"THAT’S our community’s woodland,” says Kirsty Flannigan, manager of the Linwood Development Trust, pointing proudly to the hills. In the weak January light the branches of the trees in the distance are bare. But this land – currently being passed to community ownership by asset transfer – is full of promise.
In the foreground, construction of the new community centre – again owned by the trust on behalf of the people of Linwood – is well underway. There will be a Scottish Football Association (SFA) standard football pitch, too. Landscapers are planning fruit trees and a herb garden.
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Next door is the outdoor nursery – a sweet collection of sheltered spaces, strung with bunting, log seating and play areas acting as a base camp for day-long adventures in the woods. The trust hopes to take over and refurbish the old janitor’s house on the site to house an office and toilets.
Beyond that lies a field where children play and roe deer can be seen. It’s in private ownership with help from the Scottish Land Fund and the trust hopes to buy that too, and ensure its future as green space.
Linwood was once a car factory town. It opened in 1963 but closed just 18 years later with the loss of 6000 jobs and devastating effects across the community and beyond.
People left, investment vanished. The once bustling shopping centre was bought by private company Balmore in 2000, blamed with closing shops and evicting tenants. It turned out that it was acting on behalf of Tesco, which saw opportunity in the downturn.
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It could have been a straight-forward story about industrial decline and corporate exploitation but for six local mothers, determined to fight for their community. The group – who included Flannigan – saw “a town full of fun, dances, football and social clubs” where others saw deprivation, and first came together to try to save their community centre.
They lost that battle, but emerged ever more determined to make a change in their town – which had just been awarded the “plook on a plinth” carbuncle award as the most dismal town in Scotland.
Next up was the abandoned shopping centre and they took on Tesco to ensure they demolished it and played their part in the town’s regeneration.
Jeanette Anderson, one of the group and now the trust’s chair, remembers: “We got hold of the chief exec of Tesco’s email and every weekend we would bombard him with pictures of what it was like. We were down there every Saturday and in-between times. You can appreciate how many meetings there would be.”
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They got politicians involved and invited the chair of the Westminster Select Committee to visit and got him onside “within 10 minutes”. “It was a group of women up against Tesco and the council,” says Jim Boyle, development manager. “They faced a culture of macho, masculine bullying.”
But they stood their ground, the shopping centre was demolished and now the town is beginning to thrive once more, with new shops joining the Tesco in the high street.
In the retail park the trust now runs Roots of Linwood – a fruit shop working with local businesses and schools – and a laundry service that takes in the local football strips, creating much needed income.
The profits go back into community development projects that they are now finally able to take forward. Anderson says: “I lived here when it was a very small village, then the car factory arrived, which was a huge change and it was booming. Then the car factory closed down. It got to the stage where people were moving away, it was all derelict. But now, I think it’s blooming.”
For Flannigan, whose children are now in their 20s, success is bittersweet. “It’s taken 10 years,” she says. “A whole generation have missed out on the benefits and the opportunities.”
But there’s pride as well – without community action nothing would have happened. They hope, too, to inspire other communities. Flannigan says: “They know best what they need. As we always said – keep knocking on that door and you’ll be sure to wake someone up.”
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