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I ask members of the public who have been visiting their Parliament to leave the chamber quickly and quietly as we are now moving to the next item of business. I thank them in advance for their co-operation.
The next item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S6M-19607, in the name of Jamie Hepburn, on the 70th anniversary of Cumbernauld as a new town. The debate will be concluded without any question being put. I invite members who wish to speak to press their request-to-speak buttons.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament recognises that 9 December 2025 is the 70th anniversary of the designation of Cumbernauld as Scotland’s third new town under the terms of the New Towns Act 1946, having been identified as a suitable location in the Clyde Valley Regional Plan; understands that this is a significant moment in the history of the town; recognises that the area designated included the existing villages of Cumbernauld and Condorrat, with the first part of the new town to be built being in the Kildrum area of the town to provide accommodation for workers at the nearby Burroughs factory; recalls that the inaugural ceremony for the new town was in June 1957, where the sod was cut at Kildrum Farm; appreciates the great sense of community that exists in Cumbernauld through its wide range of organisations and bodies that do great work to promote the town and support its residents; thanks all those who are involved in promoting the 70th anniversary, and wishes all those who live and work in Cumbernauld the best for the occasion and the future.
12:49
I begin by thanking the many members who supported my motion and enabled it to be debated today, and I look forward to hearing from those who will contribute to the debate. Without picking any favourites, especially as I have not heard from anyone yet, I particularly look forward to hearing from my friend and colleague Gordon MacDonald who, before he came on a pilgrimage to Edinburgh, grew up in Cumbernauld. I also look forward to finding out who will be first to use the refrain “What’s it called?” from a certain 1980s advertising campaign developed by the Cumbernauld Development Corporation to promote the town, although I realise that, in mentioning it, I have probably pipped everyone to the post.
It has been the best part of 13 years since I last brought a members’ business debate to the chamber, and I am delighted that my first effort in more than a decade marks an important milestone in the life of Cumbernauld, a town that I am proud not only to represent but to live in.
However, I am not the first Scottish National Party parliamentarian to represent Cumbernauld. Indeed, part of the new town’s story is that one of the first of the 11 SNP members of Parliament to be elected in October 1974 was Maggie Bain, as she was then, who became Maggie Ewing. She was a much-loved representative of East Dunbartonshire and, of course, was a much-loved member of the Deputy Presiding Officer’s family. She is very fondly remembered by SNP members of a certain vintage in Cumbernauld and is still highly regarded by my constituents. It is important that I put that on the record.
On the topic of anniversaries, today’s date also represents an important one for a Cumbernauld institution. It is 25 years to the day since the Village Gentry was opened. I mention that because I thought that the proprietor, Michael Macpherson, might enjoy it, although, in the interests of even-handedness, I should make it clear that other barbers are available in the town.
I could say a great deal about my home town today, but time is limited, so I can only scratch the surface. I remind members that Cumbernauld is a long-standing settlement. There has been an established community in the area for hundreds of centuries. Its name derives from the Gaelic Comar nan Allt, which means the meeting place of the streams—those streams being the Bog Stank and the Red Burn.
I could speak at length about the area’s links to Roman times, to the wars of independence and to Mary, Queen of Scots. I recognise that every town in South Scotland and Central Scotland could lay claim to being linked to Mary, Queen of Scots. Fiona Hyslop could certainly speak about Linlithgow’s links to her.
Although I lack the time to explore the town’s history, I mention it briefly to place the 70th anniversary in its wider context. The new town is part of the wider history and the wider story of Cumbernauld, but there is no denying that Cumbernauld is best known as a new town. It was on 9 December 1955 that Cumbernauld was designated as Scotland’s third new town, following East Kilbride and Glenrothes.
Our erstwhile colleague Andy Wightman happened to notice that the debate was to take place, and he contacted me somewhat out of the blue to direct my attention to the biography of the late Scottish landscape architect Ian McHarg, who was dispatched to scope out Cumbernauld as a site for a new town. Ian McHarg wrote:
“I spoke to several farmers whose opinions were united. It was a miserable place, wetter than most, with intractable mud, poor soil, a high water table, few trees, and those wind-pruned.”
It was not the greatest endorsement of the location, but I am pleased to say that Mr McHarg’s pessimism was misplaced.
