of the street go rapidly downhill and I have a good gauge of that because I have worked in the city for so long.
“I have no doubt it will recover one day but it’s a question of when and how much money will be thrown at it to help it survive?”
Glasgow City Council said that the process of moving the homeless from temporary hotels and into permanent homes remains ongoing as accommodation becomes available.
A spokesperson for Glasgow’s Homeless Services said: “The global pandemic has been tough on everyone including homeless people who are among the most vulnerable in society.
“Hotel accommodation was used in a bid to protect homeless people from a potentially lethal virus and enable them to socially distance (something that could not be done in hostels).
“We’ve now secured new homes for hundreds of people who have been moved out of hotels, and this process continues as more accommodation becomes available.
“Addiction treatment and support services actually expanded during the pandemic, leading to Glasgow’s Homeless Health and Asylum Team winning national recognition last week in the form of a prestigious Scottish Health Award for expanding services and increasing face-to-face contact with service users during lockdown.
“City centre services including Police Scotland and hotel owners liaise constantly with businesses, and anyone with concerns about anti-social behaviour should report them to the police.”