City council condemned over Art School fire response

At a meeting with the council leader Susan Aitken and other council representatives two weeks ago deep frustrations emerged about the lack of clear communication, the failure to provide any sort of timeline, or to adequately advocate for residents and businesses in negotiations with the Glasgow School of Art.

Businesses and residents are expected to be locked out for several months. The council has paid each household a £3,000 emergency payment to help them meet essential costs. However residents claim this does not compensate them and along with business owners are concerned by the council's “culture of secrecy surrounding strategic decisions”.

Gill Hutchison, who has owned Biggar's music shop in Sauchiehall Street since the mid-eighties, claimed that they waited in vain for the council's resilience plan to kick in. She said: “Since then residents and businesses have taken every possible initiative to help ourselves and each other and have found that we are largely powerless.

“As the days have turned into weeks and the weeks to nearly a month people are becoming increasingly desperate. Residents and businesses are at the end of their tether and their resources.

“This is an appeal of last resort. It is imperative that the Scottish Government engage with the situation to provide leadership and a proactive plan to resolve the very serious short term issues of residents and businesses.”

She claimed that an emergency fund, similar to the £4 million one delivered to people in Salisbury, should be considered, adding: “The people of Glasgow must not deceive themselves. Should disaster strike again, Glasgow City Council is not prepared. The Scottish Government must take them to task.”

Chris Collins, secretary of the local Blythswood and Broomielaw Community Council, said: “The communication has been been very inconsistent and though they said they would address that it is still exceptionally poor. It's almost dysfunctional. I'm not a resident and I don't have a business here but I am seeing an awful situation and there an are questions about whether it's really one that the council can resolve.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “The Glasgow School of Art fire has had a huge impact on businesses and households in the city, and that is why we have been working with Glasgow City Council to offer those affected by the fire essential financial support.

“The Scottish Government will increase our contribution to hardship funding from 75 per cent to 95 per cent and make available £1,500, matched by the Council, to residents displaced from their homes.

“We are working with Glasgow City Council to ensure the emergency funding is released to all those affected as soon as possible. We will continue to consider what further assistance might be required for all those affected."

Councillor Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, said that while she had the utmost sympathy for residents she did not recognise the allegations. “I have nothing but the utmost sympathy for all those impacted by this horrible incident and the council continues to respond above and beyond what our statutory requirements are during events such as the School of Art fire.

“But I simply fail to recognise any allegation of 'secrecy, bunkerism and egotism'. Our first and overriding responsibility was and remains public safety.

Actions taken by the council are about the protection of life and limb which have been threatened by a building which is structurally precarious. This, rather than any issue of history or heritage, is why it will take time to take down. We would no more put at risk the lives of our own staff or the demolition teams than we would members of the public."

She added that the council was "providing an essential stop-gap to individuals in exceptional circumstances created by the inability to secure access to their properties and difficulties with insurers. Again, this is over and above what residents elsewhere in Glasgow and displaced for other reasons have received. All this has been done as quickly and with the minimum bureaucracy as has been possible.

“None of this is Glasgow City Council’s making yet we are working extremely closely with business groups on practical assistance, including liaising with other agencies expected to step into the breach on these occasions.”

Catch 22: no access, but no insurance either

IT is a month today since the flames took hold of Glasgow School of Art's beautiful Mack building for the second time, ravaging it and leaving its blackened shell sitting unsteadily at the top of the hill in Renfrew Street.

It is a month, too, since photographer Christopher Bowen, evacuated from his nearby flat, sat blearily drinking tea in the early hours of Sunday morning along with other residents – young, old, couples, flat mates and families – at the Mitchell Library in Charing Cross.

Back then, he refused an offer of a hotel room at 5am, choosing to stay with friends in the morning and believing he would be back in soon. It soon emerged not only was that not the case. He, like other homeowners in the area, found that his insurers would not pay out because his property had not been damaged. He has even been unable to access the flat to check.

