I arrived at the office this morning having just managed to traverse Buchanan Street's Plethora of delivery trucks blocking every possible pedestrian route! .....why are so many more needed - it's getting worse and worse....... to the point of ridicule!!...... is there not meant to be some kind of control on them?

Should we have signs up for the wealthy culture minded tourists, who are rightly escaping this slum to spend their money in edinburgh first thing in the morning, to apologise for the very poor condition of our streeets:
our flagship streets are littered with rubbish
there is a slick of largely traffic related filth from top to bottom
at least 2 of the 'city of flowers!!?!' council plant pots are lying on their sides with mud strewn accross the ground on buchanan st
the tax payers expensive paving is progressively being replaced with tarmac - if and when someone does notice it does need repaired
tax payers expensive street furniture is not being repaired or replaced but simply swapped for cheaper alternatives

......does anyone at the council really give a shit?
I am used to seeing all of the above here.... I wonder what the people that are not think!?
.....to those at the council that are responsible for managing our streets (i cant help thinking that if they read this and they'll each be thinking 'thats not my responsibiliy!') poor show, VERY poor show!!? seriously.


..... dont let me get started on the diabolical public transport and profiteering parking restrictions.....

as you know i agree entirely. i can upset myself very easily by running through the list of complaints i have with the state of the public realm....

i have never been to another city where you walk along one of the main streets and your feet actually stick to the ground! as, sauchiehall street!

and as for the tarmac, that is a favourite of mine, as in it is something i hate with a passion. i noticed at the corner of george square the ground has been cut up and then patched with black tar. fucking ridiculous.

anyway, i started another thread about this a while ago, seems to have got lost but it is a serious problem and needs to be dealt with.

i am going to go and cry now

Yep its getting so bad the folks are starting to sweep up themselves.

How about a rebate of the high rates to all that the businesses pay GCC?? :sleepy:

ET (http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5055864.html)

I'm so sick of litter I sweep street myself

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/upload/40806nlitter1_lg.jpg
MAURICE TAYLOR feels forced to clean the area around his hotel but fears for city's tourism

Totally agree Meagain. For a city trying to enlarge its tourist industry it doesn't do a lot to keep the city centre clean. Theres the stench from the bins, the dirt all over the place (have you seen the "tidemark" under the fences at the bus gate on Hope Street? My favourite at the moment is the amount of cigarette butts lying around (we need wardens with on the spot fines that's the only way people learn), as well as the dirt on the shop fronts (they get their windows cleaned everyday why not the surrounds?).

I could have pages of my gripes

On the spot fines for cigarette butts? WHAT????? Providing more bins with ash trays on them would be good enough! In fact, more bins generally!

If you walk down roebank st in dennistoun there's always a street sweeper working on the street well almost always and a certain councilor lives on this street. I asked for one bin for my st and the glass to be swept up five weeks ago still neither have been done. Two years ago hawthorn st had the pot holes and broken man hole covers filled with tar and new lines painted, a month later the st was completly re-surfaced including old surfaced removed, then new lines painted again. Ive seen examples of this all over the city including a new foot path along a road in the east end with railings, the pavement had a dead end then six months later it was removed and grassed over. AS FOR THE TARMAC THING DONT GET ME STARTED I COULD GO ON ALL DAY ABOUT THAT ONE

How about putting your rubbish in your pocket until u find a bin Crusty?

Tony - have you ever tried putting a lit cigarette end in your pocket?

Was walking down Sauchiehall Street yesterday. The pavements are disgusting - cigarette butts, chewing gum, kebab sauce and the usual occassional pile of carrotts in a doorway.

No I havn't Crusty. How about getting one of those cigarette butt carriers or not smoking. Surly if its acceptable to drop a fag end then where do you draw line, it's not to pleasent putting a greasy wrapper in your pocket so does that mean it's ok to drop that on the ground?

Tony - bite me! I put my trash in the bin an always have! And I don't eat kebabs nor spew in public, nor do I binge drink - if I want to smoke I shall, if there's somewhere to stub out my cigarette in a responsible manner I do, and if not I try and aim for a stank! Why not crawl in one?

There's certainly not enough bins in this town and the ones we do have don't get emptied enough either.

Haha, smokers-they're so uptight arn't they! I think the main problem these days with pavements covering pavements is a knock on effect from the smoking ban. With everyone outside there is obviously going to be more on the ground. So I think pubs, clubs etc. should be made to sweep the pavements outside their premises the next day.

The issue is not about what folk do with fag butts nor even litter really. Other cities in the world have litter and smokers and appear cleaner. I recall being in Barcelona and wandering back to my hotel in the wee small hours and the streets were literally being hosed down. There were teams of guys working through the night making sure the city centre was clean. In Glasgow you will sometimes get a wee guy running along the street in one of those ineffective wee cleaning cart vehicle things but the commitment doesnt seem to be there.

Thats true Chaos, I've seen that myself in Barcelona. I think the council there accepts it as perfectly normal hosing the streets down and see it as a responsibility to the businesses so the city can start afresh each day. I think thats something I'd like to see in Glasgow especially with our "expensive" pavements it would be nice to see them spic and span each morning.

Well it's no irony that a city built on the profits of te tobacco trade has streets lined with inch long cigarette ends! People who stand outside pubs, beside an ashtray, that throw thier butts in the street piss me off too - what do you do when you've waited 45 minutes on a bus though and there's still no sign of it? I'm fed up being treated like a leper for smoking when there's running battles happening outside pubs coz people are that blitzed they cant keep it the gither! And worse! jeez.. non smokers are such patronising bastards.

Ex-smokers are even worse :)

Thats coz we know better Crusty ;)

Indeed Jet! Tony... forget it ya choob

choob
LOLZer-COpter


--------------


The city is too dirty, there aren't enough bins, and Jonny-Six-pack doesn't give a shit about it anyway. There's no point arguing over cigarette ends on here, ladz, as the real problem is the insanely large Pleb population which, given the chance, would probably shit on the street if it wasn't quite so frowned upon in today's cosmopolitan society.


If I had a pound for every NED I have seen looking at a bin with quiet admiration, and then just dropping his/her litter right next to it without making any attempt to stretch those extra 23 inches and actually put their crap in the bin, I'd be bloody rich. I'm talking Samuel L Jackson, Snakes on a Plane style rich.


For the most part, Glaswegians have to be educated that it is acceptable to use bins, despite clearly being taught by their parents that bins are only for raking in.

Got to Laugh @ some of these figures with all the filth lying about the streets.

C'mon cooncil get yer fingers oot yer arse and do something, and stop trying to justify your actions by false pretences.

http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/5861/litterxx3.jpg

If you walk down roebank st in dennistoun there's always a street sweeper working on the street well almost always and a certain councilor lives on this street. I asked for one bin for my st and the glass to be swept up five weeks ago still neither have been done. Two years ago hawthorn st had the pot holes and broken man hole covers filled with tar and new lines painted, a month later the st was completly re-surfaced including old surfaced removed, then new lines painted again. Ive seen examples of this all over the city including a new foot path along a road in the east end with railings, the pavement had a dead end then six months later it was removed and grassed over. AS FOR THE TARMAC THING DONT GET ME STARTED I COULD GO ON ALL DAY ABOUT THAT ONE


There's an ITN investigation into councls wasting money. Crusty posted it on Hidden Glasgow somewhere (i'll try and find it), and I'm sure there was an email address to shop the cooncil to!!

It's our money and it should be treated with respect as it doesnt come easy!

I have the answer to the fag butt issue. Smoke cigars instead. They're essentially just rolled up dried leaves and hence as biodegradable as the wings of angels.

I'm off to write an ode to patched-up tarmacadam.

Item 1A (http://www.glasgowcitycouncil.co.uk/committee_minutes/public/extdocviewtop.asp?CID=2486&DATE=08/10/2008&TIME=13:30&DAY=Wednesday&PAGE=1) ( 14 Pages )

WASTE MANAGEMENT OPTION APPRAISAL

Purpose of Report:

To consider the options for the long term future proof solution for the management and
treatment of municipal waste generated within the city and allow Committee to scrutinise
progress of this workstream.

Recommendation:

It is recommended that Committee
1. Scrutinises the content of this report and notes that the Executive Director of Land and Environmental Services is preparing an Outline Business Case for the introduction of Autoclave mechanical treatment facilities within the existing waste treatment sites at Polmadie, Dawsholm and Easter Queenslie which will enable Glasgow to comply with Government targets and reduce potential exposure to financial liabilities.
2. Is advised that the Executive Director intends to make a bid for funding for Waste Management from Scottish Government Zero Waste Fund once the rules for funding applications are known.
3. Agrees that regular project updates will be reported to Committee.

Item4 (http://www.glasgowcitycouncil.co.uk/committee_minutes/public/extdocviewtop.asp?CID=2486&DATE=08/10/2008&TIME=13:30&DAY=Wednesday&PAGE=1) (4 pages )

CLEAN GLASGOW UPDATE REPORT

Purpose of Report:

The purpose of this report is to allow Committee to discuss progress on the work undertaken during August 2008 by Land and Environmental Services and others in relation to the Clean Glasgow Project.

Recommendation:

That Committee considers the contents of this report

The Clean Glasgow Project which was launched in February 2007 continues with its ‘aim to
clean up Glasgow and make it a cleaner place for people to live and work, children to play
and everyone to visit’.
This report details recent initiatives and work involving Land and Environmental Services and
others during August 2008 which contributed to this multi-agency project.

Blimey, Mo, having a real dig tonight. You got a wee 'green' theme going on? I hear that in Airdrie they have FIVE bins now to sort their waste! Can you imagine what the back lanes of Glasgow would look like!? Saddening to see the opening comments in this thread by that littering reprobate Bint;)

Saddening to see the opening comments in this thread by that littering reprobate Bint;)
:lol:

Littering reprobate - what a phrase!

ET (http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.2486394.0.0.php)

GLASGOW is to push ahead with a £40million hi-tech plan to recycle mountains of the city's rubbish.

Robert Booth, executive director of land and envir-onmental services at Glasgow City Council, is now to ask councillors to agree to setting up an autoclave system at Polmadie in a bid to improve the city's woeful record on going green.

If installed at the South Side plant, the steam system would be capable of recovering and recycling up to 80% of domestic waste through environmentally friendly processes.

The giant pressure cooker will separate aluminium, steel, textiles glass, plastics and wood, with everything else reduced to organic material.



£40m steam cooker will slash city's mountains of rubbish

http://images.newsquest.co.uk/image.php?id=1091250&type=full

The autoclave takes in the raw rubbish, superheats it and then sorts it for recycling

I'm looking at that big cooker and thinking 'how much energy will it take to heat up all that rubbish?'. Not convinced this is actually the most environmentally friendly option. Anybody with an engineering bent care to put me right?

Does this (http://www.deliaonline.com/articles/food/casseroles-the-right-equipment,1410,AR.html) help?

Does this (http://www.deliaonline.com/articles/food/casseroles-the-right-equipment,1410,AR.html) help?

:lol:

you're a plonker, my friend.

so, its a big pressure cooker then? hence, more efficient and no loss of vitamins

EDIT: just seen that it says pressure cooker in the original article. who's the plonker now?

Bet you don't know how to hard boil an egg either.

Sounds interesting, and a good option, but you do have to think about what legslikeaspider has to say, will running this just defeat the purpose?

If not then this will be brilliant for Glasgow, and I'm sure many other cities would invest in one aswell. I'm assuming the remaining 20% of waste will be recycled making waste in Glasgow 100% enviromentally friendly.

Item 2A (http://www.glasgowcitycouncil.co.uk/committee_minutes/public/extdocviewtop.asp?CID=2486&DATE=04/02/2009&TIME=13:30&DAY=Wednesday&PAGE=1) ( 13 pages )

4th February 2009

WASTE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

Purpose of Report:
To advise on the strategic policy aims and objectives for waste, to update on current
activities and to outline a business case for a major operational development to support
the strategic aims.
Recommendation:
It is recommended that Committee
1. Considers the content of the Waste Strategy and associated Outline Business Case
for dealing with residual waste.
2. Recommends that it be presented to the Executive Committee for authorisation to
progress with autoclave solution through market testing.
3. Notes regular updates will be brought to PDS Committee for further scrutiny of
progress in relation to the autoclave proposal.


PROPOSED WASTE TREATMENT OPTIONS AND MODE OF DELIVERY

Current recycling operations will not deliver recycling and landfill diversion targets in isolation
and a residual waste treatment solution is required to complement and enhance the existing
operations. The proposed waste treatment option to deliver the targets and enhance the
existing waste strategy is now detailed.
Proposed Waste Treatment Option
To identify the optimum solution available to Glasgow, an options appraisal was undertaken
within the OBC to assist the city in making an informed decision about the delivery and
investment in waste management infrastructure in Glasgow City, through the provision of
relevant information about the following:
(a) The optimum sustainable waste management solution(s) to meet landfill diversion
and recycling targets;
(b) A technical and financial appraisal of the proposed solution(s) assessing project costs
(capital and operating) over the project lifecycle, funding requirements and
affordability constraints; and
(c) Project delivery options, including possible delivery vehicles, contractual
arrangements, procurement routes and the associated risks.
As part of the option appraisal process, six technical models were developed and full details
of these are included within the OBC within the Members Library.
The preferred option was identified as being the installation of a single Mechanical Heat
Treatment (Autoclave Plant) with the fibre being processed via markets (Option 2 B4 within
the OBC). This will provide a sustainable strategy that will enhance the existing waste
recycling collection operations. The Mechanical Heat Treatment technology sanitises the
waste feedstock and allows separation into clean recyclables, organic fibre and reject
fractions. The output is a clean homogeneous organic fibre with a range of potential enduses,
e.g. Composting products, land remediation, construction industry products and as a
renewable biomass fuel. Two plants, 80,000t (Merseyside) and 100,000t (Rotherham)
respectively, are currently operational within the UK and a third 400,000t plant at Gateshead
is scheduled for commissioning in the spring of 2009.
The installation of a 150,000t facility, in addition to the achievement of the Single Outcome
Agreement targets, would enable recycling targets to be achieved until 2018 and landfill
diversion targets to be achieved until 2014. An option exists to make the plant scalable, and
this would allow the facility at Polmadie to be expanded to enable the landfill diversion targets
to be achieved until at least 2017 and beyond.
The success of the process relies on securing long term end-use markets for fibre outputs
and authority is sought to investigate potential markets opportunities for the fibre. The findings
of the study would be reported back to Committee following the completion of the study.
Cost of option
The capital cost of the autoclave solution is estimated at £40m. This will be a shared cost
between Glasgow and the private sector partner and the Glasgow element of cost will be
offset by approximately £10m of Zero Waste grant funding over the next three years. The
Scottish Government have intimated that they expect the additional Zero Waste Funding to be
used in order to expedite progress towards 2013 landfill targets in particular.

Financial benefits of Option
The introduction of the single plant option would enable savings of £220 million to be made
over the 25 year term of the contract when compared with the delivery of the Single Outcome

Agreement standalone recycling operations. If the plant was scaled up, or an additional plant

Sounds interesting, and a good option, but you do have to think about what legslikeaspider has to say, will running this just defeat the purpose?

If not then this will be brilliant for Glasgow, and I'm sure many other cities would invest in one aswell. I'm assuming the remaining 20% of waste will be recycled making waste in Glasgow 100% enviromentally friendly.

