Cambuslang Gateway call
Widen boundary, says town’s CC
The boundary of the Clyde Gateway initiative, created to regenerate Rutherglen, should be extended to include Cambuslang, the town’s community council has said.
The group says Clyde Gateway is perfectly positioned to direct and deliver a long-term plan for economic growth in Cambuslang.
The community council wants a masterplan for the town centre drawn and an examination of how other key sites - such as the Newton Community Growth Area and the Somervell/Bridge Street development - will affect the viability of Main Street.
It set out its views in a response to the Main Issues Report (MIR), a document setting out South Lanarkshire Council’s suggestions for the next local development plan.
The response states: “We consider that there is a pressing need for a spatially targeted economic development and regeneration initiative for Cambuslang.
“You will be aware of the significant area of datazones in Cambuslang central Cambuslang, Caledonia Circuit, Whitlawburn, Eastfield and Silverbank - which are in the bottom 15 per cent of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation and in the bottom 20 per cent for health indicators.
“The cumulative and persistent disadvantages of these areas can only be tackled with an integrated regeneration strategy of the type currently being implemented in the Clyde Gateway area.
“We recommend that South Lanarkshire Council makes representations to its local authority partners and Scottish Government to extend the eastern boundary of Clyde Gateway eastwards on both sides of the river Clyde to include the datazones noted above; and to provide Clyde Gateway with additional resources to address the long-term regeneration problems of Cambuslang.
“Should this not be accepted, we recommend that SLC develops an alternative regeneration strategy for Cambuslang.”
Clyde Gateway was established to undertake the regeneration of 840 hectares across the east end of Glasgow and Rutherglen. It is driving forward £1.5 billion of private sector investment to establish the area as a hub of business activity.
It has already completed the Rutherglen Links Business Park and remediated contaminated land that is now ripe for development.
Jim Clark, senior manager for communications at Clyde Gateway, said: “The make up and size of Clyde Gateway are entirely for our three partners - South Lanarkshire Council, Glasgow City Council and Scottish Enterprise - to determine. If they felt it appropriate to take in Cambuslang, or other neighbouring communities, that’s something we would deal with in due course.”
Pauline Elliott, head of planning and economic development at South Lanarkshire Council, said: “All of the 200-plus responses received to the MIR – among them the points raised by the community council and including those referring to Main Street, Cambuslang – will be reviewed, assessed and considered on their own merits prior to the preparation of a proposed local development plan, which will then be put before the council’s planning committee.”