Living and Working: Glasgow
{mosimage}The Dear Green Place
Care Appointments Scotland turns the living and working spotlight on Glasgow.
Glasgow, with a population of 600,000, is Scotland’s largest city, is the commercial capital of Scotland and the UK’s largest retail centre after London.
Glasgow is one of Europe’s top 20 financial centres and is home to many of Scotland’s leading businesses. The city houses many wonderful municipal art galleries and museums, first class sports and leisure facilities; excellent theatres; an array of restaurants, pubs and clubs; and beautiful parks. Spectacular countryside and coastal views are within easy reach and the city is only 42 miles from Edinburgh.
The city is administered by Glasgow City Council with the municipal headquarters, the City Chambers, situated in George Square, at the heart of the city.
The City Council works with partner agencies including Scottish Enterprise, the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Valley Tourist Board, Greater Glasgow Health Board, public sector organisations, educational institutions and the private and voluntary sectors to raise the profile of the city and make it an attractive place to live in, study in, work in, or visit.
Transport
Glasgow is a major focal point in the Scottish transport system with a comprehensive internal transport network including motorways, the UK’s second largest suburban commuter rail network and an underground system. Around 50 bus companies continue to operate within Glasgow, the dominant operator being First Glasgow. High levels of investment by the major operators, coupled to the increasing deployment of low-floor, low-emission, single-deck and midi-buses underline the recent improvement in the quality of local bus services.
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Local rail services provide an alternative to the car in congested urban corridors. Mainline services from Queen Street feed to the north, north-east and Edinburgh. Central Station provides services to London and the south. Suburbs in the north-west and south-east of the City are linked across the Clyde by the Argyle line. The Cross City Rail project will link rail networks north and south of the Clyde.
The Glasgow Cycle Network Plan, launched in 1998, comprises 116km of routes which, by completion in 2012, will facilitate travel, by bicycle, throughout the City.
Glasgow International Airport, located 8 miles west of the City Centre on the M8 motorway, is Scotland’s premier international gateway and in 2003, handled 8,117,600 passengers. Open 24 hours a day, it is Scotland’s busiest airport and the sixth busiest in the UK with an average of 250 flights a day to 82 destinations throughout Britain, Europe and North America.{mospagebreak}
Economy and Employment
Producing some 16.0% of Scotland’s gross domestic product (GDP), Glasgow remains the economic heart of the Scottish economy. The challenge is to improve Glasgow’s employment base by helping to generate a faster rate of employment growth. The City Council state that this will be achieved through improving the City’s competitiveness in attracting investment and by helping City residents gain those jobs that are available.
Over the period Spring 1998 to Spring 2002, the number of Glasgow residents in work rose from 212,000 to 234,000 – that is 22,000 more residents were in work in 2002 than in 1998. Male residents in work rose from 110,000 to 122,000, while female residents in work increased from 102,000 to 112,000.
Local economic and social improvement initiatives have been established in traditionally depressed areas to assist regeneration. It is also evident that the growing number of service related jobs is being concentrated in and around the City Centre, with less employment being retained in the more ‘traditional’ industrial areas.
Households and Housing
The latest (2003) population estimate for Glasgow is 585,090. The most recent forecast anticipates a further population decline of, on average 1,100 per year for the decade to 2011, although this represents a slow down in the rate of population loss. Despite the decline in population, the number of households continues to rise, reaching an estimated 275,200 in 2001. The latest projection for the City suggests that this figure will increase to 291,400 by 2011, mainly through the rise in the number of single person households.
Favourable market conditions, and the continuing availability of land, has led to a sustained increase in the number of houses completed in the private and public sectors. The growth in the owner-occupied sector, assisted by low interest rates and the right-to-buy process, has been balanced by a decline in the demand for social rented stock.
