Glasgow is to set up an Alternative Giving scheme to help transform the lives of people of who participate in begging.

An online donation facility, contactless giving points and a website will be created so people can contribute to a fund which will pay for practical items such as clothes to attend a job interview, tickets for public transport to access training or essential tools or safety equipment to start work.

Third Sector partners including Simon Community Scotland, Glasgow Homelessness Network and The Big Issue are teaming up with the city council, the Chamber of Commerce and Police Scotland, to create a scheme similar to one in Manchester.

Assistance provided will be practical and tailored to a person’s individual needs. Partners, such as the Simon Community, who work with vulnerable people , will apply to the fund on their behalf. Decisions on support will be made quickly to ensure people are able to seize opportunities to improve their lives.

Businesses and other city organisations will be invited to become ambassadors for the scheme, providing “in kind”, financial support or work experience for suitable candidates. Firms tendering for council contracts may also be encouraged to back the scheme via “community benefit” clauses.

The city’s Begging Strategy Group visited Manchester and Liverpool to learn how difference alternative giving schemes operate successfully and what type would be most suitable for Glasgow. Members also liaised with Cardiff, Cambridge and the Association of City and Town Centre Managers.

Councillor Allan Casey, Chair of the Begging Strategy Group, said: “Glasgow is a generous city and people care deeply about those who are vulnerable and marginalised. They regularly give their spare change to people who are begging. This may help in the short term, but may not bring about positive, long term change in that person’s life.

“The new alternative giving scheme will offer the public a new way to help, which aims to deliver long term change for individuals – giving them personalised practical support to improve their lives by pursuing positive paths.

“Not everyone who begs is homeless, but this scheme will operate in tandem with existing services in the city such as the new roving Digital Inclusion Officer, the Housing First Scheme and homelessness services. We aim to remove barriers preventing people from rising out of poverty and no longer having to participate in begging.”

People with personal experience of begging in Glasgow will be involved in the scheme’s creation and also in deciding which applications are approved.

Street Change Glasgow is another initiative by the city’s Begging Strategy Group which aims to ensure people do not have to beg. A Digital Inclusion Officer was recently employed to work alongside the Simon Community’s Street Team. She goes out to talk to people who are begging and uses a tablet computer to ensure they are registered to receive all the benefits they are entitled to, as well as preparing them for the transition to Universal Credit.

SETTLEMENT of Glasgow’s long-running equal pay dispute is set to move a step closer, with councillors being asked to formally approve a cash offer to claimants.

Earlier this month, the council and the equal pay claimant group represented by Action4Equality, UNISON, GMB and UNITE reached an agreement in principle on a package of payments worth around £500 million.

Today [Friday, 1 Feb], the council published a report that will go before members of its City Administration Committee next week.

In addition to asking councillors to approve the deal, the report outlines how the settlement will be funded – with some of the city’s property assets to be used to unlock loans.

Council leader Susan Aitken said she expects members to back her deal, which could see claimants receive compensation payments from as early as June this year.

“I’m delighted that we have agreement with the claimants and to be able to recommend to my colleagues a deal that finally delivers pay justice for thousands of women in our workforce,” she said.

“After a decade going round in circles in the courts, we have reached a fair settlement through twelve months of tough but open and honest negotiations.

“This report is our opportunity to put right a wrong that has damaged the council, its workforce and the city for too long. I trust that every member will want to take that opportunity.”

The paper, which will go to committee on Thursday, February 7, also includes further detail on how the council plans to meet the cost of the settlement – seeking authority to use property assets to secure loans.

Wholly-owned arm’s-length company City Property Glasgow Investments LLP is currently engaging lenders with the aim of refinancing a loan originally taken in 2010 – releasing significant additional value due to a growth in the value of its assets and more favourable interest rates.

It is also proposed that the council will sell a significant further portfolio of operational buildings to City Property and then lease them back at a commercial rate.

The purchase would be funded by long-term loans, with the lease payments meeting the annual cost of the borrowing.

Crucially, this means the buildings would remain in the city’s ownership and users would not see any difference in how they access them on a day-to-day basis.

Discussions are still ongoing with potential funders, however the council expects the Emirates Arena, Riverside Museum, SEC Armadillo, Scotstoun Leisure Centre, Tollcross International Swimming Centre, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow Museums Resource Centre, City Halls, Toryglen Football Centre, Gorbals Leisure Centre and Bellahouston Leisure Centre to become part of the City Property portfolio.

Cllr Aitken said: “I’ve always been clear that, although settling equal pay has been about delivering justice for thousands of the women in our workforce, meeting the substantial cost of doing that must be fair for citizens.

“Releasing the potential of our property, while keeping it in the city’s ownership, protects services and the future of these valued assets.”

PARTNERS working to deliver a new transport link to Glasgow Airport are developing plans for a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) scheme, as a potential alternative to a tram train.

PRT – which operates at a number of other airports, including Heathrow – was identified as one of two options for airport access in an original Strategic Business Case in 2016.

Partners now believe that it is likely to emerge as the preferred option and will ask the City Region Cabinet to approve work on an Outline Business Case, to be completed later this year.

A meeting of the project’s Executive Steering Group, on Wednesday, heard that the scheme could be delivered within the existing budget and timescale, being operational 2025.

Leader of Glasgow City Council, Cllr Susan Aitken said: “Improved connectivity to Glasgow Airport is a key priority; however the advice from officers and consultants is that significant questions remain about the deliverability of the current tram train option, particularly in relation to capacity at Central Station.

“As a result, the Executive Steering Group has agreed that additional work should be done to establish an alternative Outline Business Case for a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) option. This work was not advanced by the previous City Deal Cabinet, but it is now crucial in order to allow us to make a fully informed choice about which of the options in front of us should be progressed.

