I am writing to you both as a resident of Coatbridge for the past 60 years and as one of the town's councillors. I believe I have a duty, in both roles, to defend my town and utterly to refute any suggestion that it might deserve this ludicrous "Carbuncle Award".
To suggest that Coatbridge is "the most dismal town in Scotland" is absolutely nonsensical. It's obvious that those responsible for these awards know nothing about Coatbridge, or the levels of investment that have been committed to the town.
North Lanarkshire Council has committed millions of pounds to the regeneration of Coatbridge - the pedestrianisation of the town centre alone, for example, represents an investment of around £4m.
Plans for multi-million-pound investment and improvement extend from the town centre to the Time Capsule, and additional projects are under discussion with various public-sector and private-sector partners. The regeneration of the Coatbridge Baths site is a £15.5m investment from NHS Lanarkshire and North Lanarkshire Council.
In terms of housing, Coatbridge has some of the best in the west of Scotland, and the town also has some of the best new schools in the country. Public facilities and amenities are excellent - Drumpellier Country Park, for example, and the Time Capsule, as well as the Showcase Cinema complex and both the municipal and private golf courses. And the council is leading on the £10m transformation of Summerlee Heritage Park into Scotland's Museum of Industrial Life.
We don't pretend Coatbridge, or any other town centre in North Lanarkshire, is perfect, but it, like all the others in our charge, is the subject of an ongoing, multi-million-pound campaign of investment and improvement which, unlike the Carbuncle Awards, offers something constructive, positive and forward-thinking to the town and to the people who live there.
This is an issue about which I feel very strongly. I'm a Coatbridge resident of long standing, and I'm confident that the vast majority of people in the Coatbridge community are very proud of their town. Most, in fact, won't even have heard of the Carbuncle Awards - and long may that continue.
Councillor Tom Maginnis, Convener, Regeneration Committee, 2 Dunnachie Drive, Coatbridge.
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