My brother Gerry recently returned for a visit to Glasgow from his home in Essex.
One of the first things he said was how horrified he was at the state of the city of his birth.
The litter piling up on the streets, the scale of the graffiti, rows of boarded-up shops, ugly potholes on almost every street he travelled along.
He couldn’t believe his eyes.
Of course, none of this will be news to Glaswegians.
And it wasn’t news to me either – as an elected representative of the city, it is by a comfortable margin the most common gripe of constituents.
But coming from someone revisiting his home city from his new base on the other side of the country, it held a new potency.
As an MSP, my brother wondered, what was I going to do about it?
It was a good point. Many of us are forever complaining about the state Glasgow has been allowed to fall into, but not everyone’s in a position to take decisive action.
That’s why, in the next few weeks, I’ll be launching my New Broom campaign.
The idea is people across the city identify things they want fixed – whether it’s potholes, bins that haven’t been collected, an area of land that’s fallen dangerously into disgrace – and photograph the evidence.
They’ll send these images to a dedicated email address that I will set up. At the end of each week, they will be collated and sent to the city council with a simple demand: sort this or we will stay on your case.
We’ll repeatedly flag issues that aren’t remedied, and those who report the problems can keep regular tabs by supplying updates.
Then, when problems are addressed, the council will receive due credit for doing so.
We hear too often that local authorities don’t have the budgets to fix potholes or always ensure bins are properly collected on time.
But Glaswegians don’t have the budget to spend hundreds of pounds replacing tyres or pay private operators to dispose of their waste.
We know people in the city are dissatisfied with the waste collection service.
Around 93 people complain to the council every single day in Glasgow about missed collections.
That works out as almost 170,000 complaints over the last five years.
That’s the statistical evidence, but residents trust their eyes and ears as well.
They can see all too clearly the sheer demise of a city which used to be handsome and proud.
They see the rat infestations, the appalling fly-tipping and the litter that’s strewn about world-famous streets.
They want bustling and successful shops and cafes, not boarded-up shells just asking to be vandalised or set ablaze.
Almost every day in this very newspaper there is a story featuring the decline, dilapidation or neglect of our cityscape.
Glasgow needs a new broom in more ways than one.
This campaign will be launched in coming weeks and is open to all, regardless of background or political preference.
It will provide the chance for us all to work together, to bring this issue right to the top of the agenda, and restore some pride in our communities.
The tipping point has been reached – I want the fightback to start now.
By Annie Wells
