Monthly Archives: June 2025

SAVE OUR TOWN CENTRE #EKSOC

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When the brand new East Kilbride Civic Centre buildings were officially opened in 1968, it could have been the icing on the cake, in a year which the New Town was celebrating its 21st birthday, and of course there was plenty to be celebrating. The town was booming, it now boasted a population of 60,000 residents, 15,000 houses and a working population of 21,500. Even with its internationally recognised successes, the town was still was only beginning a journey of growth and accomplishment which would stretch over many decades to come.

However, not everyone was in a celebratory mood, for some the sip of bubbly from the occasion would leave a very sour flavour which has only evolved into a dark embitterment as the years rolled on. It would appear that the construction of the new Civic buildings that represented a bastion for ambition and achievement. A brutalist monolith that would inject the majesty of green landscapes and family dreams which would have been unimaginable at the end of the second world war. For others however the picture was very different, in that this new structure would exist to cast a cold shadow upon their interests and estates. These representative officials of the many surrounding towns were even known to sigh and mock on the mention of the new town’s name. In the most part they could only look up the hill and embody the ideas that the success of East Kilbride was to the detriment to their own. This distaste would only be compounded in 1975 with the creation of the East Kilbride District Council.

In a serendipitous change of circumstances, these very same individuals found themselves being handed the keys of the town in 1996 after the dissolving of the East Kilbride Development Corporation, and indeed the abolishment of the East Kilbride District Council. From this point on the town would find itself slotted into the newly created South Lanarkshire Council, and would be managed with the same whip and framework, of its neighbouring towns and villages across the southern basin of Lanarkshire.

For some elected officials this was perceived as an opportunity to finally settle old scores, finally getting their hands on the cookie jar, with chants of “They had it too good for too long” being commonplace at many a council meeting. None the less for the civil among us, we could have been certain that professional practice, due process, and common sense would always prevail.  

However for even the most optimistic long term East Kilbridian’s among us, the reality of the situation speaks for itself. For nearly 30 years under South Lanarkshire Council’s governance we have witnessed the town transform from the accolades of the most successful town in the United Kingdom, to a crumbling shell playing host to scenes reminiscent to the East End of Glasgow during the 1980s. In all a town that has been left behind.

The Warning Signs of Decline:

  • A crumbling town centre, marked by shuttered shops, outdated facilities and a lack of reinvention.
  • Neglected roads, and public amenities, with potholes, tired parks, general reduction of maintenance services.
  • Closure and sell off, of essential community services such as community halls, libraries, bowling clubs, and actual area commercial squares, all of which were the lifeblood to the local residents.
  • Underwhelming transport development, as long-promised rail electrification, and track duelling , and road improvements repeatedly stalling.
  • Chronic traffic saturation, and associated pollution on a road infrastructure not fit for purpose, transforming the town into an underused motorway service station for traffic traveling from anywhere on the central belt of Scotland.

The Proposed Redevelopment: A Destructive Vision?

South Lanarkshire Council’s latest masterplan for the town centre includes demolishing the most modern parts of the existing shopping centre, in the Centre West section of the estate—including sections of the Plaza and Olympia.—in favour of yet another new concrete jungle of private blocks of flats, only a portion of which will be utilised as social housing. For the majority of locals, this isn’t regeneration. It’s managed decline, the most recent chapter of intentional vandalism of the town under the stewardship of South Lanarkshire Council.

Why It’s a Bad Plan?

Loss of Identity and Legacy

The shopping centre is more than just retail—it’s the cultural and architectural heart of the town. The town centre was always central to the towns design and its success, which emphasised pedestrian-friendly spaces, self contained neighbourhoods and a “Clear separation of residential and industrial areas”. Its interconnected design was once seen as an award winning blueprint on future town design , yet its planned demolition continues with the erosion of East Kilbride’s identity.

No Meaningful Economic Strategy

The SLC leadership are currently stating that “doing nothing on the site is not an option” yet the very same leadership including Council leader Joe Fagan accepts that it is exactly their strategy of ‘doing nothing’ for many years which has led to the current underuse of the Centre West facility. No one can argue against the weight of disappointment following the closure of the Debenhams retail chain. which was the main attraction of the facility, however with a stringent policy of ever increasing shop rates, and behaviours toward the tenants which could be regarded as unreasonable. Even with the opportunity to lure some of the retail stores away from the local competition within the Plaza and Olympia parts of the centre, It could very well be considered that behind closed doors the leadership had already decided upon the fate of Centre West. A fate that would align with the overall SLC strategy for East Kilbride. Rather than revitalise the town centre or support new businesses, the plan prioritises residential development which for the council equates to the generation of Council Tax earnings, with little or no supportive infrastructure and certainly without a clear path to economic growth or job creation for the towns residents and children.

