Pressure grows to do something about city centre’s decaying buildings and empty shops in ‘year of urgency’

“Glasgow city centre seems to be dying,” says Anne Gibb, perched on a stone bollard on Sauchiehall Street, watching the Christmas shoppers hustle by. Ahead of her, the human stream parted around yet another segment of the precinct that had been fenced off as contractors dug up paving.

“At one time you could have spent hours here,” says Gibb, casting a look around to the dark and vacant premises of once-thriving stores such as BHS and Marks & Spencer. “But now half the shops are empty and there’s nothing to replace them.”