Meeting Minutes, 26 April 2022

Approved at our meeting on 31 May 2022.

1. Welcome

Tam Coyle welcomed everyone to our first in-person meeting in two years, and our first hybrid meeting

2. Attendance and Apologies

2.1. Community Councillors

Tam Coyle, Niall McColl, David Cowan, Scott Thornton, Gary Atkinson, Daniel O’Malley, Peter Hayman, Eileen Mills;

2.2. Residents

AL, TM, AC, SD, BC, TD, RH, PP, EM, RW

2.3. Elected Representatives

Lord Provost Phillip Braat, Deputy Lord Provost Christy Mearns, Cllr Eva Bolander, Cllr Angus Millar

2.4. Ex-Officio

Rob Wilson – Police Scotland; Clive Wilding, Conor Pittman, Gary Stodart, Teri Porter – Artisan

2.5. Apologies

None

3. Artisan Real Estate, 65-97 Ingram St

3.1 Presentation – Clive Wilding, Conor Pitman, Gary Stodart

  • https://65-97ingramstreet.co.uk
  • Approximately 1200 people have taken part in the consultation
  • Presented to planning officers. PAN period complete, but planning application not submitted – in final stages of preparation for submitting application in mid-May.
  • Focusing on the garden development of the site for this presentation
  • Pend entrance from Ingram St – now 4 separate entrances to the development
  • Ground floor is retail/commercial; highly glazed – will be able to use the courtyard
  • Roof view – Todd building will look down on to the development.
    • Mostly communal space
    • 3 bed flats have own outside space
  • Massing – stepping up to 7 storey bookends at east and west end of the development; maintaining heights on Albion St and Candleriggs
  • Landscape and urban context
    • Courtyard will be a key space as part of Merchant City art trail
    • Trying to take a holistic viewpoint of the development – trying to integrate artwork and garden into the design from the start
    • Courtyard, balconies and roof space contribute to the ecology and diversity of the area
    • Acknowledge that trees are present on site – new trees will be planted
    • Total area of existing vegetation – 648m2
    • Total area of planned biodiverse planting – 1163m2:
      • Ground Floor courtyard – 144m2
      • Communal Terraces and roof – 979m2
      • Balconies 40m2
    • Higher biodiversity value than current site
    • There will be still hard, usable public space
    • Solution has to be robust for Glasgow’s climate
      • Courtyard will be fully accessible to residents and general public
      • Looking at doing something “different” to make the space “sing” with planting and layout, with biodiversity value

3.2. Questions

Tam Coyle – can we have a copy of the presentation. Artisan will send link to the website

  • How much of the mural will be saved and will be seen? MCTCC commissioned the mural and selected the design
    • The building returns will obscure outer parts of the mural
    • There will be new artwork on the left hand side
    • Length of courtyard is longer than two tennis courts, and depth is more than one

Carla Arrighi – who will pay for the maintenance of the mural

  • Glasgow City Council own the wall the mural is painted on
  • Residents will own the courtyard, but factors will manage it – still working out details
  • There will be a public right of way during normal hours, but will be closed at night

Christy Mearns – are you conscious of loss of amenity to the public realm through the loss of existing trees.

  • They did look at this in some detail, including putting trees in the street – however lots of utilities running along the pavement, making it very difficult to put trees there
  • Looking at maximising the trees within the courtyard – design isn’t finalised yet

Scott Thornton – biodiversity. Seems to be mostly on the upper floors. There’s a need to bring families back into the centre of Glasgow, but how many of the apartments will be 1-bed, as that’s not a family apartment?

  • 13-14%; 18% will be 3 bed, the remainder will be 2-bed

Eileen Mills – who’s going to lock and unlock the gates to the courtyard?

  • This will be the responsibility of the factors/estate manager
  • Are the roofs all flat, with greenery? They are flat roofs, as they are gardens. From environmental impact, stalled water – SEPA are pushing for developments to handle water management through the building to feed the gardens
    • The greening is all “in the sky”, so not much to be seen by the public. Can’t really compare what is there now with what will be there in the future
    • Communal access for residents to gardens

Christy Mearns – are potential owners aware of the expense burden attached to opening the gates being opened and closed? Also, proposed building materials don’t fit in with the heritage of the conservation area.

  • As part of the application there will be an accessibility strategy

PP – Community fought hard for the mural, but if the development goes ahead, the residents will be the main beneficiaries of the mural, as public won’t be able to see mural in the way they do just now.

  • None of the views show the trees
  • Todd Building and Ramshorn Kirk are taller, but the proposal seems to be taller than all the other buildings on the south side of Ingram St
    • It is unashamedly modern architecture; low/zero carbon, low energy
    • Building materials have been reviewed and updated several times in discussion with planning officers.

