Is Glasgow the third dirtiest city in the world? We test Time Out magazine's verdict

That was the conclusion of a recent survey by Time Out magazine, which put the city behind only New York and Rome in claiming the unwanted title.

In the survey 67% of people in Glasgow who participated used ‘dirty’ to describe the city.

READ MORE: Glasgow city centre set for spruce up from City Centre Task Force

Days before, it was voted the fourth best city to visit by the same magazine.

In a Spotlight series, the Glasgow Times is looking at how clean the city is and the issues around cleansing in a major city. 

On day one we go out onto some of the city streets and see for ourselves how dirty or clean it is.

On Monday afternoon, starting in the city centre, we put in the steps to find out.

The city centre streets were looking particularly clean. Sauchiehall Street had barely a piece of litter on the pedestrian precinct from Rose Street to Buchanan Street and there were no overflowing bins.

Buchanan Street was the same - busy with shoppers but it was difficult to find litter or rubbish lying around never mind piled high.

READ MORE:Spotlight: Glasgow eyesores that need the owners to take responsibility

Argyle Street and St Enoch Square were similarly clean.

We asked some people on the street how they felt about the city.

Geraldine Cook, from Coatbridge, agreed with the results of the Time Out survey.

She said: “Yes, I think it can be quite dirty. Particularly around the Glasgow Cross area.

“It’s a shame for visitors to see. The empty shops add to the feeling.”

Joe Robinson, from Glasgow, however, took another point of view.

He said: "Parts of it, at times, can be dirty.”

Of the ranking of third dirtiest in the world, however, he was sceptical.

He added: “I think that’s a bit harsh. People can be conditioned to think certain things about where they live. It can become a stereotype.”

Mr Robinson said he has lived in other cities including London and has spent time in New York and he didn’t think Glasgow was among the dirtiest.

Outside the city centre, there was a mixed picture.

In Cessnock, in the south west of Glasgow, overflowing bins and bags left lying on the streets were visible.

Outside a row of shops on Paisley Road West, a large grey bin was rammed full with more rubbish piled on top and spilling out the side.

More rubbish was piled up beside it.

Across the street, piles of black bags were left against a tree with wood, cardboard and other rubbish dumped on the pavement.

Further along, black bags full of rubbish were left beside the black litter bins and debris was left in a shopping trolley and a white refuse bag was left beside a tree.

In the streets just off Paisley Road West, there was litter trapped in railings with cans, bottles and food wrappers strewn around.

Across the River Clyde in Partick, Dumbarton Road is one of the busiest high streets outside the city centre.

The streets looked clean with only a few crisp packets and drink cans lodged in a doorway.

A council cleansing worker with a cart was busy picking up what litter there was along the street.

Glasgow City Council has accepted there is a need for action, particularly following the pandemic where staffing issues have had an impact.

It said there was an issue with commercial waste and who has responsibility.

A £2m fund has been set up to carry out deep cleans around the city, clearing up litter and graffiti.

A spokesperson for the council said: “We are implementing our plan to recover from the impact of the pandemic and we are seeing improvement in the cleanliness scores for the city.

“There is a wide range of initiatives under way that aims to maintain the cleanliness of the city and to help create the kind of environment we all want to see.

“In addition to the regular street cleansing service, our newly appointed deep clean teams will be working their way through every city ward to deal with weeds, hard to reach litter and grime, fly-posting and other issues that have built up over the past two years.

“We’re also targeting investment at fly-tipping enforcement, weeks of action in priority neighbourhoods and back courts and back lanes where environmental issues can exist."

The council said the public has a role to play in keeping the city clean and that a small number do not take act responsibly.

The spokesperson, added: “Unfortunately a minority of people do not dispose of their waste appropriately, either by dropping litter, using public recycling points for general waste or where businesses use public bins for commercial waste.

“This minority of people can create a detrimental impact on how people feel about their local environment and that will always present a challenge to services.

“But ensuring local businesses have their waste management arrangements in place is a key part of our weeks of action programme to tackle fly-tipping in the most affected areas.

“The city has 931 privately-owned lanes and we are working with many owners to ensure they maintain their property properly as these are lanes are often used by the public and can be places where waste is dumped.

“Our Clean Glasgow campaign is also committed to supporting the many volunteers that give up thousands of hours of their time to remove litter from their communities with our new litter picking hubs proving to be very popular.

“If people identify litter in a public place they can help by reporting it so we can deploy our teams to deal with it.

"If a bin is overflowing or damaged then residents can use the QR code on the bin which will help to ensure an effective response from our teams.”