Fresh regeneration plans for Easterhouse
It was built with high hopes of providing a better life for Glasgow residents living in pre-war slum housing, but became more notorious for social problems than the tenements it replaced.
Easterhouse, which lies six miles to the east of Glasgow city centre, has undergone a significant transformation in the past 20 years, with new semi-detached housing replacing blocks of flats dat- ing to the 1950s. Now Glasgow City Council has announced further plans to cement the area’s rebirth as a wellconnected suburb offering the best in social and private housing.
More than 6,000 new homes are planned for the Greater Easterhouse area over the next two decades, along with landscaped parklands and improved transport links.
A report to the council’s regeneration and economic policy committee this week noted £82 million has been spent on housing development in the area since 2003, with additional investment by the private sector and Glasgow Housing Association.
The aim is to establish Easterhouse as a desirable place to live – far removed from a time it was shorthand for urban blight. First developed in the mid-1950s, the estate became so notorious by 1968 that light entertainment star Frankie Vaughan was persuaded to front a campaign for local youths to set down weapons and end gang associations.
As well as ongoing housing developments in Ruchazie, Barlanark and Stepford Road, a further 180 hectares of vacant land have been identified for future housebuilding. The existing Shandwick Centre in the centre of Easterhouse will be redeveloped as “a long-term commercial asset for the city to reflect both its changing and continuing role in the community”.
A new heritage and nature park, dubbed the Seven Lochs wetland park masterplan, will also be taken forward.