May 5 2021

Glasgow City Council has adopted a Strategic Development Framework (SDF) governing development of the city centre over the coming three decades.

The document outlines a range of guiding principles designed to stimulate the repopulation of central districts by re-establishing broken connections to the inner city and the river, to double the 2020 resident population of around 20,000 (3.5% of the city's population) by 2050.

Liveable and sustainable communities will be prioritised through reduced reliance on vehicles for transport in favour of active travel and expanded public spaces, pivoting away from discredited recent development.

Outlining the need for action the report states: "... neighbourhoods suffer from issues, such as; severance from the city centre by the M8, (Anderston, Royston), vacant land and derelict land, (Port Dundas, Tradeston), or traffic dominated streets, few facilities and lack of investment in the public environment (Cowcaddens, Townhead, Laurieston) and present an opportunity for urban repair and renewal.

"By contrast, more recent (2000’s) housing developments have not contributed towards the creation of community; often being ad hoc isolated blocks with poor access to everyday shops, and lacking a community focus and walkable environment (as in Tradeston and Lancefield Quay).

"Many student halls of residence are in similarly isolated blocks that lack local services or do not integrate well into their community (such as Townhead)."

To remedy this priority will be given to the redevelopment of vacant land and buildings and the conversion of disused floorspace, particularly heritage assets. Work will also focus on positioning the city centre as a 'day out destination' with new leisure opportunities offered by the establishment of a river park plugged into a 'green grid' of walking and cycling routes.

Efforts will also be made to improve crossings and the environment around the M8 with a focus on new planting to 'green the grey' of the built environment. 

8 Comments

#1 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 5 May 2021 at 12:40 PM

No amount of waffle and white collar oxygen thievery will hide the fact that the council are shutting libraries.

Sticking a few books in the corner of a Job Centre is not a library -- it is council sponsored theft from the working class.

#2 Posted by The Heart of Saturday Night on 5 May 2021 at 13:58 PM

It's awfully nice of GCC to point out the failings of previous developments...perhaps they shouldn't have been so keen to approve them in the first place?

Same mistakes being made again with Yorkhill Quay. All the reports in the world don't hide the fact that there is zero joined up thinking going on.

#3 Posted by Daniel on 5 May 2021 at 16:55 PM

It's good to see public ambition on this, but it needs to be backed up with investment.

Eg there have been loads of articles recently here about the developments down the riverfront, which are pretty much exactly what is coming in for criticism here - isolated and poorly integrated, few facilities, essentially dense suburban developments with (I'm sure) high levels of car dependency.

So where's the strategy - or even the baseline ambition - to stick a light railway line along the riverfront to integrate them better? Where's the plan to reduce/remove the Expressway so they can intergrate better with the neighbourhoods just to the north?

The thing is, we can ask these questions, but we all know the answers - the system isn't joined up in a way that lets it deliver these things, and Scotland is too centralised to change the system to let it do these things.

And is this an issue at the elections tomorrow? Nope, not at all.

#4 Posted by Spike on 5 May 2021 at 16:57 PM

Good to hear this, let's hope early progress is made on this on improve liveability in our city

#5 Posted by David on 5 May 2021 at 17:22 PM

Think the population figures are slightly out of date, the population of Glasgow's central core i.e. the city council area, was 626,410 in 2019.

#6 Posted by Hamish Ashcroft on 6 May 2021 at 00:29 AM

#3 Absolutely agree. The Scottish government and Glasgow city council (along with many other councils) do a good job at talking the talk but never walking the walk. Things are very slowly moving in the right direction, but I’m always frustrated by how disconnected and Unsuitable the planning system sees my be. We need proper ambition. Downgrading of the Clydeside expressway and springburn road in particular, along with many other roads. Prioritise pedestrians and cyclists with higher quality design standards (get rid of shared use, multi stage crossings, wide uncontrolled crossings etc etc), start the process of the metronisation of the Glasgow suburban rail system, start a tram system, build the Glasgow crossrail, build high density car free developments in the inner city and heavily restrict car centric greenfield development, stop the construction of out of town retail, introduce a workplace (and probably other places too) parking levy, nationalise the bus system and introduce an inner city congestion charge. Sorry this is such a ramble but I’m just frustrated with the current system and how no one seems to care about the places we live!

#7 Posted by Ghetto King on 6 May 2021 at 09:03 AM

Planning ahead with adaptability is one the most important functions a city council can provide. So many times in Glasgow we have been promised this and that but it has not materialised. This time we have to make sure that the political will is there to spend our money on transport and living areas which we have been asking for now over decades.
For instance , a proper cross city rail solution to link north and south that also includes a line to the airport.
Cleaner and more efficient buses that provide less harmful emissions. What happened to the electric or hydrogen cell powered buses?
The ongoing saga of the M8 dividing the city in two has still to be resolved. Will it ever be?
Also, the express way runs like a medieval moat as it snakes around the lower West end on one side and the river on the other.
As for putting in greener places , what about leaving those green places that occupy sites that have been left abandoned when the previous builds were pulled down and countless, fruitless plans became barren.
These are the same problems generations of Glaswegians have faced for over 50 , 60 , 70 years? And, now we have the added menace of COVID to contain with , I wonder if the city council has finally missed their opportunity.

#8 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 6 May 2021 at 14:47 PM

The Expressway is sub-optimal.

Poor excuse for a 1950's Tory / Auld Reekie civil service doing stuff on the cheap motorway.

But we built a tunnel and then had to join it to the rest of the city somehow.

Consequently get over it -- literally.
Get creative / get innovative / get fixing.

Our biggest issues on the north bank of the Clyde all point towards the Isle of Man.

Second rate rentier capitalists whose focus is elsewhere.

Meadowside Granaries -- fair enough to knock them down but we should have replaced them with housing / offices that followed their size / shape / scale.

They were distinctive and the replaced them with Any-where-Ville Stack-a-pleb boxes.

Not a great start was it?

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