TD – when will the build start. Hope to be on site early 2023. 2 year build

4. Minutes of Last Meeting (29 March 2022)

4.1. Update on Action Points

ItemAction byUpdate
1Report back on meeting with Mairi Miller re Connolly’s bar, and speak to her re coffee shop on CandleriggsChristy MearnsCoffee shop on Candleriggs still serving food and BYOB.  TC has written to the planning officer.Connolly’s – ongoing issue.
2Follow up on Candleriggs TRO re pedestrianisation south of Bell StChristy MearnsNot being enforced due to the Candleriggs development – access required at all times of the day. Once development complete, a more restrictive TRO will be put in place
3Contact David Cowan re experiences with recent filmingAngus MillarDavid is out of the country – Angus will contact David by email
TC – still want to know who in GCC agreed to loud explosions at 1am during recent filming – we were told by the film office that permission was granted.Christy is surprised to hear that; Angus agreed that councillors were not informed
4Confirm arrangements re use of City Chambers, including ventilation and streaming facilitiesPhillip BraatNot much ventilation, and wifi is poor. We will continue to follow up – windows do open, but it’s the full window.
5(Feb) Confirm how many staff directly involved in graffiti removal with Denise HamiltonTam CoyleCarried to next meeting
6(Feb)Discuss possibility of having street art on lamppostsTam Coyle and PPCarried to next meeting
7Impact of demolition of Annie Miller’s pub on local residentsEva BolanderMissed from previous meeting. When the work takes place, there will be a lot of mess. To be discussed once work starts

4.2 Corrections to minutes of last meeting

No changes were requested.

4.3. Approval

Proposed by:  Daniel O’Malley
Seconded by: Carla Arrighi

5. Matters Arising

None raised

6. Police Report (Rob Wilson and Stephen Clark)

6.1. Report

6.1.1. St Enoch Square

  • Still problems with anti-social behaviour
  • Currently running the Safer Glasgow City Centre Policing Plan
  • Traditionally for the night-time economy, but focussing on an earlier start to the programme to tackle anti-social behaviour.
  • Great engagement from Safer Communities team over the last few weeks, and youth engagement team

6.1.2 Connolly’s bar

  • Not in a position to say anything at present, other than there is on-going engagement via a couple of partners

6.1.3. Candleriggs Traffic Enforcement

  • Good number of tickets issued – mixture of residents and visitors

6.2. Questions

  • PP – observation – will the lack of parking in the new development lead to more illegal parking?
  • ST – Anti-social behaviour is not restricted to St Enoch. How many CCTV cameras are functioning in Glasgow?
    • 98% of publicly managed ones, on average
    • Private CCTV cameras are harder to monitor, especially in lanes
  • GA – Is there a plan for the upcoming football matches?
    • There is a robust policing plan in place for all matches.

7. Treasurer’s Report (Carla)

  • Still working on getting access to the account. Taking a lot longer due to banking bureaucracy.

8. Elected Members Reports

Lord Provost Braat had left the meeting due to illness.

8.1. Deputy Lord Provost Christy Mearns

8.1.1. Car parking on open ground at Albion St

  • Fencing to be installed round the ground

8.1.2. Ramshorn Graveyard

  • Property is owned by City Property, who don’t have the staff to open the gates
  • Consideration should be given to moving it from City Property to Council ownership
  • There are dilapidations to resolve but these don’t prevent the park from re-opening

8.1.3. Parking

  • 628 fines since end of March to 26 April

8.1.4. Parklets

  • Following up on process for process for progressing proposals

8.2. Cllr Eva Bolander

8.2.1. Merchant City Festival

  • Dates confirmed as Thursday 28 to Sunday 31 July
  • Will be invited to give presentation at next meeting
  • MCF want to use Ramshorn for one of their events

8.2.2 High St Tenements

  • Planning application submitted for some of them

8.2.3. St Enoch Planning Application

  • Last date for comments is 29 May 2022 (updated)

8.2.4. Buskers

  • Complaints have restarted about loud buskers in the city centre. Will be taken up with officers

8.2.5. Green Spaces

  • South of Trongate could be part of greening plan

8.3. Cllr Angus Millar

8.3.1. Parking

  • Enforcement taking place
  • Inquiries from businesses due to lack of loading facilities
  • Has asked council to engage with businesses for a more permanent solution

8.3.2. St Enoch

  • Planning application includes student accommodation as one of the options, which is something that will be commented on.

9. Planning (Peter Hayman)

  • Peter shared the list of applications, including the redevelopment of St Enoch – 22/00817/PPP

10. Licencing (Tam Coyle)

  • No time for update

11. Merchant City Park (Eileen and Peter)

  • No time for update

12. Social Media (Niall McColl)

  • No time for update

13. Local Issues (all)

13.1. Planters in Merchant City

  • Eileen Mills – planters in the area are not suitable. Question for the hustings event.

14. AOCB

14.1. Hustings

  • Reminder that hustings will take place on Thursday 28th at 7pm via Zoom

15. Date of next meeting

Tuesday 31st May 2022 at 7pm – City Chambers and online via Zoom

16. Action Points

  1. Report back on meeting with Mairi Miller re Connolly’s bar, and speak to her re coffee shop on Candleriggs (Christy Mearns)
  2. Confirm arrangements re use of City Chambers, including ventilation and streaming facilities (Phillip Braat)
  3. Confirm how many staff directly involved in graffiti removal with Denise Hamilton(Tam Coyle)
  4. Discuss possibility of having street art on lampposts (Tam Coyle and PP)

MCTCC/meetings/2022