LEZ and the problem with Glasgow's trees plan
The Glasgow trees also raise one or two bigger questions, I think, about the role trees are, or aren't, playing in urban regeneration and environmental policy more generally. An impression has grown up that we can offset our carbon emissions by planting lots of trees (including putting 28 trees in planters) but as The Herald reported the other day, a new report in Nature Geoscience suggests tree-planting can only remove a small amount of the carbon that humans put into the air. In other words, we are too dirty for our trees to fix.
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Glasgow City Council's policy on trees is also a bit confused. As I reported a few weeks ago, some old trees such as the 50-year-old hornbeam on the corner of Argyle Street and Finnieston Street are being cut down to make way for development (usually flats) because the council in Glasgow – unlike councils in other cities such as Bristol – does not prioritise the protection of mature trees in its planning. Old trees are a pain in the butt for developers who want to get their buildings up fast and cheap and the council in Glasgow has generally been letting them get away with it.
This is despite the fact that we know how much Glaswegians care about their trees. There was a campaign to save the Finnieston hornbeam, a campaign that was ignored sadly. You may also be familiar with the tree a little bit further bit up the road: the famous Argyle Street ash. It's been nominated this year for The Woodland Trust's Tree of the Year competition and may go forward to the European Tree of the Year where worldwide tree fame surely awaits.
But if I may, I'd like to nominate another of Glasgow's wonderful urban trees: the Paisley Road West sycamore, just across from Harvie Street (that's the tree in the picture above). It's one of a number of sycamores dotted along that rowdy and rambunctious road and every one of them is a joy, a reason to stop, the street's green and glorious punctuation. And even though most of the time, like everyone else, I take them for granted, every now and again I see them like they're new and I love them officially because I'm told they reduce the 'Urban Heat Island Effect' (i.e. they cool the city down) but really I love them because they make me feel good.
LEZ fines are funding new trees (Image: Newsquest)
So yes: the trees in Glasgow matter and it's good the council has adopted a strategy that aims to increase their number over the next ten years and it's good that it has already made a start, planting some 20,000 in Castlemilk, Tollcross and other places, and it's good that they put 28 trees in planters at various points around the city (it would have been better if they'd put them in the ground but heh ho). But also I'm tempted to say that the problem with Glasgow's tree plan is that they are not the trees that really matter.
The trees that really matter are the ones that aren't there, by which I mean the woodland that could and should cover large parts of Scotland but doesn't. It's undoubtedly a good idea that we plant more trees in Glasgow and other cities, but what we're not doing properly is the countryside. There are some excellent rewilding projects out there, including the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust's plans for Dalnacardoch in the Cairngorms, of which I'm a supporter when I'm not having to pay LEZ fines. But most of Scotland's countryside was damaged and denuded by industry and Empire and war and is still being damaged and denuded by what they call sport (by which they mean shooting birds, legally and illegally) and by sheep of course. And deer. As far as you can see.
I remember the moment I really understood it for the first time. I was up in Alladale, about an hour's drive north of Inverness, visiting Paul Lister, the man who wants to reintroduce wolves in Scotland, and he pointed to the hills and glens and asked me what I thought of it all. I think I used some cheesy words like "beautiful" or "iconic" but the words he used were "messed up" because the hills and glens we think are beautiful have actually been stripped bare. "This should all be big forest," said Mr Lister indicating the landscape in front of us and suddenly, I could see it, and the whole of Scotland really, in a different way. He's right. It should be forest. But it's not. Where are all the trees? And when can we fix it?
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Glasgow Times
14 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
'We'll use King's Honours to keep battling for our Glasgow community'
Anne and Stuart McKenzie, who have volunteered at Nan McKay Hall for more than 46 years, said the experience has been 'overwhelming.' Hall manager Bill Lawns and the rest of the team threw a party for the couple in recognition of their awards, and Lord Provost Jacqueline McLaren paid a surprise visit to congratulate them. The McKenzies with Lord Provost Jacqueline McLaren (Image: GordonTerris/Newsquest) 'It's very humbling because we don't see ourselves as any different from anyone else here at the hall,' said Anne. 'It's been lovely – we're just very taken aback. We do this because it's just what we do.' She added: 'What's great is that it allows us to raise awareness of the Nan McKay Hall and all the work that goes on here.' Anne preparing for lunch club with Eleanor Wilson (Image: Colin Mearns/Newsquest) More than 300 people attend around 27 activities at the hall each week. 'It's always a battle for funding," says Stuart. "At times we've had to fight our socks off for this place, so if these awards can throw a bit of light on us, and maybe help us get a new hall and better facilities so we can keep helping people, then that will be a good thing." Anne and Stuart were awarded the BEM (British Empire Medal) in the New Year's Honours list for 'four decades of selfless service and commitment to improve the lives and life chances of generations of Glaswegians.' The couple are part of the Nan McKay Hall management committee, and have run an assortment of activities and events over the years including a youth club, keep fit classes and lunch club. Stuart is the hall's handyman, and the husband and wife have also developed a range of health services in recognition of the lack of local provision. Anne and Stuart McKenzie (Image: Newsquest) The couple, who now live in Cardonald, juggled full-time working and raising their family – sons Greig and Mark – with their roles at Nan McKay Hall. 'This is definitely our second home,' says Anne, smiling. 'I can still remember the first day we came in here, to help give out free bags of messages to local people who were struggling. 'It was the early 80s. The services provided have changed and grown with the community, and what they need.' She pauses. 'I remember a councillor once described us as 'just a bingo hall' ,' adds Ann, frowning. 'She couldn't have been more wrong. 'That's why the awards are good because it means we can tell people what we do here and why it's important.' Stuart explains that he and Anne see the British Empire Medals as 'everyone's awards'. 'They are for the hall, for the rest of the committee and manager Bill Lawns, who is amazing,' he says. 'We're not like some other community committees – we don't fight amongst ourselves, we've all got our roles to do and we do them. 'We've helped many people over the years – some who say without the Nan McKay Hall, they wouldn't be here.' He adds: 'Some people say this is a magical place, and we'd definitely agree with that.'
