Cumbernauld

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Cumbernauld
Scottish Gaelic: Comar nan Allt

Cumbernauld shown within Scotland
Population	51,300(2004 Estimates)
Council area	North Lanarkshire
Lieutenancy area	Lanarkshire
Constituent country	Scotland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	GLASGOW
Dialling code	01236
Police	Strathclyde
Fire	Strathclyde
Ambulance	Scottish
Scottish Parliament	Cumbernauld and Kilsyth
UK Parliament	Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East
European Parliament	Scotland
List of places: UK • Scotland

Coordinates: 55°56′N 3°59′W / 55.94, -3.98

Cumbernauld (Gaelic: Comar nan Allt) is a new town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, created in 1956 as a population overflow for Glasgow. Its population was 51,300 when estimated in 2004, making it the 6th largest settlement in Scotland, also making it bigger than two of Scotland's Cities, Inverness and Stirling. The town is the largest Settlement in North Lanarkshire. The name comes from the Scots Gaelic comar nan allt, meaning the meeting of the waters.

1 Cumbernauld, New Town
2 Modern times
3 Sport
4 Transport
5 Education
6 Famous residents
7 Areas of Cumbernauld
8 Twin towns
9 Towns and villages within the vicinity of Cumbernauld
10 Notable buildings
11 References & notes
12 External links
13 Further interest
- 13.1 New Towns

After the Second World War Glasgow was suffering from chronic shortages of housing, partially due to bomb damage from the war. Prior to the war the city was suffering from overcrowding and poor housing conditions, particularly in areas such as the Gorbals. As a direct result the Clyde Valley Regional Plan 1946 allocated sites where satellite new towns were to be constructed to help alleviate the problem through an overspill agreement. Glasgow would also undertake the development of its peripheral housing estates. Cumbernauld was designated a new town in 1955, the third to be designated in Scotland. The others were East Kilbride, Glenrothes, Livingston and Irvine (Cowling 1997).

The development, promotion and management was undertaken, until 1996, by the Cumbernauld Development Corporation (CDC). This was a quango appointed by the Secretary of State for Scotland (Cowling 1997).

After the creation of the new town, diverse industries such as high-tech, electronics, and chemical and food processing became large employers, along with the UK government tax collection office, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs

During its construction, under the designer's eye of Geoffrey Copcutt, Cumbernauld town centre's daring megastructure architecture was highly praised. Architects, designers, town planners and students of many disciplines visited Cumbernauld from around the globe to marvel at the town, for many years heralded as a utopian construction.

When originally designated a New Town the target Population was 50,000. Then in the 1961, only five years after becoming a new town, a revised target population of 70,000 was predicted. Then due to housing density becoming lower the the Area to the north of the A80 was included in the towns area in 1973. However only now is the population starting to climb above 51,000 and is expected to increase substantially with 2,100 houses being built between 2001 and 2008.

East elevation, Cumbernauld Shopping Centre 2005

Since then, the outlook has changed dramatically and the New Town has won a number of very unflattering awards including the "Plook on a Plinth" in both 2001 and 2005 [2]. In December 2005, the entire Town Centre won a public nomination for demolition in the Channel 4 series Demolition, where it was voted "the worst building in Britain" [3]. As a result of this, it was also featured on the BBC Radio 2 comedy program It's Been a Bad Week, where it won the show's fictional "Worst Week of the Week Award, Awarded Weekly, on a Week-By-Week Basis."

The intended core of Cumbernauld remains the Town Centre buildings, all of which is essentially contained within one structure, segmented into "phases", the first of which was completed in 1967, the latest of which began construction in May 2003 for completion around September 2004. Designed to be a commerce centre, an entertainment and business venue and a luxury accommodation site, it was widely accepted as the UK's first shopping mall and was the world's first multi-level covered town centre[4]. Unfortunately, the town never developed to its planned size, and the town centre has never had the life envisaged by town planners. Wealthy occupiers for the centre's penthouses never materialised and some now lie empty and derelict. Further expansion has been primarily to provide further space for shops. A substantial portion of the Town Centre has been bulldozed due to structural damage and is now being redeveloped as a new shopping and leisure complex ^[1].

As well as the unfulfilled ambitions for the town, the passage of time has exposed serious defects in post-war concepts of centrally-planned retail and civic centres developed in the absence of proper community consultation or sensitivity to local environmental and economic conditions. This has been reflected in a country-wide backlash against modernist architecture in general. Cumbernauld's Town Centre is widely regarded as one of the ugliest and least-loved examples of post-war design in Scotland. The confusing layout is an abiding source of frustration for both visitors and residents, many of whom are the descendants of skilled workers who aspired to escape the frequently appalling social and housing conditions of the Glasgow conurbation in the 1960s and 70s.

