January 13 2023

The northern and eastern fringe of Glasgow city centre is to be the subject of a new public consultation from 20 January, as a 10-year regeneration plan governing planning and placemaking is devised for four key locations.

District Regeneration Frameworks (DRFs) are to be developed over the next 18 months for Cowcaddens, Learning Quarter, Merchant City and Townhead by a project team iheaded by MVRDV together with local consultant Austin Smith Lord, Arup and Gerry Grams.

The team will steer Townhead to develop as an urban neighbourhood while the Merchant City is positioned as an artistic centre. Sandwiched between the two the Learning Quarter would build on links to Strathclyde University while the priority for Cowcaddens is the repurposing of underoccupied buildings and land.

Councillor Angus Millar, commented: “The eastern and northern areas of our city centre are home to some of our more established residential communities, learning institutions and businesses, but they also have so much potential for positive regeneration."

Five earlier DRFs have been developed for Blythswood, Broomielaw, Central, Sauchiehall/Garnethill and St Enoch districts; including a feasibility study for an M8 cap and a revamped George Square.

8 Comments

#1 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 13 Jan 2023 at 09:30 AM

What is it with politics in Glesga -- no money to fix potholes / pick up litter but a never ending stream of middle class welfare in the form of plans / consultations / design exercises?

Not good.

The portents are even worse -- the 5 areas worked on earlier are hardly paragons of urban growth / development / economic renaissance are they?

File under total waste of money / time / effort.

Instead of all this talking how about some doing -- radical I know but it might just work.

#2 Posted by EM0 on 13 Jan 2023 at 11:11 AM

When will these consultations stop and any work begin?? This is years of these consultations now, and only the small stretch of Sauchiehall Street has seen any movement!

#3 Posted by Georwell 84 on 13 Jan 2023 at 14:49 PM

How impressive GCC. Meanwhile Edinburgh gets a Freeport.

#4 Posted by Bob ra Builder on 13 Jan 2023 at 22:53 PM

#1 and you'd be the first one to complain if the doing didn't work....potholes are due to everybody driving bigger, heavier cars and road spec unchanged since the 60's (spec it's what is design professionals use in our work)
'mon the pedestrian!

#5 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 16 Jan 2023 at 09:20 AM

BrB @ #1

Civil engineering excuse-monger -- world class performance.

All about potholes and nothing about litter -- I wonder why? Has the litter got heavier since the 60's?

Your nonsense about potholes -- so why is Glesga so bad?

And while we are at it Civil Engineering Excuse-monger -- Why are there potholes on the M80 that was upgraded 10 years ago? Back in the day motorway surfaces used to last more than 10 years so why are they failing now?

Any thoughts of cheap / poor quality materials put down by a quick bodge it and scarper workforce that knows their management is only interested in lower costs and less effort?

File under a rapacious contractor cohort delivering crap and a lazy client sector that can't be bothered to check.

Now back to the Glesga potholes -- Transport 1700 solution of horses and carts?

All that unsprung mass -- not so sure it will work.

#6 Posted by Gregg on 16 Jan 2023 at 10:34 AM

Looking forward to seeing FBoT choke on his sausage roll as the inevitable and much needed progression towards encouraging active travel and restricting the private motor vehicle's stranglehold on our Dear Green Place continues unabated.

#7 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 16 Jan 2023 at 11:41 AM

There is no "stranglehold" by the car on Glesga -- in fact due to low ownership rates aka poverty / low wage levels the city flows pretty freely.

Compare and contrast with the situation in other trendy cities -- looking at you Barca / Valencia / Copenhagen -- where high volumes of traffic and flat junctions clog up the centres to an alarming degree.

#8 Posted by James Hepburn on 19 Jan 2023 at 09:20 AM

Is the 'consultation process' a tacit acknowledgement that the consultants hired at great expense don't actually possess the skill or vision to envisage an effective way forward or an attempt to shift the blame onto the public should it all go horribly wrong. We already know GCC is woefully lacking in the talent necessary to provide effective solutions. They can't even keep the city clean.

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