Rising from Ravenscraig's ashes; The ruined steelworks community is

On a side street in Craigneuk, just outside Glasgow, a lethargic security guard keeps lookout over a vast expanse of deserted land. Here and there are reminders of another era - rusting metal juts out from the soil, a flight of stairs climbs up to the sky and a single wellington boot lies discarded, mud encrusted over rotting plastic. In one area a crater is gouged from the earth but the rest is like a mass grave - bleak and uniform, grass stubble sprouting boldly from the recently settled ground.

Welcome to Ravenscraig, the ruins of a steelworks that once employed 13,000 people to produce the metal used in Scotland's shipbuilding and heavy engineering industries. Ten years ago this site operated around the clock and housed multi-million-pound facilities including a blast furnace, strip mill and coke ovens. Today it is a sleepy industrial outpost, cocooned in time, waiting to be transformed.

If you look closely, the signs of change are already beginning to stir. A sleek new road and roundabout has been laid through the scrubby mounds and next to the entrance of this once-thriving site a glossy billboard claims to be "building a brighter future".

Over the next 20 years the 450-hectare area will become a flourishing community once more, but the noise and filth of the steelworks will be replaced by business, retail and leisure facilities, as well as a "shopping centre experience", where people will be able to try out products without having to buy them. At the heart of the development a state-of-the-art indoor ski dome, with real snow, will be a magnet for visitors throughout Britain. The only reminder of Ravenscraig's past will be the smooth, landscaped hill which houses sealed containers of low-grade waste from 40 years of sweat and toil.

The ambitious (pounds) 800 million development, a consortium of Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire, property developers Wilson Bowden Developments and steelmakers Corus, is being dubbed Scotland's next new town. It will include housing for 10,000 people and create around 12,000 new jobs.

For the nearby communities of Craigneuk, Carfin, Wishaw and Motherwell, where unemployment stands at around 14% in some parts, the regeneration has been long-awaited. Almost everyone in these parts is linked directly or indirectly to the old steelworks, which lies like an open wound on the other side of the high street. "When they pulled down the buildings I remember it was very emotional; a lot of people were crying," recalls Peter McGuinness, a shop owner.

For the first time in a decade the atmosphere is cautiously positive. "In general I think it's a good thing, although you've always got doubts in the back of your mind because of what it was used for and I hope they employ local people," says Josephine Cope, project manager at Craigneuk Support and Development Unit, which has provided advice and training opportunities for locals since the closure of Ravenscraig.

"I feel a bit sceptical about when it's going to happen, because they have been talking about this for years," says Willy McLoughlin, who built a 23-year career at the steelworks and now co-runs the King Lud pub on Craigneuk's high street. "But we do need something for the young people around here."

With a projected 10,000 residents, Ravenscraig will be more urban village than new town, but the philosophy behind it is similar. When new towns were developed in the 1950s they represented an exciting opportunity for those disenchanted with cramped urban dwelling. Accommodation in the five Scottish new towns - East Kilbride, Irvine, Livingston, Cumbernauld and Glenrothes - was affordable and provided most people with their own gardens. The first pioneers brought a positive attitude with them as they set about building an alternative, easier way of life. The rows of uniform streets were kept clean and crime was low. Flowers and trees decorated the new "boulevards" and "expressways" and children played in parks and playgrounds.

This bright new future was further cemented by the promise of economic stability and employment. Companies were given investment incentives to locate within new towns and the money duly poured in. Light industry, research and development and big-name retailers were lured by the cheap rates, good road networks and a ready supply of labour.

Yet some say the perks only created unfair imbalances in Scotland's wealth, which should not be repeated. "The financial advantages offered to inward investments are much stronger in the new towns of Fife or Lanarkshire than they are in Glasgow, so in a sense I'm intrigued why you'd want to build another new town in Lanarkshire," says Douglas Robertson at the applied social sciences department of Stirling University. "Why not make sure that development is provided within the city boundaries, where there are substantial amounts of derelict land, transport connections and facilities? Their gain could not only be a loss to the cities but also to the wider environment, and strategic planning is supposed to address these issues."

In its defence, the development consortium points out that Ravenscraig is unlikely to impact on Glasgow's city centre, which is Britain's second-largest shopping attraction. The "shopping experience", an American concept that could include such features as a climbing wall to test out hiking boots, is mainly designed to showcase the products, which could then be bought elsewhere. Anyway, argue local urban planners, around 50p in the pound is thought to leave the area to centres like Glasgow and East Kilbride, so it is about time some of that came back to communities around Ravenscraig.