Since the first bricks were laid in the Kildrum area of the town in 1956, Cumbernauld has grown to be a thriving community of more than 50,000 people, making it one of our country’s larger settlements, with an abundance of green space and—despite what Mr McHarg said—plenty of trees. Those of us who live there are blessed with a wonderful environment to reside in and enjoy.
Cumbernauld’s status as—in my humble opinion—Scotland’s best new town is underlined by the fact that, along with the Beatles’ performance of “All You Need Is Love”, it featured as part of the first live multinational and multisatellite television production, “Our World”. Broadcast on 25 June 1967, it featured the dulcet tones of Magnus Magnusson, no less, speaking about the new town. Everybody knows the town as the film location for the much-loved Bill Forsyth coming-of-age comedy, “Gregory’s Girl”, and, today, it is the location of Wardpark Studios, where the “Outlander” series is produced. Of course, we are also home to AG Barr, the manufacturer of Scotland’s other national drink.
Cumbernauld is not without its detractors, although I often find that many of them have never even set foot in the town, let alone have any real knowledge of it. Much of that criticism is predicated on the condition of our town centre. What was once a cutting-edge, state-of-the-art indoor shopping mall—the United Kingdom’s first such shopping mall—has suffered from decades of chronic underinvestment, to the point of dilapidation.
However, a town is more than its centre. Cumbernauld is blessed with an enormous sense of community spirit and an outstanding range of community organisations. Cumbernauld Poverty Action offers advice on social security to residents. This year, Cumbernauld YMCA-YWCA celebrated 65 years of operation. Cumbernauld and Carbrain community hub offers a range of different services to the community. Cumbernauld Action for Care of the Elderly supports many of our oldest residents. Cumbernauld Environmental Society and Cumbernauld Living Landscape projects do so much to maintain our green spaces. Cumbernauld FM is our dedicated local radio station. Cumbernauld theatre has served as a cultural hub for 60 years, and its future must be secured. Cumbernauld and Kilsyth Care—I should declare that my wife helped to form it—provides people who might require it with assistance including their children. I could go on. There are many such organisations, but those organisations and the people who are involved represent the real spirit of Cumbernauld.
I am glad that steps are finally being taken to renovate the town centre to ensure that we have a space that befits the wonderful character of the town. Some might mourn the loss of the brutalist architecture of the 1960s, but most local residents welcome the coming investment and, if anything, are frustrated that it has taken so long and might yet take a while to come to fruition. That investment is a salient reminder that, as we mark the past 70 years of Cumberland as a new town, the community continues to evolve, adapt and grow.
We are seeing investment in new schools with funding from the Scottish Government. Funding is also coming from the Scottish Government to help to build much-needed new social housing. We are seeing new families come to live in Cumbernauld, including the Syrian refugees who came to the town a decade ago and settled happily, and who are now a vital part of our community.
All that is a sign that Cumbernauld new town is not just here to stay; it is here to thrive. To those who call Cumbernauld home, I say many happy returns to our 70-year-old new town.
12:56
I thank Jamie Hepburn for securing this important debate to recognise Cumbernauld’s 70th birthday. Many people will be aware that I was born in Glasgow, but, apart from Jamie Hepburn, not many know that I grew up in Cumbernauld from the age of eight until I moved to Edinburgh in 1982. I attended Kildrum primary school and the then Cumbernauld high school, and it is a sign that I am getting older when I see that both those original new town school buildings have been demolished.
Coming at a young age from the centre of Glasgow to the first street that was built in the new town gave me a sense of freedom that I never had when I was surrounded by tenements and not the open fields and woodland of Cumbernauld Glen. Education was an improvement on the composite classes that we had in Glasgow, as the area that I lived in was being demolished. In Cumbernauld, there were no private schools within an easy commute, so everyone attended the local school. That helped to create a sense of community that still exists today, as everyone, regardless of their background, supported one another. It will surprise some that I am still in contact with school friends from those early days in Cumbernauld.
The town has a significant history of being recognised by the Saltire Society housing design awards, especially in its early decades. In eight out of the 11 years between 1961 and 1971, Cumbernauld won Saltire Society awards for housing design, and, in two of those years, it won two awards in a single year. Those accolades were granted during a period of major innovation and experimentation in Scottish urban planning, with Cumbernauld often being highlighted as the model of a new community design.
