Glasgow Appliances on the corner of High St and Duke St, and Ladywell Crystals & Healing, two very successful businesses in the High Street (Glasgow Appliances has been running for 30 years), have been served with 4-week eviction notices by City Property, the current building factors.
This part of the High Street, the oldest part of Glasgow, has consistently been neglected by City Property and their predecessor Council subsidiary Ryden over the years and most of the buildings are infested with dry rot. Ladywell has been trying to get something done about this since 2010 as they were not informed of the rot when they took out their lease. CP claim that the lease conditions state that tenants are responsible for building upkeep and insurance - yet they are happy to lease the buildings without telling the tenants about the rot and have been trying to close down Ladywell for some time now over this dispute. If you're on Facepalm, check out the GHSMA page for more details and show your support. There was some publicity in the Evening Times and STV about this last week.
Ladywell have tried to organise a meeting with CP to try to reach some agreement, only to have it cancelled by CP at the last minute once they found out what questions were going to be asked. A small peaceful demo outside CP's offices on Monday failed to hand in a petition of 5000 signatures protesting against the closures as CP refused to accept it - and the eviction notice arrived on Tuesday.
It is scandalous that CP and GCC are allowing these historic buildings in the heart of Glasgow to rot away. Our history is enshrined in the fabric of these buildings. It's a disgrace the High Street, the birthplace of Glasgow in the Medieval Quarter is so neglected.