Commercial efficiency?

One of the primary arguments being made by South Lanarkshire Council, is that the Town Centre is simply too big to support the size of the town? A point which they have bolstered by a secondary point stating “No one uses shopping centres any more” and of course “there is just not the demand”. The prowess of making the first point, was quickly morphed into dry choking of the voice and fidgeting of the hands, when they were asked to state the current ratio of residential to commercial properties within the town. Not only were the leadership unable to confirm, it was clear they hadn’t event considered this statistic prior to their presentation.

As for the other points, these are easily disproven by simply anyone, who has attempted to obtain a parking space in Braehead, Silverburn, or indeed the Glasgow Fort shopping centres. Or for the ultimate closer-to-home joy of spending the best part of an hour attempting to exit the Kingsgate Retail Park via the death trap junction at the Nerston area of the town.

The most dangerous of these points made by the SLC leadership behind the development, is in that the reduced footprint of the Town Centre commercial area will be more appropriate for the town, and any businesses ‘left’ within the Centre West complex can be relocated to the other parts of the town centre estate. For most who attended the development presentation this would be common sense…no? However the major problem with this suggestion is in the fact that South Lanarkshire Council have no ownership or say in any way whatsoever regarding the ‘older’ parts of the Town Centre estates. Yes the older parts of the complex (Princess Mall, Plaza, Olympia) are privately owned by a US based financial house, and are indeed currently in the process of selling to a new financial house. With no confirmation of what the site will be used for in the future. Know…what would a large corporate investment organisation want with an aged, ill-invested, crumbling shopping centre? A shopping centre which because of the period of its original construction, comes free with a multi-million pound bill for the removal of asbestos from almost every building within the complex? Compounded with chronic transport links, and pitiful footprint of local business and commercial interests. Yes I’m afraid the only pound or in this case dollar signs that hand above the site are in the opportunities of the land bank, with the prospect of the additional sweetener of land of which currently resides the soon to be rubble of the Civic centre and county buildings, would make this a very worthwhile financial venture indeed, assuming you throw in the tombstone of what was once the town of East Kilbride.

Destruction Before Delivery

There is deep concern that should demolition proceed, the area will be left with an eyesore of rubble, long before any meaningful replacements are built—leaving a large, empty void in the town’s centre for years, as was, and indeed still is the case on the site of the former hotel of which the demolition still provides a mystery to town sleuths.

Top-Down Decision Making

Many residents feel the plans were drawn up with the most basic consultation. With decisions made in Hamilton, East Kilbride residents are now becoming used to having minimal input into any decisions regarding their own town’s future. The examples of which are pilling up. Residents of the Lindsayfield area of the town are currently still feeling the bruises from the consultation of the construction of a new McDonalds drive through restaurant, which will be slat bang in the middle of a horrendously congested area of the towns road infrastructure. With over 80% of objections from the local residents, this mattered not to South Lanarkshire Council who simply ignored the outcome of the consultation and granted permission to the unwanted venture. It can only be concluded that the council leadership will proceed under the same terms on the Town Centre proposed development.

Unsustainable Urban Planning

It would appear that cheap and easy is the main driver of the strategy for East Kilbride under the governance of South Lanarkshire Council. Everything is short term planning it would appear that the planning seems to be just enough to align with the local government election cycle. The decisions that have been made and indeed approved by the council are entirely head scratching by the vast majority of residents. In general they feel that they are being approved by individuals that have never stepped foot in the town, with the incorporation of the mantra ‘yep that’ll do,’ or ‘that’s good enough’. This recent proposal is no different, removing civic and retail space in favour of more flats risks worsening the current levels of social isolation and reducing the sense of community that town centres are meant to foster. The plans and images being presented by the third party architects show the replacement commercial buildings as cheap, short-term gestures, with a décor, laden with low cost materials, set to be dated before construction concludes.

From New Town to No Town?

The tragedy is that East Kilbride still has immense potential: excellent schools, expansive green space, and a strong industrial base. But under South Lanarkshire Council, that promise is being squandered through poor planning and a lack of local advocacy.

Rather than aim to revive the centre and adapt it to modern needs—through public-private partnerships, better transport links, or cultural investment—the council appears to be downsizing East Kilbride’s future as a strategy.

