A project that will see a new town of 20,000 people created in South Lanarkshire has been unveiled .
The scheme will also bring 8,000 jobs to the rural area, and mean the building of 8,000 new homes.
The planned town, to be named Owenstown, which will be built on 2,000 acres of land, is intended to be a modern interpretation of nearby New Lanark.
New Lanark, now a UNESCO world heritage site, was the location of a groundbreaking social project by Robert Owen, where residents had improved living and working conditions as part of a model industrial town.
In a pioneering social justice scheme, the town provided nurseries and education for staff, as well as heath care and provision for the elderly, along with employment in a non-exploitative environment.
The charitable trust behind the Owenstown project, the Hometown Foundation, hopes that the planned town will be a realisation of the principles of Robert Owen, who they say was ahead of his time and never fully achieved his ambition.
They have already been involved in projects to build new self-sustainable communities and have regenerated rundown areas.
Owenstown will be run by the residents for the residents, and be entirely self-sufficient, generating income that will be ploughed back into the town’s community services.
The town will include schools and education facilities, venues for the arts, parks, recreation spaces and a golf course.
There will be a range of new homes, from the affordable to the executive, all meeting high environmental standards and assembled at a factory in the new town.