The Herald Scotland
a day ago
- The Herald Scotland
A church and a warehouse up in flames. So what's with all the fires?
It's the same in Glasgow. Just a couple of days before the fire at St Mungo's Church, firefighters were tackling a blaze at a warehouse in the Kinning Park area of the city, and as the drivers on the M8 nearby watched the smoke billowing out over the motorway, no doubt some of them, me included, mentally added it to the list of the other buildings in the city that have ended in fire. With one in particular right at the top of the list, the most famous: the Mack. So what's going on, and can we detect some kind of trend? You may have seen the pictures, rather creepy ones, of a man, apparently in some kind of helmet and mask, walking up the lane near the Kinning Park warehouse. The pictures show him climbing over a wall and a few minutes later, the flames have started and the man runs away. The police have confirmed the fire was started deliberately and in Glasgow it feels like a pattern. I saw it myself a couple of weeks ago when I spotted a fire in the woods in Bellahouston Park and reported it to the police. Fortunately, it was put out quickly and only a few of the trees were damaged. It's also important to mention what's happening to the men and women who fight the fires. I was speaking to a newly recruited fireman the other day who was telling me he's volunteered to be shifted round different stations in Glasgow to plug the gaps in the staff. Some 1,200 firefighter posts in Scotland have been lost to cuts in the last 13 years and the fire service is also planning to close down 13 stations and scrap 10 appliances. The Fire Brigade Union makes the point that this affects response times and when response times get longer, fires do more damage and, potentially, not to put too fine a point on it, more people die. Read more LEZ and the problem with Glasgow's trees plan The most notorious building in Glasgow: a way forward Glasgow's rubbish-bin millions: where has the money gone? But the wider context here is interesting if we're thinking about what's with all the fires and what's causing them, because house fires have actually fallen to an all-time low in the last 20 years or so; the number of deaths and casualties has also fallen and we know why: there's a wider use of smoke detectors and the detectors have got better. The stats on house fires are actually a conspicuous example of success in policy on public safety. But it's with apparently deliberate fires that things get a bit murkier. On the whole, the trend has been downwards in the last five years or so, but the most recent statistics from the Scottish Government demonstrate it may not last. There were 226 deliberate building fires in the last quarter of 2024-25, up from 197 in the same period of 2023-24. There were also 185 deliberate road vehicle fires in the last quarter or 2024-25, up from 153 in 2023-24. In other words, the number of deliberate fires looks like it's increasing again. The motivations for arson are complicated and can be linked to other criminality – who knows what was going on with that creepy masked man in Kinning Park. But we also know that visible signs of decay and disorder in a community – graffiti, broken windows, gaping roofs – attract even more decay and disorder; a community that's in a state or a building that's been left to rot eventually becomes an invitation to people who want to make it worse, often by fire. They may also think an abandoned or empty building means they can get whatever the buzz it is they get from arson with less risk to life. Whatever's going on, decaying, neglected communities and buildings increase the risk of fire. Fiirefighters at the sight of the Kinning Park incident (Image: Newsquest) Obviously, this does not apply to every incident – St Mungo's was a working church and we don't yet know the specific cause of the blaze. But the Cottage [[Theatre]] in [[Cumbernauld]] had not been properly maintained and was in a poor state, with the local MSP Jamie Hepburn calling the fire a demonstration of what happens when a building is left to go to rack and ruin. I suspect the building will eventually be lost for good sadly, and it wouldn't be the first to fall victim to the old formula: neglect = fire = demolition. For another example, look at the sorry state of Ayr Station Hotel. Same formula. We know some of the background to this: council budgets are in a terrible state and buildings, particularly older buildings, can be expensive to maintain. Personal economic hardship also makes it harder for people to spend money on the places where they live which is why more often than not it's in areas of deprivation that the worst fires happen. Basically, it's about properly maintaining communities and the buildings in which people live and work (and sometimes pray) because if we don't properly maintain them, sooner or later some of them will end in flames. I suppose all we can do now is wait to see if the man who started the Kinning Park fire can be found and wait to see what the investigation into St Mungo's discovers. But whenever another building burns, those of us who care about our built heritage become more impatient with the lack of care shown towards it. Not only are we losing architecture that could have a future – and in some cases is rather beautiful – we're also paying the environmental cost of destroying buildings (by fire or bulldozer or dynamite) and putting up new ones in their place (most recent example: the Wynford high-rises). Better, I would have thought, to try and renovate the old ones. Better to protect them. Better to prevent them from turning intoto ashes.