Nevertheless, the idea of a new town flies in the face of current thinking, which is to regenerate the city centres and combat environmental problems. Since the new town boom in the 1950s, many housing experts have condemned the developments as soulless extensions of suburban sprawl. Although the towns were designed to be self-sufficient, in most cases they merely widened the commuter belt into the cities, increasing road traffic and pollution. In an environmentally conscious era, out-of-town developments run counter to government policy to reduce car dependency.

The widely touted housing and leisure opportunities have also faded. In East Kilbride, probably the most successful of the new towns, it is increasingly difficult for young people to find affordable homes when they move away from their parents. Areas which once provided ample space for children to play and take part in sport are rapidly being eaten up by private housing estates geared to middle and higher incomes.

Alison McDonald moved to East Kilbride eight years ago and feels that the town has sold itself to private developers. "For young people putting their name down on the housing list there's no chance of getting a house here because they sell the land off to private landlords. It's as if East Kilbride is just a money-making scheme. It's just private houses and roundabouts now and there's nowhere left for kids to go."

In Livingston, the housing mix is healthier, with some lower priced accommodation still available, but increasingly, more upmarket private estates are taking over the landscape. "They've built a lot of houses in the time we lived here and the place has changed quite dramatically, so from being right on the edge of town we are in quite a built-up area now," says Mike Burton, who moved into the area nine years ago. "It has lost the community atmosphere."

Although on the surface there seems nothing wrong with further development of the new towns, the aggressive commercial attitude that developers have taken means that the areas are increasingly becoming middle-class zones, with little opportunity for those on lower incomes. Gavin Corbett at the Chartered Institute of Housing says that is a potential problem. "If you take a whole area that is only given over to people who can afford a mortgage of such and such a level, then that in itself is exclusive. I do think that we are going to be looking at very alarming physical segregation of the poor and anybody who is above - and I don't think anyone wants to see that."

Aesthetically the new towns have also suffered criticism. Centres are characterised by large, modern underground shopping malls, which lack diversity because small businesses have little chance to compete with the multinationals. Visitors encounter a confusing maze of roundabouts, a phenomenon which has earned East Kilbride the nickname "Polo Mint City".

Yet lessons have been learnt from the mistakes of the new towns, which will be taken into account with Ravenscraig, according to Murray Collins at Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire. Public transport links will include regular rail and bus services to Glasgow and the local suburbs and bus services will operate within the town. There is also a commitment to mixed housing within the scheme, including some council and rented accommodation.

Collins says that the new development will be more vibrant and environmentally conscious. "The first new towns were built on the periphery, with no public transport, mono-housing development and no social facilities. We will make sure that doesn't happen by getting the council involved early in all the social and cultural facilities, and bringing in schools, churches, pubs and restaurants."

Thought is also being given to how the town can reflect the history of the steelworks, perhaps including sculpture or a museum about the story of Ravenscraig. However, such features will be a tiny concession to the area's former role, as like all new towns, Ravenscraig is about opportunities for the future, rather than the romance of the past.

It is this ability to wipe the slate clean, to forget history and all its barriers and prejudices, which is behind the attraction of new towns. Like the first pioneers of America, citizens can escape the dangers and discomforts of the cities they left behind and embrace a freer, more modern lifestyle. Livingston resident Mike Burton says the town's positive attitude was refreshing for him and his family. "The whole move was quite an exciting event in our lives then. The place seemed quite dynamic. I think there is a sense of pride here. They have gone to great lengths to make the place attractive. In spring the flowers, the daffodils and crocuses are an amazing sight."

Optimism is something that Ravenscraig is sorely lacking at the moment. Behind the bar of the King Lud pub, Willy McLoughlin finds it difficult to forgive the harsh economics and politics which took his job away from him. He spent a year broadening his skills from mechanical to electrical engineering only to be told he was over- qualified, or at 40, too old for vacancies. "I do feel bitter. Someone said to me, 'When Ravenscraig was open you must have been doing really well in [the pub].' But I said, 'If Ravenscraig was open I wouldn't be in here!'"

When the new town finally emerges from the ashes of the steelworks, McLoughlin will be an old man and the King Lud might be a fashionable out-of-town nightspot for the young citizens of Ravenscraig and Glasgow. Or it could be wiped forever from the landscape to make way for expanding property developers, shopping centres and drive-in fast food chains.

Copyright 2001
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