BATGIRL has been blasted in the Scottish Parliament after venues and shops in Glasgow lost thousands of pounds following widespread road and footpath closures for the filming of the Hollywood blockbuster.
Labour list MSP for Glasgow Pauline McNeill said the disruption had “decimated trade for many businesses”.
Huge swathes of the Trongate in the city were transformed into Gotham for the Hollywood blockbuster which is filmed entirely in Scotland.
Earlier this year, The Herald spoke to Liam Orr of the Soulsa Bar & Kitchen on Glassford Street who said customers were directed away from his premises during some of his busiest trading periods.
He said estimated that he’d lost between £7,000 and £10,000 of custom.
READ MORE: Batgirl backlash as independent Merchant City venue loses out on road closures
Ms McNeill raised Mr Orr’s troubles and that of a clothing shop forced to close for a week because there was no footfall.
“They were offered £30 a day from Warner Brothers,” she told MSPs. “Glasgow City Council offered an incentive to the production company of $150,000.”
The MSP told Finance Secretary Kate Forbes that it was wrong to offer “financial incentives to production companies without making adequate compensation conditional on ensuring that businesses are adequately compensated for losses in trade.”
“Surely, Cabinet Secretary as we tried to recover from this pandemic, that would be a very important principle, to ensure that those businesses have a chance to recover,” she said.
Ms Forbes said she was “very conscious of the impact on businesses, particularly the ones that she has referenced in her question on top of everything else that they are contending with post-Covid and with the cost of living.”
The minister said she would expect the council and the production companies “to listen carefully to businesses, to engage with them, and to determine what more can be done to support them.”
She said there was money available through the national Covid Recovery Fund and the Glasgow City Centre Recovery Fund.
Batgirl is being filmed entirely in the city - the first major production to ever do so.
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