After the initial shine of a glitzy opening of Blantyre ASDA in October 1980, the mood turned a little sour for residents fast becoming shocked at the volume of traffic in Blantyre.
That certainly was the view of Councillor Malcolm Waugh who claimed the arrival of ASDA had brought traffic chaos into Blantyre. His complaint was that Glasgow Road was being swamped by cars all being attracted to the new superstore, with many people arriving from other towns.
He said, “theres no way to describe the scenes of heavy traffic around the store. I am very concerned and have taken action. ” Malcolm had asked police to enforce the law by stopping people parking offroad, something that had been all too common place during the development of Glasgow Road. Illegal parking, especially off Glasgow Road had been causing blockages as people tried to find any space to park, in between the boarded up remaining tenements. Malcolm was also concerned that it was already too late to expand ASDA car park and that the initial 430 spaces may have actually been understated.
Officials however were of the opinion that the unprecedented level of traffic was due to initial curiosity about the store, especially at weekends and felt that after the Christmas rush, things would calm down significantly.
Pictured, courtesy of George Hay in 1982 is Asda Carpark… seemingly at a time when traffic had returned to a more acceptable level.
Featuring Blantyre Project Social Media with permission. Strictly not for use by others on or offline, our visitors said:
Drew Fisher Amazing seeing pictures of the ‘old’ cars, most of them Fords. How things have changed.
Stephen Anderson And some new cars, if this was 1982 that Sierra was brand new as this was the first year year Ford made the Sierra.
Andrew Mckinnon Think yourselves lucky.Thanks to a lack of a decent shop and some traffic activity Burnbank is now a ghost town only famous for our thugs and drug users.
Elizabeth Grieve Asda has ruined Blantyre. Yes it brought jobs and it’s handy having a supermarket nearby however the thing it’s ruined is something we’ll never get back; the sense of community