Dear readers, fool’s spring is out, meteorological spring is in. Meanwhile Robbie is out (on leave on the west coast), while Calum is in, alone, putting your Monday Briefing together — say hello in the comments. Thanks to everyone who chipped in with their thoughts on the weekend piece, more on that below.
But first, your Monday Briefing.
Have you heard that we're hiring? That's right, we're excited to welcome a new staff writer to our ranks, and we need your help finding the perfect person. Calum only knew The Bell was hiring 10 months ago after a friend/subscriber told him. You can do the same. If you think you know someone who'd be interested, forward them this email or send them the link below.
Glasgow in Brief
🚫 Another arts centre in Glasgow is in peril, and this time a council-owned organisation is responsible. Just a month after the CCA dramatically shut its doors, seven organisations at arts hub Trongate 103 have been told they have less than 28 days to get out.
Trongate’s landlord is City Property, Glasgow city council’s property company. On Friday 27 February, they issued the building’s occupants — which include independent culture organisations like Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre, Glasgow Print Studio, and Glasgow Media Access Centre (GMAC) — with a non-negotiable termination of their lease. Trongate 103 was set up with public money in 2009 to provide a space for access to the arts and exposure for the organisations.
Speaking to The Bell this morning, chair of the GMAC board, Mark Langdon, said that his charity was given an “ultimatum” by City Property to either sign up to a new lease with rent at four times its current level, or face having their lease terminated. They didn’t sign the lease and now have less than a month to vacate the property.
Their ousting now poses an existential threat to GMAC, Langdon stresses, at a time when Glasgow’s film and media scene is starting to hit its stride again. In an email shared with GMAC supporters, Louise Oliver, the organisation's interim creative programme director, described the decision as “cultural vandalism [...] It is a blatant attempt to exploit third sector organisations incapable of defending their position.”
Tenants believe that City Property wants to make more money from the turn-of-the-century John McKissack building by charging commercial rents. However, Langdon and GMAC point out that, when Trongate 103 was opened, original tenants such as them were given 25 year leases so cultural groups could operate sustainably, with long-term stability.
Greens councillor for the ward Christy Mearns has described the decision to terminate leases as “short sighted and completely devastating”. The deputy Lord Provost added it would be a “huge loss” to Glasgow’s cultural life and that City Property and the council “have not delivered on their promise to find a sustainable future for these important organisations”.
A spokesperson for City Property told The Bell that "lease renewals are a standard process for all tenants given that existing leases expire and the market rent of properties change over time, which is reflected in any new lease agreement."
✝️ The co-founder of Homeless Project Scotland, Cathrine (Tina) McInnes, has died, aged 47. Tina was raised in London, separate from her brother and fellow HPS co-founder Colin McInnes, and only met him for the first time when she moved up to Scotland in 2017. Upon arriving in the city, Colin tells The Bell, Tina struggled with homelessness herself; her experience was a foundational reason the siblings set up HPS in 2019. Tina died on Thursday 26 February following an ovarian cancer diagnosis last October. In a text, Colin remembered Tina as a lady who “walked the walk” and touched people with “love, compassion and a listening ear”. “For many in the homeless community, she was more than a volunteer, she was family”, he told The Bell.
🛣️ Whisper it, but there are signs the roadworks at the Woodside Viaduct section of the M8 might have a permanent solution, soon-ish. Transport Scotland is holding public consultation sessions to consider three permanent options for the works, which have been ongoing since 2020, when severe defects were discovered in key support beams.
Since then, disruptive work has produced temporary — and unbelievably ugly — propping supports to ensure the motorway could still be used safely. Now, Transport Scotland is asking for public input on whether to replace this part of the M8, repair it, or remove it altogether. In descending cost order, two of these options represent a potentially radical departure from the current layout — could the north west city centre look very different ten years from now? Last June, The Bell analysed why the works were taking so long and the impact they were having on the community below the bridge. Now, although still far away, a permanent fix may just be peeking over the horizon.
Calum Grewar
With Robbie somewhere on a west coast isle, we think it’s only fair that his presumptive take on the M8 debate (kill it) is represented somewhere in our virtual pages. In his stead, The Herald’s Marissa MacWhirter went along to the first consultation session to see what was on offer, and was disappointed (£) by a lack of balance and weight given to the ‘remove’ option. Robbie would not have been pleased. The next public consultation event is on Wednesday 4 March at Woodside Halls, from 10am to 5pm.
Stories you might have missed
🎨 CCA boarded up | Glasgow Times
🏠 Over 100 homes to be built in former Tradeston car park | Glasgow Live
⚽ OVO Hydro to screen Scotland men’s world cup games | STV
✈️ Scottish Labour say they’d built Glasgow Airport rail link | STV
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Catch up and coming up:
- There’s been quite the reception for Calum’s weekend story about the children’s charity that claims to be somehow run by children and has occupied 44 different properties in Glasgow in the last two years. Have a read, and enter the wild world of Humanitarian Operations, its self-proclaimed “multi-millionaire” director Darren Adler, the talking racoon Ziggy, and a £1 million debt owed to Glasgow City Council.
Calum Grewar
- On Tuesday, Calum had the unenviable task of sitting through the council’s budget meeting. It was, thanks to some La La Land-related jibes, not as dull as you might think. Plus, a lot of it will affect your wallets — not least the council tax hike — so have a read and see how the 2026/2027 budget affects you, and how it went down.
Calum Grewar
From the editor's inbox:
Journalists don’t always have the best reputation, sometimes for good reason, so it’s always moving and motivating to read positive feedback. The comments under Calum’s weekend piece really were a joy to behold, and have strengthened our resolve to carry on looking into Hope and their… creative… funding model.
Reader MM said “This is mental!!!!! Needs a Netflix special!!!”
Meanwhile, reader Robin asked:
“What are the wider implications for Glasgow if some 40 properties are lying empty, not (as far as we know) paying most of their rates, not bringing in the footfall that contributes to cities? And is Hope the only organisation doing this or are there others?”
The pick of the bunch, however, was Heather Burns’ appeal to the city’s librarians:
“This article needs to be enshrined for all time on a plinth in the Mitchell Library.”
Picture of the week:
Readers, we want your photos. We want to show the city through our wonderful readers’ eyes. So if you’ve snapped a great pic, send it in. For today, one of Calum’s will suffice.
One joy of dog ownership, as Calum has discovered, is that you end up getting to parts of the city you’d never have gone to otherwise. This weekend’s excursion with Dumpling took them to Cowlairs park, between Keppochhill and Possil Park. To say it felt like an urban wasteland would be an understatement, and yet deer are thriving here, as Dumpling found out by chasing them in her very own “Fenton” moment.
But this photo more accurately sums up the vibe: Calum counted eight burnt out cars. The park also seems to be a hotspot for the city’s low-power off road biking enthusiasts, as tiny quad bikes zoom around there all the time. Quite the place.
Glasgow Calendar: Caroline Lucas in Conversation: How to beat right wing populism | Cottiers Theatre
Veteran British politician Caroline Lucas comes to Cottiers for a conversation with journalist Adam Ramsay. The first UK Green MP is launching her book, “Another England”, and argues that right wingers have captured "Englishness". We wonder what she'll say about a city and country where the right wing have not captured Scottishness, yet are on the rise nonetheless.
Wednesday 11 March | Cottiers Theatre | 6.30pm | £10-£25
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*article edited on 02.03.26 to reflect that City Property terminated leases rather than served eviction notices.
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