Consultation begins on the future of four city centre districts in Glasgow

Glasgow City Council has launched a consultation on the future of the Cowcaddens, Learning Quarter, Merchant City, and Townhead districts in the city centre.

The council recently appointed a team to help prepare ambitious regeneration action plans for these four districts, and the project team have launched a website and Freephone line to help engage with as many people as possible in the coming months. These distinctive city centre areas will each have a District Regeneration Framework (DRF) to guide their future development.

A DRF is a 10-year regeneration planning framework and action plan, and each DRF will guide the city centre's physical, social and economic regeneration. The DRFs support both Glasgow's City Development Plan and the City Centre Strategy.

The yourcitycentre2020.commonplace.is/ website invites contributors to share comments and ideas about how to improve these four districts in future. The consultation will give the opportunity to share thoughts on how these districts feel now and ideas about how they could and should be improved.

The consultation team especially want to hear views on how it can be made easier to get around the city centre; how streets and open spaces can be improved; and hear thoughts on housing and places to work and learn, and on the mix of activities required to create a thriving, active city centre in the future. The city centre plays a key role for Glasgow as a whole as well as the surrounding region beyond it, so thoughts on connectivity are also welcome.

As well as the website, a Freephone number will go live in July and August and will be staffed by the project team on specific dates. This will give those without online access the chance to share their ideas.

The Freephone line is 0800 1583973. This can be called at the following dates/times: Thursday 2 July, noon - 2pm & 5 - 7pm, and Saturday 4 July, 10am - noon. Other dates will be made available in due course.

Councillor Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council, said: "The district regeneration frameworks for the city centre will play a key role in creating a city centre fit to meet the challenges now in front of us. By taking part in this consultation, everyone with a stake in these four neighbourhoods can join with the council and our expert project team can help shape a city centre that is sustainable, attractive and liveable."

Graham Ross, architect and urban planner at Austin-Smith:Lord - part of the project team - said: "To ensure future action plans for these districts are relevant and effective we need to develop distinctive, local solutions with the people who know the place best. We're looking for ideas, big and small, to improve the quality of life for everyone who lives, works, learns or visits here. It's vital that we tap in to local wisdom and knowledge so we can capture the essence of the issues needing attention and set a positive agenda for regeneration and recovery the next ten years. We want anyone passionate about Glasgow to share ideas about how to enhance our everyday experiences of these districts, and help set future ambitions that will enable Glasgow to thrive as a great European city."

The city centre is one of Glasgow's most important assets. Glasgow City Council's City Centre Strategy identifies nine Districts and a series of Avenues - the latter funded by the Glasgow City Region City Deal - as the basis of planning and delivering sustainable regeneration across the city centre. Good progress has been made with the first five District Regeneration Frameworks (DRFs) published, and design work for the first two 'blocks' of Avenues is progressing, following the construction of the Sauchiehall Street Avenue pilot.

The five city centre DRFs already adopted promote an ambitious future vision that includes a River Park along the Clyde, increased city centre living with enhanced community facilities and improvement to walking, cycling and public transport networks to create healthy, sustainable connections between communities and opportunities. The (Y)our Broomielaw DRF secured a Scottish Design Award in 2019.

For further information, go to citycentrestrategy@glasgow.gov.uk.