From slum to a place on shortlist for top award

IN MANY people’s minds, it is notorious as a near-slum, home to the infamous crime clan matriarch Big Mags Haney.

But after redevelopment, the Raploch area of Stirling is now up against the likes of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, and the West Highland Way for the title of Scotland’s Best Place.

It has been shortlisted for the prestigious Royal Town Planning Institute’s national award as part of the RTPI’s centenary celebrations, set up to recognise excellence in planning by highlighting places that have been built, improved or protected by the Scottish planning system.

The shortlist of ten was selected from 55 initial suggestions by a special advisory panel and the winning l ocations will be announced in June. They will be featured in a centenary edition of RTPI Scotland’s journal, The Scottish Planner.

Other places on the list include

‘Much changed for so many’

Lerwick Waterfront in Shetland; Merchant City, Glasgow; Crown Street in Glasgow’s Gorbals; and East Kilbride New Town, Lanarkshire. RTPI president Cath Ranson said yesterday: ‘We’d like everyone to vote for their favourite place from this impressive and diverse shortlist.’

Largely built in the inter-war years as an overspill for the slums of Glasgow, the old Raploch acquired an unenviable reputation. But then the area’s fortunes began to turn as Stirling Council, the Scottish government, and other agencies, began a major rebuild, with 900 energy-efficient homes going up.

The former home of Haney, who died last year, is now a grassy area where people walk their dogs, and the central thoroughfare, Drip Road, where motorists used to lock their doors at traffic lights, is lined by airy flats with a Scandinavian feel.

One local said: ‘Never has so much changed for so many.’