It is a city renowned for its parks and green spaces, with a name meaning dear green place.
But instead of neat lawns and picturesque flowerbeds, recent visitors to Glasgow's parks have been met with overgrown grass and tangled weeds.
Photographs taken yesterday at three city parks show just how bad the neglect has become, particularly at sites such as Kelvingrove Park, Maxwell Park and Victoria Park.
Environmental group Keep Scotland Beautiful yesterday revealed that while 32 Edinburgh parks have been presented with green flag awards, Glasgow received just three.
Five years ago, eight of the city’s parks received the accolades - including Kelvingrove - but this year only three were entered.
Glasgow City Council claim the city's parks "continue to enjoy high approval ratings from residents", however local councillor Kyle Thornton believes more needs to be done to ensure their maintenance.
Mr Thornton, Conservative councillor for Newlands/Auldburn ward, said: “I think the city needs to take seriously that parks are being left to become overgrown.
“And it is not just smaller ones, we are receiving reports that larger, prominent parks around the city aren’t being maintained.
“Glasgow is renowned for our parks, they are something the city takes a lot of pride in and that pride should be matched with the resources needed to maintain them.
“We use our parks to get fit, for Parkruns, for children to play in during the school holidays - they are no use if the grass is overgrown.
“It puts people off using them and that’s detrimental.
“We have raised this issue over and over again but it is not a particular priority for the council.
“Any time it is raised - and this is an issue in communities across Glasgow - it is passed over.”
Last month, The Herald's sister title the Evening Time told how the issue was raised at a full council meeting.
Workers have also previously claimed that the parks are being neglected because maintenance staff are being forced to help with bin collections – leaving them without time to carry out their own duties.
Glasgow City Council confirmed workers can be deployed to other areas but said this only happens “when it is necessary”.
At Victoria Park, local society the Friends of Victoria Park said the council’s cost-cutting measure of grassing over 28 beds - out of 60 in total - amounted to “an act of civic vandalism”.
While the council is understood to be allowing Kelvingrove Park to become overgrown in order to discourage outdoor drinking and the sort of unruly scenes that have been witnessed in the West End space recently.
However, Mr Thornton hit out at this idea.
“It seems like one of these reasons that comes out of the bag when the grass doesn’t get cut,” he said.
“Overgrown grass probably isn’t going to put them off.
“If you are serious about stopping people drinking in parks, and let’s remember that is illegal in Glasgow, they you should be making sure there are enough community safety resources in parks and that there is public education.
“Overgrown grass puts people off using the parks and drives people out of the parks.
“If there are fewer people in the parks for the right reasons, you are only going to encourage people who are going to use it for the wrong reasons.
“People will be thinking, ‘Why am I paying my money for this basic service and it is not being carried out.”
The concern for Glasgow’s greenspaces came as 71 parks across Scotland were presented with green flag awards.
The accolades acknowledge well-maintained, quality green open spaces across the country that help to boost the nation’s health and wellbeing.
Derek Robertson, chief executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: “I would like to congratulate all of Scotland’s award-winning parks. Receiving this prestigious international benchmark recognises all of the hard work that has gone into maintaining and managing these precious green open spaces.
“Every single one of these parks provides an invaluable service to the local communities that it serves - from creating a safe space to play, to think, to work out - helping to address many of the health and wellbeing challenges we face as a country.”
“Spending time in nature can be good for people’s health and wellbeing, and merely living in a greener neighbourhood can be good for health. The Green Flag Award recognises the valuable, and tangible contribution that these parks make towards the nation’s well-being.”
A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: "We are working exceptionally hard with our available resources to ensure our parks are maintained to a suitable standard.
“The wide range of tasks needed to keep our parks in good order such as grass cutting, litter bin collections and playground checks are all carried out on a routine and regular basis.
“Glasgow’s parks are also used to support the city’s responsibility to promote biodiversity and increasing amounts of parkland are allowed to grow more freely to support a range of wildlife, including essential pollinator species.
“There are occasions when staff will be deployed on to other tasks, but this will be to support of services for which the council has a statutory duty to provide.”
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