Exhibition portrays eco-community life

Sep 3 2009 by George Topp, Lanark & Carluke

MPS, MSPs and councillors will be among the first guests at an exhibition this week outlining the ideas behind Owenstown – the custom-built town which is being planned for Clydesdale.

The exhibition ran for three days this week – from Tuesday until today (Thursday) in the World Heritage Site of New Lanark.

The village is just a few miles down the Clyde from the proposed site for Owenstown at Rigside.

This is the first stage in a comprehensive public consultation process.

Details of the project were first announced only a week ago but, already, hundreds of people from all around the country interested in living there have registered on the project's website www.owenstown.org

The Hometown Foundation, the Scottish charity which has been formed to help create sustainable communities and regenerate rundown urban areas and is behind the project, expected a large turnout at the New Lanark exhibition.

They say there has been great interest from potential residents and from the business community who see opportunities, not just in supplying the new town, but also locating commercial operations there.

The exhibition, in the New Lanark Mill Hotel, is open from 10am till 6pm today (Thursday).

If granted planning permission the new town will be called Owenstown after the social reformer Robert Owen who improved the lives and working conditions of mill workers at New Lanark 200 years ago. In time, it is envisaged the new town will have 20,000 residents and create 8000 jobs. It will be self-sufficient, eco-friendly and, once established, will be run on a co-operative basis by its own trustees, who will be elected from residents.

The town will be eco-friendly recycling its waste to produce energy for the district heating system and it will have green transport throughout the site powered by renewable sources such as wind.

l More information is at www.hometown.co.uk