OFFICES for start-up businesses will be built alongside the Pinkston Basin on the Forth and Clyde Canal.

Scottish Canals has received permission from Glasgow City Council to erect the offices, which will be made from used shipping containers, on Mid Wharf Street.

The Scottish Government body hopes the ‘Enterprise Wharf’ scheme will play a part in wider plans to revitalise the north of the city. It will be funded by the government’s regeneration capital grant fund.

The project aims to provide “low cost business start-up space”, new facilities for the “existing and growing” communities of Sighthill and opportunities for residents to get access to training, employment and leisure facilities.

In a planning statement, Scottish Canals states the area “was once an important industrial part of the city” at the terminus of the Forth and Clyde Canal.

However, it says “industrial function declined during the 20th century” and, when the Monkland Canal was infilled to become the M8, Port Dundas was “largely” disconnected from the city centre.

The report states the area is now “changing for the better with a number of recent developments”.

These include the opening of the Pinkston watersport centre, a 600-home masterplan at Dundas Hill and the redevelopment of Sighthill, which will see over 800 homes built.

It also states the neighbourhood is emerging as a “creative place”, with Scottish Opera, the Rockville National Theatre of Scotland, The Whisky Bond, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Wallace Studios and Glue Factory in the area.

“Creating a new building from adapted containers is an opportunity to further develop this sustainable and affordable method of construction in an appropriate area of the city,” the report adds.

“The project aims to provide affordable commercial office space particularly for social enterprises and third sector businesses.”

“It is designed to be fully accessible with shared facilities on every level so that it can operate as a community of co-workers.”

Scottish Canals is also hoping to transform overgrown and inaccessible canal side paths to improve connectivity between the north of Glasgow and the city centre.

It applied to the council requesting permission to create “safe and attractive” cycling and pedestrian routes along the canal basin.