Council needs to get a grip if Glasgow city centre is to become a place for families
I READ your article on making Glasgow city centre a more attractive place (“Goodbye suburbs, hello green spaces and quiet life ... of Glasgow city centre”, The Herald, May 13) and I felt compelled to respond. I have always been a great fan of Glasgow and its people but the city centre as it stands is an absolute disgrace. A national embarrassment given it’s our largest city with COP26 coming in November.
The streets are filthy, litter is everywhere, chewing gum and vomit is omnipresent, the roads are potholed and the pavements are a patchwork quilt of trip hazards and disrepair. Obviously, the pandemic has been a huge factor with halfempty streets and boarded-up buildings, but the whole place reeks of we don’t give a damn any more.
There are also no green spaces to speak of and vehicles still dominate everything with air pollution returning to normal levels quicker than almost anything else.
I really don’t know how you will get families to move here with the city centre in this condition. The council, working with the Chamber of Commerce, needs to take a grip of this chronic situation with an urgent look at how this place is maintained and how it can be kept cleaner, otherwise no more investment in Glasgow I fear, and definitely no place for a family to live.
Fergus Murray, Lochgilphead.
◾ I LISTENED on the radio to Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, stating that the current poor appearance of Glasgow is a consequence of Covid restrictions reducing efforts of the cleansing department and that the city will be spick and span for the forthcoming climate change conference.
I trust she is correct with the latter point, but she is giving a good impression of Pinocchio on the former.
For some time before Covid, Glasgow’s appearance has been a disgrace. Buchanan Street gets reasonably well looked after but you didn’t have to stray far from there to see streetscapes far from desirable.
Typical examples are St Enoch Square and adjacent Argyle Street in the mornings when either Christmas markets or funfairs are on and a walk down Union Street with pavements with piles of refuse.
Duncan Sooman, Milngavie.