CCC Writes to John Swinney

Following the trouble in Glasgow City Centre last weekend prior to the Scottish League Cup Final, the Chair of the community Council wrote to John Swinney, First Minister of Scotland. We copied in the Sport Minister and Merchant City and Trongate Community Council also.

“Dear First Minister,

We, the Community Council in Calton, just to the east of Glasgow Cross, and residents of Calton, are pleased and reassured that you have branded the behaviour of football supporters before and during the Old Firm game on Sunday “completely and utterly unacceptable” (Herald 17 December).

You may also be aware that some of these very same supporters have assembled in the city centre to “celebrate” their team’s victories: RFC some years ago in George Square and, more recently, CFC at Glasgow Cross. Residents, businesses and visitors to the city have suffered on these occasions.

We have video evidence of fireworks and pyrotechnics being thrown high against buildings, reaching in some instances, the eighth floor of a neighbouring residential block. These fireworks present a clear danger to life and limb. The sheer numbers of people present would prevent any meaningful emergency response in case of disaster.

Police Scotland have only moved in when the area became very busy, rather than nipping the disorder in the bud. We also have video evidence, early in the day, of footballs being kicked in the street at Glasgow Cross, sometimes hitting at least the third floor of buildings, but also passing vehicles and again, presenting a clear danger to life.

The City Council, because no formal application for an event had been made, only supplied a handful of waste bins and CFC merely acknowledged our concern.

This left residents to clear the urine, faeces, vomit, graffiti and refuse from around their homes and residents across the city to pay for the City Council to clear the whole Glasgow Cross area.

We note that you consider it the responsibility of the two clubs to “take account of the behaviour of their fans” and we fully support that view.

We now ask if you can ensure that this responsibility is accepted by the clubs? Our particular concern, which we are sure is shared by our neighbours in Merchant City & Trongate Community Council, is that we want CFC to work with the City Council and Police Scotland to ensure that a suitable venue is set up so that fans can celebrate in safety the well-deserved successes of their teams, without bringing misery to others at the end of this current season.“