The Glasgow City Council reply below is in response to queries regarding the Liveable Neighbourhoods project, the Inner East Strategic Development Framework the Neighbourhood Infrastructure Improvement Fund, and Citizens’ Panels participatory funding arrangements, submitted by Dennistoun Community Council to the Director of GCC Neighbourhoods, Regeneration and Sustainability.
A PDF version of the GCC reply is available here.
GCC Reply: Wednesday 18th January 2023
Firstly thank you for noting that the Dennistoun Community Council welcome the principle and proposals of the Liveable Neighbourhood Plan (LNP).
Below are the links to the Committee Papers that provides much of the information you require.
The long list of 25 project proposals is a library of potential interventions and identified ‘community wants’ that relate to the core themes of the Liveable Neighbourhoods Programme. Through the Liveable Neighbourhoods programme potential projects are being generated throughout the city covering multiple constituencies and neighbourhoods; therefore a ‘broad-brush approach’ is required.
1. Does “Live/Planned” mean a specific Council team and/or source of finance has been identified or allocated that will enable these to progress? If so, what are the details? If not, who has responsibility for the progression of each of these projects beyond the Stage 1 report longlist?
The LNP is funded by Transport Scotland through Sustrans for three Tranches of RIBA Stage 0-2 only. The Stage 0-2 work allows for projects to be put forward for funding opportunities and/or other organisations such as Housing Associations and community groups to apply for funding that the Council cannot access. Please note that there is no obligation or statutory responsibility for other organisations to progress any projects. The Stage 0-1 provides background and a base for developing projects through the Council or in partnership and collaboration with local organisations.
“Live/Planned” refers to an element or the whole of a project that is already identified or planned, or in strategies such as the City Development Plan/SDF or is underway through the council or other organisations. This was taken into consideration when reviewing the projects that were taken forward to RIBA Stage 2.
The Live/Planned Projects:
- Duke Street & Alexandra Parade/Alexandra Cross Streets for People – As noted in the table columns in the document, the identified Streets for People are planned through the Active Travel City Network. This is in development and will be a medium to long term delivery. This is being led by the Active Travel Strategy Team and is aimed to be completed by the Council by 2030 (funding permitting). Please note that Duke Street (High Street to Bellgrove) is part of the City Deal (Block S).
- Dennistoun Streets for People – GCC Colleagues are currently trying to procure consultants in order to recommence the proposals for parking measures with complimentary Neighbourhood Filtered Permeability interventions. It is hoped that re-engagement with the local community will commence in April 2023.
- Hogarth Park AT route – This was originally protected for the East End Regeneration Route. On 28th October 2021 [link] the council agreed that the EERR would no longer be pursued and that the conversion of the former Riddrie/Haghill railway line to a new active travel route should be explored as part of development of Active Travel plans and Liveable Neighbourhood engagement work. This is being progressed by the LN team seeking RIBA stage 3 & 4 funding from Sustrans.
- Reinstating Parkhead Railway Station is noted in the Inner East SDF as well as several supporting comments through engagement. There is no team/resource identified or allocated.
The ‘Not live/Planned’ identified projects are those that have been generated through the engagement process. As mentioned, thestage 0-2 work allows for projects to be put forward for funding opportunities that arise.
2. Aside from the Railway Bridges project which is currently being progressed to RIBA Stage 2 as part of the LN process, who has responsibility for the progression of each of these projects beyond the Stage 1 Report longlist?
As in the previous question there is no direct assigned responsibility. This is a library of projects that have been identified through engagement as a resource for when opportunities of funding become available. Funding is not guaranteed, nor are opportunities consistent. This background information is extremely useful in applying when the opportunity does arise. For example, if a one-off fund is announced, such as the Levelling-Up fund, the collected information provides the justification of a project and timely application. The Liveable Neighbourhoods team will continue to review funding opportunities including the NIIF.
3. Which projects are expected to be delivered by external groups? And in those cases, in what ways is GCC planning to pro-actively identify relevant external groups and engage with them to ensure the best opportunity for all projects to progress beyond the longlist?
Part of the consultant’s brief was to identity relevant external groups and projects which was undertaken with assistance from the Neighbourhood Liaison Officers. Projects are not ‘expected’ to be delivered by external groups but can be progressed through collaboration and support from the Liveable Neighbourhoods team through the RIBA Stage 1 document. Any interested organisation can use the document as a base with support from the council to progress projects for funding opportunities; for example, the Cranhill Development Trust with development of the area surrounding the Cranhill Community Centre. This is not limited to the identified projects, as undoubtedly new ideas and proposals will be developed over time through various sources.
