COUNCIL charity workers and volunteers have scrambled to help rough sleepers camped out beside a city centre bridge.

A number of tents appeared under the George V Bridge over Christmas as freezing temperatures set in.

The council’s homelessness street team, operated by the Simon Community, visited the site over the course of the week to make attempts to accommodate those sleeping in the tents.

A Glasgow City Council spokesman confirmed that the site had been cleared of rough sleepers but the possibility of people returning still remains.

A couple, said to be from Kilmarnock, their dog and another male, were living in the muddy ground close to the River Clyde but have since been placed in accommodation.

Homelessness staff on the ground say there are only around 25 people sleeping on Glasgow’s streets on any given night, although around 2,000 are registered in the system.

The emergence of the tent village has been criticised by a leading homeless charity who called on the local authority to do more.

Graeme Brown, Director of Shelter Scotland, said: “No-one should have to sleep rough in 21st century Scotland yet every day we are reminded that far too many people in Scotland – like those near George IV Bridge in Glasgow - are enduring the human tragedy of homelessness.

“This is more evidence of how Scotland is failing too many people on the basic human right of providing them with a warm, secure home.

“Rising homelessness and increased numbers of people rough sleeping are driven by a lack of truly affordable housing, the high cost of housing, stagnant wages, jobs that don’t pay enough and zero-hours contracts.

“Add in austerity, welfare reform and the flawed Universal Credit system and you get a perfect storm that is driving more vulnerable people into poverty, where they are struggling to make ends meet and at risk of losing their home.

“Rough sleeping, whilst the most visible form of homelessness, is just the tip of the iceberg, with untold thousands who sofa surf with friends or family with no place to call home.

“We know that the process of applying as homeless can be complex and put people off from asking for help as they are all too often made to feel inferior instead of being treated with the fairness, respect and dignity they deserve.

“Local authorities like Glasgow City Council must do more to ensure that every homeless person who turns to them for help is given the support they have a right to. We know that some people are turned away.”

In a bid to tackle homelessness, a new centre has been set up in the city.

As previously reported by the Evening Times, Glasgow is to be one of three cities to be a base for the new Centre for Homelessness Impact.

The centre, set up by Crisis and Glasgow Homelessness Network, and backed by funding from philanthropist Humphrey Battock, will analyse how to most effectively prevent and tackle homelessness.

A Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group, set up in October, has been backed by £50 million to drive change over the next five years

A Glasgow City Council spokesman, added: “Our street team successfully engaged with the people who used these tents and they are now being accommodated appropriately.

“We have been monitoring this situation closely and it now clear the tents have been abandoned, the site has been cleared.”