IT was, the leader of Glasgow’s Progressive Party councillors said dismissively, “just speculative building, and that is one of the basic weaknesses of the scheme”.

Bailie James M McClure was speaking in October 1963, on the eve of a Glasgow Corporation vote on plans for a £2.25 million factory-warehouse area for the displaced industrialists of Anderston, a comprehensive redevelopment of the entire area having long since begun.

The Progressives said the project was too grandiose. It would run at an annual loss of £22,000, which ratepayers would have to meet. And, in any event, the industrialists could get factories elsewhere, just as good and at cheaper rents.

The Lord Provost, Peter Meldrum (centre), accompanied by planning convener George Robertson and William Taylor, Labour group leader, posed for photographs with a model of the Anderston Cross project.

The new, £2.1 million scheme consisted of warehouses, offices and multi-storey flatted factories, between Houldsworth Street and Stobcross Street, with a total of 600,000sqft.

Mr Meldrum said the project would be uneconomic at first, but he was confident that it would ultimately turn a profit. The scheme was a demonstration of their faith in the future of Glasgow as a great industrial city.

Come the vote, the Progressives returned to the attack.

“I am convinced,” said Mr McClure, “that the project is far too ambitious and will be a running sore for years to come.” It reflected an “airy-fairy optimism” unjustified by the city’s economic situation.

Why not start it off small, he suggested, and develop it in line with demand?

Mr Taylor responded that Glasgow needed new factories. The corporation voted by 55 to 28 to approve the scheme.

This newspaper supported the project, saying in a leading article: “Imaginative and flexible in design, it should serve as an attraction to demonstrate what a rebuilt city can offer.”

Read more: Herald Diary