I think the answer here may lie in cost efficiency. Right now, we chuck all our plastics, cardboards, papers and tins into the same blue recycling bin. Assuming that the council don't just tip it in a landfill somewhere in the hope that nobody from BBC Watchdog is following their trucks, then one expects that there exists an army of very smelly employees who have the lucky task of sorting the various material types and filtering out all the stuff that is put in the recycling mistakenly. That can't be cheap. Over the long run, if there is a dirty great pressure cooker that can do the same job then GCC are on to a winner.

^^

Very true, in Newcastle and North Tyneside we only had a rubbish small black box for recycling, fortunatly after about 4 years of this they have decided to give us recycling bins, Newcastle City centre got them late last year as I'm aware of, and North Tyneside is now in the process of giving them out, and will finish in June-July time. My step father actually works for North Tyneside Council in the waste desposal departemnt and all of North Tynesides, Newcastle's and Northumberlands recycling does actually get recycled.

Also, North Tyneside has a 3rd bin for garden waste, I.E. grass cutting etc, which gets turned into compost.

This machine will be good for Glasgow, and 80% of rubbish is execellent, surly the other 20% can go into a land fill or be recycled, or even by another one of those ovens, but the cost of running it has the cost of running it has to be fairly low in comparison compared to other ways.

This is great news.

The biggest problem with current recycling methods (aside from rumours that they just take it all and give it to China to dump), is that if any given batch of recyclable material has over a certain level of organic contamination (ie, if there's still some milk in the carton, or some sauce left in the bottom of the tub), then the whole batch is completely spoiled, and all of the materials have to be sent to landfill. So if people don't rinse out everything they recycle that contains edibles, then they are recycling nothing. From what I've heard, the tolerance for this is particularly low, and hence a lot of wastage is produced.


This new method should hopefully negate the problem by sterilising / removing the organic substances, as well as proving to be a much more efficient way of sorting out materials.

I think.

Looks like the Autoclave is to go ahead. :)

Item 6 (http://www.glasgowcitycouncil.co.uk/committee_minutes/public/extdocviewtop.asp?CID=2481&DATE=20/02/2009&TIME=11:00&DAY=Friday&PAGE=1) (13 pages)

20th February 2009

WASTE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

Purpose of Report:

To provide an update on the Council’s Waste Management Strategy and to seek
approval for the development of an autoclave solution for residual waste.

Recommendation:

It is recommended that Committee:-
1. Approves the content of the Waste Strategy and associated Outline Business Case
for dealing with residual waste.
2. Approves the development of an autoclave solution through market engagement on
a partnership basis.
3. Approves an initial investment of £0.750 m to meet the project development costs.

Herald (http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2511985.0.Team_of_offenders_set_to_clean_up_Glasgow.php)

Team of offenders set to clean up Glasgow

Up to 1000 offenders are to be deployed on Scotland's largest civic clean-up following the resolution of a six-month strike by community service supervisors.
Teams of criminals, all spared jail because of the less serious nature of their offences, will carry out their community service orders on the Clean Glasgow campaign, the ongoing multi-million-pound scheme run by the council to improve the city's overall environment.
Grassroots organisations will have some input into how the squads will be used, although it is anticipated they will primarily clear large, neglected sites across Glasgow to prepare them for new use such as community gardens.
The move could also save on the £17m spent annually by Glasgow City Council removing litter and graffiti.

Herald (http://www.heraldscotland.com/business/corporate-sme/viridor-looks-west-for-new-250m-incinerator-plant-1.1002599)

Viridor looks west for new £250m incinerator plant

Published on 31 Jan 2010

The largest waste management company in Scotland is in talks with councils in Glasgow and Lanarkshire to build a £250m plant and create up to 200 jobs.


Glasgow-based Viridor Waste Management, which processes and recycles rubbish for councils and businesses around the country, is also to appeal against a controversial £200m application to build a waste incineration plant at Dunbar in East Lothian.

The move looks likely to see the company heading for its second government public enquiry in a row, days before the start of the enquiry

into its application to build a £9m waste transfer station at Portobello in the east of Edinburgh.

Shocked to see Purcell has quit his role. I'm not a fan of everything he has done but I think he has been a good civic leader. It was refreshing to see someone younger in the role who, for me, appeared to be more in touch with business, the environment and culture. Its sometimes easy to criticise local councils, but I think we had a pretty strong leader there. (Wait and see me having to eat my words if it turns out he resigned because of some scandal).

Hopefully he will be on the mend soon to finish off his tenure. Otherwise, I fear this lack of stability is going to be damaging for Glasgow.

Shocked to see Purcell has quit his role. I'm not a fan of everything he has done but I think he has been a good civic leader. It was refreshing to see someone younger in the role who, for me, appeared to be more in touch with business, the environment and culture. Its sometimes easy to criticise local councils, but I think we had a pretty strong leader there. (Wait and see me having to eat my words if it turns out he resigned because of some scandal).

Hopefully he will be on the mend soon to finish off his tenure. Otherwise, I fear this lack of stability is going to be damaging for Glasgow.

I think there's more in this than meets the eye. Its like all these expense-scandal MPs who have been standing down for 'health reasons'. Anybody heard any salacious rumours about Purcell?

I agree there is probably more to this than meets the eye but they went into a bit of detail in the report saying that friends and family had noticed alarming behaviour. It seems to be a bit more genuine than the cliched 'stepped down for health reasons' excuse. I know a few senior people that work for the council and by all accounts he is well respected and I think they will be shocked by this.

Wonder if the SPT guys he fired had something on him.

I agree with you Due East, there's no denying Purcell has done a lot for Glasgow over the years, with the city still transforming.

It wouldn't surprise me if it is genuinely a stress related issue; it can't be easy being the leader of a council and his life hasn't been stress free as we know. I just hope whoever takes over is just as good, if not better.

Purcell has done a magnificent job for Glasgow. Well done to the man, its not easy to instigate change.

Maybe they could leave the door open for him?

I don't think it is anything sinister like the SPT bunch. Taking politics out of it, he was fantastic for Glasgow and genuinely cares about what happens to the city.

Lets hope he makes a full recovery and is back in his position again soon!

Maybe they could leave the door open for him?

Going by the ET, there is the opportunity for him to come back, so fingers crossed he will.

I was a bit confused at the comment that the GCC are 'confident' they'll be able to deliver the Commonwealth Games on time; they should be more than confident!

Going by the ET, there is the opportunity for him to come back, so fingers crossed he will.

I was a bit confused at the comment that the GCC are 'confident' they'll be able to deliver the Commonwealth Games on time; they should be more than confident!

Agreed. It shouldn't even be an issue.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8548904.stm

and look what I just found

ROFL

The plot thickens.... Your nobody in today's world until you have a bit of scandal that you can bounce back from. The public were ambivalent to him coming out so now he's had to get a charlie habit to get more attention.

On the bright side, at least we now know why he hired a ridiculously expensive media 'guru.' Do these people not realise that retaining the services of these chaps only makes people more curious??

Malicious rumours on Purcell.

I heard a few weeks back (from a few folk in high level PR) that he had a mad coke habit.

Then I heard he resigned - I thought it maybe true

Then I heard he was in scotlands best drugs and alcohol clinic I thought it must be true.

He's into sniffing coke aff mens bums! :lol:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8548904.stm

and look what I just found

ROFL

Well if it's true then I hope he gets himself sorted and back to full health. He's not the first and certainly won't be the last to use cocaine, its use in senior roles is rife right across the country

Well if it's true then I hope he gets himself sorted and back to full health. He's not the first and certainly won't be the last to use cocaine, its use in senior roles is rife right across the country

So true - on my last staff christmas night out I popped into the loo and noticed all 3 top directors coming out the same cubicle.

Being tee-total (well, apart from the odd crabbies ginger beer) I was pretty disgusted.

You are right though - major, major problem in this country.

It's a major problem in a lot of countries, some just like to brush it under the carpet.

I see from the latest BBC news bulletin that Mr Purcell's lawyers have issued a written statement stating that he did not receive any treatment for drug related problems.

I think it's probably best to wait and see what happens before mud slinging.
I like the guy. You could tell that he wanted the best for Glasgow. I wonder who shall fill his position (after the elections).

From this week's Sunday Times:

March 14, 2010

Donor who spun a web of influence

How far did development tycoon Willie Haughey’s leverage go in the Labour party and what effects did it have?

Mark Macaskill and Jon Ungoed-Thomas

It wasn’t the most salubrious of venues for a denouement but it had dramatic tension in spades. Nine days ago in a car park in a wind-blown corner of East Kilbride, Willie Haughey, a development tycoon and powerful Labour donor, emerged from his Mercedes.

The businessman looked sombre as he was approached by two sharply suited men. The location for the rendezvous had been carefully selected — remote and away from prying eyes. The subject of their discussion sat in a car nearby, hunched and haunted looking — Steven Purcell, at only 37 a rising star of the Scottish Labour party, soon to be outed as a regular user of cocaine.

The conversation lasted a few minutes — none of those present was in any mood to linger — and a strategy was quickly agreed. Purcell, who stood down as leader of Glasgow city council several days before, citing health reasons, would resign his seat. His career as a politician was over.

By the end of the day, he was out of the country and he hasn’t been seen since. There are rumours he headed to Haughey’s home in Florida, or to Dubai, Australia, Ireland or even the Cayman Islands.

Purcell’s departure was part of an operation designed to quash speculation about his lifestyle during his time in charge of one of Britain’s biggest local authorities. He had endured nine anguished months worrying that his secret drug use was to be publicly revealed and he was afraid and tearful.

Within days, however, the strategy had unravelled as friends and colleagues told The Sunday Times of his cocaine use.

This weekend there are fresh allegations about other aspects of his leadership, not least his relationship with the enigmatic Haughey, whose £100m fortune has been built, at least in part, on deals agreed with public sector organisations, including the council. At least one person who worked with Purcell considered Haughey was given inappropriate access and people who knew him were given council jobs or were promoted, it is claimed.

“I never liked it. But I never found the smoking gun,” said a source.

When approached by the Sunday Times this weekend, Haughey insisted that he had no significant links with Purcell.

“I don’t know Steven,” he said in one conversation, claiming they only had limited contact.

However, the businessman has understated his influence on the former council leader, according to an authoritative source, who said the two men spoke about once a week.

It is claimed there were concerns within the council about planning officials who were known friends or associates of Haughey. This is strongly denied by the businessman.

Haughey received a £970,000 payout from Scottish Enterprise Glasgow as compensation for the relocation of his business in 2004. Purcell chaired the meeting which approved the payout. It was part of a £17m compensation deal which was questioned by opposition MPs.

One of Haughey’s fledgling companies was also short-listed alongside established property companies for a £100m scheme to sell off the council’s surplus properties.

An offshoot property company owned by the council also gave one of Haughey’s companies a contract to provide lease vehicles.

James Dornan, who leads the SNP opposition group on the council, said: “Mr Haughey has been a major beneficiary of decisions by Mr Purcell and Glasgow city council.

“We now want to see a full and proper investigation. We believe all recent decisions must now be reviewed, including those involving Mr Haughey.”

Haughey denies Purcell or any Labour member has granted him special treatment or favours.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “I have never asked anyone for a favour. I’ve never asked anyone to step in on my behalf.”

With a general election weeks away, serious questions are being raised in one of Labour’s heartlands. Given the influence Haughey is alleged to have wielded over Purcell, which may have benefited him financially, there is little sign of those asking the questions being silenced.

Haughey is one of the west of Scotland’s success stories. Brought up in the Gorbals, he trained as a refrigeration engineer after his ambition to become a professional footballer was thwarted by injury. He built a modest refrigeration supply company into one of the city’s biggest companies, City Refrigeration Holdings.

His party loyalty and business success has been recognised by the Labour leadership. Gordon Brown opened the new headquarters of Haughey’s company in the Gorbals last November.

He is also one of Labour’s biggest donors, giving more than £1m to the party since 2003, including three payments of £330,000.

There have been smaller donations to individuals, including Wendy Alexander, the former Scottish Labour leader, Jim Murphy, the Scottish secretary and Tommy McAvoy, the Labour whip.

Alexander received £995 from Haughey’s company to fund her Scottish Labour leadership campaign in 2007 although Haughey later claimed the money had not been intended for that purpose.

His importance to Brown was underlined last November, when he was one of a small group of businessmen and politicians invited to a private dinner by the prime minister in Glasgow.

Haughey and Purcell first worked together at Scottish Enterprise Glasgow (SEG), a quango chaired by Haughey tasked with encouraging the growth of local businesses. One of those given support was Haughey’s own company.

The payout was triggered by the proposed M74 extension. In 2004, the Scottish Executive and Glasgow city council were jointly working on plans for a £690m five-mile extension. Haughey’s company headquarters were located in the path of the motorway.

Haughey had already agreed a controversial deal with the Scottish Executive. The two properties involved only cost him a reported £1.3m.

The compensation offered for the loss of land and relocation costs was initially £7.4m. It was raised to £13.3m after Haughey reportedly attempted to persuade Jack McConnell, then first minister, to investigate delays in the process. McConnell has denied intervening in the independent valuation.

After this payout, Haughey reportedly sought additional public funds for his new headquarters, including money from the SEG.

Purcell chaired a meeting of the SEG which awarded Haughey an additional £970,000 in 2004 towards the cost of relocating his company, City Refrigeration Holdings.

In March 2007, during Purcell’s period in charge of Glasgow council, Haughey got initial planning permission for a £120m development adjacent to the headquarters despite an admission by the council that it was “contrary” to the city plan. The project is on hold because of crashes in property prices.

By this time, Purcell had impressed Haughey with his can-do approach to enterprise. When Charlie Gordon, the previous council leader who is now a Scottish MSP, was ousted in a coup in April 2005, Haughey supported Purcell for the leadership.

The new leader impressed politicians and councillors with his drive and enthusiasm. But there was disquiet about Haughey, who was always in the background.

“I was never quite sure what Haughey wanted or how much of what we were discussing was fed back to him, or how much Steven’s opinions were decided after he had spoken to Willie,” said one official.

“He was always in the background. There was never a week that went by when they didn’t speak.”

The official claimed he was among a small coterie alarmed at the extent of Haughey’s influence. Even other council employees would say on policy issues: “Oh I will speak to Willie Haughey about that. He will be interested.”

The source added: “There was a network of people who knew Haughey and you never knew who they were working for entirely.”

Purcell sat on the interview panel and on at least one occasion recruited a senior official linked to Haughey.

The official said he raised his concerns informally with Purcell, but never lodged an official complaint.

He said there was no particular decision involving a major deal which he believed clearly and improperly benefited Haughey.

Purcell’s shake-up of services in which council services were spun out of council-owned companies did, however, provide some benefits for at least one of Haughey’s businesses.

It was confirmed last week one of his companies had a contract providing heavy-duty vehicles for City Building, a construction company formed out of the council’s former building services.

Last week, City Building and Glasgow city council were unable to provide details of the value of the contract, when it was awarded and whether there was an open tender.

The council said it could not answer questions about contracts awarded by the spin-off company.

Another company to have benefited from council contracts is Martec Engineering, a metal fabrication company. It emerged in a court case 10 years ago that Haughey was a silent partner in the business, although he is said to have severed links with the company in recent years.

In another contract, one of Haughey’s companies was shortlisted for a partnership deal to sell off council properties worth £100m. The project was later abandoned because of the financial downturn.