The Liveable Neighbourhood programme has a finite budget and is only available to immediately take forward a small number of projects (depending on scale and complexity) to RIBA Stage 2 (concept design).
Five projects were progressed to RIBA Stage 2 for the Dennistoun to Cranhill LN area. These were displayed at the exhibition and will be presented to the ESCR Committee in January 2023. Funding applications have been submitted to Sustrans to progress three of these projects.
- Riddrie Town Centre
- Carntyne Civic Square
- Hogarth Park Active Travel Route
At this moment, the Dennistoun Bridges project has not been put forward for the Dennistoun area by the LN team for stage 3-4 (Developed -Technical Design).This is due to many dependencies such as land ownership and the development of surrounding land for passive surveillance.
The Dennistoun locality meets many of the LN/20-minute neighbourhood criteria, it is a well-connected thriving place and is one of the least deprived locations identified in the Study area. Alexandra Parade and Duke Street, which bound the area, will be taken forward as part of the City Network through Glasgow’s Active Travel Strategy to be delivered by 2030: ”Connectivity, People and Place: Interim Delivery Plan for the City Network” [link].
4. What are the timescales being identified here, in terms of months or years?
An indicative timeline is displayed below. However due to the need to seek funding for each of the groupings of RIBA Stages, and coordinating delivery with other services, the timeline is likely to change for individual projects that are being taken forward. Projects and opportunities will be revisited throughout the overarching LN programme.
5. Can assurances be given that the NRS NIIF report to the Area Partnership will include details on costings for LN longlist projects?
We apologise that this response was delayed and has not met the Area Partnership Committee date. Costings cannot be given for the complete LN longlist of projects as it is only at RIBA Stage 2 where projects are quantity surveyed and high-level costings are identified. Therefore, we only have this information prepared for the limited number of projects that were progressed to RIBA stage 2. The cost that was provided by the Quantity Surveyor for the Dennistoun Bridges alone came back at £3.8m. The estimate was based on a mix of current open market rates, which are extremely high due to global circumstances in addition to considering inflation and risk.
The Neighbourhood infrastructure Investment Funding was announced at the 2022/23 budget around the time Stage 1 was in completion. The NIIF could potentially contribute to provide match funding to leverage external funds to specific projects however it may not be suitable for the scale of projects that have currently been taken forward.
The LN Team recognise the value of smaller scale interventions that could make significant change for local communities in respect of People & Place and that there is a need to review the Tranche 1 activity that did not identify this level of project scale. For example, interventions such as dropped kerb programme, pedestrian crossing review/upgrade and an extended drainage programme. These are not likely to receive external funding, but potentially NIIF could be used for such programmes and utilised for complimentary match funding for larger projects.
6. In what ways will the Inner East SDF help to move some of the LN projects forward?
GCC and the external consultants have been working closely alongside colleagues from Spatial Planning, including with the development of the Inner East SDF, and other internal teams such as Neighbourhood Liaison Officers, Roads & Parking, Road Safety, Parks, maintenance, and Housing. The SDF provides a Spatial Planning Framework that provides support to the non-statutory LN stage 0-1 reports.
7. Will Citizens’ Panels play a part in securing or allocating NIIF (or other) funding for LN projects?
For Stage 0-1 the Citizens Panel did not play a part of the process as these are currently in development. However, we are aware of the new model of Area Partnership and the opportunities that arise from this including the open data resource and specific engagement platforms, both of which are in development.
Current resources do not allow us to progress the long list of projects. The LN team will continue to seek opportunities where they arise for project progression whether it is through other GCC departments or in partnership.
We have taken it as a lesson learned that expectations may not have been managed as well as they could have been during the engagement process. As previously stated, the LN team will be undertaking a review of Tranche 1. We note that projects progressed are marked as high cost and therefore see this as an opportunity to identify smaller scale and lower cost interventions that will still deliver on the LN programme, council objectives and community wants.
Kind regards,
Deborah Paton MA (Hons), CTPP, MRTPI
Head of Transport Strategy
Neighbourhoods, Regeneration & Sustainability
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