A huge site that has been derelict for decades is earmarked for a new development of housing and a park.

Cowlairs is the site of old long neglected red blaes football pitches and land from demolition of a primary school and council housing in the 1990s.

The council has presented a masterplan for the area which include 850 new homes for sale and rent.

The site in the north of the city in the Possilpark area, bounded by Keppochill Road and Carlisle Street close to Springburn has been empty and waiting for a plan.

The new proposal include a central boulevard, an urban cross hoped to provide an identity for the area and community facilities.

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Central to the ambition for the new community is the type of housing proposed.

It is planned to build low energy buildings that need little heating known as the Passivhaus standard model.

The plan is the latest in the north of the city in communities were people have felt long neglected as they watched while other parts of the city get millions poured into housing and regeneration projects.

The Cowlairs proposals come after the regeneration of Sighthill with hundreds of new low-rise homes replacing multi storey blocks.

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Hundreds of new homes are also in the pipeline for Hamiltonhill the other side of Saracen Street from the Cowlairs site.

Greg Hepburn, chair of the council’s neighbourhoods and housing committee, said “For far too long, neighbourhoods on the periphery and to the north of the city centre have been forgotten or abandoned.

“But our plans for Cowlairs are a real signal of our intent that North Glasgow will again become home to flourishing new communities: people living in the state-of-the-art, fuel-efficient homes reconnected to neighbouring areas and with the city’s social and economic life.

“Right next door in Sighthill you can clearly see one of the biggest regeneration projects of its type in Europe gathering apace.

“It has really unlocked the potential for the whole area around the canal. In just a few short years Glaswegians will see new homes, new neighbourhoods and a new North Glasgow.”

The project will get £2.1m in city Deal funding and the council will now look to appoint a developer to take the plans forward.

Allan Gow is the City Treasurer and SNP councillor for Canal ward which includes the site.

He said: “The people in wards like mine have waited a long long time for the transformation of their area and its fortunes. Generations have grown up surrounded by derelict sites, with poor amenities and disconnected from the life of the city. They have been very patient.
“But this is a tremendous location and site and I’ve no doubt there’ll be any number of high-end developers interested.
“With the Cowlairs transformation due to begin in just over two years’ time, hundreds of new residents moving into Sighthill early next year and the work underway at Port Dundas and Hamiltonhill, the Canal area’s time has come.”