It was not all good news. Some of the first homes, especially those in Kildrum, had flat roofs, which is not a clever idea for homes that are placed at the top of a hill that was prone to very wet and windy weather. Other blocks of flats were built of concrete and were demolished after a short lifespan because of damp. When we left school or graduated from college or university, little work was available in the town, which resulted in many of my generation moving across the UK to find employment, which also had an impact on the development of the town.
Another issue was the 1996 local government reorganisation, which resulted in the absorption of Cumbernauld and Kilsyth District Council into North Lanarkshire Council. Many residents in the town believe that Cumbernauld was used as a cash cow for North Lanarkshire and that investment in the town declined as a result.
We had the first indoor shopping centre in the UK, but many residents missed the traditional town centre. It was also the first indoor shopping mall to have a song written about it, with a local duo, Edible Pear, writing a song “The Concrete Town Centre of Cumbernauld”.
With it being the first, it was also the prototype, with all the mistakes that go with building a groundbreaking centre that everyone else learned lessons from. The situation was not helped in 1997, when the UK Government wound up the development corporation, resulting in the town centre being sold to more than one landlord. That was the start of the centre’s decline, as no one had a clear plan for or agreement on its future.
Despite those issues, Cumbernauld was a great place to grow up in. That first generation of new town dwellers appreciated the improvements in their living standards. Even though there was a lack of entertainment facilities, people came together, and a host of organisations were established. That brought the community closer together. That same sense of community exists today and should be celebrated as Cumbernauld reaches its 70th anniversary.
13:00
I, too, thank Jamie Hepburn for bringing this celebratory event to the chamber. In planning terms, 70 years is practically adolescence, but in Scottish political terms, it is several boundary reviews, a few economic cycles and at least one argument about whether the A80 was finished properly.
Cumbernauld was founded in 1955 as a bold experiment—a vision of post-war optimism that was designed to house Glasgow overspill and create a forward-looking, pedestrian-friendly community. Opinions will differ as to whether the town centre looks like a modernist masterpiece or a crash-landed concrete spaceship, but nobody can deny the ambition or the personalities that reside in Cumbernauld. The town’s achievements are far greater than its architectural quirks, and it has produced remarkable people including musicians such as Jon Fratelli, actors, athletes and artists. Jamie Hepburn mentioned a few of the local legends in Cumbernauld—they are, of course, the folk who can find their way out of the town centre on their first attempt.
However, Cumbernauld’s greatest strength is not concrete. It is community, and nowhere is that community more alive, vibrant and vital than in Cumbernauld theatre. For decades, the theatre, in both the old and new buildings, has been the cultural heart of the town—a home for local drama, youth arts, live music, pantomimes, poetry and civic pride. It has nurtured talent, inspired generations and kept culture alive in the town, yet today this vital institution faces the threat of closure. A funding package involving the Scottish Government, Creative Scotland and North Lanarkshire Council hangs in the balance.
Without real, practical financial support, the doors of this beloved theatre may close. Shutting Cumbernauld theatre would not be an efficiency; I believe that it would be an amputation within the town. It would silence one of Scotland’s most community-centred cultural venues at the very moment when we should be celebrating its contribution and investing in its future. A town that was built on bold ideas deserves better than to have its creative lifeline cut. Frankly, if a town centre with a confusing landscape can survive for 70 years, surely a theatre full of laughter, creativity and hope can survive a funding shortage.
I hope that colleagues across the parties, councils and agencies will recognise the value of this cultural cornerstone. We all need to come together to ensure that Cumbernauld theatre not only survives but thrives. It has to be a place where young people can discover confidence, where older residents can find community and where everyone, regardless of their background, can come together to create something meaningful.
As Cumbernauld celebrates its 70th year, this debate allows us to show that the spirit of the new town—the spirit of optimism, innovation and sheer determination—is still alive. Let us commit ourselves to safeguarding the theatre that embodies the spirit of the town. In 50 years’ time, when Cumbernauld marks its 120th anniversary, I want future generations not only to say, “What’s it called?”—I apologise to Jamie Hepburn—but to say, proudly, “That’s a town that kept its culture alive.”
13:04
I thank Jamie Hepburn for lodging the motion, because it is right that the Parliament recognises the fact that next Tuesday marks 70 years to the day since Cumbernauld was designated as a new town under the act of Parliament introduced by the visionary, the courageous, the socialist Labour Government of 1945.
