Traders say authorities know hostel is real problem
By Chris Leslie

Glasgow City Council has been accused of deliberately misleading the public by calling for the closure of Paddy's Market, claiming it was responsible for the high level of crime in the area.

For the past eight months, the market in the Bridgegate area of Glasgow has been threatened with closure and possible redevelopment by the council. Described by Bailie George Matheson as a "crime-ridden midden", the council has published plans to turn the market into a showcase for aspiring artists of different ethnic backgrounds - a mini Camden Market for Glasgow.

A source has told the Sunday Herald that at regular meetings held over the past two years of City Centre Task Force, a multi-agency group formed to look at the issues associated with the area around Shipbank Lane, it has been widely acknowledged that the main catalyst for crime was Hope House - a hostel for homeless drug addicts.

The task force group (which includes among others Strathclyde Police, Glasgow Community and Safety Services, Network Rail and the Salvation Army) discussed police reports which acknowledged that much of the crime revolved directly around Hope House. Crime statistics for the area around Shipbank Lane include drug dealing, prostitution and assault. In 2005/2006, police reported almost 850 crimes in the area, including one attempted murder.

In minutes obtained under the Freedom Of Information Act, Strathclyde Police themselves stressed in April 2008 that it is not the traders of the Paddy's Market who are the cause of the crime. Chief inspector Alan Spence stated crime was down to "the people that the area generally attracts" and noted Hope House as being "a major crime generator". However, the chief inspector insisted if Shipbank Lane, the site of Paddy's Market, were to be closed it would have a "huge positive impact on the level of crime being committed in the area".

Traders have continually voiced their innocence. The market closes at 2pm every day and the vast majority of the crimes take place in the evenings when the market area effectively becomes a public lane.

Patsy Woodward, 62, a café owner on the market, said: "It is all down to Hope House. There are times when we need to chase junkies away from our stalls and some of them can get violent - but why should we be policing the area?"

The future of Paddy's Market remains unclear. A deal with Network Rail, the owners of the arches on Shipbank Lane, and Glasgow City Council was finally ratified last month by the council's executive committee. After the meeting, councillor George Ryan, executive member for development and regeneration committee, said the council "were quite happy to incorporate legitimate traders within the new market".

However, both the SNP and Greens have separately called in the issue of the takeover of the lease of Paddy's Market. A meeting will be held on Tuesday so that the matter can be debated with the development and regeneration committee, which dealt with the original decision.