West Elevation, Cumbernauld Shopping Centre 2005

Despite its bad press, from a purely aesthetic standpoint Cumbernauld is regarded as representing a significant moment in town design, and in 1993 it was listed as one of the sixty key monuments of post-war architecture by the international conservation organisation DoCoMoMo.

The residential structure of Cumbernauld is noteworthy in that there were no pedestrian crossings, i.e. zebra or pelican crossings, or traffic lights until a set of traffic / pelican lights were erected beside the new Tesco Extra, opened January 2004—pedestrians traverse roads by bridge or underpass. This has led to the suggestion that the town is car-centric, and difficult to navigate by foot. However, residents also find that the quiet network of paths which cross the town from one side to the other provides a pleasing alternative to walking beside the busy main roads. Another interpretation is that residents find the paths and underpasses intimidating and threatening. The latter are often vandalized and strewn with broken glass. As a result people use the road network to walk around. This has led to the introduction of traffic calming measures and speed restrictions in the town designed to segregate car and pedestrian.

The town has a reputation as grim and isolating, and finds itself in the bizarre position of having above-average income and below-average unemployment and child poverty rates, yet also below-average house prices for the region. However, the town's housing is well planned and generally of high quality, making it a source of local civic pride in stark contrast to the town centre megastructure.^{[citation needed]} House price imbalances across central Scotland mean that large family homes of 4 bedrooms and above are available for occupancy in Cumbernauld at prices and rents often half that of equivalent or less salubrious dwellings in the nearby centres of Glasgow and Stirling. Fortunately the visionary follies of the 1960s were never realized and half of the New Town was never built. Instead the housing estates to the north of the A80 have become the commercialised playgrounds of speculative builders and there are many houses with too few public amenities, resulting in high car ownership and use.

Cumbernauld, was the location for the film Gregory's Girl and its sequel, Gregory's Two Girls.

Cumbernauld in the last few years has seen a surge of business activity with the expansion of Isola-Werke (now closed) in the Wardpark area, the new OKI UK headquarters in Wardpark and in the West of the town at Orcharton Woods the new state-of-the-art Morgan Stanley call centre, Yaskawa Electronics and A.G. Barr World Headquarters. At the moment a large plot at Hunt Hill is being developed into a large new facility for local company Kelvin Bedrooms, nearby to Morgan Stanley and Yaskawa.

Cumbernauld is twinned with the town of Bron, France.

Cumbernauld has two Football teams, 1st Division side Clyde, who are based at Broadwood Stadium, and Junior football side Cumbernauld United who play at Guy's Meadow. The town has a Rugby Team, Cumbernauld RFC. There has been a gymnastics team, Cumbernauld Gymnastics Club, in the town for many years, and in the early 90s it moved into its present base at Broadwood Gymnastics Academy, a purpose built building at the same site as Broadwood Stadium. There is also the Cumbernauld Handball Team, Tryst 77 which in 2007 came second in the British Handball Championships. The Tryst also homes the Cumbernauld swimming team with many age groups competing in galas around the country.

Nearby motorway links include the M8, M73, M74, M80, M876 and M9. A local campaign was recently initiated to protest at the proposed extension of the M80 within the town limits, suggesting that an alternative route through the Kelvin Valley be used. An effective counter campaign was developed by supporters of the Kelvin Valley in view of the potential damage to ancient monuments like the Antonine Wall and the Forth and Clyde Canal. The A80 has subsequently been chosen to be upgraded to motorway status by 2011.

In terms of public transport, Cumbernauld has bus links to Glasgow, Stirling, Falkirk, Dunfermline and St Andrews, which are operated by First Group and Stagecoach.The town also has rail links to Glasgow,Falkirk, Motherwell and Edinburgh via Cumbernauld Station and Croy Station to the North of the town. Many of the newer housing estates to the north of the A80 suffer from a severe lack of public transportation links, with only indirect and infrequent bus services. In addition, the various parts of the town are linked by local bus services, operated by smaller companies such as Canavan Travel and Dunn's Coaches. Rail services to and from the town are provided by First ScotRail.

There is a minor airfield located in Cumbernauld (EGPG). It is used primarily for recreational flights and pilot training by a company based at the airfield.

The Town has many Primary and Secondary Schools to cater for the needs of the town and others surrounding it. There is also the Cumbernauld College for furher education needs in the town.

Cumbernauld College

Neil Primrose of band Travis was born and raised in Cumbernauld.
John Lawler, aka Jon Fratelli of band The Fratellis lives in Cumbernauld with his Family.
Ken Buchanan a former world boxing champion is a resident of Cumbernauld.
Craig Ferguson Comedian, writer, actor and talk show host.

Abronhill; Balloch; Blackwood; Carbrain; Carrickstone; Condorrat; Craigmarloch; Cumbernauld Village; Dalshannon; Eastfield; Greenfaulds; Kildrum; Lenziemill; Luggiebank; Ravenswood; Seafar; Smithstone; Wardpark; Westerwood; Westfield.