Day: November 9, 2025

Annual General Meeting, 28th October 2025

MCTCC were delighted to hold their Annual General Meeting in the City Chambers on Tuesday 28th October 2025.  Our Chair reported on a very busy year – the full report is below, and we also approved the minutes of our 2024 AGM.

Office bearers for the coming year were elected:

• Chairman – Scott Thornton
• Vice-Chair – Gary Atkinson
• Secretary – Niall McColl
• Treasurer – Gordon Millar
• Planning Lead – Ross Naismith
• Licensing Lead – Gary Atkinson
• Area Partnership Lead – David Hughes
• Joint Action Group (JAG) Representatives – Rachel Angus, David Cowan

Our next AGM will be on Tuesday 27th October, 2026.

Chair’s Report to the 2025 AGM

This is submitted by Vice-Chairs Gary Atkinson and Scott Thornton following the decision of Chair Tam Coyle to take temporary leave of absence from Community Council work.

In 2025 Glasgow city centre began undergoing its biggest upgrade in half a century, with a total of 16 streets being redesigned into Avenues.

Since several of the biggest projects, including redevelopment of George Square, are in the Merchant City and Trongate Community Council (MCTCC) area it has been a particularly busy year. The pace will accelerate in 2026 and beyond.

This has coincided with the 50th anniversary of Community Councils in Scotland – a proud record.

On a broader front various actions were taken forward within the Area Partnership (AP) of Community Councils within GCC Ward 10. At the most recent meeting  we secured funding for the renovation of the Tron Tower steeple and will continue to press for our area to receive its fair share of allocations from the AP’s Neighbour Infrastructure Improvement Fund.

On the Glasgow City Council (GCC) level office bearers have held many high level officers to present local residents’ views, aspirations and suggestions. These have notably included discussions, many initiated by our Planning Lead Ross Naismith, on Avenues and related projects. We – and the community – are grateful for his drive, determination and specialist knowledge.

MCTCC has not held back from expressing objections and putting forward alternatives where we believed these were justified and will continue to work with GCC in a spirit of partnership.

On George Square we vigorously, but unsuccessfully, pressed for inclusion of a water feature which we believe would have better highlighted Glasgow’s ambition.

Next year GCC will unveil its new City Development Plan (CDP), shaping Glasgow for the next 5-10 years, and MCTCC has been playing its part.

Under the leadership of David Hughes, and with public consultations co-ordinated by David Cowan and Niall McColl, we have drafted our own Local Place Plan (LPP) which will feed into the CDP. This is one of the most important documents ever prepared by this Community Council. It has highlighted the absence in Merchant City and Trongate of any community park, children’s playpark or community hub. We shall continue to fight for all three.

MCTCC has been among the most pro-active critics of the surge in Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) and is looking forward to taking part in a GCC public consultation in 2026. Objections are summarised in our LPP which seeks to make better use of land and property.

We have sought a moratorium on PBSAs and an increase on social housing and accommodation for families as GCC seeks to double the city centre population.

We put forward objections by local residents and businesses to planning applications by Homeless Project Scotland for its shelter and kitchen on Glassford Street, and will continue to monitor the situation on their behalf.

During the year we welcomed the arrival of the stylish Social Hub on Candleriggs.

MCTCC helped initiate a top level meeting, convened at Hampden Park by Glasgow Kelvin MSP Kaukab Stewart, with officials of the Scottish Professional Football League, Glasgow City Council, the Scottish Government, Police Scotland and Celtic and Rangers’ football clubs, to try to prevent a recurrence of large scale anti-social behaviour at and around Glasgow Cross by Celtic fans celebrating their team’s Premiership win in May. This has not yet yielded positive results and together with our neighbouring Calton Community Council we will continue to press for a lasting solution.

We have vigorously pursued various campaigns including the need for more recycling facilities, clean-ups of derelict construction sites and abandoned buildings, better control of busking and rough sleeping in the city centre, measures to stop graffiti and deter pigeon and seagull nuisance, and increase the number of trees (preferably planted ‘in ground’), a crack-down on pavement parking, and have called for a moratorium on parades – many of them sectarian.

During the year, under the leadership of David Hughes, MCTCC took the initiative to set up a Friends of the Ramshorn Graveyard (FORG). Tours of this historic graveyard, burial place of many of the city’s ‘Tobacco Barons,’ other rich merchants and city fathers and predating the Necropolis by more than 100 years, attracted 15 public tours and 251 attendees – including members of Impact Arts and Project Ability – over the summer.

We have played our part in improving the local environment by carrying out several litter picks.

MCTCC improved its reach-out to the local community with a new Website (mctcc.scot) which will be further enhanced in 2026 with information on local events and attractions. The main credit goes to Niall McColl who has also significantly increased our presence on Social Media.

We remain most appreciative of the ability to hold our monthly meetings in the splendid and inspiring surroundings of City Chambers and would like to record our appreciation of the assistance of duty management and security staff.

Our thanks go to our Ward Councillors (Eva Bolander, Philip Braat, Baillie Christie Mearns and Angus Millar) for their advice, assistance and interventions during the year. We realise we are only one of the many organisations and committees to which they devote their valuable time. Our constituency MP, John Grady, has also made himself readily available for help and advice.

Our regular meetings with Police Scotland (at Inspector and beat level) have again proved useful and informative. We appreciate police officers attending our monthly meetings to provide reports and answer residents’ questions and requests.

Other than a small annual administration grant from Glasgow City Council we rely on outside donations. Most of these have come from film companies as compensation for the inconvenience caused to local residents. This has allowed us to make contributions to various local good causes.

We are grateful to GCC’s Community Councils’ section which organised and facilitated useful training courses and meetings during the year.

The 2026 Commonwealth Games will bring tens of thousands of visitors to Glasgow and we look forward to playing our part in welcoming them and making Scotland’s largest city an even more pleasant place in which to live and work.

Thanks are due to all Community Councillors who have served during the year. All are volunteers with many other commitments. Giving up much of their valuable time is evidence of their dedication to the local community and Glasgow as a whole.

In addition to Ross, the Community Council has been greatly strengthened in 2025 by the arrival of Rachel Angus who has already been active on many fronts.

During the year Community Councillor Colin McKay resigned. We are grateful to him for his contribution.

We need more local residents to join us to help fulfil one of the main  aims of our Constitution which is ‘to act as a voice for the local area on any matters affecting the community’s lives, welfare and environment.’

Lastly but certainly not least, we would like to pay tribute to Tam Coyle who has a remarkable record of 20 years as a Community Councillor and has led MCTCC with distinction. We look forward to his return to continue to provide guidance and inspiration.