Haughey clearly relished his good relationship with the impressive young leader, while publicly denying it was in any way significant. However, Purcell’s illustrious career was heading for the rocks.

On May 12 last year, two officers from the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency visited Purcell at his chambers offices.

Purcell was told that during a surveillance operation he had been spotted with a known associate of a suspected drug dealer. Purcell confessed to police he had been taking cocaine.

Officers said they had approached Purcell because of obvious concerns that he might be the victim of blackmail. There had even been a suggestion that images of him taking drugs might have been captured on a mobile phone.

He assured them that he was not being blackmailed. They seemed placated by the meeting, but Purcell was left badly shaken. How long before the tabloids got a sniff of a possible scandal?

“We spent a couple of days talking about whether he would quit and leave politics,” said a source close to Purcell.

“There was never a moment where we felt it was fine because every Saturday we were waiting for a call from a newspaper.

“He took it very seriously. He moved flats and lived in a different area. He went on a mad health kick. He was in the gym every day.

“It all seemed to point to someone who was serious about getting himself tog-ether.”

For the next nine months, it appeared to be business as usual. But the pressure of possible public disgrace must have been taking its toll. After spending a few days in London where onlookers were puzzled by his demeanour, he attended a Labour fundraising function at the Hilton in Glasgow on Thursday, February 25, attended by Brown .

The next day, Purcell arrived in his office and broke down in tears. He seemed paranoid and confused. The decision was taken to admit him to Castle Craig, a hospital in the Scottish Borders which specialises in drug and alcohol addiction.

A statement was drafted by a team of in-house council advisers to announce Purcell’s “chemical dependency” and temporary withdrawal from the political limelight. But their media strategy was shelved after Purcell hired Peter Watson, Scotland’s top litigation lawyer and Media House, a high-profile PR firm, to handle the affair On the evening of Monday, March 1, Watson met Haughey in the southside of Glasgow. What they discussed is unknown but the following day, Purcell was discharged from Castle Craig, despite telling friends that he intended to stay.

Within hours, his resignation as council leader was confirmed and Watson issued legal warnings to several newspapers as rumours of Purcell’s cocaine use began to circulate.

Politicians are now calling for an inquiry. John Mason, the Nationalist MP for Glasgow East, along with Dornan, has written to Audit Scotland. “We believe that independent scrutiny is essential,” says the letter.

Mason also wants a review of the arm’s-length companies set up during Purcell’s leadership and full disclosure of all companies that have been given contracts.

“There is cause for a thorough audit of the relationship, working and commissioning and contracting practices between Glasgow city council and its arm’s-length organisations, which themselves are responsible for spending significant amounts of taxpayers’ money.”

Haughey believes he has nothing to fear from any inquiry. He said he employed about 1,100 people in Glasgow and the relocation package from SEG helped to keep jobs in the city. Haughey added that his contract with City Building represented a “fraction” of his company’s turnover and it was the only contract he had with the council. He also said other decisions in his favour had not resulted in developments. Haughey insisted he had been drafted in by Purcell as an economic adviser and only spoke to him in that capacity. He denied seeing Purcell on March 5, although two sources said he attended the meeting.

Jack Irvine, the chairman of Media House said he “could neither confirm nor deny” that the car park meeting involving Haughey and Purcell had taken place.

He added, “As to whether Mr Purcell would care to comment on the past week’s activities I am afraid I cannot answer that as I have no knowledge of his whereabouts. Acting on my advice, Mr Purcell agreed to spend all of his time abroad recuperating from his recent illness and to cease telephone communication. I have no idea when I will next speak to him.

“I appreciate this is slightly unusual but I feel it is in Steven’s best interests to have a lengthy break from the febrile, malodorous atmosphere surrounding Glasgow City Chambers.”

A spokesman for Glasgow city council said: “We have never seen any evidence of anyone having an improper influence over former councillor Purcell.”

Party requires a fresh start

The Labour party has won every Westminster election in Scotland since 1959 — 13 in a row — but has never been universally popular, writes Gerry Hassan. It has never won a majority of the vote and came close only once, in 1966, when it achieved 49.9%.

A contributory factor to its success is that is has faced a divided opposition, shaped by the steady decline of the Conservatives and the failure of the SNP to mount a serious challenge, until recently.

The first past the post voting system and the geography and concentration of Labour’s support in the west of Scotland and the central belt have aided its dominance.

These realities made the Scottish party more insular than in the rest of the UK. Labour in England, after four election defeats in the 1980s and 1990s, saw the world in very different terms.

From the 1950s on Scottish Labour changed, aided by its increasing hold over swathes of Scottish life. It became a party about local and national power and preferment. In its heartland areas of Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Fife to succeed in politics, business and life meant being in Labour.

Trade unions are still important — they provide money and resources for campaigns and they get candidates nominated.

In much of the west of Scotland, the party’s hinterland runs from the Scottish establishment of lawyers and teachers, to business people and property developers and, in some places, includes connections with the criminal underworld.

The party denies this characterisation, that it is tribal and nepotistic, that its network reaches into unedifying places and that its reward structure is fundamentally anti-democratic.

It took Scottish Labour under devolution to get to its fifth leader, Iain Gray, before it had an election. Donald Dewar, Henry McLeish, Jack McConnell, Wendy Alexander — not one was openly elected through competition, although with Dewar this was understandable, as his role was pre-eminent at the time.

Every recent Scottish Labour leader has attempted to use the the discredited party machine to bring about progressive ends.

Lots of the “modernisers” combined the old ways with supposedly new ends, and became even worse than the old types in the process.

Scottish Labour cannot go on like this if it wants to have a vibrant future. The party has dramatically and publicly to change, to renew itself. It has to announce this change and attempt to reintroduce itself to the public.

This would involve a Labour leader having the courage to say openly that the old ways don’t work any more and are counterproductive, that the party was going to dismantle the old Labour state and embark on a new era of politics.

This would be Scottish Labour’s Clause Four moment and could be bigger than that. It would be a moment of epiphany, igniting Scottish politics and terrifying Labour’s opponents. The question is, will Scottish Labour have the prescience to embark on this route or will it continue for as long as it can to embrace the politics of familiarity and the old ways?


Interesting to note that he was one of those to make the donations to Wendy Alexander that fell, coincidentally, a fiver below the cut-off point of £1000 where they'd have been open to greater scrutiny.

Amazing read and thanks for posting - corrupt to the core!

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/editor-s-picks-ignore/haughey-i-ll-never-bid-for-any-public-contract-1.1013452

This story is starting to take off now.

Auditors to look into Purcell firm

15 March, 2010


NCE (http://www.nce.co.uk/news/business/auditors-to-look-into-purcell-firm/5215414.article)

Aye the chickens are commin home to roost indeed. :)

http://www.nce.co.uk/pictures/586xAny/7/9/3/1221793_Glasgow_Harbour_offsite_highways.jpg

City Building (Glasgow) LLP, a construction firm set up by Steven Purcell when he ran Glasgow City Council, is to have its accounts independently audited because it gave £10M of work to a company run by Willie Haughey, the Labour party’s biggest donor in Scotland.


In 2007, City Building awarded a couple of large contracts to City Refrigeration Holdings UK, owned by Mr Haughey. He has donated at least £1.1M to Labour since 2003, according to The Herald newspaper.

City Building replaced the council’s building services in 2006 and was established as a “tax-efficient trading unit”, allowed to bid for construction work beyond Glasgow. It turns over £180M and employs about 2,000 people.

Its managing director, chairman and board are all linked to Labour − one executive is Lesley Quinn, who was once the general secretary of the Scottish Labour party, the newspaper said.

Trade secret
City Building has refused to make public the City Refrigeration contracts, despite more than a year of freedom of information requests from The Herald. It claims the awarding of the contracts was done in such a unique fashion that it is a trade secret and is exempt from freedom of information laws.

Details of the contracts are “commercially sensitive” and cannot be released, according to City Building on Sunday.

Auditors to look into Purcell firm

15 March, 2010


NCE (http://www.nce.co.uk/news/business/auditors-to-look-into-purcell-firm/5215414.article)

Aye the chickens are commin home to roost indeed. :)

http://www.nce.co.uk/pictures/586xAny/7/9/3/1221793_Glasgow_Harbour_offsite_highways.jpg

City Building (Glasgow) LLP, a construction firm set up by Steven Purcell when he ran Glasgow City Council, is to have its accounts independently audited because it gave £10M of work to a company run by Willie Haughey, the Labour party’s biggest donor in Scotland.


In 2007, City Building awarded a couple of large contracts to City Refrigeration Holdings UK, owned by Mr Haughey. He has donated at least £1.1M to Labour since 2003, according to The Herald newspaper.

City Building replaced the council’s building services in 2006 and was established as a “tax-efficient trading unit”, allowed to bid for construction work beyond Glasgow. It turns over £180M and employs about 2,000 people.

Its managing director, chairman and board are all linked to Labour − one executive is Lesley Quinn, who was once the general secretary of the Scottish Labour party, the newspaper said.

Trade secret
City Building has refused to make public the City Refrigeration contracts, despite more than a year of freedom of information requests from The Herald. It claims the awarding of the contracts was done in such a unique fashion that it is a trade secret and is exempt from freedom of information laws.

Details of the contracts are “commercially sensitive” and cannot be released, according to City Building on Sunday.

This story doesn't appear as bad as the article is making out. I immediately thought the worst but was actually quite appeased with Haughey's response. Contracts with GCC only account for 1% of his company's turnover and he has stated that he will never work with the public sector again because its not worth the hassle. Obviously if there is even £5 worth of impropriety then there should be an investigation, but I would have thought that if there was any shadiness going on it would have to be more lucrative to be worth Haughey's effort.

I found a really interesting article by Joan McAlpine on a similar theme : http://joanmcalpine.typepad.com/joan_mcalpine/2010/03/purcell-and-the-scottish-press.html

"The press coverage of the Purcell affair - apart from in (note: Edinburgh based) The Scotsman - has been pathetic. I will look at this in more detail tomorrow in my Sunday Times column - which explains why I believe this story - though clearly a personal tragedy - also has profound public implications. Our paper also have a great Focus news feature which shines a light on the murky Labour establishment of councillors, lawyers, quangocrats, property speculators, car dealers and nightclub owners who still exercise enormous – but often invisible – power in the West of Scotland."

This really disturbs me. Although I would probably tend to vote Labour/Lib Dem, it seems like we really need a shake up so that this behaviour is put under more scrutiny. Makes you start wondering about all those strange planning/development/license decisions that have been made over the past decade.

Having read the Herald, Hootsmon, Times and more all the way through this, I'd like to take issue with McAlpine's point. The Scotsman's coverage has been just as pathetic as the Herald's on this. It wouldn't matter if it was based in Glasgow, Edinburgh or the fifth moon of Saturn; the paper is currently a New Labour mouthpiece, and was as wary of getting stuck into this story as those feeding from the trough through here in the West.

Having read the Herald, Hootsmon, Times and more all the way through this, I'd like to take issue with McAlpine's point. The Scotsman's coverage has been just as pathetic as the Herald's on this. It wouldn't matter if it was based in Glasgow, Edinburgh or the fifth moon of Saturn; the paper is currently a New Labour mouthpiece, and was as wary of getting stuck into this story as those feeding from the trough through here in the West.

Can't believe you even bother to read the Hootsman. Goddam awful paper!

Can't believe you even bother to read the Hootsman. Goddam awful paper!

I agree, but know your enemy, etc.

I think the point she was making was that the Scotsman was running some of the seedier details before the other papers. Think they scooped a few things to do with the story.

I didn't realise the Scotsman was a labour paper - I always had it in my mind as anti-labour for some reason. Its a shite paper in any case.

I think the point she was making was that the Scotsman was running some of the seedier details before the other papers. Think they scooped a few things to do with the story.

I didn't realise the Scotsman was a labour paper - I always had it in my mind as anti-labour for some reason. Its a shite paper in any case.
Probably more accurate to describe it as a "closet Tory" paper. It's also very parochial - the fact that it did more than most Scottish papers on the Purcell affair (the website still has a special link on its politics front page!) was more down to sticking it to Glasgow than anything else.
It has to be said though, the Herald's coverage was quite shockingly timid to start with. It was only when the Sunday Herald went big on it and laid into Purcell's PR people that it diverged from repeating what it was spoon-fed by Media House.

Anyway, both papers are dying on their arses faster than most of the dead tree press, so not really worth worrying about (I find it interesting that, even the combined circulation of the Herald and Scotsman - about 100,000 - is less than the Irish Times, and dwarfed by the Irish Independent)

It's a tragedy how low the circulation is for both of the Scottish 'broadsheets'. I think one will survive as a brand long term, but not both.

I was shocked when I found out that the Oregonian (the local paper where I now live) has a circulation 319,625. This is despite the fact that it's utterly crap; most of the major stories in this region of late have been broken by the local alternative weeklies. To put it into perspective, that's more or less the same circulation as The Guardian.

Herald (http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/politics/city-is-not-just-about-one-man-1.1014467)

‘City is not just about one man’

Published on 18 Mar 2010

The chief executive of Glasgow City Council has broken his silence on the controversial departure of Steven Purcell, insisting that improvements in the city in recent years were not due to the sole efforts of the former leader.

In an e-mail to council staff, George Black said that reports of Mr Purcell’s problems with cocaine and alcohol and subsequent allegations over his political dealings had attempted to devalue the authority’s achievements since 2005.

But he added: “Nothing could be further from the truth. In the last five years the council, and the city, has been transformed, not because of the person who was in charge but because of the hard work and dedication of you and your colleagues.”

However, the opposition leader at the council, the SNP’s James Dornan, described the letter as inappropriate, claiming that it appears supportive of the council’s ruling Labour Party.

In his letter Mr Black said: “I know that you will have been as shocked as I was by the speed and nature of councillor

Purcell’s departure. And I also know that some of the allegations you will have read about in the newspapers will have been equally shocking. However, the council is about more than one person and I want to set out below what I think will happen in the coming months.”

He adds that “strong political leadership” helped in dealing with the financial circumstances the public sector has found itself in and that interim leader, Jim Coleman, had “been clear that he regards the service reform programme we are undertaking, including the offer of early retirement to staff over 50, as key to the council’s future”.

He said: “I know that many of you will have been reading the newspapers and you will see that people have implied that everything the council achieved during Mr Purcell’s time as leader has somehow been devalued. Nothing could be further from the truth.

“We have worked hard in recent months to put in place a strategy to see us through the next few years. I am confident that we can stick to that strategy and get through these difficult times.”

However, Mr Dornan said that the letter “reeks of complacency” and did not reassure staff that the council was investigating the allegations of the past fortnight.

Mr Dornan added: “Talking about strong political leadership is inappropriate. Mr Black should not be making statements which seem supportive of political parties and make no reference to the concerns outlined to him by us recently.”

A council spokesman added: “Mr Black believes, as does Audit Scotland, that strong leadership is vital in running a council. This has the potential to be a worrying time for staff and they need the reassurances that reforms implemented by the council would not be put at risk.”

Meanwhile, it was confirmed a special council meeting will be held this month to discuss the circumstances surrounding the resignation of the former leader.

The SNP group had called for the meeting, saying serious questions remained about the administration’s conduct under Mr Purcell’s leadership.

