Sauchiehall Street traders form ‘task force’ as few elected councillors attend crucial meeting

Despite being invited by Pavilion Theatre manager Iain Gordon, very few elected members from the SNP-controlled Glasgow City Council showed up as worried business owners aired their concerns about their shops and restaurants.

Iain took the lead and rented out a room in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall to open dialogue with fellow businesses affected by two major blazes within months.

Traders at the meeting slammed the local authority for a lack of dialogue and dismissed council leader Susan Aitken’s comments that the council is speaking with businesses.

The meeting came a week after the world-renowned Glasgow School of Art’s (GSoA) Mackintosh Building - dubbed “the Mack” - went up in flames for the second time in four years, severely damaging the O2 ABC and Campus and shutting down the north end of Sauchiehall Street.

One business owner, who trades from the bottom end of the street, summed up the mood in the room when she said: “I’m sorry the Mack went on fire, but it’s actually helped us. And that’s sad.”

The south end of the street has been in lockdown since March after the iconic Victoria’s nightclub caught fire. Demolition workers have been taking the entire block down brick by brick in an operation which could last until August.

The owner of Bagel Mania, at the foot of GSoA, feared she would not be able to come back from the “disaster.”

She said: “I’ve been on that street for 21 years and, with no footfall, I don’t see me lasting much longer.”

Another restaurant owner pleaded with the council to give traders access to their units, even if just for an hour a day, amid concerns for food hygiene and infestation.

“We don’t want updates from the council after a day or so. We need to know what’s going on every minute, every hour.”

And Raymond Barlow, assistant head of building standards at Glasgow City Council, confirmed that “a lot” of asbestos is present in the rubble near the Pavilion, but that it’s not at “contamination” level and that the situation is being monitored closely.

He said: “In my 30 years of doing this, I’ve never come across such badly-damaged structures. We’ve had no choice but to take it down slowly as we couldn’t risk further damage to other buildings, including Lauder’s and the Pavilion.”

Labour & Co-op MP for Glasgow North East and Shadow Scotland Minister, Paul Sweeney, said the council had no protocol in place and was not equipped to deal with such an “unusual crisis.”

He also labelled Sauchiehall Street as “Glasgow’s Broadway” and another trader called for a regular “Sauchiehall Street festival” to help bring the area back to life.

Tory MSP for Glasgow, Adam Tomkins, labelled the council’s handling of of the situation “a disgrace” and said it was “chaos.”

The police were also heavily criticised for telling the public to “completely avoid” the 1.7-mile long Sauchiehall Street, a move that is affecting traders that are open for businesses.  

Graham Smith, economic development manager at Glasgow City Council, emphasised a need for a business information service for the south end of Sauchiehall Street after one was put into place for the north end in the Dental Hospital. He suggested a unit in the Savoy Centre be set up.

Prior to the meeting starting, the council said its experts urged people to stay away from GSoA and Sauchiehall Street with fears a building could collapse.

He said: “Surveys in recent days have shown us the west and east elevations remain of significant concern. This means there is a risk that parts of the building might fall into Scott Street or Dalhousie Street. This could happen without warning.”

Residents near GSoA also informed police of a series of small explosions that rang out before the fire devastated the Mack.

Our sister title The Herald was been told a number of residents were interviewed by police and told detectives they heard four or five “bangs” in the vicinity.

One resident is said to have told the force the “muffled pops” were sequential. But when he looked out of his window, he saw nothing and thought nothing more of it until he later saw flames rising from the building.

The alarm was raised at about 11.20pm last Friday and the explosions were heard sometime between 10.30pm and 11pm, it is understood.

At its peak, more than 120 firefighters battled the blaze.