Paul Sweeney
Scottish Labour · Scotland
“The single point of contact pilots that we have embarked on are making a significant difference in ensuring that people get the ability to discuss their treatment anxieties and their support. We have invested £2.5 million to expand the reach of that programme across Scotland.”
“As a member of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee, I welcome the news on the proposed legislation, which is very welcome. Indeed, it is something that has been long hoped for.”
“It is more precise than conventional radiotherapy, and the team behind the trial in England has begun the process of establishing it in Scotland.”
“I thank Mesothelioma UK for continuing to raise awareness each year through action mesothelioma day. On 3 July, the Scottish Government will proudly show our support by lighting up in blue St Andrew’s house and Victoria Quay in Edinburgh to get behind the go blue for meso campaign.”
“There is an awful lot to be recognised in terms of holding people to account, which has been a feature of this campaign over time. The Scottish Government confirms its commitment to continue to stand alongside those who are affected by mesothelioma, to ensure that they receive the compassionate care and treatment that they require at ever…”
“The fact that there are such abandoned factories and that the people who enter them—whether for urban exploration or whatever else—do not understand the risks that they are exposing themselves to is a difficulty that we must overcome.”
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“Ivan McKee: I acknowledge the member’s concern on that issue, and I recognise the significant work that he does with regard to historic and listed buildings in general. I have received correspondence from the member on that issue. I would say two things. First, this bill is about taking a focused approach so that we can take through the measures that are needed in order to protect that revenue and provide clarity in the rates system, and I think that it would be a mistake to complicate that further. However, I absolutely recognise the issue that the member has raised regarding the local applicability of the policy, and I am happy to work with him on how we can seek to address that issue through other measures.”
“Paul Sweeney: In the spirit of cross-party working, I think that there is cross-party consensus that the policy has generally been successful in Glasgow, but there have been a couple of instances in which it has had unintended consequences, most notably in relation to Govanhill baths and Flemington house in Springburn, where dozens of small businesses were evicted because the owner had to pursue a temporary relief for 12 months. There are cases in which it could be improved. Would it be possible to lodge a light-touch amendment to the bill to signal where best practice should be adopted by local authorities? That would not be militating against their devolved rights but signalling where improvements could be made at national level to preserve listed buildings.”
“They included the Conservatives’ business manager, who signed up to the process and supported our having the stage 1 debate on Wednesday—the day of the United Kingdom budget—rather than tomorrow morning. Again, I highlight that there was cross-party support not only for the policy intent in passing the original amendment but for the process that we are currently going through. Paul Sweeney: [Made a request to intervene.] Douglas Ross: Will the minister give way? Ivan McKee: I will take an intervention from Paul Sweeney, because I think that he was first.”
“It had 89 exempt properties as at 31 March 2023, and it has indicated that the removal of the exemption has generally had the desired effect: 41 of those properties are now occupied; 29 are still empty; seven have had their rateable value reduced to nil by the assessor; and 12 have been deleted or merged with other properties by the assessor. By and large, that evidence suggests that the policy intent has been fulfilled. Of course, the intent was primarily to give that power to local authorities. Again, we never tire of hearing from the Conservatives about the need for us to devolve powers to local authorities, so I do not understand their issue with that. The process that we are currently going through was agreed at the Parliamentary Bureau on a cross-party basis. Representatives from all the parties were at that meeting.”
“[Made a request to intervene.] Ivan McKee: I will make some progress and come back to Paul Sweeney in a minute. It is worth reflecting on the original bill. As I understand it, the bill process was not expedited— it took place over a number of months. It went through stage 3 in early February 2020, before Covid had taken effect, and the policy intent was agreed. The interventions from Conservative members this afternoon have been a bit contradictory and incoherent, so I am not sure, but I do not think that their position is that they disagree with the policy intent of devolving the power to local authorities. I also note that that was agreed to unanimously in committee at stage 2. With regard to the specific measure that Murdo Fraser asked about, we have some data from Perth and Kinross Council.”
“I am sure that Paul Sweeney will make those representations to Strathclyde Partnership for Transport as it sets out the network selections and connections. If he is saying that we should centralise all the decision making over transport in Scotland, I am not sure that that would be good, but synergy between rail and road and other forms of public transport, as has been set out in the options for Clyde metro, would make sense. I encourage everyone to look at the issue from a place-based perspective.”