It was an act founded on economic planning for full employment. It was an act that recognised that, in pre-war Lanarkshire, almost half of the working class were employed in just four industries—coal mining, metal manufacture, shipbuilding and engineering—and so it was an act that demanded an economic plan for industrial diversification. It was also an act with a founding principle: to tackle the overcrowding and the slum housing that blighted cities like Glasgow. So, it was an act with a social plan to tackle poverty, want and disease to improve public health.
Mr Leonard is right to talk about the challenges that existed in post-war industrial Lanarkshire, but, at the time, Cumbernauld was—and many people feel it still should be—part of Dunbartonshire.
Well, that is a moot point. I suspect that I am well advised not to get involved in that debate, especially with Mr Hepburn.
Let me turn to the economic planning aspect of the act of Parliament. Between 1953 and 1978, when, across Scotland as a whole, there was a net decrease of 89,000 manufacturing jobs, across the five Scottish new towns, manufacturing employment rose by 32,000. Much of this was foreign direct investment. Too much of it was in virulently anti-trade union electronics factories, which became increasingly characterised as assembly-only screwdriver plants—and characterised as well by mobile capital, which moved on. In Cumbernauld, this meant Burroughs Machines—gone; OKI Electric Industry—gone; and Isola Werke—gone. That provided the background to some of my formative experiences in the trade union movement, dealing with a hostile environment that was, of course, created by those multinational corporations but encouraged by an unrepresentative, unaccountable and undemocratic Scottish Office and its agencies.
I also look back to the winding-up of the new town development corporations, which coincided with the abolition of an entire tier of local government, gerrymandered boundaries and the introduction of the poll tax. The winding-up of the new town corporations such as Cumbernauld’s was more about securing financial returns to the Treasury, selling off more of the family silver and asset stripping at knockdown prices than about securing the long-term wellbeing of the Scottish economy. But, through determined pressure from a united community, we managed to secure the transfer of the housing stock to the newly established local authority when the Tory Government of the day wanted the stock and assets to be transferred to private landlords and commercial interests.
I visited Cumbernauld fire station two weeks ago. The station was built in the 1970s and it has reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, so it raises safety concerns. The firefighters I spoke to were promised a new station. Now, instead, the new station is on hold and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is threatening to remove an appliance and cut back the night shift. I cannot help but think that, 70 years ago, that generation—still in the shadow of war and still saddled with wartime debts—had the vision to build an entire new town, and now our generation cannot even build a new bloody fire station.
The great designer, socialist and architect William Morris said:
“Apart from the desire to produce beautiful things, the leading passion of my life has been and is hatred of modern civilization.”
Well, I do not know what he would have made of Cumbernauld and its incarnation of modern civilisation over the past seven decades, but the people who live and work there are passionate and they deserve so much better. It is our job to give them hope in place of despair. It is our job to celebrate the past—maybe to mourn some of the past, but certainly to remember the past. But it is also our job to offer those people a better future—a future that they can believe in, like those generations who went before them 70 years ago.
13:09
Colleagues may have seen so-called “age tests” on social media—apparently, being able to explain the relationship between a cassette tape and a pencil places you firmly within a particular demographic. In the central belt, we have another: pose the question, “What’s it called?”, and anyone who was around in the 1980s will gleefully answer, “Cumbernauld.” I hope that Jamie Hepburn will forgive me for getting that out of my system early in my speech.
Cumbernauld’s story is a fascinating part of our collective history: a modern, internal mass migration designed to ease overpopulation, speed up regeneration and provide green space and clean air. Its story of mass movement and the formation of a new community is complex and sometimes challenging but always inspiring. As the town’s 70th anniversary approaches, it is a great opportunity to reflect on that story, to celebrate what makes the town special and to shape its future. I know that there are many and various activities planned to mark and celebrate the milestone.
It is fair to assume that many Scottish towns and cities will be hosting celebrations next year, given that the Scottish men’s football team has qualified for the world cup for the first time since 1998. As we get caught up in a wave of nostalgia, television channels will be clamouring to fill their schedules with football-related content, and we will get to enjoy Bill Forsyth’s “Gregory’s Girl” again, no doubt. Although notionally set in a fictional town, it unmistakably brought Cumbernauld to big screens around the world. Shortly after providing the setting for that internationally acclaimed film, Cumbernauld produced a real-life football star: Ifeoma Dieke, a talented defender with a long playing and coaching career. She started playing football at St Mary’s primary school when she was eight years old, and she later joined Cumbernauld Cosmos and the Cumbernauld ladies team. She received an incredible 123 caps for Scotland, became the first black woman to captain the national team and was part of the squad when Scotland’s women qualified for their first ever major tournament, the Euros, in 2017. Her story, as well as the stories of countless other residents past and present, forms part of the rich tapestry of the town today. I commend the organisations and volunteers who not only are involved in planning next year’s celebrations but are telling Cumbernauld’s stories and doing great work to promote the town and support its people.
