If it works, East Kilbride's masterplan for a new way of town centre living could prove to be a blueprint for declining towns across Scotland

Changes in retail patterns create the impetus for a 20-minute

neighbourhood model in the South Lanarkshire hub

By Stuart Harrow

Just as East Kilbride transformed Scotland's civic landscape in 1947 as the first New Town, the recently unveiled masterplan for its redevelopment could again make it a leader in the evolution of the way people live, work and play in the not-too-distant future.

The bold and imaginative proposal, for which a planning application has been submitted, will see a radical reappraisal of how town centres function, and their relevance to rapidly changing social and demographic patterns.

In brief, the partnership between the public and private sectors – which, when approved, could progress rapidly, given the strong backing from South Lanarkshire Council – envisages rethinking the priorities that shape the way people live. It includes:

• A reduction of 42% in retail floorspace;

• Up to 400 new homes in a new town centre neighbourhood;

• A new civic hub;

• A food supermarket as an anchor retailer;

• The transformation of entrance points, including a new hotel.

Dougall Baillie Associates, as one of the largest and most successful independent engineering consultancy firms in Scotland, is pleased to be actively involved in the redevelopment – just as it was many years ago in the original buildings and the infrastructure that surrounds them.

-- Advertisement --

The firm will be providing support and guidance on transport, accessibility and road network operation in the first phase and has reasonable expectations of being a key element in the wider redevelopment as it progresses.

The first stage will be the demolition of the existing Centre West Shopping Centre, currently largely vacant, and its repurposing for residential and community use, including the community hub, to which offices, the theatre and the library will likely relocate.

Behind the scheme, and underpinning civic thinking across Scotland, is the dramatic, internet-driven change in shopping habits which, in the case of Centre West, has seen a collapse in footfall, loss of its anchor store and up to a third of its retail space becoming currently vacant.

It is interesting to see the emphasis in the plan on a new, supermarket anchor, since the presence of a major retail attraction is what brings people in, and is what draws smaller retail operators.

But the whole concept, particularly the new homes, while very much in tune with the current urban planning principles for 20-minute neighbourhoods, where people work, live and shop within a 20 minutes-walk of everything they need, aligns also with the original concept of East Kilbride as, above all, a people-friendly environment.

Of course, for this to work, it needs both work, homes and shops and the thinking is that the proposed new flats will feed consumers towards the existing Plaza and Princes Mall, which will in turn sustain restaurants, cinemas and other services.

What makes East Kilbride's proposed evolution particularly interesting is that, as it has grown, it has tended towards becoming a car-based commuter town for Glasgow, known by some as Polo Mint City because of its occasionally daunting roads network

The masterplan aims to re-align that direction of travel by bringing high density low car ownership housing into the Town Centre as a means of appealing to a potentially younger and more socially and environmentally aware generation, a generation happy to buy into more compact homes and the 20-minute, sustainability ethos.

In a project of this magnitude, it is hardly surprising that differing priorities among departments within the council will create some internal friction, but it is to the authority's great credit that it has the vision, informed not least by the original concept of the new towns dream of almost three quarters of a century ago, to identify civic decline and come up with a plan to deal with it.

With a fair wind, the new centre could rise from the old within three to four years' and, if it achieves its objectives, it could prove to be a valuable blueprint for other, rapidly contracting town centres across the country.

Stuart Harrow is Director of Transportation at Dougall Baillie Associates.