“Does the cabinet secretary agree that the fragmentation of control between the Scottish Government and the regional transport partnership militates against efficiency, when compared to other jurisdictions that have delivered metro rail very efficiently, such as Madrid? For example, the advanced manufacturing innovation district Scotland— AMIDS—south project in Paisley cannot consider very light rail in order to get a quick win with a shuttle train between the airport terminal and Paisley Gilmour Street because of the lack of span of control between rail and road, and because road projects always take priority by default. Fiona Hyslop: It is open to Transport Scotland to work with SPT on all those connectivity issues at the request of SPT.”
“With the rebuild proposal for Lenzie academy, could there be options to share capacity with new-build estates in the north of the city? I have written to the cabinet secretary about that. I am still awaiting a formal response from her, but I am keen for her to meet me and representatives of the community to discuss the matter in more detail and consider how, with Glasgow’s new director of education, when they are appointed, we can plan ahead in a more robust and resilient way. Although the modelling looks good, it does not tally with the lived experience of people in Robroyston. 16:40”
“However, that has been less the case in recent years, as the planned capacity of the schools has been reduced. There are a number of issues pertaining to the north of Glasgow, particularly in relation to secondary school capacity, but also for the primary estate. Modular buildings are being used at Wallacewell primary school to sustain capacity, and with Smithycroft now reaching capacity, the planned solution is to build modular buildings there. I really do not think that that is acceptable. I have examined the modelling for school capacity planning in Glasgow. Although it looks good on the surface, the projections do not seem to tally with the lived experience of people in the communities. I am keen for the cabinet secretary to engage with Glasgow City Council on the issue and to explore options with East Dunbartonshire Council.”
“I would like the cabinet secretary to engage more directly with Glasgow City Council to understand its estates management programme and to challenge the conclusion that modular buildings are the solution. The situation is upsetting to parents and it is not good for the city’s spatial planning in areas such as Robroyston, which are at the limits of existing catchment areas. Parents feel that their children are put under a lot of pressure to travel long distances to access schooling, including in inclement weather, and some are unable to access schools at all. The area is on the boundary with East Dunbartonshire. There was previously an arrangement with East Dunbartonshire Council—and, before that, Strathclyde Regional Council—whereby placing requests were much easier to facilitate.”
“That has already happened in a number of schools across the city in recent years, and it is simply not optimal. Building glorified portakabins to accommodate expanding school rolls at secondary level is simply not acceptable. I am keen to hear the cabinet secretary’s views on how Glasgow City Council in particular is managing school expansion. There are 30 secondary schools in Glasgow, 29 of which are operated under public-private partnership model arrangements that will come to a conclusion in 2030. However, even under the PPP scheme, there has been proper expansion, such as the Bellarmine extension to St Paul’s on the south side, which opened in 2023.”
“A statistically significant number of parents and people who are planning to have children have told me that they are simply unable to access either secondary or primary school provision in the area. The nearest non-denominational secondary school is Smithycroft, but Robroyston is right on the limit of that school’s catchment area and children have to walk for an hour to get there, including through an unlit graveyard. That is quite an unsafe route. It is not at all well provisioned. That school is reaching capacity. The city’s proposed strategy for the expansion of school capacity is not to build a new school, which is probably fair enough given the logistical aspects of running a school—the duplication of overheads in resourcing, and so on—but simply to construct modular accommodation.”
“I rise to raise in particular issues of spatial planning in schools. Glasgow is facing some significant challenges in that area. After many years of population decline, the city’s population has increased by around 7 per cent in the past decade, and the increase in school rolls is projected to continue. Glasgow’s secondary pupil school roll is forecast to grow by 18 per cent over the next decade, and the primary school pupil roll is predicted to grow by 4 per cent in the next two years. The issue has been particularly acute in neighbourhoods in which there has been a high level of new-build development, such as Robroyston in the north of the city. I have recently undertaken a significant amount of work in that community, with the community council and parents.”
“Yesterday’s meeting was very productive, and I thank Paul Sweeney for his role in making sure that that meeting happened quickly. We recognise the urgency of the issue, and I hope that he gauged from the finance secretary’s comments that she, too, recognises that there is a short-term challenge. I notice that she has just entered the chamber. The issues are being taken very seriously. Shared Prosperity Fund and Pride in Place Programme 5.”