The meeting must be held by April 1. Mr Purcell resigned on March 2, citing stress and exhaustion as the cause. Since then there have been allegations about his personal life.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/politics/all/5831918/the-scandal-of-scotland.thtml


The scandal of Scotland

A politician, a cocaine dealer, blackmail, links to organised crime and the mysterious death of a teenage boy: it is hard to think of more potent ingredients for a political scandal.

A politician, a cocaine dealer, blackmail, links to organised crime and the mysterious death of a teenage boy: it is hard to think of more potent ingredients for a political scandal. Had it happened in Paris, the story would be all over the English press. But this scandal took place in Glasgow — so the London papers are not interested. After devolution, Scotland is fast becoming a foreign land about which the English know little and care less.

The downfall of Steven Purcell, leader of Glasgow City Council, is not just a tale of one man’s collapse, but a grim allegory for the tragedy of devolution. Purcell was, until last week, the man to watch in Scottish politics. Many regarded him as the politician who could win back the Scottish parliament for Labour. His rise was seen as an indication that the tawdry corruption that had dogged Scottish municipal politics was on the wane.

In the past week, though, Purcell has been unmasked as a cocaine addict. He was visited at his offices last year by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency. There are concerns that his drug habit made him vulnerable to blackmail by the city’s crime bosses. In a murky twist, a teenage boy reported to be a close friend of Purcell collapsed and died in a street close to the ex-councillor’s former office on Friday.

The implosion of Purcell’s career has shown how unreformed Scottish politics remains. Instead of introducing a new crop of politicians, devolution has simply given limousines and ministerial portfolios to the same old politicians from the town hall (plus a few C-listers from Westminster). Some MSPs have been arrested for drunkenly setting fire to hotel curtains. Henry McLeish, a former First Minister, resigned in an expenses scandal. ‘Scottish solutions for Scottish problems’, the oft-repeated slogan of devolution, rings hollow. The problems of Scotland, and of Glasgow in particular, lie hideously unredressed.

The burning issue in Scotland — the world-class poverty in its welfare ghettos — has been ignored by the new politicians just as it was by the old. Researchers come from all over the world to study the urban poverty in Glasgow — but in Scotland, and Britain, it has lost its ability to shock. The annual death toll from drugs has almost doubled since devolution, to over 200 a year. Yet Scotland’s forgotten estates only make the news through headline-grabbing tragedies, such as this week’s story of three Kurdish asylum seekers who jumped from a Glasgow tower block to their deaths.

Eleven years after devolution, it is clear that it was the wrong reform for Scotland — and for Wales, with its watered-down version of a parliament. That voters are being failed by politicians in Cardiff and Edinburgh rather than in London is little consolation. Devolution has merely meant the transfer of power from one set of politicians to another.

But more tragic still is how distant devolution has made Scotland seem. Once Labour leaves power, the new British government will probably have just one MP north of Hadrian’s wall. So Alex Salmond will not need a referendum to achieve Scotland’s independence. He can just capitalise on Westminster ignorance, and slowly assume powers for his centralising bureaucracy in Edinburgh. This, it seems, is how the union will end: not as a result of Scottish agitation but of English indifference.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/politics/all/5831918/the-scandal-of-scotland.thtml
Typically ignorant fluff from a London-based rag. I suspect the hand of the vile Dominic Lawson - he's got a gigantic chip on his shoulder about Scotland.

The most hilarious bit is:
He can just capitalise on Westminster ignorance
Given that the writer had previously referred in the article to the suicide of the "Kurdish asylum seekers", - they were Russian and it would take about 5 seconds on Google to correct that - he/she is in no position to talk about ignorance...

I like the use of plurals in this line:

Some MSPs have been arrested for drunkenly setting fire to hotel curtains.

As if it happened fairly frequently....

I like the use of plurals in this line:



As if it happened fairly frequently....

I hear that's the reason no real work gets done in the parliament - they are all mad for setting fire to the drapes, the naughty little scamps!

An entire session of parliament had to be suspended when no one turned up after word got out that Nicola Sturgeon had used her political influence to negotiate a 30% discount at Remnant Kings. The smell of charred fabric was thick for days after.

Typically ignorant fluff from a London-based rag. I suspect the hand of the vile Dominic Lawson - he's got a gigantic chip on his shoulder about Scotland.

The most hilarious bit is:

Given that the writer had previously referred in the article to the suicide of the "Kurdish asylum seekers", - they were Russian and it would take about 5 seconds on Google to correct that - he/she is in no position to talk about ignorance...

I thought it would be interesting to see if others were a little put out by the article. That piece is, sadly, fairly representative of the Spectator's attitude to Scotland though. The mag has become rather a parody of itself in recent years. I particularly liked the glibness of the "devolution has achieved nothing" angle...
Having said all that, I think he's right about the lack of coverage this latest Scottish Labour scandle is getting down South.

this latest Scottish Labour scandle is getting down South.

Is that a reference to the pyromania at Prestonfield?!

Maybe when some folks pick up a margiunal factual point about Kurds rather than Russians, they could just be missing the bigger point about what the (admittedly loathsome) Spectator piece says about Scotland? Re-reading large chunks of the article frankly improves it’s credibility as in:

“The burning issue in Scotland — the world-class poverty in its welfare ghettos — has been ignored by the new politicians just as it was by the old. Researchers come from all over the world to study the urban poverty in Glasgow — but in Scotland, and Britain, it has lost its ability to shock. The annual death toll from drugs has almost doubled since devolution, to over 200 a year. Yet Scotland’s forgotten estates only make the news through headline-grabbing tragedies , such as this week’s story of three Kurdish asylum seekers who jumped from a Glasgow tower block to their deaths.”

Our local (non, repeat, non, Glasgow) MP (and Govt Whip) has become seriously affluent having served for a long time presiding over a constituency that holds some of the worst deprivation in the UK (His reported view some years ago on the statistics produced by Holyrood on the poverty in his constituency was that ‘he did not see all this deprivation'). His views on the need to attack Scotland’s alcohol problem may well be tempered by the fact that he owns a local pub. It also happens that the guy’s brother is also the head of the local authority.

This MP and Govt Whip has decided to leave at the next election (just after the Devine expenses scandal - coincidentally of course). But he shouldn't suffer too much personal deprivation in his constituency, as the talk is now of him being 'elevated' to the Lords - where he will of course join fellow brother and disgraced ex-Leader of the Commons, Michael Martin, who similarly got seriously affluent presiding similarly over a similar constituency holding similarly severe deprivation.

This avarice is all abject denial of what is going on and a preoccupation with furthering one’s own interests as opposed to ‘serving the people’. There is something, deeply, deeply wrong with Scottish society and the central west in particular – simply shouting back at 'London based rags' that points this up is just part of the continuing denial. After all, our own home-grown 'Glasgow based rags' have not exactly acted as scrutinising servants of the electorate in all of this have they? By our own denial and continuing support of the guilty men and instituions we Scots give licence to the Dominic Lawsons - if we don't like what they regurgitate - stop given them the food of rotten civic corruption and dissolution in the first place.

Meanwhile the institutional denial goes on - how else do you explain this reported statement in today’s Herald on the latest scandal to hit Glasgow Council, this time about so-called ‘arms-length’ companies set up and in effect still run by the Council:

“Chief executive George Black admitted that he had not realised taking tables at party fundraisers amounted to a political contribution, but he argued the council firm had not broken the law.”

Personally I find it hard to accept this is a true statement but presumably it is; if it is, then is the man competent to be the Chief Executive of Glasgow City Council?

Is that a reference to the pyromania at Prestonfield?!

:lol:

Oops. I'll give myself a mild thrashing for that!

Maybe when some folks pick up a margiunal factual point about Kurds rather than Russians, they could just be missing the bigger point about what the (admittedly loathsome) Spectator piece says about Scotland? Re-reading large chunks of the article frankly improves it’s credibility as in:

“The burning issue in Scotland — the world-class poverty in its welfare ghettos — has been ignored by the new politicians just as it was by the old. Researchers come from all over the world to study the urban poverty in Glasgow — but in Scotland, and Britain, it has lost its ability to shock. The annual death toll from drugs has almost doubled since devolution, to over 200 a year. Yet Scotland’s forgotten estates only make the news through headline-grabbing tragedies , such as this week’s story of three Kurdish asylum seekers who jumped from a Glasgow tower block to their deaths.”

Our local (non, repeat, non, Glasgow) MP (and Govt Whip) has become seriously affluent having served for a long time presiding over a constituency that holds some of the worst deprivation in the UK (His reported view some years ago on the statistics produced by Holyrood on the poverty in his constituency was that ‘he did not see all this deprivation'). His views on the need to attack Scotland’s alcohol problem may well be tempered by the fact that he owns a local pub. It also happens that the guy’s brother is also the head of the local authority.

This MP and Govt Whip has decided to leave at the next election (just after the Devine expenses scandal - coincidentally of course). But he shouldn't suffer too much personal deprivation in his constituency, as the talk is now of him being 'elevated' to the Lords - where he will of course join fellow brother and disgraced ex-Leader of the Commons, Michael Martin, who similarly got seriously affluent presiding similarly over a similar constituency holding similarly severe deprivation.

This avarice is all abject denial of what is going on and a preoccupation with furthering one’s own interests as opposed to ‘serving the people’. There is something, deeply, deeply wrong with Scottish society and the central west in particular – simply shouting back at 'London based rags' that points this up is just part of the continuing denial. After all, our own home-grown 'Glasgow based rags' have not exactly acted as scrutinising servants of the electorate in all of this have they? By our own denial and continuing support of the guilty men and instituions we Scots give licence to the Dominic Lawsons - if we don't like what they regurgitate - stop given them the food of rotten civic corruption and dissolution in the first place.

Meanwhile the institutional denial goes on - how else do you explain this reported statement in today’s Herald on the latest scandal to hit Glasgow Council, this time about so-called ‘arms-length’ companies set up and in effect still run by the Council:

“Chief executive George Black admitted that he had not realised taking tables at party fundraisers amounted to a political contribution, but he argued the council firm had not broken the law.”

Personally I find it hard to accept this is a true statement but presumably it is; if it is, then is the man competent to be the Chief Executive of Glasgow City Council?
You seem to have misinterpreted my position: my main beef with the article was its fundamentally anti-devolution slant. To say I was somehow defending Scottish local government (particularly Labour local government) because a London publication can't get basic facts right is stretching things a bit!

My main beef was with the basic thrust of the article. The writer implied things would get better by removing devolution. Of course that is complete nonsense: all that would happen is that, with principle government scrutiny moved back down to London from Edinburgh, more of this stuff would never see the light of day. In fact, the article was self-defeating: how could things be improved by removing power back to a place which the author acknowledged was ignorant on Scottish matters?

In actual fact I think devolution has helped start the process of cleaning up Scottish politics. We are probably seeing more scandal than usual at the moment, and by "moment" I mean the past few years. This is because some long-undisturbed stones are being turned over, cages rattled, and cupboards opened. Holyrood has done a fair bit to facilitate that. It'll take quite a while for things to seriously get better: we need a whole new generation of councillors for a start, and a vast improvement in the Scottish media wouldn't go amiss either.

Weegie, I’m all too happy to accept your clarification, but I still have to say that the details of the grammatical competence of any particular piece, or the geographical headquartering of a magazine, is really neither here nor there in the greater scheme of things – but it is those details that the parochial tub-thumping Scottish kailyard and long-incumbent rulers use incessantly to deny the greater things. But again, I accept your point about the nonsense Lawson argument that removing devolution would remove the problems.

I wish I could share your optimism about the impact of devolution but I remain wholly pragmatic about that. The Scottish mess is aprt and parcel of the Westminster mess. Devolution was essential because the previous situation was so bad. But from the start the settlement was flawed and unsustainable in the long term. After all, it was set up by the very political ‘managers’ and schemers who are now found to be so wanting. And at least one of these chancers proclaimed the virtue of devolution was merely that it was to kill Nationalism ‘stone dead’.

Meaningful devolution could only have come about within the UK if it had been extended across the UK. To pluck out one region as a matter of electoral expediency is sustainable in neither the UK nor the Scottish dimension. Those original political ‘managers’ also ensured that the opportunity for a truly participatory electoral system was not allowed to flourish – instead we got a cobbled compromise that best served only the longer-term incumbent establishment in Scotland.

On corruption and the civic chaos that passes for current west of Scotland politics, I think I can fairly reasonably generalise and say that all the major exposes of politicians wrongdoings and at times sheer corruption have emanated at the level of Westminster.

The present Glasgow scenario only really broke surface because of the sudden, severe and utter, and personally tragic collapse of Stephen Purcell – and even then it was ‘a close run thing’ that something like the full extent of the situation ever surfaced – due in no little part to the ‘London based Sunday Times (with supporting acts from the Scotsman that I had hardly even counted as a quality newspaper any more).

In devolved Scotland we still have the incredible situation where; the Leader of our largest urban authority has fallen in absolute disgrace; for us to then find out that all sorts of people (including the police and some in the media?) knew about the existence of the ‘problems’; a running daily sore of allegations about Council owned companies and organisations up to all sorts; assertions of links to organised crime - and yet we still know very, very little about all this - because our moribund institutions really just don’t want it all stirred (aka the barracking by Labour MPs in Westminster when an SNP member questioned possible involvement of Downing Street in the Purcell matter).

And again, in devolved Scotland I’m aware of at least one situation where local party members advise me that at least one MP (with Union block support) ousted the original MSP and instead got installed a ‘more supportive’ replacement. We now have another such story running elsewhere in Scotland. I just cannot see how the recent arrivals in what has been called a ‘wee pretendy parliament’ can possibly turn around the systemic malfeasance of a system that remains funded, regulated and managed by Westminster with regional supporting foot soldiers from the Scottish heartlands.

After, all the disgraced Purcell was widely reported to be, until a matter of weeks ago, Westminster Labour’s favoured boy in Scotland, programmed to assume Holyrood leadership in due course.

The deep, deep wrongness in Scottish society is, as I said, part and parcel of the UK system with all its faults, failings and decay. I remain hopeful but unconvinced that devolution and Holyrood could change this – but only if we ourselves face up to just how bad the mess is in our own kailyard.

Woof, there go the curtains....

The author of that article may be right about our corrupt labour councils, but Holyrood is a sparkling example transparency and lack of corruption compared with westminster, taxi anyone?

Idiot!

Hmm...another reason for the timidity of Scottish newspapers over Purcell becomes apparent (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8586964.stm). Wouldn't want to ruffle the feathers of a certain party of Government, when you're bidding for a chunk of public cash, eh?

Glasgow MRF

Shanks is currently building a brand new Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) at its Blochairn site in Glasgow. The new facility will operate 24 hours a day and has been designed to achieve an 80% recycling rate from non segregated general waste... PDF (http://www.shanks.co.uk/sites/default/files/Glasgow%20MRF%20case%20study%20final.pdf)

Herald (http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/glasgow-offers-100m-to-firm-that-can-end-its-landfill-shame-1.1071341)

Glasgow offers £100m to firm that can end its landfill shame

29 Nov 2010

Glasgow has launched a massive tender for the right to dispose of its rubbish.
The city, in a move that effectively makes it the biggest environmental battleground in Britain, is offering £100 million to a firm that can solve its shameful record on landfill and recycling.
Its leaders will now have to decide between highly controversial ways of shifting at least 150,000 tonnes of waste every year.
The Herald understands that, at a time of unprecedented pressure on their budgets, councillors and officials will have to choose between a series of unpalatable options, including giant incinerators or energy-from-waste plants.
Council officials have kept quiet about the tender, launched earlier this year, fearing anti-incinerator campaigns would begin even before they narrowed down their options.

