City Plan 2

Every five years the City Plan for Glasgow is re-drafted. It is at these intervals that policy for development within the conservation areas is established. As this influences the outcome of development for the next 5 years we take the task of reviewing the proposed City Plan policies seriously. This can lead to objections to what has been tabled and the requirement to attend a Public Inquiry. We have previously outlined on the Leslie Street Greenspaces page our actions in that regard. However there were other items that were of concern such as:

1. The lack of a master plan for the area between East Pollokshields and Port Eglinton. Something we remain concerned about this. This has been frustrating particularly as we are conscious of other good work being done by the council elsewhere in Glasgow particularly the East End Local Development Strategy which addresses many of the points raised in our objection. It has also been frustrating to see concessions negotiated with the council at the inquiry being lost in the course of events. Whilst we were combating Network Rail over losing embankment trees at Maxwell Park in 2009 we were also combating several proposals to develop 4 and 5 storey buildings along the embankments at Darnley Street. If God is in the details so is the devil and in the original City Plan for some reason on the environmental designations map these small strips of land had been denoted for residential use even though the accompanying text indicated the embankments as forming part of the city’s wildlife corridor network. The draft City Plan 2 environmental designations map addressed this at first but halfway through the process a planning application based on City Plan 1 was approved leading to the re-drafting of the map, something we disagreed with as we cannot accept the need to build on these sites. Not only are they too tight to provide their own amenity space, which has then to be provided off site, we also feel it contrary to the original Pollokshields master plan. We believe the original intention was for buildings to address the railway with their public faces in a positive manner. We would point to Darnley Street, Terregles Avenue, and Fotheringay Road of successful examples of this. Sadly though the council planners conceded this point the planning application for a second of these sites, which was running concurrently, was approved on the basis of City Plan 1 less than two weeks later.
   
   
2. How the city’s streets are composed in a positive manner so as they assist sustainability through encouraging people to walk. Again we have used this as part of our criticism of the East Pollokshields and Port Eglinton developments. For instance contrast how one of the great tenemental streets of East Pollokshields, Glencairn Drive, is composed, and works, so that it is a pleasure to walk along. However the new Barrland Street developments at Eglinton Toll struggle to attain these qualities or learn the placemaking lessons from its successful near neighbour. If you want sustainable urban development that people will enjoy and grow to love then these are the details Glasgow has to think about. Arguably we can and have done better as a city. And to touch again on why good urban design and architecture does matter it is good to know that we aren’t alone in our criticisms as the new Plaza Ballroom development at Eglinton Toll was voted the winner of the Zit Building Award in the 2009 Carbuncle Awards.

City Plan 2 has now been adopted by Glasgow City Council and you can find it via the link posted below. However, the announcement hadn’t even been made before preliminary works on City Plan 3 started. Our efforts go on!

http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/Business/CityPlan/