“I welcome yesterday’s meeting with the minister; it was very productive. However, I will press him on the urgency of the timescale. We have 12 days until people are cut off, so we need urgent action. Will the minister confirm that the Government will write to the FCA to press the need for the section 166 order to be served before policies expire at the end of the month? Will he also give a timescale on convening that working group with the credit union coalition so that we can work collaboratively to ensure that people are not left particularly vulnerable at this time of year? Richard Lochhead: We absolutely will continue to press the FCA to take appropriate and tough action to make sure that policyholders are not left in the lurch. We will continue to engage with stakeholders.”
“Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government are firmly open to having conversations with anybody who has an interest in investment or in developing new opportunities at the site.”
“It is not clear how proactive ExxonMobil has been in marketing the asset to the international market. Will the Deputy First Minister consider more proactive measures to secure international investment in the asset as well as competitive measures such as joining Shell, which operates the neighbouring plant, to consider a private-wire power purchase agreement, which could significantly reduce the energy costs of one of Scotland’s most intensive electricity consumers? Kate Forbes: I am keen to have those discussions, as the member has outlined. We can do some of that through the work that Scottish Enterprise is doing with Grangemouth on forthcoming interest, but I am conscious that there will be other interests out there.”
“Neil Gray: I pay tribute to the work that has been done by Mr Sweeney’s constituent and many others, not just in Glasgow royal infirmary but elsewhere in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and across the health service in Scotland. As Mr Sweeney knows, corridor care is not a phenomenon solely in Scotland but is a challenge that all hospitals face—I have family members in the north of England who see a very serious situation in that regard at present. That is not to say that I do not accept the challenge that is before us—of course I do. I see it when I go out, and I hear it from staff. I do not accept that the situation is either an inevitability or a norm. It is one that we must tackle, which is why I will work with our staff and health boards to ensure that improvements are made.”
“On Saturday morning, I spoke to a nurse who had just finished her night shift at Glasgow royal infirmary’s A and E department. She said that the corridors in that department are already filling up with elderly patients who are stuck on trolleys and are unable to be admitted to wards, and that she and her colleagues are terrified that the situation is only going to get worse as the winter deepens, given that it is only mid-November. From conversations that she has had with colleagues from other hospitals, she knows that corridor care is the norm in many hospitals across Scotland. Will the cabinet secretary give a personal guarantee to my constituent and her colleagues at Glasgow royal infirmary that this winter preparedness plan will finally end the disgrace of corridor care in Scottish hospitals?”
“To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Glasgow City Council regarding reports of a lack of sufficient local school provision in Robroyston. (S6O-05153)”
“In many ways, we need to think about the reality of the avoidable deaths that happen every day in Scotland because of this economic and social problem, and about the lack of equality.”
“She felt that she had been robbed of her life because, due to her upbringing, she was not taken seriously and was unable to advocate for herself. She was suffering a terminal illness; she was going to die. What were the implications for her? What about her young kids? It was a really difficult conversation, but we tried to turn it into something positive by talking about the impact that she had had on her children and how they were doing really well. We tried to gather some degree of positivity from the situation. She made the point that, if she had grown up in Bearsden rather than Bridgeton, she might still be alive today. I got a call just the day afterwards to say that she had passed away.”
“She had grown up in Bridgeton and had had a difficult upbringing—she had been involved in drug taking and various other things. She had two young boys and had just got her life back on track, or so she thought. She had had a persistent cough and a sore throat, and she went to the doctor umpteen times to try to get help. She was sent away with painkillers and told that it was just an infection. By the time she got a referral and was diagnosed, she had incurable throat cancer. She was in her late forties. I walked around the hospice—as members of the Scottish Parliament, we often visit such places—and was suddenly confronted with this most horrendous, shattering story. What do you even say to someone in that situation?”
“In the past couple of weeks, there has been news of a credit union’s funeral plans being pulled at a moment’s notice by a completely unscrupulous provider, which shows that, even in death, some people are stripped of the dignity of the funeral that they might have planned. The fear of the pauper’s funeral still looms large in this country. It is the final indignity—a funeral being stripped from elderly, low-income Scots with no recourse. I hope that we can at least change that. The terrible overlap of class and health inequalities was brought home to me, as I have mentioned previously, when I visited the Marie Curie hospice at Stobhill hospital—the hospital where I was born. I met a lady there who was suffering from terminal throat cancer.”
“Scotland remains such an unequal society in so many ways—most notably, in relation to income— and a closer look at the figures shows that areas such as my home city of Glasgow are affected the most, with one in three working-age people dying in poverty. A legacy of deindustrialisation, austerity and social neglect has led to too many of my constituents spending their whole lives, from the cradle to the grave, in poverty—indeed, it is a life sentence before they are even born. Where there should be dignity and support, instead, there is a constant, exhausting and overwhelming battle that does not end until their untimely passing.”
