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In January last year, I headed out into a gloomy Glasgow evening to attend the a public meeting on ‘the future of Shawlands’. A lot was said, but at the time I was concerned it was all, er, hot air. I finished my write-up with this:

This meeting seemed to agree at the outset that there should be an action plan, but I’m still at a bit of a loss as to what the next steps will be, and/or who will be involved. I [agree] we don’t really need more ineffectualy bureaucracy or groups, so hope somebody will take a solid and active role in driving it forward over the next few months.

Perhaps I live in some home-worker, running obsessed bubble, but I’ve heard precisely nothing since last years meeting. I know I’ve not exactly gone hunting, but I’ve had a few other things going on that have occupied my time.

So I’ve just read, on southside happenings, that there’s a survey out (see see the end of this post for links). If this is the first thing to have happened, and it’s just a request for more information and feedback, I’m not going to hold out much hope this is little more than a further attempt to be seen to be seeking opinion, rather than actually getting on and doing anything.

Cynic that I may be, so many politicians love ‘consulting’ then doing precisely what they intended all along (having created the impression of having listened), or – worse still – hoping the consultation process will be seen as a substitute for action.

I’d suggest the main feedback will, in any case, be ‘demolish the arcade’, which is the main and understandable demand of so many residents. However I very much doubt that’s going to happen any time soon, without demonstrating there viable business location for investors to fund such. It’s certainly not the councils job to. On that note I did provide a few ideas of my own – ones which are actionable – for how things could be improved under their own merit and perhaps lead on to redevelopment. There have been a few changes for the good in the area (a few new shops have appeared), but there have been setbacks (Woolworths has furthered reduced the arcade’s open shops), but I’ve not noted much determined effort. But I could have missed attempts to publicise this and other efforts since the meeting. But I really do look out for such things in the places I visit.

I’ll fill in the survey sure enough, but I do get the feeling there is no sense of urgency here, and this is very little more than window dressing on an effort that’s not going anywhere fast. I look very much forward to being proven wrong.

Shawlands Town Centre Action Plan

This survey has been developed by Glasgow City Council to help prepare an Action Plan for Shawlands. The aim is to find out how you feel about Shawlands Town Centre, how often you use it, and how you think it can be improved.

The survey boundary encompasses all of the retail units from the Pollokshaws East Station railway bridge, (270 Kilmarnock Road to Queens Park at 970 Pollokshaws Road). It also includes all businesses contained in Shawlands Arcade, Minard Road and Skirving Street the new Tesco Metro block at the southern end of Kilmarnock Road and also Newlandsfield, Morrison’s.

The survey will take around 10 minutes to complete but the information you provide will be extremely helpful to us in taking the centre forward.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 8:38 am and is filed under Glasgow, Politics, Southside. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.