How Glasgow could change and why buses have to be the priority

Ms McKechin, though would prefer that our major cities promoted bus travel. “Bus travel is how you change communities,” she says. “If you live out in Easterhouse or in Castlemilk you can't get to your early shift if the bus doesn’t start early enough. Many families in places like these can’t afford the cost and running of a car. 

“So, there's an economic imperative. We currently have many people on benefits for whom the cost and difficulty of accessing work can be prohibitive. We need to provide them with a transport infrastructure to allow them to travel to work.

The South City Way (Image: Cycling Scotland)

“In Glasgow, people in the lowest 20% of incomes are 20% less well-off compared to a similar cohort in France. If we could get people in the 20% lowest income further up, you would start to avoid all the financial distress that we're seeing in our society. Bus travel is a key component of that and how you actually start to change people's lives, particularly in our outlying areas.

“I've got nothing against cycle travel, but how many middle-aged, working-class women have you seen reading a bicycle into the city? The answer is none. The priority for Glasgow has to be buses.”

Ms McKechin is chair of the Glasgow Commission, a formidable group set up by the Labour MSP, Pauline McNeill, comprising several current and former city politicians and leaders in the public and private sectors. These include Des McNulty, the former MSP and Assistant Vice-Principal, Economic Development and Civic Engagement at the University of Glasgow; Liz Cameron former Lord Provost and Cultural Ambassador for Glasgow and Donald Macleod, leading night-time economy advocate and owner of The Cathouse and The Garage night-clubs.

They came together more than two years ago and have been taking soundings from dozens of organisations across the city concerned with seeking solutions to some of the challenges facing Scotland’s largest and most important city.

Their report forms the most extensive analysis recently produced of what ails Glasgow and how the city can begin to plot a way forward.

(Image: NQ)

Ms McNeill said: “This is not a politically partisan report. We’ve strived not to impart criticism of the council, but to offer some solutions, based on the lived experience and expertise of many stake-holders across the city who, like us, are proud of Glasgow and want to see it flourish.”

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How Glasgow could change and why buses have to be the priority

Many of the Commission’s key findings align with the chief concerns I’ve heard being expressed by Glaswegians with increasing frequency over the last five years. Often, these opinions are rooted in frustration and anger at what people see when they come into the city centre: extensive and never-ending roadworks, the seven-year log-jam occurring on the M8; the fires that regularly engulf some of our most historic buildings and the ugly gap sites and derelict land left in their wake.

The gradual migration of people away from the city centre has occurred at a time when it’s never been more difficult to access it owing to the LEZ zones; prohibitive parking charges and the wholesale reduction in bus services. The slow collapse of Sauchiehall Street into a sprawling building site seems to be emblematic of a wider malaise.

The Commission wants to see the introduction of a fully-integrated, multi-modal public transport system with a single ticketing platform and the establishment of a long-term, ring-fenced infrastructure investment programme for Glasgow’s roads.

They also want to a review of the city centre parking charges and planning controls to regulate student accommodation concentration. This point in particular crops up early in conversations around the city. High parking costs are identified as a barrier to city-centre footfall and adversely affects both the hospitality sector and small businesses striving for economic recovery.

Glaswegians are very knowledgeable about their city’s built heritage and take great pride in it. Yet, they’ve seen large parts of the city centre being effectively annexed by Glasgow’s two major universities for the purpose of throwing up low-quality, aesthetically questionable and cheap student accommodation that disfigures the city’s Georgian grandeur.    

The introduction of planning controls to regulate the sheer density of student accommodation concentration would address the current distorting of house prices and the chronic shortage of availability for Glasgow residents.

The Commission, while recognising the need to tackle air pollution, want an  urgent review of the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) to ensure that it’s proportionate and doesn’t restrict access to the city centre. The current approach, characterised by a lack of flexibility, risks disproportionately impacting low-income households and small businesses.

The Commission also wants a commitment from both the national and local government to deliver the long sought-after rail link to Glasgow Airport. Glasgow is one of the few major cities in Europe lacking a direct airport link, an embarrassing feature which limits connectivity and economic growth.

Glasgow City Chambers. (Image: Gordon Terris)

The absence of anything resembling a clear recovery strategy for Glasgow’s vital night-time economy has seen the city lag badly behind many other European cities following the Covid lockdown. Better late-night transport; fairer business rates, the LEZ review and support for grassroots venues are essential to the city centre’s recovery.

In seeking a single transport ticketing platform the group cites the fragmented nature of Glasgow’s transport services which reduces people’s willingness to use them and an increase in costs. If the transport system was better integrated, there would be a reduction in congestion and an increase in economic activity.

Meanwhile, establishing a ring-fenced infrastructure investment programme for Glasgow’s roads would address the long-term decline in the conditions of these roads and reduced safety.

Ann McKechin says: “I know local government reform always seems huge, but we're at the point where we should be thinking about reforming it every 30 years. We should always be asking if our structures are fit for purpose in a world where change happens at a far faster pace than ever before.

“I think there's a general argument across the country about reforming local government, but particularly here in Glasgow.”

It’s one of Glasgow’s biggest frustrations. Here we are in Scotland’s largest city by far and from which more than 40% of the population of Scotland live less than an hour’s drive away.

“You need to have adequate levers – economically and culturally and in delivering public services - to be able to make decisions quickly and which respond to the actual needs of local areas. And that just hasn't been happening: it's just been increasing centralisation.

“One major issue that emerged in all of our consultations – and which we’ve noted in our report - was how local authorities have taken the heaviest cuts in public expenditure. You see this in the way that planning departments have been utterly hollowed out.”

I asked Pauline McNeill why she embarked on the Glasgow Commission. In several decades of living and working in this city, I’ve adopted a fail-safe cynicism about the sincerity of the city’s stewards in seeking to address its long-term challenges. Glasgow isn’t really run by its councillors. It’s run by a secret star chamber of executives who are paid exorbitant salaries and who rise without trace in the city chambers, accumulating knowledge and intelligence which can be used to protect their positions.

Ms McNeill is an optimist, though. “I just wanted to make a contribution to the debate about Glasgow’s long-term future. Glasgow was the UK’s most locked down city in the pandemic, yet it’s been made clear to me by key stakeholders and people who are crucial to our recovery, such as Glasgow Airport executives, that the city just wasn’t getting anything like the help from Central Government that it needed to do so.

“Until recently, Edinburgh Airport received a substantial Scottish Government route-subsidy. Glasgow didn’t receive this until its former chief, Andy Cliff argued the case along with me and some others.

“We’ve got the support of the Glasgow Labour Group of Councillors and the Glasgow MPs. The group we put together are all key voices in the city who devoted long hours on a voluntary basis. Many of those whose views we solicited, from large retailers, to educationists to our arts and culture sectors said they didn’t feel they had a voice in the city’s future.”