“No one needs to die in poverty, spending their final moments worrying about bills, how to afford their final meal or the implications for their loved ones. Unfortunately, as the preliminary data from Marie Curie’s 2025 report shows, dying in poverty is still the norm in too much of Scotland. We want to believe that we live in a land where everyone dies in the comfort of their own bed, surrounded by family and friends, in a peaceful, dignified and pain-free way, but a staggering one in four working-age people and one in six pensioners with a terminal illness die in poverty every year in this country. We can all agree that that is completely unacceptable.”
“I thank everybody in the chamber who supported my members’ business motion. During the week that saw the start of stage 2 proceedings on the Deputy Presiding Officer’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, it is good and proper that the Parliament takes a moment to consider end-of-life poverty in Scotland. Regardless of members’ views on the bill, it has been made clear from the discussions in the Parliament and across the country that we are all united, by a massive majority, in wanting the best possible support for those who are suffering with terminal illness. Ensuring dignity in the final months and days when someone is suffering from a terminal illness should be a paramount consideration for the Parliament.”
“Paul Sweeney: I have barely scratched the surface of the potential, but I hope that I have made my view on the election of committee conveners clear. 16:29”
“It could be a good evolution of devolution if the Parliament could do more of that rather than leaving it to the executive or the bureaucracy at St Andrew’s house. There is also a great opportunity for interparliamentary committee work. We do not do enough of that in this country. We have 25 years of devolution, devolved legislatures and House of Commons committees. We could do a lot more together, including in areas that straddle devolved and reserved competencies such as drugs, housing issues, asylum and immigration. We could have much closer working across committees and Parliaments to get more coherence in public policy and hold all the Governments to account where they have interlocking roles. That could all be useful. The Deputy Presiding Officer: Mr Sweeney, could you bring your remarks to a close.”
“There should be much more regular engagement with those very powerful bodies that are in control of, potentially, billions of pounds-worth of public or community- owned assets. Understanding what is going on and engaging with the community is the essence of this Parliament. Maybe there should be extra powers to call in decisions. For example, if there was a contentious takeover of a housing association and that was a cause of alarm to a committee, it would have the power to call in that decision. In the planning system, ministers have the power to call in contentious planning decisions made by local authorities. Maybe the Parliament should exercise greater functions through its committee system.”
“By directly electing conveners, parliamentarians could seek to build a reputation for themselves, enhancing the committees’ status. Lots of other points have been made. The member for Stirling, Evelyn Tweed, made the important point that it is not just the Government that is being held to account but the agencies that are created by the Parliament. Too often, there is perfunctory engagement—maybe one evidence session, without much scrutiny. We need to look at that in the case of the Scottish Housing Regulator. Evelyn Tweed: Do you agree that a spotlight needs to be shone in scrutiny of organisations such as the Scottish Housing Regulator, to make sure that they are performing well and in a transparent way? The Deputy Presiding Officer: Always speak through the chair. Paul Sweeney: I agree.”
“To have had a hustings of some kind would have been a useful exercise to understand more about the individuals involved and the process. Perhaps it might have produced a different outcome. Nonetheless, it is an important point. I have considered the issue in the round and have worked with colleagues—most notably Declan McLean, an academic at Cardiff University—on constitutional reforms. I know that Mr Kerr has worked with James Bundy and other people outside the Parliament to look at opportunities for improvement. They all have really good ideas. One academic review on changes to the United Kingdom Parliament’s committee system referred to an MP who said: “Elected chairs made all the difference. They’re elected by the House, so they can’t be too partisan or cliquey.” That is important.”
“Paul Sweeney: That is an interesting point. The convention in the House of Commons is that the Speaker’s seat is not contested at elections so they have the privilege of being able to carry over to the next session without much fuss. Here, it tends to be that the Presiding Officer retires from the role at the end of the session. Stephen Kerr: In the case of our Parliament, would it not have been better if the candidates for the office of Presiding Officer had had to pitch themselves for the job? We did not hear anything from them before we got into the voting process. Paul Sweeney: That is a fair point. Reflecting back, that would have been useful because, as new members, we were flying blind. We were rabbits in headlights.”