“The thing for me is that I don't only live there but work there,” he explains. Bowen is the photographer responsible for studio athletics shots for the European Championships 2018, held partly in Glasgow. His sporting images are currently seen around the city, as are his photos for the National Theatre of Scotland posters. But there will be no more any time soon as his cameras and studio equipment are all on lockdown.

“So currently I can't work,” he says. “Thankfully there's the 3k per household [an agreed emergency payment by the council] which has been helpful in buying the clothes and things that I need to replace But it's not compensation.”

The issue of insurance has been a particularly trying one, with most companies refusing to pay out. Council Leader Susan Aitken has raised the issue with David Mudell, the Secretary of State for Scotland, and SNP MP for Glasgow Central Alison Thewliss raised the issue with Theresa May in Parliament. But so far there's no progress.

Libbie Usher, 20, Sauchiehall Street resident and a nightclub PR manager, has returned to Dundee to stay with her parents because it all got too much. She's had a brutal month – a week of staying on friends' sofas, a weekend in a hotel, another week of calling the council's homeless services every day to find out where she'd spend the night, finally an offer of a flat so far out she could not afford to get a taxi home from town (she finishes at 3am).

“In the end I spoke to my work and they were great and have given me a couple of months off,” she says. “Of course I don't get paid but at least I have work to go back to. There was help there I suppose but I had to fight so hard to get it and I just got too exhausted.” She did not have insurance, but says that she has watched those who made monthly payments left high and dry.

Adrian Nairn, resident and historic harp maker, who also lives in Garnethill just opposite the site of the fire, can't access work materials either. But he considers himself relatively lucky. A tenant of Charing Cross Housing association, he was immediately rehoused by its sympathetic and efficient team. “But a lot of [other] people have been having a terrible time,” he says. One family with a disabled son have been forced to move multiple times, struggling to find accommodation to meet his special needs.

“The emergency response that the council provided was woeful,” he adds. “It's taken four weeks for it to appoint someone to take charge of our situation ....We just want someone that we can speak to about our problems who can get them fixed. That's not happened.”

Ian Christie, loss adjuster of Christie and Co, has now been appointed by residents to address issues they were experiencing with insurance.

“Insurance policies haven't been triggered because of a lack of damage,” he explains. “What is unusual in this case is that people are out of their houses for such as long time. If this was a normal building that was endangering others around it then it would come down very quickly. The emphasis on the historic building makes this a lengthy process which is the problem that the residents have.

“The poor souls can't get into their homes but they can't claim insurance. The council is treating them as homeless but many of them still own homes that they can't access because of the cordon.”

He is now hoping to argue that damage caused by doors being kicked down during the evacuation process will help “trigger” claims. Meanwhile, residents and businesses are clear. They need leadership and right now, they feel it is lacking.

Extract of the letter to the First Minister

Dear Ms Sturgeon

We appeal to the Scottish Government to take action regarding the ongoing crisis facing the City of Glasgow in the wake of two major fires. Much of the city has been turned upside down, as have lives and businesses.

From the first, Glasgow City Council has stagnated in bureaucracy and egos followed by bunkerism once the enormity of the task emerged. This has culminated in a culture of secrecy surrounding strategic decisions. Serious questions must be asked as we face the fallout of the latest fire.

Residents and businesses have been the driving force to date, seeking solutions and helping each other every step of the way, organising ourselves into action groups and holding meetings to which WE have invited Council officials, representatives of the Art School and politicians. In the midst of a disaster the Council have literally gone on holiday and key individuals have taken annual leave.

We ask the Government to step into the breach. Funds are urgently required to make appropriate provision for displaced residents. Businesses need a specialised rescue plan for the local economy and meaningful hardship funding to sustain them until they can trade again having been hit by the catastrophic coincidence of fires and infrastructure decimation created by the Avenues project resulting in an economic wasteland. The Council must not be left to flounder nor can they hold themselves accountable from within. This situation requires urgent competent management, oversight and most of all leadership.

Your sincerely

Gill Hutchison on behalf of Sauchiehall Street Inner Cordon Businesses

Adrian Nairn, on behalf of Garnethill Displaced Residents Group

Chris Collins, secretary of Blytheswood and Broomielaw Community Council