GLASGOW City Council has approved the strategic development framework (SDF) for its city centre.
The SDF will guide the development of the city centre over the next 30 years, in a bid to turn it into a vibrant, inclusive, sustainable and liveable area that is people-centred, climate-resilient, fosters creativity and opportunity and promotes social cohesion, health and wellbeing and economic prosperity.
The local authority identified six ambitions to help achieve their vision. These are to reinforce the centre’s economic competitiveness; re-populate the centre; reconnect the centre with surrounding communities and its riverside; reduce traffic dominance and car dependency; green the centre and make it climate resilient; and repair, restore and enhance the urban fabric.
The council said that an increase in the population of the centre will ensure a greater blend of land and building uses at a neighbourhood level – as well as encouraging a diverse range of attractions, public and play spaces, and retail offerings.
Councillor Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, said, “This is a vision for 2050; but our transition to that future city centre, with a population double what it is now, has already begun. The framework will guide just how we establish a better, more people-focused and resilient centre over the next 30 years – an attractive place in which to live, work, study, visit and invest that can compete with any other city. That means creating new ’20-minute neighbourhoods’: communities within our city centre with all the services that people need close to their homes – and a green grid made up of a simplified network of streets that make it easy and enjoyable to get around.”
