Even a decade after the furnaces were extinguished, it had a reputation as one of Europe's pollution hotspots.
But housebuilders bidding to play a part in the ambitious redevelopment of the former Ravenscraig steelworks in Lanarkshire will have to adhere to what has been billed as the strictest environmental guidelines ever required by a development in Scotland.
The first phase of housing will be in the Carfin area of the site and involves 820 homes.
As well as meeting stringent design and architectural requirements, housebuilders will be held accountable for delivering some of the most green housing in Scotland.
All developers will be required to achieve a minimum "ecohomes rating" of "very good" for their houses.
They will also be asked to provide facilities to recycle or compost at least 25% of household waste, maximise energy efficiency techniques, install combined heat and power boilers, preferably fuelled by renewable energy, provide on-site renewable energy generation facilities capable of reducing carbon emissions by at least 10% and install water-saving devices.
Developers will have to provide rainwater harvesting facilities in gardens, use only timber from the Forest Stewardship Council and temperate sources and employ only low-emission finishes, construction materials, carpets and furnishings to protect internal air quality.
Ravenscraig Ltd, which comprises Wilson Bowden Developments Ltd, Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire and Corus, claims it is the first company to insist on such rigorous environmentally sound standards in Scotland.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article