What the city could do with the waste left over after recycling

Bury it

Glasgow could continue to bulldoze most of its rubbish into landfill. But its only existing site, at Cathkin, is nearly full. And landfill taxes are set to rise.

Verdict: A near no-no, landfill would be the most expensive and least environmentally friendly solution.

Ship it out

Another authority could build a facility to handle it. Or waste could be sent to England.

Verdict: A new facility outside Glasgow is feasible but the city is keen to come up with its own solution. Sending rubbish to England would be very difficult politically.

Burn it

The city could revert to incineration, years after it shut down its last facility of the kind. Experts insist incineration is cleaner than ever before – but environmentalists are unconvinced.

Verdict: Incinerators would face opposition from Greens and those living near the facilities.

Burn it for heat or electricity

Modern incinerators can be adapted to generate heat or electricity.

Verdict: Energy-from-waste plants are also possible, but face same opposition as incinerators.

Steam it
Glasgow has previously signalled its support for autoclaving. The technology, however, is new and said to be relatively expensive.
Verdict: Glasgow would have opted for autoclaving were it not for the financial crisis. The system has to prove it is affordable

Coming soon to a poor part of Glasgow? (http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/editor-s-picks/coming-soon-to-a-poor-part-of-glasgow-1.1071688)

It has to go somewhere.

Within the next four to five years, Glasgow will have some kind of major industrial facility to process its rubbish.

It could be an incinerator.

It could be an “energy-from-waste” plant which would burn trash to make power or hot water.

Or it could be the hi-tech autoclaving, a system which uses pressurised steam to turn trash into fibre.

Whatever it is, it won’t be pretty. And, cynics believe, whatever it is, it won’t be anywhere near rich people.

The Evening Times yesterday revealed Glasgow City Council is looking for a private firm to help it handle an unprecedented rubbish crisis.

On offer is a contract worth at least £100m, probably for decades, to dispose of at least 150,000 tonnes of residual waste, the trash left over after recycling. On offer too, we can also reveal, are sites for the new facility. And, yes, they are all in the city’s poorest neighbourhoods.

The council is suggesting three potential locations.One, two or all three could be used. All are existing cleansing depots, meaning that whoever operates the new facility will have a ready-made distribution network.

The sites are Queenslie in the east, Polmadie in the south and Dawsholm in the west. They are all close to neighbourhoods with some of the poorest health records in Scotland.

The council has quietly invited tenders for these facilities – or theoretically others – to be developed for incinerators, energy-from-waste, autoclaving or other plants. Four firms have made bids. They, and the council, have refused to reveal the nature of these bids. But they are understood to involve one or more of the existing cleansing depots. Communities close to the depots have not been informed of this. And they are cross.

“I understand that a final decision has not been made,” said Eddie Andrews, who chairs the Wellhouse and Queenslie community council.

“But surely somebody could have informally told us that our depot was a potential site. We know how these things work. Facilities like this – whatever it will be – tend to be plonked in to the middle of poor communities.

“Should they not be thinking of building something like this outside the city?”

Mr Andrews believes Wellhouse, which has undergone incredible regeneration in recent years, would put up a bigger fight than the council believes, and another community expected to put up a fight is in the south side.

Polmadie, like Queenslie an existing cleansing depot, is no stranger to dirty business. But local Green councillor Danny Alderslowe reckons his constituents won’t want to see rubbish processing. He said: “Places like Govanhill already have some of the worst health records in Glasgow. And we are about to get a new motorway right past us. One of the advantages of the new road was supposed to be that it would reduce traffic. What about all these bin lorries we will get?”

Of the three potential sites, Dawsholm, near Maryhill, is closer to more affluent areas than the other two depots. Surrounded by woods, it used to be home to an incinerator. But it also close to poor areas.

Ann Laird, who chairs the Kelvinside community council, said: “We would have to be convinced that the environmental impact was minimal – and we would not want to see more bin lorries going through the west end, which is one of Glasgow’s big tourism areas.”

As reported in yesterday’s Evening Times, Glasgow council believes it has no choice but to consider some kind of industrial solution. Its sole landfill, at Cathkin, is nearly full and landfill taxes are set to soar. Its recycling record, at 22%, is shamefully low.

Jim Coleman – whose ward includes Wellhouse and Queenslie – said: “There are environmental and social reasons why we need to reduce our reliance on landfill. But it is also a financial necessity.”

Green MSP Patrick Harvie said there was a danger the most deprived neighbourhoods would pay. He said: “When local authorities pick dirty and environmentally damaging ways to deal with their waste, like landfill or incinerators, they generally get imposed on poorer parts of the community, and that cannot be allowed to happen in Glasgow.

“The attitude appears to be that better-off areas will organise more effectively and put pressure on the council to look elsewhere. People around the Cathkin landfill, for example, are already at their wits’ end with the disruption, smell, mess and vermin.

“With a bit of long-term vision, a new approach to waste could also be seen as an opportunity for Glasgow to boost employment and go greener at the same time.

“For every job created at an incinerator, recycling would create 36 jobs. There’s no other effective way to start getting the city out of the hole it’s in on waste.”

Aye, because nothing disgusts a tourist like the sight of a city going about its business.

If the poor are that worried about it then they should stop dumping rubbish in their own front gardens! Ok sweeping generalisation out of the way, realistically though there are loads of good reasons for putting this sort of facility in poorer areas, and very few for not. Land is cheaper - although all three sites already seemed to be owned by GCC which is clearly a positive, less likely to cause devaluation of property in proximity in poorer areas, and will provide employment in the local area. The only downside that I can see is that it's unsightly, but there's not much to look at in the suggested places anyway! Should we therefore put it in on great western road for reasons of socialism and a twisted sense of equality?

To be honest the biggest scandal in the story is the shamefully low levels of recyclying!

If the poor are that worried about it then they should stop dumping rubbish in their own front gardens! Ok sweeping generalisation out of the way, realistically though there are loads of good reasons for putting this sort of facility in poorer areas, and very few for not. Land is cheaper - although all three sites already seemed to be owned by GCC which is clearly a positive, less likely to cause devaluation of property in proximity in poorer areas, and will provide employment in the local area. The only downside that I can see is that it's unsightly, but there's not much to look at in the suggested places anyway! Should we therefore put it in on great western road for reasons of socialism and a twisted sense of equality?



The loony left will be hounding you after that outburst of common sense.

Why is it accepted this will be an eyesore? What about the beautiful sheds designed by Abalos and Herreros before they split?

Polmadie, like Queenslie an existing cleansing depot, is no stranger to dirty business. But local Green councillor Danny Alderslowe reckons his constituents won’t want to see rubbish processing. He said: “Places like Govanhill already have some of the worst health records in Glasgow.
First time I've ever heard the Polmadie cleansing depot blamed for any of Govanhill's problems. Which is not surprising really, given that the depot is a good couple of blocks away from any bit of Govanhill - and is to the east, so prevailing winds take most fumes away. Perhaps the Green councillor advocates building the depot on a greenfield site, miles outside the city, thus requiring more fuel for the bin lorries to get to it?
And we are about to get a new motorway right past us. One of the advantages of the new road was supposed to be that it would reduce traffic. What about all these bin lorries we will get?”
Given that the M74 will have a new junction at Polmadie, any bin lorries going there from the West of the city will now be bypassing Govanhill entirely. And, of course, the motorway is to the north and east of Govanhill, so again prevailing winds will play a part.

So basically, here we have a Green jumping on a Nimby bandwagon. I'm embarrassed really; I helped vote him in.

MASSIVE RECYCLING COMPLEX PLANNED FOR NEWTON MEARNS



Plans have been unveiled for Europe’s biggest plant turning industrial waste into energy at a farm just outside Glasgow, The Herald reports.

The £640m project has been earmarked for 29-hectares on a former farm three miles outside Newton Mearns in a move that is likely to worry locals and environmentalists.

The Lifetime Recycling Village has been designed to process 1.5 million tonnes of commercial rubbish a year and will have the capacity to generate enough electricity to power 100,000 homes.

The backers last night claimed their project would be “bigger than the Commonwealth Games” and hope to get it up and running with a 700-strong workforce by the time the event in Glasgow begins in 2014.

The entrepreneurs behind the scheme, including Ayrshire litter mogul Brian Kilgour, who was last year fined £750 after being convicted of waste offences, have hired Dundas & Wilson, the planning consultants that helped Donald Trump win approval for his controversial golf course near Balmedie, Aberdeenshire.

They will also face significant concern from locals, although their facility, at Loganswell farm owned by Mr Kilgour just off the M77 motorway, will only directly affect 11 properties.

Environmentalists remain deeply unconvinced about energy from similar waste projects such as the plant proposed by Mr Kilgour and his partners, William Findlater and Neil Gallacher.

Mr Findlater said: “This is a recycling and renewable energy plant. We will take rubbish in and nothing will go out apart from things that can be reused, hot water and electricity.

“We think the air to come out of our facility will be cleaner than the air that goes in – after all we will be near a major motorway.”

Their company Lifetime Recycling Village Ltd, has letters of intent from firms that generate rubbish, showing that it can easily find the rubbish. Mr Findlater said that it would take waste from suppliers for £60 a tonne – providing revenue from that source alone of £90m a year.

It has not ruled out processing municipal waste. However, its project is entirely separate from a tender worth at least £100m from Glasgow City Council to dispose of its rubbish, probably through some form of incineration or energy-from-waste.

Both the private and the local government project – which is also one of the biggest of its kind – have been sparked by planned increases in landfill taxes to come in to force in 2014, when the “recycling village” aims to be up and running.

The warehouse will sort out the raw rubbish as it is brought in to the village. Of the 1.5 million tonnes expected every year, some 600,000 tonnes will be removed – the valuable metals, glass and plastics can easily be reclaimed.

Wow. Two frosty ET articles in one day. Maybe they had a rammy with the Council over the holiday period.

Council dumps plan to ‘steam clean’ rubbish (http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/editor-s-picks/council-dumps-plan-to-steam-clean-rubbish-1.1078590)

Glasgow today ditched a much-heralded hi-tech solution to its looming “rubbish crisis”.

The city has quietly dropped plans to build its own autoclave, a futuristic system that steams household waste to turn it into recyclable fibre.

Now, the Evening Times can reveal, it has also rejected a bid from a private firm to use the same technology, widely seen as “the least worst” way of dealing with waste.

In a deal believed to be worth more than £200 million, the city council today shortlisted two companies for the right to handle at least 150,000 tonnes of municipal rubbish a year.

With its only landfill site almost full – and rapidly rising taxes on burying rubbish soon set to be crippling – the authority has been forced to turn to the private sector to process much of the nearly 350,000 tonnes of waste it collects from homes and streets.

Whatever disposal method it chooses will be controversial, city insiders acknowledged today. But the autoclave, which has tentative support from environmentalists, would have been the easiest system to sell to the public

The shortlisted bids, the Evening Times has learned, come from waste giant Viridor and a joint venture of Shanks, Scottish and Southern Energy and Scottish Gas.

Nobody was today prepared to say what technology the two firms were offering. Both, however, are likely to propose some form of “energy-from-waste” plant – something Greens insist is spin for incineration – and greater recycling.

Jim Coleman, the veteran councillor who speaks for Glasgow’s ruling Labour cabinet on environmental issues, today said: “I’m delighted to be making progress in securing the right technology and best solution for Glasgow’s waste.

“We have always been clear that the status quo is not an option – we need to protect the city, financially, and ensure Glasgow complies with Scotland’s Zero Waste Plan.”

The two losing bids came from waste contractor Biffa and Glasgow Renewables, whose backers included Sterecycle, the English firm pioneering autoclave technology in the UK.

The council will announce a final winner – or preferred bidder – in the spring.

Any new waste facility will most likely be built at one of three existing council waste depots in the city, at Dawsholm in the west, Queenslie in the east or Polmadie in the south. However, the winning bidder may chose to build elsewhere.

GLASGOW SIGNS UP TO CUT CONSTRUCTION LANDFILL

http://www.constructionnow.co.uk/enews/images/Glasgow%20blue.gif

The council is joining a UK-wide scheme to reduce the amount of its construction, demolition and excavation waste being sent to landfill.
Glasgow City Council is now the largest local authority in Scotland to sign up to the Halving Waste to Landfill Commitment, which is being driven forward and promoted to the construction sector in Scotland by Zero Waste Scotland.
This is seen a natural step for Glasgow City Council, who in 2005 became the first local authority in the UK to adopt a Council-wide minimum requirement for recycled content in building works.
Zero Waste Scotland is already helping a range of organisations in the public and private sector to make more efficient use of materials and reduce waste on construction projects.
Bailie Liz Cameron, Executive Member for Regeneration and Business at Glasgow City Council, who this week signed the agreement on behalf of the council, said: “Glasgow is working hard to be greener and more sustainable in everything we do.
“The council has a large number of building, renovation and construction projects taking place across our city where we aim to minimise the amount of waste created, by re-using or recycling where possible.
“We hope that by signing this agreement we are setting an example to others to show that being greener is not only good for the environment but good for business and saves money.”
Charlie Devine, Head of Resource Management, Zero Waste Scotland, said: “Glasgow City Council’s decision to sign up to Halving Waste to Landfill sends a clear signal that it is committed to reducing waste and saving money in the process.
“In Fife, another council which has already signed up to the scheme, almost £150,000 was saved last year alone thanks to better management of construction waste.
“With Glasgow next in line to benefit, we hope other local authorities in Scotland will also follow suit. Achieving our vision for zero waste will require everyone to play their part.”
This initiative is viewed as environmentally and financially critical due to the increasing costs of waste disposal from construction, which is the largest source of waste in the UK. In addition, construction has the potential to use a range of materials that local authorities want to recycle.
Signing this voluntary agreement will also assist Glasgow’s objective to become one of the most sustainable and green cities in Europe within the next 10 years through the Council’s Climate Change Strategy & Action Plan, as well as, the Sustainable Glasgow partnership.
The commitment requires signatories to state that: “We commit to play our part in halving the amount of construction, demolition and excavation waste going to landfill by 2012. We will work to adopt and implement standards for good practice in reducing waste, recycling more, and increasing the use of recycled and recovered materials.”


www.glasgow.gov.uk
www.zerowastescotland.org.uk

ET (http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/150m-trash-plan-for-city-1.1137166)

£150m trash plan for city

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/polopoly_fs/trash-plan-1.1137210!image/706814309.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_300/706814309.jpg

29 Nov 2011


GLASGOW’s trash is to be turned in to electricity at a giant new £150 million power plant.

