GLASGOW BUSINESS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
Stuart Patrick, Chief Executive
chiefexecutive@glasgowchamberofcommerce.com
Games is a catalyst to improve the city
The latest in our long-running series of meetings with the Leader of Glasgow City Council not surprisingly turned to the lessons learned from the London Olympics and to opportunities ahead for Glasgow and the Commonwealth Games. The Olympics were fresh in our mind and the spotlight is now moving on to us. At the same time we are busy engaging with our members and the wider business community on what should be in the next five-year City Centre Action Plan; looking at some of the challenges the city centre is facing and the Commonwealth Games has a role to play in that plan. I spent some time in London during the Olympics, and I must say it’s a struggle to say anything negative about what was a marvellously organised event. However, one issue to come out of it that
Stuart Patrick
“The City Centre Action Plan is a chance for us to get all the issues on the table and to get actions in place to deal with them”
EMPLOYER ENGAGEMENT CONSULTANT Selina Hales ~ 0141 204 8338
selina.hales@glasgowchamberofcommerce.com
EVENTS AND ONLINE CO-ORDINATOR Simon Gwynn ~ 0141 204 8319
simon.gwynn@
glasgowchamberofcommerce.com
MEMBER CO-ORDINATOR Kirsten Rice ~ 0141 204 8331
kirsten.rice@glasgowchamberofcommerce.com
CERTIFICATION ASSISTANT Yasmin Vasconcelos ~ 0141 204 8365
yasmin.vasconcelos@glasgowchamberof
commerce.com
attracted our interest as a Chamber was that of London city centre being very quiet during the Games, and the resultant impact on the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors. Thankfully, I’m confident that Glasgow’s experience will be different. London city centre’s quietness during the Olympics was to some extent inevitable given two things – firstly, Londoners took heed of warnings about the expected transport challenges by either working at home or leaving
town, and secondly, the role the Olympic Park played as a central facility where up to 300,000 people lingered both before and after events
drew thousands away who would otherwise
have been in central London. Add in all the other venues around London and it’s no surprise that normal business took a hit. These are things that shouldn’t be an issue
in Glasgow during the Commonwealth Games. Here, the venues are mostly located within a short travelling distance of the heart of the city and there won’t be a set up quite like the Olympic Park to act as a central gathering space – that’s what the city centre will be. Talking about the heart of the city, at this point
it’s worth mentioning the importance of the City Centre Action Plan and within that, the George Square redevelopment. The Chamber is already heavily involved in the wide-ranging consultation
Glasgow Business . 5
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A promotion fills new Deputy Chief Executive position 7
on the Action Plan, having held discussions with the commercial property sector and the retail sector, and we have discussions under way with the night- time economy, tourism and education sectors as well. All of these have a fundamental interest in how to attract custom into the city centre and depend on their ability to do that. With the Commonwealth Games next up and
attention switching to us, it’s important that we get as many things done before the Games so that Glasgow presents the best face possible to the world. A feature of that is how the city centre operates. The City Centre Action Plan is an important part
of preparing ourselves and, if we choose, can be part of the legacy. If we use the Games to remind ourselves just how good we want our city centre to be and if we make the right decisions to support investment now and in the longer-term future, we can maintain the progress we have made so far in transforming our city centre. The Commonwealth Games puts a real
timeframe and focus on these matters, and an urgency to get the city centre into the right shape and begin to tackle some of the fundamental challenges we still have there. On the whole, it is a transformed area 25 years
on from the low point of the 1980s, but we know we have problems that the economy is creating with vacant space – whether in retail or in office provision. We also have issues around how we fund maintenance, and although crime as a whole has reduced significantly, we still have issues about low-level crime and perceptions of crime. The City Centre Action Plan is a chance for us
to put all of these things on the table and to get actions in place to deal with them. This is not a leisurely process. We need to get things done quickly enough to tackle some of these things in time for the Commonwealth Games, so that after 2014 we are going to benefit from them and attract investment back into the city. That, at the end of the day, is what the Games
really do bring – a platform and catalyst to attract investment in the years to come.
CERTIFICATION ASSISTANT Lorraine Galbraith ~ 0141 204 8365
lorraine.galbraith@glasgowchamberof
commerce.com
PROJECTS ADMINISTRATOR Sarah Bird ~ 0141 204 8339
sarah.bird@
glasgowchamberofcommerce.com
FINANCE ASSISTANT Liz Mason ~ 0141 204 8329
liz.mason@
glasgowchamberofcommerce.com
RECEPTIONIST Dawn Chalmers ~ 0141 204 2121
dawn.chalmers@
glasgowchamberofcommerce.com
30 George Square, Glasgow G2 1EQ Tel: 0141 204 2121
www.glasgowchamberofcommerce.com
Glasgow Business is published bi-monthly for Glasgow Chamber of Commerce by Connect Communications, Studio 2001, Mile End, Seedhill Road, Paisley PA1 1JS.
ADVERTISING SALES Gina Ireland ~ 0141 204 2042
info@contactpublicity.co.uk
PRODUCTION Gary Atkinson ~ 0141 560 3024
gary@connectcommunications.co.uk
The views contained within Glasgow Business do not necessarily reflect those of Glasgow Chamber. Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of material contained in this publication, the publishers and Glasgow Chamber of Commerce can accept no responsibility for the claims made by contributors in either advertising or editorial content.
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