On New Year's Day 1816 social reformer Robert Owen wrote: "I know that society may be formed to exist without crime, without poverty, with health greatly improved, with little if any misery, and with intelligence and happiness increased a hundredfold." Many dismissed his utopian socialism as fantasy but today New Lanark, the mill village on the banks of the Clyde in South Lanarkshire stands as a monument to his vision.
With its free healthcare, evening classes, nursery education and food co-operative, it was a century ahead of its time and must have seemed like heaven on earth to the workers from the poorhouses of Glasgow and Edinburgh who ended up there. His partners may have complained about the cost of his welfare programme, but Owen was able to demonstrate to sceptical Victorians that it was not necessary to grind the poor to run a successful business. However, he never fully realised his dream of building a model village.
Turn the clock forward 200 years and a newly-formed Scottish charity, the Hometown Foundation, yesterday released plans to recreate Robert Owen's dream on a 2000-acre site purchased five miles from New Lanark. Like the original, mutual co-operation rather than profit is the prevailing ethos, but Owenstown, as it is to be called, is intended to be environmentally, as well as economically, self-sustaining, with carbon-neutral homes, a district heating scheme powered by burning waste, and green power from a wind farm and solar panels. It will be run by trustees elected by residents.
Like Owen's, this initiative will be dismissed by some as utopian fantasy but if Scotland is serious about becoming a world leader in sustainable technologies, it will need eco-friendly communities to act as test-beds for new ideas. First chairman of the Owenstown Trustees, Dr Jim Arnold, knows more than most about turning dreams into reality. More than anyone, he was responsible for transforming New Lanark from a derelict site threatened with demolition 30 years ago to a World Heritage Site attracting 400,000 visitors a year.
Scotland has an honourable track record in community enterprise: witness the retail co-operatives that have flourished in many Scottish towns, the success of community-based mutually-owned housing associations and development trusts.
The problems of creating political consensus around the need for radical action to halt climate change can only be overcome if individuals are prepared to change the way they think. Also, many in Scotland lament the decline of community life. Initiatives such as these could be the proving ground for empowering and reinvigorating communities.
Today, Owenstown is a twinkle in the eye of a small group of individuals. An application for planning permission is yet to be submitted and questions of funding remain. Even then, it can only struggle off the drawing board if public-spirited individuals are prepared to back it as homesteaders and investors. And it will need to attract businesses to locate there if it is to sustain the promised 8000 jobs beyond the construction phase.
Redevelopment of the Ravenscraig site is testament to the challenge of regeneration in this economic climate. It would be a mistake to dismiss Owenstown as pie in the sky. Robert Owen responded to the destitution following the Napoleonic Wars. In our own time, a new age of austerity, inequality and climate change requires fresh thinking.