“I remain committed to a solution that delivers improved public transport connectivity to Glasgow Airport – but I am determined that it should also provide value for money for the city, and deliver the widest possible inclusive economic benefits. I’m confident that we have made significant progress towards that outcome today.”

Renfrewshire Council Leader Iain Nicolson said: “This is a really positive step forward and recognition that a transport link between Glasgow City Centre, Paisley and Glasgow Airport is critical to the success of the city region economy.

“It is important we get the right solution which takes in to account competing demands on the existing rail network and delivers for the whole of the City Region. In order to ensure we get the right solution, we now have a clear way forward and agreement to look at a business case for a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system, which can be delivered quickly and finally make the connection between the Airport and the city that business leaders and investors are crying out for.

“Renfrewshire Council is fully supportive of this approach and will be seeking Cabinet approval in the next few weeks to develop an outline business case to deliver a PRT for 2025.”

Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity Michael Matheson said: “The Scottish Government is committed to the Glasgow City Region Deal and wish to see it succeed, so I’m pleased we have agreement on the way forward for this important project from all members of the Executive Steering Group.

“It’s crucial that improving access to Glasgow Airport is balanced with the needs of the region’s existing transport network. The Personal Rapid Transit system option potentially meets this aim, and I look forward to seeing the revised business case once it’s completed.”

Mark Johnston, managing director at Glasgow Airport, said: “We welcomed the opportunity to meet with the councils and the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Michael Matheson MSP, who convened the meeting to discuss the Glasgow Airport Access Project.

“Over the course of the past 10 years, we have been working with partners to address the long standing issue of access to and from Glasgow Airport. With the recent Jacobs report having confirmed congestion on the M8 has reached record levels there is an acceptance by all involved that doing nothing is not an option.

“We were informed that due to issues around rail capacity the project partners are developing an alternative option. This will be evaluated and we will of course work with the partners to promote the delivery of an effective solution within the agreed timescale.”

Although the detail of a PRT scheme would be developed through the new business case, it would be likely to see passengers use the existing rail network between Central Station and Paisley Gilmour Street – and a second shuttle or pod vehicle between Paisley and the airport.

Glasgow City Council has appointed Professor Brian Evans as its first City Urbanist.

This new role will see Professor Evans – a professor in Urbanism and Landscape at The Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh School of Architecture, and one of the UK’s leading urbanists – work with councillors, officers, the design community, and city partners and stakeholders to enhance Glasgow’s approach to place-making and connectivity.

He will work with politicians and senior officers to develop and embed an approach to ‘place quality’ in all of the plans and strategies that are implemented by the council family that affect how we live including housing, business, environment, transport and place connectivity.

The City Urbanist will galvanise resources that already exist and connect activity across the council family and the design community, in all functions that affect ‘liveability’ in Glasgow, to provide an over-arching narrative and get the best out of the key place-making policy in the City Development Plan

Professor Evans is a graduate of both of Glasgow’s architecture schools (The Glasgow School of Art and the University of Strathclyde).

He has enjoyed a distinguished career, including with Gillespies, an international landscape architecture and urban design practice, and played a leading role the design and delivery of the Glasgow Garden Festival (1988), the Glasgow Public Realm Strategy (1995) and the Buchanan Street Project (2001).  He led the team that transformed the public realm of Grainger Town in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and key spaces within the World Heritage Site in Edinburgh including the highly acclaimed and award-winning redesign of St Andrew Square (2009).

Working in 20 countries across three continents, Professor Evans has in recent years led teams to win international competitions to work on the expansion of the City of Moscow (2013), the transformation of the River Moscow (2014) and the expansion of Suzhou, China (2014).

Professor Evans was founding Deputy Chair of Architecture and Design Scotland and a founder and director of the Academy of Urbanism, London, and is also an adviser to the United Nations in Geneva.  In 2017, the United Nations established a Charter Centre for Sustainable Urbanism at The Urban Lab, which he directs based at The Glasgow School of Art.

Applications for the role of Glasgow’s City Urbanist were invited from independent, strategic, thinkers with a proven track record in influencing the delivery of ambitious place-making policies on the ground, operating in the fields of urban design, architecture, urbanism, landscape architecture, or planning with multi-disciplinary, partnership working at city scale. The part-time role will also see Professor Evans act as a bridge between the council, communities and developers.

Councillor Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “I am very pleased that Professor Brian Evans has agreed to take on the challenge of the new role of City Urbanist. He will make a great addition to the team as we take forward the next stage in the history of this great city.

“Brian brings into the council a great understanding of our city formed over years in the private sector and a distinguished career in the academic sector and in promoting best practice in urban development and place making for the Scottish and UK Governments and internationally.

“There are great designers and planners working in Glasgow across the public and private sectors.  The City Government is committed to working with them to make Glasgow the best place it can be.  We see this being delivered through a consistent and long-term commitment to place-making and best use of the city’s assets.  Brian’s appointment is an important step in delivering that.”

Professor Evans said: “It is characteristic of Glasgow to look forward and think creatively about the ways the city works for people. We should think about the design of Glasgow as an international city, a metropolitan city and, most importantly, as the everyday city of residents, businesses and visitors and I’m honoured to be asked to play a role and to take a strategic view on place, design and the city. I’ll be working alongside the City Council and its partners to complement existing capacity, stretch thinking on design and help identify gaps in knowledge and understanding.”

Muriel Gray, Chair of the Board of Governors of The Glasgow School of Art, said: “Brian’s appointment reflects both the importance of urban design and place making to Glasgow’s future as a leading global city, and how the skills and knowledge that exist within The Glasgow School of Art can be applied to help to develop and improve life in the city.”