The massive “energy-from-waste” facility, will be built on the city’s South Side, will process up to 200,000 tonnes of domestic rubbish every year.
Council chiefs will next month seal a multi-million-pound deal for private firm Viridor to build and run what it calls a “recycling and renewable energy” complex.
The plant will create around 250 jobs at the council’s Polmadie rubbish depot and recycling yard – as well, officials insist, as saving hundreds of millions of pounds over the next 25 years.
Council leader Gordon Matheson today stressed the proposed plant would improve the city’s woefully poor recycling record.
The status quo is not an option. By being bolder, we will save millions It will produce an affordable source of heat and power for local communities
He said: “Glasgow’s waste is a valuable resource – and, if we are to become one of Europe’s most sustainable cities, we need to ensure it is Glasgow that takes full advantage of it.
“This facility is part of the next generation of sustainable infrastructure.
“It will end the city’s reliance on expensive and unpopular landfill; help us harvest tens of thousands of tonnes more recycling, and use the rest of our trash to produce an affordable, clean and secure source of heat and power for local communities.”
Mr Matheson and other officials have gone out of their way to avoid calling the Polmadie plant an “incinerator” – although many green campaigners and some engineers would do so.
The proposed facility is different from incinerators of old, which simply burned rubbish, releasing dangerous toxins in to the atmosphere.
The new plant will use hi-tech systems to turn unrecyclable rubbish in to gas – and then burn that gas to create steam and drive electricity turbines.
It will generate enough electricity to power 22,000 homes.
Some environmentalists favour such technology – saying there is no “pretty” way of getting rid of the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste Glasgow homes generate every year.
Others, including city Green MSP Patrick Harvie, have previously questioned the enviromental credentials of such plants.
Asked about a broadly similar private scheme announced for Newton Mearns earlier this year he said: “We’re nowhere near convinced that ‘energy from waste’ is anything other than a rebranding of incineration to make it look renewable.”
City sources, however, believe they had little choice but to turn to the controversial technology.
Right now, Glasgow still sends almost three-quarters of its annual 350,000 tonnes of rubbish to landfill.
But “landfill taxes” are set to soar, making burying rubbish in the ground prohibitively expensive after 2014.
Everybody agrees the best way to cut such costs is to recycle more. But nobody agrees how.
Figures released yesterday show the city recycles just under 27% of its household waste, way below a nationwide average of around 43%.
Bosses reckon they can improve that figure but - without the big new Polmadie plant - only to around 34%.
So for three or more years city leaders have been trying to figure out a way of making Glasgow a model of sustainability – and avoid tens of millions of pounds of landfill tax every year.
In an effort to solve the growing waste problem, Glasgow asked private firms to tender for the right to buy the city’s rubbish.
That process effectively came to an end today with plans for a 25-year contract to sell between 175,000 and 200,000 tonnes of domestic waste for recycling and processing to Viridor.
The company will buy rubbish from the council at an agreed rate. It will then recycle some 18% of it at a new sorting plant at Polmadie.
Organic materials will undergo anaerobic digestion, being turned in to gas in big tanks.
But most unrecyclable rubbish, including the goo left over after digestion, will be gasified in what the council calls an “advanced conversion facility”.
The gas from both processes will fire a combined heat and power plant, which will generate both hot water and electricity.
The deal with Viridor will certainly be cheaper than the status quo. Without switching from landfill to energy-from-waste, the council would have had to find £239m in extra cash over the next 25 years.
That figure last night helped Mr Matheson to successfully sell the Viridor contract to the ruling Labour group.
That means it will almost certainly win the approval of the council’s all-powerful executive committee next month.
The city leader today defended the project.
He said: “Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands have the highest recycling rates in Europe.
“They have achieved that by embracing a mix of modern, but proven, technologies that not only boost recycling but recover energy from what remains.
“Without this facility, we would not only be faced with the prospect of piling millions of tonnes of waste into the ground; but we would also pay through the nose to do so.
“The status quo is not an option. By being bolder, we will save millions.”



Tap into water spin-off

RIGHT now the new facility is designed to generate up to 105MWh of electricity a year, enough for about 22,000 homes.
But its combined heat and power plant could instead be calibrated to produce hot water. And that, in turn, could heat thousands of nearby homes, public buildings and businesses.
The Evening Times understands city chiefs are already seriously thinking about investing in the network of hot water pipes that could deliver this heat using technology widely used in countries such as Sweden, Finland and Russia.
The city fathers will probably have to ‘tweak’ their deal with plant builders Viridor and the electricity generators to do so.
Council leader Gordon Matheson, left, said: "Projects like this one will be at the heart of Warm Glasgow, our long-term project to make affordable warmth a reality for all in this city."



TIMELINE

July 2008: Glasgow City Council unveils plans to build its own autoclave, a facility that would "steam-clean" rubbish in to recyclable materials.

April 2010: City realises it can’t afford to build its own plant and launches tender for a private firm to process its trash.

November 2010: Evening Times reveals "rubbish crisis" as city’s only landfill nearly full.

January 2011: Council names two finalists for contract, dropping only firm offering an autoclave.

November 2011: Viridor’s plans for "energy-from-waste" plant wins two-year procurement process.

December 2011: Council’s ruling executive committee expected to approve contract.

January 2013: Councillors expected to approve planning application for plant.

April 2013: Construction scheduled to begin.

December 2015: Plant scheduled to open.

Item 7 (http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/councillorsandcommittees/submissiondocuments.asp?submissionid=53657) (19 pages)
8th December 2011

Waste Strategy – Residual Waste Treatment Project

Purpose of Report:
To advise Committee on progress made to date with the tender process for a Residual Waste Treatment Contract.

Recommendation:
The Executive Committee is asked to approve:
a. The recommendation progress to award of the contract.
b. The appointment of Viridor as Successful Participant

1. Introduction
1.1 The Executive Committee of 20th February 2009 approved the Outline Business Case for
dealing with residual waste. The Executive Committee of 19th February 2010 approved
the progression of the Waste Strategy. The Residual Waste Treatment project was one of
the activities in the approved Waste Strategy Action Plan.
1.2 Update reports for this project were presented to the Sustainability and the Environment
Policy Development Committee on 25th August 2010 and during reference site visits on
9th to 11th November 2010, and at participant presentations on 30th June 2011.
1.3 This report provides an update on the progress of the Residual Waste Treatment Project
and seeks approval to award the contract and appoint Viridor as Successful Participant.
2. Residual Waste Treatment Project
2.1 The need for the Project
2.2 Currently, Glasgow City Council’s principal form of waste management is disposal to
landfill. In 2010/11, the Council was responsible for the management of 350,000 tonnes of
Municipal Waste (MSW), and sent 260,000 tonnes to its landfill site at Cathkin. This
landfill site is operated by the Council and will close in the near future.
2.3 Glasgow’s recycling performance has resulted in its near bottom position in the recycling
performance league for Scottish Local Authorities. In 2010/11, Glasgow City Council
made a commitment to achieve 31% recycling within their Single Outcome Agreement.
The Scottish Government has set a target of 50% recycling of household waste by 2013.
Although the Council has implemented managed weekly collections, glass collections,
introduced cardboard into the blue bins and invested in the Household Recycling Centres,
it is still envisaged that a gap between 2013 Government target and Glasgow’s recycling
rate will remain.
2.4 The strategic drivers supporting the need for the Project include:
�� To reduce Council exposure to increasing landfill cost, primarily through Government
landfill tax escalator and closure of the Council’s landfill site;
�� To complement other recycling activities being promoted by the Council to meet its
approved Waste Strategy and Single Outcome Agreement obligations with the
Scottish Government;
�� To meet emerging requirement of the Scottish Government’s Zero Waste Plan (ZWP)
which includes an untreated MSW landfill ban in 2020; and
�� To move Glasgow City Council’s waste management activities further up the waste
hierarchy as set out in the ZWP.
2.5 An Outline Business Case was submitted to Glasgow City Council Executive Committee
for approval in February 2009, recommending the procurement of a Residual Waste
Treatment Facility. The Executive Committee approved this procurement and the
appointment of Technical, Legal, Financial and Insurance advisors to support the Council
in the delivery of the project.

11 Jan 2012

ET (http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/clydeport-owners-unveil-180m-plan-to-turn-rubbish-into-power-and-hot-water-for-glasgow-1.1143204)

:)

Clydeport owners unveil £180m plan to turn rubbish into power and hot water for Glasgow

PLANS for a second major plant to turn Glasgow’s rubbish into electricity were unveiled today.

Just weeks ago council bosses signed a deal to ship the city’s trash to a £150 million “energy-for-waste” plant to be built on the South Side of the city.

Now another big private operator has announced plans for a similar facility near George V docks, in Shieldhall, as part of a larger £180m investment.

The proposal – from Peel, the infrastructure giant which owns Clydeport – underlines how much brass there is to be made from the city’s muck.

Glasgow City Council – and firms which generate rubbish such as the big supermarkets – will soon face punishing landfill taxes if they continue burying their waste in the ground.

So instead they are looking for businesses which will recycle their waste for hard cash, much of it in facilities referred to as “incinerators” by their critics.

Peel Environmental believes there is more than enough rubbish generated in Glasgow to keep their firm, Viridor and other potential operators in business.

It plans a £145m energy-from-waste plant and sorting centre on land owned by Clydeport to the south of the M8 on Bogmoor Road, close to the company’s still active George V dock and Hillington Industrial Estate.

The facility will be called the South Clyde Energy Centre, or SCEC, and will process some 250,000 tonnes of rubbish a year.


Bringing forward plans for major investment in Glasgow will support new jobs

This will be backed up by a second facility, costing £35m, at Rothesay Dock down the Clyde in West Dunbartonshire.

That centre will process another 250,000 tonnes of waste, half of which would be turned into fuel for plants such as the one at Shieldhall.

Crucially, Peel hopes its energy-from-waste plant will be able to fire up a whole new district heating system at Shieldhall, capable of providing cheap heat and hot water to potential customers such as the Braehead mall, the new Southern General Hospital and businesses in Hillington.

Peel Environmental’s Rob Watson said: “Bringing forward plans for major investment in Glasgow will support new jobs, help deliver the waste strategy for the Clyde Valley by diverting waste from landfill and potentially contribute towards Glasgow’s district heating aspirations.

“We hope to emulate the success of other cities in Europe, many of which have energy-recovery centres in a central location.”

Environmentalists, however, take a dim view of the technology.

Glasgow’s Green MSP Patrick Harvie said: “Modern energy-from-waste plants aren’t the incredibly dirty incinerators of old but they still rely on a continual stream of waste which should be recycled, and any industrial-scale use of this technology should be an option of last resort.

“Glasgow could do so much better at recycling if the council put the right services in place.

“The danger with energy from waste is that it ends up as the default solution, and genuinely greener options would simply never see the light of day.”

Glasgow has one of the worst recycling records in Scotland, although city chiefs believe energy-from-waste could reverse this.

Peel, like Viridor, plans to sort rubbish before it is turned into a fuel for burning.

The Shieldhall plant will produce up to 20MW of electricity, enough to power 38,000 homes. However, Peel would rather generate hot water that could be piped to local homes and businesses.

City Chambers insiders stress that Glasgow council wants to see such district heating networks emerge throughout the city.

Indeed, council bosses had looked at their own rubbish depot near Shieldhall as a potential site for energy-for-waste, with the Southern General seen as an obvious customer for the hot water it would generate.

Officials are already looking at how the proposed Viridor plant, in Polmadie, could be used to heat neighbouring homes.

Glasgow City Council alone produces nearly 400,000 tonnes of municipal rubbish a year. Under its deal with Viridor it will ship some 175,000 tonnes to the Polmadie plant each year for 25 years.

However, the Evening Times understands there is more than enough waste generated across the West of Scotland to keep both energy-from-waste plants fired up for years.

Peel’s two facilities and Viridor’s one have still to get planning permission and permits from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

As revealed in the Evening Times last year there are plans for an even bigger £640m energy-from-waste complex, the Lifetime Recycling Village, near Newton Mearns in East Renfrewshire.

This scheme, however, is facing major opposition.

Peel, Viridor and Lifetime Recycling Village together are proposing investments worth roughly £1bn. And all to process rubbish from the West of Scotland.

Peel today said it would create 500 building jobs on its two projects and 85 permanent positions. It will launch a public consultation on its plans in Clydebank and Cardonald later this month.

The firm will also look to put in formal planning applications to West Dunbartonshire and Glasgow councils in the spring.

Both facilities could be operational – if planning permissions and environmental permits are granted quickly – by 2014.

Christ is there anywhere Peel doesn't want to fling up a smoke stack?

GCC in all their wisdom have decided to try and kill off another one of Glasgow's world class industries. There is a petition below to stop them introducing the license fee for every event in the city - even free art shows.

Unbelievable.

http://www.change.org/petitions/the-scottish-government-scrap-public-entertainment-licence-fees

Signed the petition. I totally agree that this is something in which Glasgow is starting to excel. Fees at this moment in time will stifle growth.

Intresting.

http://www.urbanrealm.com/news/3390/Edinburgh_to_rival_Glasgow_in_size_by_2035.html

Intresting.

http://www.urbanrealm.com/news/3390/Edinburgh_to_rival_Glasgow_in_size_by_2035.html

Take it with a pinch of salt - until recently the projections were for the whole population to fall below 5 million and now they are saying 10% increase instead. It's all based on "i think this will happen and then that will happen, which will cause x, y and z". 2 months later something unexpected occurs and buggers up the whole thing.

Exactly.

Also, the projections are based on council boundaries, with Edi currently enjoying a far more "realistic" boundary than Glasgow. Everywhere with a G postcode should be part of Glasgow imo! Additionally the article doesn't take into account (nor can it) things like the 2014 games effect, which should open the city up to a whole lot of people who hadn't seen it/considered it as a place to settle.

All that said, it STILL has edi almost 100,000 short of Gla at that time. That's a big diffrerence in itself.

To summarise, the article is nonsense.

To summarise, the article is nonsense.


True, i forgot about the boundary sizes. I wonder if Glasgow will ever regain any of their lost boundaries. Also, as the article suggests Edi has grown due to the SG being located there, to what effect to you think more devolved powers/independence would have on this issue. Would Scotland have a like many other countries, an economic capital and a legislative capital. Be intriguing to see the way it all pans out.

True, i forgot about the boundary sizes. I wonder if Glasgow will ever regain any of their lost boundaries. Also, as the article suggests Edi has grown due to the SG being located there, to what effect to you think more devolved powers/independence would have on this issue. Would Scotland have a like many other countries, an economic capital and a legislative capital. Be intriguing to see the way it all pans out.

Edinburgh - Government & Art
Glasgow - Economy & Research
Aberdeen - Power

Or...just remain part of the UK and have...

Edinburgh - tourism
Glasgow - whatever we can get
Aberdeen - that place near the rigs

Edinburgh - Government & Art
Glasgow - Economy & Research
Aberdeen - Power

Or...just remain part of the UK and have...

Edinburgh - tourism
Glasgow - whatever we can get
Aberdeen - that place near the rigs

Political opinions belong in the Scottish Politics thread (where I can conveniently ignore them).

And Glasgow's Art scene is much better than Edinburgh's!

Political opinions belong in the Scottish Politics thread (where I can conveniently ignore them).

And Glasgow's Art scene is much better than Edinburgh's!

Be quiet.

http://cfgfactory.com/images/i/4f35923e34365_bitch-please.png

That Urban realm article is absolute nonsense. They have clearly taken their lead from The Scotsman, quelle surprise!

The population proections have already been discussed in the Scottish Economy Thread.

Exactly.

Also, the projections are based on council boundaries, with Edi currently enjoying a far more "realistic" boundary than Glasgow. Everywhere with a G postcode should be part of Glasgow imo! Additionally the article doesn't take into account (nor can it) things like the 2014 games effect, which should open the city up to a whole lot of people who hadn't seen it/considered it as a place to settle.

All that said, it STILL has edi almost 100,000 short of Gla at that time. That's a big diffrerence in itself.