“There was some consideration of parliamentary arithmetic and who could best afford at key moments to lose a member to the chair. Sometimes, in a carefully balanced Parliament such as the Scottish Parliament, the parliamentary arithmetic can be important and it drives behaviour. Martin Whitfield: I have been in the same situation as Mr Sweeney. Purportedly, one of the reasons for voting for the Speaker before the general election was that those members of Parliament who were voting for the Speaker knew more about them. However, was that not one Parliament trying to dictate to a future Parliament what it should look like? Meanwhile, we have the benefit that each Parliament elects its own Presiding Officer, who can create the structure and—as we have talked about—the environment that we want the Parliament to be.”
“It tempers behaviour, reduces the idea of party entrenchment and brings members closer together as a Parliament. Graeme Dey: I am interested in hearing Paul Sweeney’s perspective on the election of the Presiding Officer when he came to Parliament as a brand-new MSP and how he found that experience of coming to a decision on the best candidate. Paul Sweeney: In fact, I had already had the opportunity to do that because, just before I left the House of Commons, we elected the Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle. When I came here, I took part in the election of the Presiding Officer and the Deputy Presiding Officers. That was a really good moment, because it involved the Parliament coming together to think about who the best candidates might be.”
“People were perturbed to see lots of Conservative leaflets appearing in Labour offices in relation to members who were seeking election as chair of a certain committee. There was a sudden realisation that the role of committee chair is allocated to a party, but all members have to come together to decide who the best parliamentarian is. It was a steep learning curve for me to learn that it was necessary to put party affiliation to one side and look at an individual’s background, what they had said in the Commons before, what their parliamentary record was like, what campaigns they had been involved in and what their attitude was to working with colleagues, in order to determine who the best—or, at least, the least worst—option was to elect to the role. Such a process serves as a useful check.”
“I am pleased that, although the committee did not take a firm view on the role of elected conveners for committees, it has opened the door for the full Parliament to consider that prospect. I think it is essential that we have elected conveners. Indeed, I made a written submission to the committee in the course of its inquiry in May last year, in which I highlighted why I thought that committee convener elections would be useful. As members who have served in the House of Commons will know, the process of elections of conveners, which takes place at the start of the session, is a bit like a student union election, in that lots of flyers suddenly appear in members’ offices as part of the canvassing process.”
“Often, rather than being to do with the politics, the issue can simply be to do with the bureaucracy. We must remember that, while Scotland has had bureaucratic devolution for more than a century, it has had legislative devolution for only a quarter of a century. It is a question of how this young legislature can hold to account an old bureaucracy up on Calton Hill whose approach to things is often very ingrained. We must recognise that distinction as we perform our functions as a legislature. In a unicameral legislature such as the Scottish Parliament, the role of the committees is essential to our performing those functions. Some excellent points about the committees have been made in the debate.”
“It is a question of rationing that time effectively so that we can give the Parliament the ability not only to be effective, but to manage the tension between consent and dissent, which Mr Leonard mentioned, in conducting effective scrutiny of Government and all other aspects of the public functions of this country. It is a real challenge for us to do that strategically and to put some of our more partisan instincts to one side in the interests of the country. Stephen Kerr’s point about putting party before country must be a central part of the ethos of a parliamentarian. Notwithstanding our ideological positions or our perspectives on how the country should function and how things should be done, we should pursue a truthful outcome, as far as that is possible.”
“I congratulate the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee on its fine report, and I thank the committee’s convener, Mr Whitfield, for outlining its findings succinctly at the outset of the debate and for his summation of Donald Dewar’s comments about cynicism and unrealistic expectation and how those were the key challenges that we all have to overcome, as parliamentarians, when it comes to how we maintain public confidence in this institution after a quarter of a century. There are many issues that we must contend with, and we have an abundance of opportunity but a massive dearth of time in which to do so.”
“We have therefore recommended that, when committees are established, the Parliamentary Bureau should ensure that their membership normally reflects the gender balance of the whole Parliament, and that, when that has not been achieved or is not achievable, the bureau must make a statement, when the relevant motion is moved, to explain why that has occurred.”
“We recognise the importance of having a gender-sensitive Parliament and support that goal. We will propose changes to standing orders so that, in the next session of Parliament, there will be no single-sex committees. On the question of whether to go further, we suggest that a balance must be struck. The proposals are aspirational and ambitious, but they also must be practically deliverable. We do not consider that it is fair to place a disproportionate burden of work on women if proportionality in parties and across the Parliament is not in place.”