As I wish Cumbernauld well for its anniversary, I cannot help but mention my home town of Rutherglen, which I have the honour of representing. Next year, we celebrate an important anniversary: it is 900 years since Rutherglen was granted royal borough status. Like Cumbernauld, we are hosting events, exhibitions and community activities, which our town is very much looking forward to and for which all the volunteers involved in the “Rutherglen 900” project should be commended. A year-round celebration of Rutherglen’s people, its history and, importantly, its future is being planned. The event programme kicks off in Rutherglen’s iconic town hall next month—an event that I am looking forward to.
I thank Jamie Hepburn for bringing this debate to the chamber, and I wish all those who live and work in Cumbernauld the best for their 70th anniversary and for the future of their town.
13:13
I commend Mr Hepburn, the member for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, for successfully securing this members’ business debate. I am pleased to support his motion. I commend his excellent speech celebrating the new town of Cumbernauld—that is, it is new relative to its bigger brother, Glasgow, which is celebrating its 850th anniversary this year. Nonetheless, there is a symbiotic relationship between the two places, because the new town of Cumbernauld as we know it today was born of a post-war goal to redistribute—or disperse—550,000 people from Glasgow to new towns across Scotland. That goal was visionary and ambitious in the scale of its attempt to address the severe issues caused by the rapid industrialisation of Glasgow in the previous century. Although there have been many positive aspects to that industrialisation, there have also been many challenging ones. If we view the history of industrial development and population dispersal in the round, as was alluded to by my colleague Mr Leonard, it is a story of mixed success for Scotland. We can learn some lessons from that.
The observation that Cumbernauld Development Corporation was an excellent vehicle for economic development is a key point. The dismantling of the corporation in the mid-1990s was regrettable—the regional councils and development corporations are sorely missed in Scotland’s landscape. A test of that is the only remaining development corporation in the country, Clyde Gateway, which is proving to be quite successful at driving investment in the east end of Glasgow. We could do with more such organisations in Scotland.
I am grateful that Paul Sweeney has raised the issue of Clyde Gateway, which covers part of the Rutherglen constituency.
It is important to note that it covers a swathe of greater Glasgow, including Rutherglen.
My earliest memory of Cumbernauld is of going to the town centre and seeing its megastructure—that was fascinating to a young kid. Built in 1963, it was one of the world’s first megastructures and was set alongside the coherent plan for the town. As a young boy, I watched “Gregory’s Girl”, the 1981 Bill Forsyth film, which captured the spirit of optimism around Cumbernauld—a young town with young people and a lot of aspiration. It certainly contrasted with the older inner city of Glasgow.
It is important to recognise that, although there was a lot of optimism—with new industries and new housing—there were consequences, too. A report published around 10 years ago by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, “History, politics and vulnerability: explaining excess mortality in Scotland and Glasgow”, highlighted the poor coherence of urban planning decisions through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. A democratic deficit and a lack of ability to control decisions are among the reasons why there is a particularly high premature death rate among Glaswegians. Chik Collins, who authored the report, observed that the effect of the new towns—inadvertently, admittedly—was to
“steer economic investment away from Glasgow, and to ‘redeploy’ population out of the city”.
New investments and industry were diverted to peripheral estates and new towns.
It is important to take stock of the story of greater Glasgow and its evolution over the past half century or so. We need to think about economies of agglomeration. It is interesting that there is a new agenda for city regions and for how we can improve transport links, spatial integration and economic justice across city regions. We can take stock of that. Cumbernauld was a visionary project and it has had great success, but we should be aware that it left behind communities in the wider region, particularly in inner-city Glasgow, where the old, the very poor and the almost unemployable were, according to the report, left behind. That accentuated and concentrated deprivation and poverty to an extent that is unknown elsewhere in the UK. We need to consider the lessons of the transient foreign direct investments through silicon glen and the dispersal of population from Glasgow. How do we rebuild a city region that can be truly world leading again?
