r/Glasgow Tools

A lot of cynicism here. Some of it fair, but a lot of it tired and misplaced. I'm cautiously optimistic for what this means for the city, especially given the alternatives.

It's important to recognize that no council political grouping is omnipotent. A lot of the strategic work is done *over decades*, pushed and guided along the way by services departments and their leads. In some cases, there is clearly a lot of administrative and generational inertia behind the scenes, preventing more radical actions from being explored with any urgency. The previous council term featured a lot of promising stuff in the shape of reports, commissions, strategies and recommendations... but we've yet to see these be carried into action.

Can the handful of green councillors wave a magic wand and make everything better overnight? No. But having Greens in a position to leverage their support is only a good thing as I see it, and an absolute minimum if we are to see radical policies being enacted around improving our local environment, public transport affordability and availability, housing, protection of our city's built heritage (which as we all know is under constant threat).

For me, the best news is that the greens will have Convenor positions on three key committees (Net Zero and Climate Progress Monitoring Committee; Just Transition Working Group: Neighbourhoods, Housing and Public Realm Committee).

These committees cross several critical workstreams and pipelines of council projects which are in the early stages now, but if done right, could transform the city dramatically for the better.

Budget pressures and departmental inertia might not be going anywhere, but at the very least having some Green councillors who are energised deeply and (from my own perspective at least) seem to genuinely "get" these issues from a more practical sense than councillors from other parties, can only be good.