A Call for Local Leadership

More and more residents believe East Kilbride needs its own voice again—whether through a directly elected town council, a development trust, or some form of local autonomy. The current arrangement under South Lanarkshire doesn’t reflect the scale, needs, or identity of East Kilbride.

With currently a whimper from our elected representatives across the town, and tepid silence from both our current MSP, and MP’s its crystal clear that direct community action is required to ‘focus’ their attentions. And to those officials who are actively supporting this venture, and backing as a positive for the town, rest assure we will not forget at the both upcoming elections of the coming years.

The town was built as a vision of the future. If we want to reclaim that spirit, we must act now—before the legacy is lost, and East Kilbride becomes an eternal suburban graveyard with a brief mention in the chapters of Scotland’s history.

Make your voice heard, support out campaign to save our town centre #EKSOC and make sure your elected officials know your views on the matter!!!

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By-Election Shock..

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By-election shock should be a reminder to focus on what it is actually like to live in Scotland

What lessons for public policy in Scotland can we take from the Hamilton by-election result? It appears that, in a close fight, it is the incumbent party which has been punished most. But which incumbent?

The local authority which covers Hamilton and Larkhall (South Lanarkshire) is Labour-controlled. The UK Government is obviously a Labour administration with an enormous majority. It is only Holyrood that the SNP controls. So what can we take from the fact that, in a result which doesn’t exactly feel like a glowing endorsement of anyone, it is the Holyrood incumbent who is punished?

On one hand, that might be obvious enough – this is a Holyrood election to send someone to the Scottish Parliament and so issues under the remit of that parliament dominated much of the campaign. But there may be another factor which amplifies that effect.

Because this wasn’t a national election, there has been much less focus on national-level issues in the campaign and certainly much of the local conversation will have revolved around locally-felt issues. That means it is an election that encouraged people to focus on the place where people live.

In the case of Hamilton, that is potentially tricky for the SNP. The most visible factors in Hamilton are to do with the town centre and public services. Hamilton is almost a case study in how to destroy your high street with an edge-of-town retail park. Hamilton town centre was once busy and thriving. It is now in a sorry mess.

Like everywhere else, getting a doctor’s appointment is a chore, local authority services are threadbare and local infrastructure isn’t in its healthiest state. While Labour control the local authority, a lot of this happened while the SNP was in charge, so it may not have been a focus on local politics so much as Scotland-level politics as they impact locally.

If this is correct (and there is plenty to suggest it is), there is perhaps a strong lesson that political parties should adopt. Talking to journalists, lobbyists, decision-makers and party activists is not the same as persuading the public that you’re delivering a better quality of life for them. There is a very big difference between national-level statistics and how that feels in a given location.

The issues which are driving people just now are things like housing, crime, local social cohesion or the sense that things are ‘going to the dogs round here’, the ability to access public services, the ability to feel like you have influence over local decisions – and the broad sense that ‘anyone is listening to me and my concerns’.

Bragging about having a ‘record number of affordable homes’ built at a national level doesn’t help if a local housing market is saturated and private rental costs are soaring. A six hour wait in accident and emergency might well be an improvement on a seven hour wait, but it is not a positive experience. You can talk about how you’re focussed on ‘town centres first’ but does it feel like that in your town centre?

Politicians have become ‘managers of performance indicators’. They stand at a national level and explain how ‘the data’ shows that what they are doing is a success. Of course, often the response to data that shows things are not a success is to seek new data. But either way, that data may not tally with public perception.

Politicians need to get out of Holyrood and ask themselves what it actually feels like to live with their own policies. Lobbyists may provide the rhetoric to suggest that the housing situation is great, but do they produce the great, affordable houses people want to live in? A new out-of-town development may look like ‘inward investment’, but is it really disinvestment in towns?

In Scotland politics seems to have become a game played between commentators and politicians, the former assessing the latter from an advantaged position, the latter trying to placate the former using insider access. It all rather passes the public by – they live with whatever happens below.

This problem is getting worse every day. The SNP may like to hope that it will not face a by election near the shores of Loch Lomond any time soon given local opposition to Flamingo Land. Will activists in Galloway choose to punish the party that rejected their campaign for a National Park? What fate an SNP candidate standing in Torry given the likely theft of St Fittick’s Park?

The Scottish Government has hailed all of these decisions as data-driven and in the public interest. The public appears to feel differently. In the space between statistics and disillusionment lies a lived reality for most people. That should be the focus of politics again.

Content retrieved from: https://www.commonweal.scot/.