Demolish vacant retail units. And reimagine them as open public areas

The Herald Scotland

11-06-2025

Upon exiting Marks & Spencer on Argyle Street, shoppers are immediately confronted with a depressing view: derelict, vandalised buildings that speak volumes about neglect.
This isn't an isolated issue—it's symptomatic of a wider problem affecting the entire city centre.
While every part of the city deserves care and attention, the area outside one of Glasgow's most prominent and long-established retailers should offer a far better impression.
Instead, it leaves visitors with a sense of decay and missed opportunity.
These vacant units have remained empty for far too long, and it's increasingly clear that many will never see meaningful investment. At best, they may be temporarily occupied without any long-term benefit to the community or the economy.
It may sound drastic, but perhaps it's time to consider more radical solutions—such as demolition and reimagining these spaces as open public areas.
Bold thinking is required to revive the heart of Glasgow and restore civic pride.
Stuart Hindmarsh, Cambuslang, Glasgow.
Read more:
A weighty issue for electric cars
As we begin to embrace the age of electric cars, perhaps we should consider the increased weight of these vehicles and the subsequent damage they are doing to our crumbling roads.
For example, a petrol-powered Golf weighs in at 1250kg, whereas its electric equivalent comes in at 1585kg.
In addition, most cars, regardless of their powertrain, seem to be getting larger and heavier.
Perhaps the DVLA should consider an additional tax on the weight of vehicles which would be directed to the repair and maintenance of our roads.
Alan R Melville, Newlands, Glasgow.
Benefits of Gaelic schooling
I refer to recent publicity and a letter on June 10 ('Why spending £2m on a Gaelic primary is a dubious allocation of public funds') about the renovation of St James Primary School in Glasgow and its planned reopening as a Gaelic medium primary.
There are many reasons in favour of this. There is no other primary school for a considerable distance; many new houses and flats are being, and have been built, in the area; people with young children have moved out of the area because of the lack of schools.
The other primary school nearby has been allowed to decay, so that only the front facade will be retained when flats are built behind it. And if we want people to live in the city then presumably some of these people will have children, who will need schools.
Why is it to be a Gaelic medium school?
One reason given to me, by someone who has lived here all his life is, that it avoids the debate as to whether it should be a Catholic or a Protestant, a debate that casts a cloud over the west of Scotland.
A big reason in favour, though, is that Gaelic schools are popular and the education is seen as good.
Research shows that children who are bi-lingual have an educational advantage and more easily learn other languages, being open to the quirks that every language seems to have.
My granddaughter is now in P5 in Gaelic medium education and is doing fine; not only can she speak English and Gaelic but she is also learning some Spanish in school and is a very rounded individual.
Patricia Fort, Glasgow.
Sweating the small stuff
One of the subtler joys of the Letters page is the thought given to the headings that marking out our missives.
Were darker arts afoot, though, in the subliminal off-setting of Eric Macdonald's important concerns ('Below the belt', June 9), regarding the disturbing new front opened by the oppressive forces of the personal hygiene industry in its forever war agitating shame over our natural body smells?
A column to the left, David Bradshaw's ostensible plea for sympathy with predatory wildlife was introduced with the heading: 'Lynx are not a danger to people.'
James Macleod, Cardonald, Glasgow.
Economic lunacy and visual blight
SSEN'S recently-announced £20 billion 'Pathway to 2030' programme appears hell-bent on carpeting northern Scotland with unsightly industrial infrastructure – the Netherton Hub in Longside, 400 kV lines, and substations at New Deer, Kintore, Tealing, and Stornoway's HVDC hubs.
This industrial sprawl, justified despite Scotland and the UK's negligible contribution to global emissions, also burdens consumers with crippling costs. Exporting intermittent wind power over vast distances via costly pylons and cables is not just inefficient – it's economic lunacy.
Ed Miliband's nuclear expansion highlights the unreliability of wind, requiring costly nuclear and gas backups alongside this massive grid investment. Why pursue this insanity when the UK's total direct emissions are a global rounding error?
Labour and the SNP's obsession with exporting erratic energy drives up bills through subsidies, transmission costs, and risky storage schemes. Consumers and businesses now face soaring electricity prices without transparency on who pays.
In my view, intermittent power should stay local, powering high-value industries like AI data centres and green hydrogen – sectors that create real jobs and long-term economic growth. Instead, communities like Longside are left with visual blight and little local benefit. Energy providers must answer: Why do UK consumers pay the highest energy bills in Europe? Why fund distant energy 'exports' with taxes instead of growing local industries? Why avoid regional pricing that would reveal true costs.
In summary, Labour and SNP policies risks fuelling voter anger, rightly handing Reform UK a sweeping electoral win if polices continue to damage industrial users and consumers alike. We must demand transparency and a shift toward local energy use that supports job creation – not the reckless export of unreliable power through unnecessary infrastructure.
Ian Lakin, Milltimber, Aberdeen.