Third of people cite transport as main reason for not visiting Glasgow city centre more

Glasgow city centre footfall is still 19% down on pre-Covid levels, according to new figures.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Councillors on Glasgow City Council’s Neighbourhoods, Housing and Public Realm City Policy Committee will be given an update on the city centre’s recovery, next week.

The report notes that, as of July 2022, footfall is 19% down lower than pre-Covid, although evening and weekend footfall has returned to normal levels.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The biggest issue is weekday, in particular lunchtime, footfall, which sits at around 72% of pre-Covid levels.

There’s less footfall in the city centre than before Covid.There’s less footfall in the city centre than before Covid.
There’s less footfall in the city centre than before Covid.

The report puts this down to the ‘generally slow return to office in Glasgow city centre’.

The council is working on a number of schemes to increase footfall, including developing action plans for six of the main areas - such as Anderston Cross and Buchanan Bus Station - and a programme to deal with vacant units on Sauchiehall Street and Argyle Street.

One challenge highlighted in the report is a project to install Christmas lighting on those two streets. It notes that they are having difficulties getting ownership approval for the scheme.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The report also discusses a post-campaign survey carried out in the summer, completed by more than 1000 adults, which looked at the main barriers stopping people from visiting the city centre.

Transport came top of the list at 32%, followed by costs (29%) and prefer to stay at home (23%).

Better transport was selected as the number one thing that could be improved to get more people in the city centre.

Related topics:

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.