We have identified a lack of necessary collective strategy in recent decades for the River and Firth of Clyde region to address how the waterfront environment is developed and managed. Masterplanning is primarily undertaken by disconnected private developers without a guiding framework of the needs of the region, its economy and its communities.
While new policy initiatives such as local development plans and strategic development frameworks have sought to address this from a wider perspective, there is not enough focus on the maritime and new industry potential that the River and Firth of Clyde can support. Quite simply the River and Firth of Clyde does not function as maritime region in the way that many other coastal regions throughout the world successfully do.
Part of our research and development approach involves addressing these issues and since we started we have been involved in collaborative post-industrial waterfront initiatives led by the University of the West of Scotland.
Our Govan Graving Docks campaign identified an exemplar and microcosm of this very problem in the heart of Glasgow. While at one time a fifth of all the ships in the world were built on the Clyde, there is very little remaining of that legacy - either in terms of establishing a fitting recognition of it or taking it as the basis for social and economic strategy for the future of the Clyde. The default post-industrial approach of transforming waterfront land into (mostly high-end) housing and retail developments has now been brought into serious doubt. New policy frameworks such as Glasgow City Council's Govan-Partick and Clyde Corridor Strategic Development Frameworks now allude to a shift in attitudes of planners.
The post-war period witnessed a wipe-the-slate-clean process of eradicating industry and pursuing urban renewal experiments now largely recognised as having been fundamentally flawed.
Encouraging a rethink of this for the benefit of the maritime Clyde is at the heart of our outreach and engagement strategy and a major part of our developing Clyde.Scot digital platform.