I commend Cumbernauld on reaching its big milestone of 70 years—here’s to the next 70. It is part of a greater Glasgow city region that can really punch above its weight, with all parts of it succeeding.
13:18
I am pleased to speak in this debate to celebrate the significant landmark of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the new town of Cumbernauld and commend Jamie Hepburn for bringing the motion to Parliament. I also thank him for his kind words when he responded to my members’ business debate just a few months ago, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Summerston in my constituency. I hope that the member will forgive me that I might return to that fleetingly later on.
It is right that we celebrate such civic and community landmark occasions. I cannot claim to have much experience of Cumbernauld, but I know that the area has a proud history that stretches way back beyond 70 years. The formation of the new town incorporated historic villages such as Cumbernauld and Condorrat, with their own proud history.
My initial reference point for Cumbernauld is, as it is for many people, “Gregory’s Girl”. I still cannot count without putting “One elephant, two elephant, three elephant” into my timing, and I still want to visit Caracas, or say “Bella, bella” for no apparent reason. My point is that the film defined a period of time in Cumbernauld.
My first direct contact with Cumbernauld goes back some 30 years. As a much younger man I used to stay at a friend’s house in Cumbernauld after a night out in Glasgow. That was because Cumbernauld had a late-night bus service from Glasgow, unlike the Vale of Leven, where I grew up. Perhaps Jamie Hepburn can comment on what the late-night links between Glasgow city centre and Cumbernauld are like today for late-night revellers. It has been decades since I have partaken in that, however.
Would the member give way?
I feel I must.
Those links could be much better, but that is why we welcome the work that Strathclyde Partnership for Transport is undertaking to improve bus services using the powers that the Scottish Government put in place through the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019.
I thank the member whose debate this is for that intervention, although I hope that it will not spark interventions from elsewhere in the chamber, as I would not intend to take them.
During my occasional visits to Cumbernauld under the hospitality of my friend’s parents I visited Condorrat, whose history stretches many years prior to the establishment of Cumbernauld new town. Condorrat has a proud weaving heritage and was the birthplace of the 19th century revolutionary John Baird, a leading participant and a radical commander in the radical war of 1820. He was subsequently executed and became known as one of the 1820 martyrs. On researching that aspect, I was reminded that, on 10 August 1835, an absolute pardon was granted to Baird and to the four local weavers who had also been convicted and had been sentenced to transportation to the penal colonies, such was the outrage of communities.
I understand that a memorial wall was erected in Condorrat in 2011 commemorating three groups of local people: those executed or sentenced to transportation for participating in the radical war; six local men who were killed, alongside 41 others, in the Auchengeich mine disaster of 1959; and all those local people who had lost their lives in conflict throughout the world—a real symbol of international solidarity. I emphasise the date of that commemoration: it was in 2011, way after the formation of the new town of Cumbernauld, looking back hundreds of years before its formation. That lineage and history stretches over time, way beyond the 70 years that we are celebrating here today. I also note that the remains of John Baird and fellow 1820 martyr Andrew Hardie were moved to Sighthill cemetery, now in my constituency, in 1847. The location is marked by an impressive monument erected in their honour.
In the short time that I do not really have left, let me note that the 50th anniversary of Summerston has gone incredibly well. We had a wonderful summer gala, and we are about to have an amazing Christmas fair: “Summerston loves Christmas.” One of the women behind pulling all of that together, Wilma Mather from the Summerston community and environmental group, was recognised just the other day in Glasgow city chambers, where she won the Evening Times community champion seniors award. I suspect that there are many community champions across Cumbernauld today, and that there have been over the past 70 years and beyond.
My happy birthday is extended to everyone with connections to Cumbernauld, today and in years gone by.
13:23
I am delighted to take this opportunity to give my congratulations to the people of Cumbernauld on this important milestone in the town’s history, the 70th anniversary of its designation as a new town. I thank Jamie Hepburn for securing this afternoon’s debate. Everyone knows the passion that he exhibits for the town of Cumbernauld, and I have been delighted to be his guest in the town on a number of occasions at various events.
This has been a really interesting debate. Members have taken different perspectives on what Cumbernauld means to them and on its wider significance. This is one of those debates where we learn a number of things that we were not already aware of. Members have taken the opportunity to mention their own local towns as well.
