NETWORK Rail and Glasgow City Council had been working for years to try to close down a soup kitchen operating on a city centre pavement.

Homeless Project Scotland started the service late in 2020 under the Heilanman's Umbrella bridge.

Correspondence obtained by the Glasgow Times between the council and Network Rail shows officials from both were working together to get it moved.

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Network Rail owns and leases properties on Argyle Street and business tenants had complained the soup kitchen was affecting trade.

E-mails, obtained under Freedom of Information by the Glasgow Times, show as far back as December 2020 conversations were being held about forcing the charity from its location.

The conversations continued up until this year.

Last month the charity eventually moved to another outside location on Broomielaw and is currently trying to get indoor premises ready.

Network Rail said it has been supportive of the charity for three years and that the initial agreement was for six months with the aim of finding suitable alternative premises.

In the correspondence in November 2022, an official said: “I want to make it absolutely clear that we will not allow this charity to occupy Network Rail property. This is our final position on this.

“There was another stabbing at the weekend and a number of our tenant's units were cordoned off by the police as a result of this. We have staff who are too scared to travel to and from work.”

The official said both organisations had to get together and move towards “enforcement” action.

They continued: “As far as I am concerned, we have all tried to mediate this situation as much as possible. There must be formal action taken now that the councillors in Glasgow need to get behind.

“Let’s use the next meeting to pull together the list of all the space offered and rejected by the charity and use this to support a warning of enforcement.”

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Glasgow City Council’s  Neighbourhood and Regeneration Services replied and an official said they were “supportive of your position”.

In March this year, the possibility of the charity moving to Network Rail premises at Broomielaw was raised.

Network Rail said: “I want to make sure all key stakeholders are on board, we are all aware of the risks and have a plan in place – particularly so that we can manage (Redacted) expectations and any comms, whilst taking a firm stance on his (HPS) operating parameters.

“If we are involved in this from the off-set it means we can properly assess and manage the risks. We also need to be very clear that the charity cannot open another soup kitchen on Argyle Street.”

The council official said: “In principle, I support this proposal and absolutely agree we need to move HPS away from the existing arrangements.”

The correspondence shows meetings at city centre hotels between officials to discuss the situation.

A Network Rail spokesperson said: “The soup kitchen is not currently located on Network Rail property.

“We have been working with the charity to identify more suitable premises, owned by Network Rail, which would allow it to continue to deliver its services."

A spokesperson for Glasgow City Council, said: “We’ve been involved in discussions with HPS and Network Rail for some time about the charity moving their soup kitchen away from Argyle Street to another location.

“Agreement was reached with HPS that allows them to operate from a space on Broomielaw on a temporary basis, while they complete a move to indoor premises. 

“We will continue to work with them in whatever practical way we can, despite our previous offers of indoor premises being rejected by HPS.”

A spokesperson for Homeless Project Scotland, said: “Our focus at the moment is on getting indoor premises that are warm and dry for our service users. Without the help of Glasgow City Council that is not going to be possible this winter.”