Drew Sandelands

20 hours ago | barrheadnews.com | Drew Sandelands

External consultancy firms are hired by councils to give advice or carry out projects on their behalf. Councillors in East Renfrewshire previously agreed to review the log of expenditure each year, after concerns were raised in 2018 over the “extent to which external consultants were being used by the authority”. Details of the spend in the financial year 2024/25 were included in a recent report to the council’s audit and scrutiny committee.

1 day ago | thenational.scot | Drew Sandelands

Glasgow City Council has received an application from Surplus Property Investments which requests permission to develop empty land at Festival Gate — near the BBC’s Pacific Quay headquarters. The old dockland was used for the Garden Festival in 1988, which attracted over four million visitors to the city. Since the end of the festival, several projects have been proposed for the site but none have resulted in development.

2 days ago | glasgowtimes.co.uk | Drew Sandelands

There needs to be a “deeper and more comprehensive acknowledgement” of Glasgow as a “rainy city” in the council’s development plan, Bailie Paul McCabe, SNP, believes. He is planning to present a motion to a full council meeting this week which pushes for a “living with rain approach to planning”. The city gets 1370mm of rainfall each year.

2 days ago | glasgowtimes.co.uk | Drew Sandelands

The owners recently secured permission from the city’s licensing board for the Union Street venue to open “into the wee hours” — without serving alcohol. But an application to vary the premises licence for the Argyle Street cafe was continued on Friday, as board members revealed they had concerns following a visit to Sexy Coffee. Cllr Dan Hutchison, Greens, said the staff present had been unable to answer “a series of questions about licensing”.

4 days ago | glasgowtimes.co.uk | Drew Sandelands

High Street station. Image from Google Maps. A revamp of the entrance to Glasgow’s High Street station has moved a step closer as design work is set to get underway. Glasgow City Council has approved awarding £120,000 to Network Rail to develop plans for refurbishment of the façade. It is expected to cost around £3m. Plans for a complete redevelopment of the station — which would have included new lifts to improve accessibility — were put on hold last year due to a lack of funding.