Cumbernauld is one of five planned new towns that were developed across Scotland’s central belt in the post-war period. It was designated under the New Towns Act 1946 to deliver housing and support during the slum clearances from Glasgow, providing housing for the overspill as well as economic stimulus, as has been mentioned by a number of members.
Many have celebrated the distinctive character and identity of Cumbernauld over the years, and it has been recognised for its sense of community and commitment to renewal. We have learned a lot from the success of our new towns, not least about the benefits of a clear vision and the need for the public sector and delivery partners to drive forward development.
Our places are ever changing. We are still working on the delivery of new homes and communities, and we continue to build at scale. A number of new settlements are currently being created across Scotland: Tornagrain, near Inverness; Chapelton in Aberdeenshire; Winchburgh in West Lothian; and Blindwells in East Lothian. As well as creating new communities, we continue to regenerate existing places, for example by steering development towards vacant and derelict land. There is much that our “new” new towns and regenerated places can learn from the previous generation of new towns.
On the subject of our many and varied towns, I am pleased that we have helped to fund the development and refresh of Understanding Scottish Places, which launched last week. That is a tool that is instrumental in supporting local government, businesses and communities to inform planning and investment decisions to improve Scotland’s places, and it holds some fascinating data on a number of towns across Scotland, including Cumbernauld.
Towns such as Cumbernauld and their town centres play a vital role in improving people’s economic, social and environmental wellbeing. In signing up to the town centre first principle in collaboration with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and council leaders, we must put the health of town centres at the heart of decision making.
Cumbernauld has a unique town centre, which was originally designed for the motor age and has been the subject of much debate. I believe that books have been written about it, and it has even been reported to attract international visitors. I know that North Lanarkshire Council is working hard to regenerate the town centre and to build new education, health, leisure and community facilities.
Town planners and architects might like to think that new towns are their creation. Of course, they played an important role; Jamie Hepburn gave us some of the history of the events that took place prior to the building of the new town at Cumbernauld. In reality, however, it is the people who live there who are central to the town’s success. As the contributions to the debate have shown, a town is about much more than bricks and mortar—it is people who make a place feel like home. There are many inspiring examples of organisations in Cumbernauld working with and for their communities to bring people together and create a real sense of community.
Since 2014, the Scottish Government has invested more than £52 million in capital funding to support North Lanarkshire Council, in collaboration with local businesses and communities, to deliver key regeneration projects,. That has included a £4 million regeneration capital grant fund investment towards the Cumbernauld community enterprise centre, which has become a strong presence in the town centre, creating new jobs and training opportunities and stimulating further economic activity.
The Scottish Government also provided more than £325 million over three years from our investing in communities fund to the Cumbernauld and Carbrain community hub. That vibrant community hub works directly with people to provide an open, welcoming and accessible place where the whole community can come together. It provides a community food pantry, mental health support groups and employability workshops, and it brings in approximately 10,000 residents per year, reducing poverty and isolation and building stronger community cohesion.
On that point, will the member join me in thanking the Cumbernauld and Carbrain community hub for hosting the Presiding Officer’s tour of the country to mark the 25th anniversary of the Parliament? The hub very kindly arranged the hosting of the Central Scotland leg of that tour when it was held in Cumbernauld.
I am delighted to congratulate the hub on taking forward that work. It is absolutely clear that Cumbernauld is a vibrant community, with people working together to support on another.
There are many other charities and voluntary organisations offering a range of services, including the Cumbernauld wheels for wellbeing service, which helps people to access healthcare, and the Cumbernauld community mental health hub, which works to improve wellbeing and overcome health inequalities. The Cornerstone House Centre is a social enterprise that works very hard to benefit local people in a wide range of ways, whether through providing family, employability or health services, or simply by providing a place for people to gather together.
I am sure that there are many other great projects and organisations that I cannot cover in such a short speech, but members have highlighted some fantastic initiatives that we would all want to commend and celebrate. As we have heard today, there is a lot going on in Cumbernauld, and there is much to celebrate in the resilience and community spirit of the people of Cumbernauld, who have worked together to ensure that it is a great place to live and work. I congratulate those in the community on their efforts, their strong sense of identity and their commitment to supporting one another, and I join with all members, I am sure, in wishing them a very happy 70th anniversary.
That concludes the debate.
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