Maggie Ritchie: Grotty Glasgow's filthy streets risk shaming Scotland on the international stage

When I came to live here in the mid 1990s, I fell in love with the city all over again, with its vibrancy and egalitarianism, and with the humour and friendliness of its denizens, its swish bars and restaurants, the live music and stylish shops. I became one of those ‘Glaswegians’ who couldn’t wait to show off their city and the magnificent architecture so celebrated in Adrian Searle’s book, Look Up Glasgow.

But now the city seems to have shuffled back into being the grimy, slightly intimidating city it used to be decades ago. It’s wise now to ‘look up’ in Glasgow not to gawp at the Victorian, Edwardian and Art Deco gems but to avoid looking down at the piles of litter, discarded fast food containers, and unmentionable stains on the pavements.

The city centre may be slowly coming back to life following 18 months of restrictions but the streets are filthy – an embarrassment that greets visitors the minute they step out of Central Station. Edinburgh with its open sewer of a loch before it was drained to become Princes Street Gardens used to be known as Auld Reekie, but that moniker could now be applied to Glasgow.

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What must visitors think when they step over vomit and urine on their way past boarded up shops and restaurants covered in graffiti? Glasgow is a popular location with American filmmakers because of its grid-like Victorian layout and buildings that provide a convincing setting for Hollywood blockbusters such as the latest Indiana Jones and Batman movies. But a film producer friend tells me that she had to make sure streets were swept and hosed down before she could start filming a television series here.

Glasgow has long marketed itself not only as a shopping destination second only to London, but as a conference city. It proved itself against sceptics in 2014 when the city hosted the Commonwealth Games, when new sports venues were built, and the city shone like a burnished penny thanks to round-the-clock cleansing teams.

Fast-forward seven years and the bin men’s union boss is calling for the city to be deep cleaned ahead of the COP26 climate summit in November, saying the city’s litter problem could lead to a “health and safety disaster.”

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Chris Mitchell from GMB Scotland, along with opposition politicians and city businesspeople, has been complaining about the state of Grotty Glasgow for months, warning that the filthy streets risk shaming Scotland on the international stage, when the world’s attention turns to the city and 30,000 delegates, politicians and the international media arrive.

“Glasgow's going to need to get a grip of itself and invest heavily in cleansing services,” he told Radio Clyde. “People are going to go away with a vision of Glasgow, and it's going to harm tourism, because nobody will want to come here. It's a shame.”

Campaigners have been calling for the city to clean up its act ahead of the climate change event since January this year, with Mr Mitchell warning Glasgow’s streets had turned into a “warzone of litter” plagued with rubbish and vermin posing a serious problem. Last year a report revealed Glasgow had the fourth highest population of rats in the United Kingdom with around 1.3million of them.

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Despite complaints, the problem persists and is too severe to be tackled by the many well-meaning and selfless volunteers with their litter pickers and bin bags.

When I went into the city centre last Sunday for a bite to eat and a scoot around the still-excellent shops with my sister, we had to navigate pavements that would turn your stomach. It took the shine off the day – less ladies who lunch than ladies who lose their lunch – and made me for the first time in 30 years begin to wish I lived somewhere else.

Buchanan Street was clean and filled with smart shoppers and handsome shopfronts, but it was an oasis in a sea of rubbish, the streets leading off it like a sticky urban carpet after an out-of-control school party that has been trashed by gate crashers.

It’s not just the city centre that is suffering following years of austerity cuts and lockdowns – even the leafy residential areas in the west end and south side are strewn with litter that overflows from recently installed larger street bins that are not emptied often enough. Then there’s the perennial problem of anti-social people who don’t care enough about their community, who think nothing of fouling their nest by fly-tipping, dropping litter, or throwing take-away containers out of car windows.

The city council spends around £100 million a year on environmental protection, and they say operations have been heavily disrupted by the pandemic. Whatever they are spending it’s clearly not enough. COP26 will be here soon, and the world’s television cameras will once again be trained on Glasgow as they were during the Commonwealth Games. I hope that they will again show off a spotless, beautiful city that fills us with pride. But we need a Dear Clean Place all year round – and not just during showpiece events.

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