To summarise, the article is nonsense.

Indeed, 100,000 is the difference between the 2 cities as it stands at the moment (going by council boundaries) Hence, the article is baloney.

picture older than internet itself

:fiddle:

True. It's almost as cliche as your political beliefs;)

There is a new book out by Jordin Yin entitled "Urban Planning for Dummies" that should be required reading for GCC's planning Dept. as a guideline for their work. Its probably a bit late with/for the damage that has been done in the last 4 decades perhaps 5. Almost the first estate this lot created "Penilee" worked out reasonably well because transport (trams/buses), shops (to some degree), and work (Rolls Royce, Hillington etc) were already in place. Many of the following estates were dismal failures. Although "Arden" phase one was excellent.

BNBL4MLb0II

CONVERTERS HAVE YOUR SAY ON PLANS FOR NEW WASTE HANDLING PLANT

ET (http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/converters-have-your-say-on-plans-for-new-waste-handling-plant.17657659)





A PUBLIC consultation was launched today to give people the chance to have their say on a planned £154million rubbish recycling plant in Glasgow.

The community consultation will last 12 weeks and the company behind the plant will inform locals about the centre, which will turn waste into electricity.
The huge "energy-from-waste" facility will be built in Polmadie, in the South Side, and process up to 200,000 tonnes of domestic rubbish each year, as reported by the Evening Times last November.
Despite opposition from SNP and Green Party councillors, Glasgow City Council gave the site the go-ahead in December.It is due to open by 2015.
Steven Don, Scottish regional manager for sustainable waste company Viridor, said: "Our commitment is to support Glasgow City Council in achieving its ambitious aim of becoming one of Europe's most sustainable cities through enhanced recycling and recovering green energy from what remains."
Recycling bosses say the 25-year contract will save the city £254m and the equivalent of 28,000 tonnes of CO² every year.
The plant should generate enough energy to power the equivalent of 20,000 households and heat the equivalent of 8000 homes from the non-recyclable waste that remains.
Bosses have avoided calling the new plant an "incinerator" because it is different from traditional incinerators, which burned rubbish, releasing dangerous toxins in the air.
Although environmental campaigners and some engineers would call the waste-to-energy plant an incinerator, the plant will use hi-tech systems to turn non-recyclable rubbish into gas – and then burn that gas to create steam and drive electricity turbines.
Bosses say up to 250 jobs will be created, including 25 apprenticeships, and will boost local businesses throughout the building programme.
Mr Don added: "Our proposed centre represents the next generation of sustainable waste plants akin to what it is established in Norway, Sweden and Holland, built to the highest standards and providing significant benefits to the people in the surrounding areas and across Greater Glasgow, through jobs, investment and economic growth.
"We are keen to hear from the community. We are committed to listening and responding to questions or concerns and will continue to work hard alongside the city council to keep people informed as we progress."
Viridor, a recycling, renewable energy and sustainable waste management company, was awarded the contract to handle Glasgow's domestic residual waste after a 22-month tender process.
But environment campaigners oppose the energy-from-waste approach. They say such plants create an incentive for councils to produce more rubbish and recycle less.
The Unison, Unite and GMB trade unions also wrote to every Glasgow councillor urging opposition to the plant.
There will be a series of public events on June 18 and 19 at the Royal Concert Hall; June 21 at the Larkfield Centre; and June 22 and 23 at Toryglen Community Football Centre.
You can also have your say at www.transformingwasteinglasgow.com or at Twitter feed @viridor_glasgow

Ex post facto consultation? Good to see GCC are keeping democracy alive as always...

This plant is a terrible idea.

Why is it a bad idea GME ?

And just for good measure here is another one proposed for the southside of the clyde, planning went in this week.



12/00037/DC (https://publicaccess.glasgow.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=externalDocuments&keyVal=LXQKZ4EX0FZ00) | Erection of waste management facility including recyclables recovery and energy from waste plant, with ancillary buildings, vehicular access and electricity substation | Land Opposite 337 Bogmoor Road Glasgow

http://www.peel.co.uk/scec

South Clyde Energy Centre

http://www.peel.co.uk/pictures/Environmental/~jDy4ZlDDODy4UjnDmDyEyEKEZEODMDsEMExEDDX9/11003_SCEC_View3.jpg

Peel Environmental is proposing to invest in the development of a £145million facility known as The South Clyde Energy Centre which would play a pivotal role in the management of up to 250,000 tons of waste per year.

The proposed South Clyde Energy Centre could help deliver one of Glasgow’s aspirational district heating zones, by potentially providing energy to a number of buildings around the site. The area is identified as a potential District Heating Zone in the latest version of the Glasgow City Plan.

There will be two core elements of the centre:
•A Recyclables Recovery Facility
•An Energy Recovery Facility


The Recyclables Recovery Facility, which will take up to 250,000 tonnes of residual (black bag) waste from households and businesses and remove recyclable materials, such as metals, plastics and glass, before creating a refuse derived fuel (RDF) from the leftover non-recycled waste. This will be mixed with RDF brought in from other facilities, which has already had recyclable materials removed, and used as a fuel in the Energy Recovery Facility.

The Energy Recovery Facility will use proven Energy from Waste (EfW) technology which is strictly regulated by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).

http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k484/mori786/wastecentre.jpg

Why is it a bad idea GME ?

GCC has to produce a given quantity (as I remember, rather a large quantity) of non-recyclable waste every year and hand it over to Viridor. That doesn't incentivise us toward total recycling.

This is a 25 year contract, and in that time it's entirely feasible that we'll be able to recycle 50%-60% or more of our waste through other technologies, or just better collection processes. But there will be no point, since we'll have to meet our 'non-recycling' targets under this contract :bash:

Also, this is a private venture, which will run a core city service, which is always a bit worrying. I think that's why the unions are concerned.

Looking at the council minutes (http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/councillorsandcommittees/viewDoc.asp?c=e%97%9Dg%91q%7E%8A) suggests that the facility will guarantee an 18% recycling rate from what's passed into the new facility - i.e. the otherwise non-recyclables. Better than nothing I suppose.

I'll admit I don't know very much about the technology that Viridor are proposing (a "Gasification Advanced Conversion Facility" for large particles, as well as anaerobic digestion for small organic matter), so I won't make the "it's an incinerator" argument.

Clean Glasgow - Report (http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/councillorsandcommittees/submissiondocuments.asp?submissionid=57099)

4 Docs with Several pages on each.

Purpose of Report:

To update Committee on the continuing work being undertaken via the Clean
Glasgow Initiative.

Recommendations:

That Committee note the contents of the report and continue their support of the
Clean Glasgow Initiative.

This seems ill-advised.

Oatlands £1 property deal has turned into 'nightmare'

David Leask
Investigations Reporter

COUNCIL chiefs handed over an entire housing estate in Glasgow to a private developer without checking how much it was worth.

Bosses at Glasgow City Council have confirmed they did not value the neighbourhood of Oatlands and parts of nearby Richmond Park before giving it to a private housebuilder for a now nearly-stalled regeneration scheme.

Insiders admit that the development could now take years to complete.

The SNP MSP for Cathcart said: "As someone with very close connections to Oatlands – I was born there and both my parents came from there – I looked forward to a new beginning for an area that had been allowed to die a slow and painful death.

"Unfortunately it appears that due to the incompetency of Glasgow City Council this dream is rapidly becoming a nightmare for residents.

"I'm at a loss as to how the council could sign off on a contract without doing a full valuation of the land and considering what sort of deal they would get if, as proved the case, the economy slowed down and the development became less attractive.

"How were they to know if council taxpayers were getting a good deal without this valuation?

"This appears like another case of the council taking their eye off the ball."

Glasgow handed over Oatlands and a chunk of nearby Richmond Park to private housebuilder Bett in 2005 for a peppercorn, or symbolic, rent of £1 a year under a development deal, details of which they have refused to disclose.

The local authority, in response to a Freedom of Information inquiry, said: "There has been no council valuation of the land at Oatlands during or since 2004, nor any independent valuation known to the council."

The Evening Times today asked the council if it regretted this.

A spokesman said: " No – this scheme has continued to develop despite extremely difficult conditions in the housing and construction sectors, bringing a new neighbourhood and community facilities to Glasgow."

Bett sealed the deal at the expense of a rival consortium.

Their proposal, the Evening Times understands, was a 50/50 partnership profit sharing agreement.

The council and firm agreed a nine-stage development for the neighbourhood scheduled for completion in 2012/13, the current financial year.

So far the developer is coming to the end of only the second of those stages.

A spokesman for the council said: "There are 213 socially rented homes now built, with 255 private homes either built or under construction. This leaves 858 private homes still to be built."

Both Bett and the council blame delays on the credit crunch.

The spokesman added: "Clearly the housing and property market has changed significantly since this project began, so it is difficult to say when it is likely to be complete.

"However, it seems reasonable to assume that the housing market will improve significantly – compared to the conditions of the past five years – in the medium-term, so this should mean higher demand for these homes in the years to come and an acceleration of the progress made during the current economic downturn."

The Oatlands development was estimated to be valued at around £190m in September 2005 when leases where signed for the area.

Bett as part of its deal with the council was supposed to carry out a whole series of "public works" as its construction progressed.

These included diverting Rutherglen Road, which has been done.

The Evening Times three years ago revealed that Glasgow City Council had picked up the bill for this – £3m – as Bett could not do so.

The council now declines to comment on this transaction. "Information on the Rutherglen Road diversion is commercially confidential between the parties," said the spokesman.

Other public work has been completed, including the laying out and planting of Oatlands Square, landscaping the entrance to Dixon's Blazes Industrial Estate, riverside pathways and relocating allotments. Other public works, including improvements to Richmond Park, will take place when Bett speeds up the project.

The Evening Times understands sales of the homes ran at three a month in 2011 and were planned to be about the same last year, a time in which sales had "picked up", according to the council.

There is no suggestion that Bett has done anything wrong or breached the terms of its deal with the council.

Bett had no comment.



I actually don't disagree in principle with nominal-value sales to spark development, but not even valuing the land seems odd.

Whilst this just seems plain stinky...

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/city-agency-slated-for-500k-pay-off-to-boss-112537n.19918193



Tuesday 15 January 2013


City agency slated for £500k pay-off to boss

Stewart Paterson
Political Reporter

A pay-off of £500,000 to a regeneration boss in Glasgow has been described as "misconduct" and "wholly unsatisfactory" by Scotland's charity watchdog.

Glasgow East Regeneration Agency, which was set up to alleviate poverty, paid the sum in redundancy and pension enhancement to former chief executive Ronnie Saez in 2011.

After press reports of the payment, the Office Of The Scottish Charity Regulator investigated to check if it was in the charity's best interest.

A report published today by the regulator says the actions of the trustees in approving the pay-out "constituted misconduct" and they have been warned about their responsibilities.

Glasgow East Regeneration Agency (GERA) was one of five regeneration organisations set up by the council in the 1990s and had charitable status. In 2011 the five bodies merged into one, Glasgow Regeneration Agency, and GERA was wound up.

The report states trustees of the GERA board – which included councillors Jim Coleman, who was board chairman, the now former councillor Catherine McMaster and East End councillor George Redmond – approved the package.

It included a statutory redundancy payment of about £40,000 and pension contributions of around £200,000, in line with Mr Saez's terms of employment.

However, they also decided to augment his pension pot by an extra 6½ years, which was worth another £232,708 and was paid from the charity's assets.

According to the regulator, the trustees said this was to reward the boss in a similar fashion to senior council officials, even though he was never employed by the council.

Four weeks after the winding up was approved and three days before the winding up date, the board met to agree the enhanced package.

The regulator's report said: "We consider the actions of the charity trustees in this instance constituted misconduct in the administration of the charity.

"However, the payment has already been made and the charity is in the final stages of being dissolved. We find this position wholly unacceptable but, unfortunately, have no powers to recoup the funds for use in the charitable sector.

Mr Coleman, Ms McMaster and Mr Redmond and two others on the board attended the meeting to approve the package. The other three sent apologies, but did not appear to have accessed the agenda sent to them.

However, the regulator said this does not absolve them of responsibility, stating they should still have read their papers and made their opinion known.

John Mason, who referred the complaint to the regulator, said "Even if part of the payment was a binding obligation, the Charity Regulator is clear £232,708 was not a requirement.

"That money should have been helping poorer people, not richer people."

stewart.paterson@ eveningtimes.co.uk

This seems ill-advised.

I actually don't disagree in principle with nominal-value sales to spark development, but not even valuing the land seems odd.

Bit of a non-story IMO. I'm no advocate for GCC or anyone else for that matter but anyone can see that had it not been for the spectacular crash of the housing market and recession then this development would more than likely have been completed already.

Whilst this just seems plain stinky...

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/city-agency-slated-for-500k-pay-off-to-boss-112537n.19918193

That ET article curiously manages not once to mention the party allegiances of the councilors in question. Considering even the Hootsmon managed, it's quite clear that this was completely deliberate a strategy by the red top.


Controversial £500k payment to Glasgow regeneration chief criticised as ‘misconduct’ by OSCR

By ANDREW WHITAKER
Published on Wednesday 16 January 2013 09:36

A PAYOUT of £500,000 to the head of a taxpayer-funded agency set up to alleviate poverty has been condemned as an act of “misconduct” and “wholly unsatisfactory” by Scotland’s charity watchdog.

The Glasgow East Regeneration Agency (Gera) handed the sum to former chief executive Ronnie Saez as part of a redundancy and pension package in 2011.

Mr Saez was paid a statutory severance payment of about £40,000, pension contributions of around £200,000 and a discretionary top-up of £232,708 paid directly from Gera, which was set up by Glasgow council as a registered charity.

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) began an investigation into the redundancy payment after a number of complaints about what was said to be a “high-value severence package” for Mr Saez, who had worked for the agency since it was set up in 2007.

Its report concluded that money which should have been spent helping to reduce poverty in the east end of Glasgow was instead used to fund Mr Saez’s substantial payout.

“A very considerable sum of the charity’s assets which should have been used to further the charity’s purposes was removed from the charitable sector by the charity trustees for the private benefit of a former employee,” the report stated. “We consider that the actions of the charity trustees in this instance constituted misconduct in the administration of the charity.”

The OSCR report went on to criticise the trustees for having approved the payment to Mr Saez “without first obtaining external professional advice about the advisability of the proposal”.

Last night, it emerged the councillors involved in the decision to hand over the £500,000 payout could also face an investigation by Scotland’s Public Standards Commissioner, after SNP MSP John Mason, who alerted the charity regulator to the payout, said he was considering making a fresh complaint.

“This report is a damning indictment of the Labour councillors who have blatantly misused public money in one of the most unacceptable ways possible,” Mr Mason said.

Gera was one of five local regeneration bodies set up by the council to tackle poverty in economically vulnerable areas, but in 2011 the five merged into Glasgow’s Regeneration Agency.

Three chief executives were made redundant, with new jobs being found for the heads of two agencies. The other two chief executives made redundant received payoffs of about £76,778.

Mr Saez’s golden handshake of £500,000 was agreed two years ago by five directors of the charity, including Labour councillors Jim Coleman, who was board chairman, George Redmond and former councillor Catherine McMaster.

Mr Saez was aged 50 when he was handed the £500,000 pay-off in 2011. His pay-off came out of a £2.2m pot to cover the

redundancy and pensions deals for 164 staff at the charity.