“Does the member recognise that, by sheer dint of numbers, the fact that a large minority of the Parliament’s 129 members are Government ministers makes it very difficult, from a workload perspective, for large committees to function? Martin Whitfield: In some of our evidence, it was suggested that that was one of the consequences of having large committees. As far as the role of Government ministers—“the payroll”—and their accountability is concerned, I think that that would be an interesting discussion to have in the chamber and beyond, this afternoon and in the future. I turn to the issue of achieving a gender balance on committees and how that might be supported. The inquiry has afforded the committee the opportunity to explore in more detail the suite of recommendations in the gender-sensitive audit on committee membership.”
“Màiri McAllan: I am pleased to hear that that approach has been confirmed by Glasgow City Council. It builds on Scotland’s reputation for, and experience of, the delivery of affordable homes— for example, the Government has supported the delivery of more than 140,000 affordable homes since we came into office. Everything that the Government has been doing, particularly in relation to the housing emergency action plan, has been about understanding the need to step up that delivery and to put in place the funding to do that. We have boosted Glasgow City Council’s budget this year by more than £24 million so that it can acquire properties and bring them into use. That brings the council’s total budget allocation for the affordable housing supply programme to more than £127 million in this financial year.”
“Unfortunately, the Government’s decision in 2024-25 to cut funding for the affordable housing supply programme by a quarter has had a significant effect on the pipeline of housing in the city. Today, Glasgow City Council has approved a five-year plan for the construction of almost 6,400 new affordable homes, 75 per cent of which will be for social rent. It has also identified an additional series of sites that will allow for a further 4,648 homes to be developed. At a stretch, the cost of that will be £1.6 billion in capital investment, but the core plan will cost about £890 million. Will the cabinet secretary confirm that she will support that baseline plan and do what she can to push further towards the stretch target of £1.6 billion of funding to get those additional homes? As a baseline, we need 11,559 homes to be built in Glasgow.”
“To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that housing supply in Glasgow will keep up with the predicted 10 per cent rise in population by 2032. (S6O-05116) The Cabinet Secretary for Housing (Màiri McAllan): As the statutory housing authority, Glasgow City Council is responsible for assessing the local housing requirements of all tenures as part of its local housing strategy, as well as for keeping its strategy under review. The local housing strategy should be informed by a robust housing need and demand assessment that takes into account key evidence, such as existing need and supply, and future household projections. Paul Sweeney: Glasgow declared a housing emergency and has been in that emergency since 2023.”
“Other rivers in the world have such guardianship arrangements, whether that is the River Ouse in England, the River Atrato in Colombia or the River Meuse in the Netherlands. In her 2025 book, “A Barrister for the Earth: Ten Cases of Hope for Our Future”, lawyer Monica Feria-Tinta notes that rivers should have rights. We need to recognise that emerging reality and the fact that we need a much more considered approach to the development of our river landscapes in Scotland. 13:14”
“That is not within their remit; they are purely concerned with economic development considerations. The question then turns to who is responsible for preservation and protection and whether that responsibility should be joined up. Although the minister is likely to refer to the river basin management plan process, I ask her to consider in her response how those responsibilities, particularly in relation to the Clyde, can integrate better with the Glasgow city region that has been established in the past 10 years and its new role in adopting the Clyde mission. I also ask her to consider how we can bring all that together so that the environmental impact of development of the river, rather than just issues of economic development, are brought into the consideration.”
“For example, the way in which we have developed the national parks process could be a benchmark for future arrangements for our rivers and river basin management. The Clyde has a long, complex history. Responsibility for it was originally held by a trust port that was established in 1770, before coming under the scope of the River Improvement Trust in 1809. It was then further developed by the Clyde Navigation Trust in 1858, which was subsequently privatised in the 1990s. Those bodies were primarily concerned with the development of industry on the river, but wider considerations now need to be brought to the fore. In the greater Glasgow and Clyde area, we now have the Glasgow city region and its Clyde mission. They have made it clear that they do not have a role in dealing with the preservation and protection of the Clyde.”
“Nonetheless, the process of discussion and the different stakeholder representations elicited a lot of interesting ideas. The fundamental issues are control and accountability. There is no formal mechanism for all stakeholders—there is a vast number of them—who might have a role to play in a river basin to be represented in a coherent manner. There is a real opportunity for further development. Myriad private owners with significant interests are in control of our river landscapes and hinterlands, but there are no formal obligations for them to engage or consult with stakeholders beyond fairly threadbare planning and statutory obligations, which often do not get considered in the round but are considered in little silos by different local authorities. There is a need for greater oversight.”