The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- The Herald Scotland
LEZ and the problem with Glasgow's trees plan
Fair enough I guess, although I have a few questions. Firstly, why only 28 trees? More please. Secondly, why put the trees in planters, which make them more prone to disease and death and restrict their growth? Why not plant them in the ground instead? And thirdly, why not commit all of the money from LEZ into environmental projects? Some £732,000 from the fines has been spent on community projects but the LEZ raised more than £1m in the first 10 months alone which means some of the money, to which I've contributed a bob or two, is going elsewhere. Where exactly? The Glasgow trees also raise one or two bigger questions, I think, about the role trees are, or aren't, playing in urban regeneration and environmental policy more generally. An impression has grown up that we can offset our carbon emissions by planting lots of trees (including putting 28 trees in planters) but as The Herald reported the other day, a new report in Nature Geoscience suggests tree-planting can only remove a small amount of the carbon that humans put into the air. In other words, we are too dirty for our trees to fix. Read more The most notorious building in Glasgow: a way forward Glasgow's rubbish-bin millions: where has the money gone? 'Get it up ye Sturgeon!' The new front in the trans war Glasgow City Council's policy on trees is also a bit confused. As I reported a few weeks ago, some old trees such as the 50-year-old hornbeam on the corner of Argyle Street and Finnieston Street are being cut down to make way for development (usually flats) because the council in Glasgow – unlike councils in other cities such as Bristol – does not prioritise the protection of mature trees in its planning. Old trees are a pain in the butt for developers who want to get their buildings up fast and cheap and the council in Glasgow has generally been letting them get away with it. This is despite the fact that we know how much Glaswegians care about their trees. There was a campaign to save the Finnieston hornbeam, a campaign that was ignored sadly. You may also be familiar with the tree a little bit further bit up the road: the famous Argyle Street ash. It's been nominated this year for The Woodland Trust's Tree of the Year competition and may go forward to the European Tree of the Year where worldwide tree fame surely awaits. But if I may, I'd like to nominate another of Glasgow's wonderful urban trees: the Paisley Road West sycamore, just across from Harvie Street (that's the tree in the picture above). It's one of a number of sycamores dotted along that rowdy and rambunctious road and every one of them is a joy, a reason to stop, the street's green and glorious punctuation. And even though most of the time, like everyone else, I take them for granted, every now and again I see them like they're new and I love them officially because I'm told they reduce the 'Urban Heat Island Effect' (i.e. they cool the city down) but really I love them because they make me feel good. LEZ fines are funding new trees (Image: Newsquest) So yes: the trees in Glasgow matter and it's good the council has adopted a strategy that aims to increase their number over the next ten years and it's good that it has already made a start, planting some 20,000 in Castlemilk, Tollcross and other places, and it's good that they put 28 trees in planters at various points around the city (it would have been better if they'd put them in the ground but heh ho). But also I'm tempted to say that the problem with Glasgow's tree plan is that they are not the trees that really matter. The trees that really matter are the ones that aren't there, by which I mean the woodland that could and should cover large parts of Scotland but doesn't. It's undoubtedly a good idea that we plant more trees in Glasgow and other cities, but what we're not doing properly is the countryside. There are some excellent rewilding projects out there, including the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust's plans for Dalnacardoch in the Cairngorms, of which I'm a supporter when I'm not having to pay LEZ fines. But most of Scotland's countryside was damaged and denuded by industry and Empire and war and is still being damaged and denuded by what they call sport (by which they mean shooting birds, legally and illegally) and by sheep of course. And deer. As far as you can see. I remember the moment I really understood it for the first time. I was up in Alladale, about an hour's drive north of Inverness, visiting Paul Lister, the man who wants to reintroduce wolves in Scotland, and he pointed to the hills and glens and asked me what I thought of it all. I think I used some cheesy words like "beautiful" or "iconic" but the words he used were "messed up" because the hills and glens we think are beautiful have actually been stripped bare. "This should all be big forest," said Mr Lister indicating the landscape in front of us and suddenly, I could see it, and the whole of Scotland really, in a different way. He's right. It should be forest. But it's not. Where are all the trees? And when can we fix it?
