THE touching comments by Robert Louis Stevenson, past president of the Glasgow and District Burns Association, on the result of the possible loss of the Burns statue from George Square to the association adds weight to any criticism regarding the whole process of decision-making regarding the square (Letters, January 17).
I am sure it is no more than an interesting coincidence that the figure of £15 million required to be saved from the council's education services is identical to the figure it has budgeted for the George Square redesign ("Union anger at £15m cuts to council's education budget", The Herald, January 17).
I dutifully studied the six designs on display at the Lighthouse last week. However, I noticed there was something missing there and not obvious on the council website relating to the brief consultation. I was under the impression that when potential design solutions were evaluated one did so against the original design brief which the designers worked to. I was beginning to feel this document had been somehow suppressed, but I eventually found it buried in a council executive committee paper of September 13, 2012, under agenda item four.
The design brief summaries its main points in para 3.4 as:
"Key challenges will require to be met in a short timescale and these are set out in the appended design brief. However the overarching objectives of the proposal are that:
l The redesign must reinforce the role of George Square as Glasgow's primary urban space;
l It must celebrate the creativity of the city and its people;
l It must create a day and night environment in which the citizens of Glasgow and visitors alike are able to socialise freely;
l It must provide a context in which a range of organised activities, large and small, can occur during all seasons;
l It must create an urban space of outstanding design quality;
l It must create a world-class tourist destination."
Having considered these design objectives against the square as it currently exists – and ticked all the boxes – I have difficulty in agreeing that any of the six submissions provides sufficient enrichment to justify such an expensive sacrifice.
Bill Brown,
46 Breadie Drive, Milngavie.
THERE is a campaign for option seven for the redesign of George Square in Glasgow. It talks of restoring the square to "its former grassy glory". I am an artist and landscape designer and would like to see a truly green option among the designs, notable for their use of hard landscaping, which dates quickly, and water, as if we don't have enough.
If ever there was a time to restore the Dear Green Place it is surely now. Environmentally friendly, people friendly, yes even wildlife friendly: a modern-tree filled park would return the centre of Glasgow to the people's affections.
It can be done. Consider St Andrew Square in Edinburgh, the best of the London squares, and New York's tiny parks.
Freda Milller,
5 Swedish Houses,
Ardentinny,
Argyll.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article