Private sector house building in Glasgow has been at a consistently high level, with completions averaging over 1,900 per annum between 1995-96 and 2000-01. This performance was surpassed in 2001-02 and 2002-03, with completion figures of 2,414 houses and 2,406 houses respectively; the former representing the highest ever private sector completions in a year in Glasgow.{mospagebreak}
Education
Within Glasgow, a system of comprehensive education is operated by the local authority. Primary schools cater for pupils between the ages of 5 and 12 and secondary schools for pupils between the ages of 12 and 18. There are 184 primary schools and 29 secondary schools in the City. The 2003 primary school roll of 43,085 compares with a roll of 65,000 in 1981. The 2003 secondary school roll of 29,238 compares with a roll of 58,000 in 1981. There are approximately 5,770 teachers employed in the education service.
There are 3 universities in the City (Glasgow, Strathclyde and Caledonian), 10 further education colleges and a number of special educational facilities such as the Glasgow School of Art and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. The 3 universities account for almost 50,000 students. Further education colleges have over 71,500 students on a variety of full-time, part-time, sandwich and block release courses.
Health and Care
Over the last 50 years, there have been significant improvements in Glasgow’s health due to better social, economic and environmental conditions backed up by medical advances and improvements in health and social care.
Major investment in Glasgow’s healthcare system is currently under way and new, forward looking partnership working is being embraced a the very centre of care provision (see feature on CHSCPs in this issue). The most significant investment in the history of Glasgow’s healthcare is the £750 million required to modernise and refurbish the City’s hospitals between now and 2012. This will lead to modern buildings delivering reorganised services fit for 21st Century healthcare needs. Investment will lead, for example, to delivery of two new Ambulatory Care Hospitals to replace the Victoria Infirmary and Stobhill Hospital (by 2007), a new South Glasgow University Hospital, a new Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre at Gartnavel General Hospital (also by 2007) and reformed Accident and Emergency services led by two new, dedicated 24-hour expert care centres at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and the South Glasgow Hospital.{mospagebreak}
Sport and Leisure
Sport and recreation in Glasgow makes a positive contribution to the health, wellbeing and quality of life of individuals, the City’s economy and the education and training of Glasgow’s citizens. The City is the only Scottish City to be designated a National City of Sport and was designated European Capital of Sport for 2003.
Sports development programmes are supported by the provision of a network of high quality sport and leisure facilities including a network of 17 indoor community facilities which comprise 6 leisure centres (with pool and sports facilities), 5 swimming pools and 6 sports centres.
Glasgow continues to stage a wide range of national and international sporting events. These bring participants and spectators from far and wide into the City.
Culture and Attractions
The foundation of Glasgow’s success is built to a large extent on key events such as the opening of the Burrell Collection in 1983, the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988, the designation as the Cultural Capital of Europe in 1990 and as the UK City of Architecture and Design 1999.
With over 1 million visits annually, the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is the most popular Gallery & Museum in the United Kingdom, outside London. Currently closed for refurbishment, it houses one of the greatest civic art collections in Europe, including work by Botticelli and Rembrandt as well as work by numerous Scottish artists. Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum also houses displays of natural history and European arms and armour and hosts major visiting exhibitions. The museum is undergoing a massive refurbishment (until later this year) to secure its popularity into the 21st century.
Glasgow’s international standing in the art world has never been higher, with the emergence of a number of important new artists over the past two decades. The Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), opened in 1996, provides an opportunity to see the latest art from Glasgow and the rest of the world.
The St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art is situated in one of the most historically rich areas of the City, adjacent to the medieval Glasgow Cathedral and Provand’s Lordship (Glasgow’s oldest building, dating from the 1470s). For the first time in a museum in the UK, the world’s major faiths are explored in a serene setting. Highlights include the only authentic Japanese Zen garden in Britain and Salvador Dali’s Christ of St John of the Cross.
The work of Glasgow’s most celebrated architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, can be seen in Scotland Street School Museum. Built in 1906, it captures the atmosphere of Glaswegian schooldays from the Victorian era through to the current day. Displays tell the story f Mackintosh’s design, and his sometimes fraught relationship with the school authorities. Another Mackintosh building, Martyrs’ School, is one of his earliest, opened in 1897 as a primary school for the children of the surrounding area of Townhead.
The Glasgow City Council Apprenticeship Scheme restored Martyrs’ School in 1999, with funding from the European Regional Development Fund. Martyrs’ School is open to the public by appointment, arranged by ringing St Mungo Museum.
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