The trustees had claimed the award was increased to reward Mr Saez in a similar way to that of senior executives at Glasgow council, with his pension pot topped up by an extra six and a half years – worth another £232,708.

However, the charity regulator insisted the decision to increase the payment had been made without “sufficient justification that this action was in the interests of the charity”.

The watchdog said it had no powers to recover the £500,000, but ordered that the trustees of the charity, including the Glasgow councillors, take part in training to prevent “similar misconduct recurring”.

A spokesman for Glsagow City Council said: “The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator recommended that members undergo training, which we will put in place.”

Mr Saez was unavailable for comment last night.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-news/top-stories/controversial-500k-payment-to-glasgow-regeneration-chief-criticised-as-misconduct-by-oscr-1-2738244

Bit of a non-story IMO. I'm no advocate for GCC or anyone else for that matter but anyone can see that had it not been for the spectacular crash of the housing market and recession then this development would more than likely have been completed already.

Absolutely, but I still don't understand why they would not have even valued the land before proceeding.

Absolutely, but I still don't understand why they would not have even valued the land before proceeding.

I believe Scottish Govt departments are not allowed to dispose of land without first instructing a professional independent valuation. I would have thought there would be a similar requirement for local authorities as part of whatever procedures are in place to ensure proper handling and reporting of public funds. It's very odd.

That ET article curiously manages not once to mention the party allegiances of the councilors in question. Considering even the Hootsmon managed, it's quite clear that this was completely deliberate a strategy by the red top.



http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-news/top-stories/controversial-500k-payment-to-glasgow-regeneration-chief-criticised-as-misconduct-by-oscr-1-2738244

This is scandalous but not entirely surprising. I've been doing some work with some 'registered' charities recently and the senior execs in these organisations have been drawing salaries that are VASTLY out of proportion to either the impact they are making or the number of staff they employ. To put it in perspective, a manufacturing exec I did work for (employing hundreds) was making £83k a year (for a well run well known drinks company) - meanwhile a smallish (mostly publicly funded) social enterprise was drawing a higher salary and doing fuck all (but somehow maintaining a positive public profile). In sum, a total joke.

Good on Cllr Mason for exposing this. This incompetent GERA clown is basically stripping opportunities from the poorest community in the UK with his 1/2 million theft. What happened to the days when an individual would be too shamefaced to take money they didn't earn or deserve.

Parasite.

Gordon Matheson.

I'm not going to say anything for now until I read the full story but tomorrow's papers will be an interesting read.

Going to be quite a blow for his political career (arf!) - is that position cursed, I wonder??

Just read Braiden's Tweet, oh FFS.

Just read Braiden's Tweet, oh FFS.

:lol::lol::lol: PMSL

Does this city get the leaders it deserves or are we just unlucky?

Daily Record has got the story up now - kind of deflects a bit from the George Square debacle.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/gordon-matheson-caught-cheating-on-partner-1542840

Not a career ending story like Purcell's but not what he would be wanting to come out when he's supposed to be announcing a project like George Square.

:lol::lol:

Maybe he rejected the designs as there wasn't a dogging area.

More Trees Mattheson!

I'm sure there's a joke about a certain smoked meat product in there somewhere....

Not so much a Purcell Moment as a Hugh Grant Moment, but embarrassing nonetheless.

Best Twitter joke so far: Matheson always was a fan of Park & Ride.

Does this city get the leaders it deserves or are we just unlucky?

http://i2.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming/article1347794.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Gordon+Matheson.jpg

LABOUR’s top council chief issued an emotional public apology last night after being caught cheating on his partner.

Gordon Matheson, 46, was found by police allegedly performing a sex act with another man in a car park.

The Glasgow City Council leader is one of Scottish Labour’s rising stars and took over from disgraced Stephen Purcell, who quit in 2010. Matheson was caught in a car park at Linn Park in Cathcart, Glasgow, last month.

Daily Record (http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/gordon-matheson-caught-cheating-on-partner-1542840)

~o0o~

Gordon and friend set off for the park...

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/12/05/article-0-0C5C7460000005DC-221_468x349.jpg

'D'you think this false beard makes me look like Big Ears, aunty?'

Does this city get the leaders it deserves or are we just unlucky?
Post of the month!!!

Unfortunately, whole system is corrupt.

Matheson was the fat spider at the centre of the web who never got his hands dirty. But his time is up.

http://www.mattessons.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/product_alt_Sps_HotnSpicy.png

Unfortunately, whole system is corrupt..

Certainly not perfect but the "whole system" is far from corrupt.

Certainly not perfect but the "whole system" is far from corrupt.

Absolutely correct Bestbud.

Sweeping statement if the month!

BBC Scotland really needs to commission an HBO-style drama about a thinly fictitious GCC. The Purcell and Matheson years would provide plenty of dramatic material. Get Robert Carlyle to play the Council leader, fighting his personal demons whilst presiding over an administration mired in sleaze, scandal and corruption... I'd watch.

I think Game of Thrones is about as far into fantasy-land as HBO gets. Not the weird alternative reality of GCC.

Certainly not perfect but the "whole system" is far from corrupt.

Are you sure about that... What about the entire system of 'Arms Length Organisations' that are awarded contracts by the council at uncompetitive rates all in the name of efficiency.

Their only achievement is to line counciler's pockets with double pay, whilst wasting taxpayer's money.

I would say this vehicle which dominates Glasgow's local government is proof in point that the 'whole system' is rife with corruption.

Are you sure about that... What about the entire system of 'Arms Length Organisations' that are awarded contracts by the council at uncompetitive rates all in the name of efficiency.

Their only achievement is to line counciler's pockets with double pay, whilst wasting taxpayer's money.

I would say this vehicle which dominates Glasgow's local government is proof in point that the 'whole system' is rife with corruption.
Tell me about it. They are rewarding themselves for the ugliness they do for our city.

This reminds me, good ol' saying: Fish always rots from head

Councillors and officers to lose £122k dining subsidy

Evening Times 11th February 2013

http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/255/PreviewComp/SuperStock_255-30816.jpg

City chiefs will axe their historic and exclusive dining room to make way for a commercial cafe.

Labour leaders agreed to dump the City Chambers' perk just days after agreeing millions in new cutbacks.

The fund – supposedly set up for the good of the city – had been used to foot the bill for the dining room because it provided "training" for the local authority's arm's-length catering and services firm, Cordia.

City Treasurer Paul Rooney has now dropped that argument.

Today he said: "The buffet belongs to another era.

"It is no longer the best way to provide either catering for the City Chambers or training for Cordia's young staff. We asked Cordia to put together a fresh approach.

"It will be open to everyone in the building and run on a commercial basis, at no cost to the city."

Nina Baker, an opposition Green councillor, has been questioning the buffet service for years.

She discovered none of the kitchen staff were qualified trainers and believed the facility was a waste of Common Good money.

Ms Baker, who prefers to take her tea from her own thermos, said: "I think the buffet is an anachronism. I don't see why anybody should subsidise my dinners or anybody else's."

Councillors ate for free in the buffet until 2007 when they started earning a salary.

Since then they have made a modest contribution to the cost – in theory they pay for the ingredients while meals are cooked as a training exercise. A two-course meal is currently £3.50 – with another £1 for a sweet. Coffee and tea is free.

The buffet is also open for breakfasts, with a roll and sausage on the menu for 90p and a roll and bacon for £1.

Ms Baker said: "The only place I know where you can eat as cheaply as that is a truck stop."

However, City Chambers' insiders stressed the dining room had fallen out of favour.

It is not clear how many people actually eat in the buffet, which has 48 tables.

One council source familiar with the operation said it only has around 25 customers a day – out of 79 councillors and the city's senior directors.

Another, however, suggested the real figure was closer to a dozen.

SNP leader Graeme Hendry said: "Closing the council buffet and turning it into a commercial cafe is a good decision. The current level of subsidy is not justifiable and the training benefits can be met through a commercial cafe."

Ms Baker, meanwhile, stressed neither elected members nor council officials had been consulted over the changes.

Evening Times (http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/councillors-and-officers-to-lose-122k-dining-subsidy-115199n.20160141)

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/stars-go-out-as-citys-walk-of-fame-plan-is-scrapped-116695n.20303209


Stars go out as city's Walk of Fame plan is scrapped
Tuesday 26 February 2013

IT was supposed to be a Glasgow version of Hollywood's Walk of Fame, celebrating everybody from Lulu to Gordon Brown.

But plans for a glamorous riverside of "Glasgow's Greats" have been dropped more than three years after they were approved by city leaders in a blaze of publicity.

City officials only admitted they had done nothing to make the scheme happen after they were quizzed by opposition leader Graeme Hendry.

By now they were supposed to have organised a panel of experts and councillors to decide who should be honoured.

They were also expected to have laid the first batch of £6000 plaques by the Clyde at Glasgow Green.

Eventually the Walk of Fame was to have gone all the way to the SECC.

Former city SNP leader James Dornan – now in the Scottish Parliament – first came up with the idea for a walk of fame some years before 2009 and Mr Hendry's party claimed some credit for the scheme, although it was backed by ruling Labour.

Today Mr Hendry said: "The Glasgow's Greats scheme was a good idea when it was first proposed by James Dornan MSP and it was a good idea when the Administration approved its implementation.

"For the council to simply ignore or forget to implement a decision is unacceptable and will leave the public wondering how many other decisions have just been forgotten about?"

The Walk of Fame was expected to cost an initial £120,000 – although officials were hopeful of getting sponsorship.

Glasgow City Council today said the Walk of Fame had been cancelled by a former director of development and regeneration, Gerry Gormal.

A spokesman said: "The Glasgow's Greats proposal budget was not used (decision taken two years ago) as a saving by the council, and the financial resources were then redirected to allow Townhead Village Hall to be developed."

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/stars-go-out-as-citys-walk-of-fame-plan-is-scrapped-116695n.20303209 (http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/stars-go-out-as-citys-walk-of-fame-plan-is-scrapped-116695n.20303209)

Stars go out as city's Walk of Fame plan is scrapped

Tuesday 26 February 2013

IT was supposed to be a Glasgow version of Hollywood's Walk of Fame, celebrating everybody from Lulu to Gordon Brown.

But plans for a glamorous riverside of "Glasgow's Greats" have been dropped more than three years after they were approved by city leaders in a blaze of publicity.

City officials only admitted they had done nothing to make the scheme happen after they were quizzed by opposition leader Graeme Hendry.

~o0o~

Glasgow's Walk of Fame

http://i768.photobucket.com/albums/xx330/Glaswegian13/DSC_0024_zps8cb90a44.jpg

^^

'It was here, ladies and gentlemen, that George 'Shit-Faced' Foulkes fell and banged his heid.'

~o0o~

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_AxPVm5NUxzU/TTGjFmL7drI/AAAAAAAADZg/bqCZQIlj9-4/s320/george-foulkes.jpg

They are absolutely bonkers

Cowcaddens and Townhead? Could more tower blocks be coming down?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-22555927
Glasgow city centre action plan unveiled

An action plan has been drawn up to "re-imagine" Glasgow's city centre in a bid to ensure its future growth. "Special districts" are to be created under a new city centre strategy put to the city council's executive committee.


The strategy focuses on specific streets and will seek to promote and develop "their unique character or specialism".
It was developed in conjunction with public sector leaders and the business community.


The special districts include Merchant City and High Street, St Enoch and Townhead.The new strategy will go out to wider public consultation on 17 May for four weeks.


Its core objectives include maintaining Glasgow's position as "the best destination to shop and play outside of London" and increase residential development in the city centre.


The executive committee report said it recognised the centre was at "a critical stage" in its development.



It argued that if it was to maintain its position as the UK's top shopping destination outside of London's West End, it must respond to the changing nature of towns and cities in general.



The city centre strategy also outlines a long-term vision for Glasgow which will be delivered in two five-year plans.


Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson, who will chair a new City Centre Strategy Board to oversee the first phase of the new strategy from 2013 to 2018, described the centre was "a vibrant shopping area".

Action plan's special districts

Anderston
Broomielaw
Centre
Cowcaddens
Merchant City and High Street
Sauchiehall
St Enoch
Townhead


He said: "However, we have to maintain the momentum and ensure that our city centre continues to grow and develop in the right direction, creating jobs and opportunities for all Glaswegians.


"We are very aware how important our city centre is in helping to attract new investment and business.


"This new strategy and action plan has come from a collaboration of the city's business leaders and public sector leaders and we believe will meet the challenges of maintaining and expanding our city's economic competitiveness and regeneration over the coming years."


Last autumn, the city council was given the go-ahead to borrow £80m towards a £390m scheme to regenerate a large section of the centre.
The Scottish government approved the council's plans to raise cash through Tax Incremental Financing.


This allows cash to be borrowed against projected rises in business rates.
The money will be used to lever in an extra £310m for the Buchanan Quarter project to revamp George Square and the Buchanan Galleries shopping centre.


Under the scheme, George Square and Upper Dundas Street will be redeveloped before the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

Cowcaddens and Townhead? Could more tower blocks be coming down?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-22555927
Glasgow city centre action plan unveiled

An action plan has been drawn up to "re-imagine" Glasgow's city centre in a bid to ensure its future growth. "Special districts" are to be created under a new city centre strategy put to the city council's executive committee.

The strategy focuses on specific streets and will seek to promote and develop "their unique character or specialism".
It was developed in conjunction with public sector leaders and the business community.

The special districts include Merchant City and High Street, St Enoch and Townhead.The new strategy will go out to wider public consultation on 17 May for four weeks.

Its core objectives include maintaining Glasgow's position as "the best destination to shop and play outside of London" and increase residential development in the city centre.

The executive committee report said it recognised the centre was at "a critical stage" in its development.

It argued that if it was to maintain its position as the UK's top shopping destination outside of London's West End, it must respond to the changing nature of towns and cities in general.

The city centre strategy also outlines a long-term vision for Glasgow which will be delivered in two five-year plans.

Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson, who will chair a new City Centre Strategy Board to oversee the first phase of the new strategy from 2013 to 2018, described the centre was "a vibrant shopping area".

Action plan's special districts

Anderston
Broomielaw
Centre
Cowcaddens
Merchant City and High Street
Sauchiehall
St Enoch
Townhead


He said: "However, we have to maintain the momentum and ensure that our city centre continues to grow and develop in the right direction, creating jobs and opportunities for all Glaswegians.

"We are very aware how important our city centre is in helping to attract new investment and business.

"This new strategy and action plan has come from a collaboration of the city's business leaders and public sector leaders and we believe will meet the challenges of maintaining and expanding our city's economic competitiveness and regeneration over the coming years."

Last autumn, the city council was given the go-ahead to borrow £80m towards a £390m scheme to regenerate a large section of the centre.
The Scottish government approved the council's plans to raise cash through Tax Incremental Financing.

This allows cash to be borrowed against projected rises in business rates.
The money will be used to lever in an extra £310m for the Buchanan Quarter project to revamp George Square and the Buchanan Galleries shopping centre.

Under the scheme, George Square and Upper Dundas Street will be redeveloped before the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

Doubt it IMO. There is no plans over the next 10 years to demolish either Townhead or Cowcaddens multi's. They've only recently been refurbished. This is more about making the areas more distinct and creating specific "quarters" in the city core.

I have no objection to having high rises in those areas, they make sense there. The areas around the high rises sure need allot of work tho!

We can't all live in idealised "Wee But N' Bens", Ultima.