Livingston, Scotland

Livingston
Scottish Gaelic: Baile Dhùn Lèibhe
Scots: Livingston ("Livi")
Almondvale Boulevard.JPG
Livingston town centre prior to redevelopment
Livingston is located in West Lothian
Livingston

 Livingston shown within West Lothian
Population 54,740 (2008)
OS grid reference NT054690
    - Edinburgh  13 mi (21 km) ENE 
    - London  321 mi (517 km) SSE 
Council area West Lothian
Lieutenancy area West Lothian
Country Scotland
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town LIVINGSTON
Postcode district EH53, EH54
Dialling code 01506
Police Lothian and Borders
Fire Lothian and Borders
Ambulance Scottish
EU Parliament Scotland
UK Parliament Livingston
Scottish Parliament Livingston
Lothians
List of places: UK • Scotland •

Livingston (Scottish Gaelic: Baile Dhùn Lèibhe) is a new town in West Lothian, Scotland. It is the fourth post-war new town to be built in Scotland, designated in 1962. It is located approximately 15 miles (25 km) west of Edinburgh and 30 miles (50 km) east of Glasgow, and is bordered by the towns of Broxburn to the northeast and Bathgate to the northwest.

Livingston is the largest town in the West Lothian area. It was built around a collection of small villages, Livingston Village, Bellsquarry and Livingston Station (now known as Deans). It contains a number of residential precincts or areas. These include Carmondean, Craigshill, Howden, Dedridge, Ladywell, Knightsridge, Murieston, Adambrae, Deans, Deer Park and Eliburn. Its neighbouring villages include Polbeth, West Calder, East Calder, Mid Calder, Uphall Station and Pumpherston.[1] The 2001 census showed the town had a population of 50,826 (24,451 male and 26,375 female) and an urban agglomeration population (including Mid Calder and East Calder) of 59,511.Recent population estimates undertaken by West Lothian Council using GRO projections show a slight rise of population in Livingston to 51,434[2] in 2007. The national 2008 mid-year population estimated the town to have a population of 54,740.

Livingston is also the second largest settlement in the Lothians after Edinburgh. Until 1963 the area surrounding the ancient village of Livingston was open farm land. The name was taken from this village which dates back to 12th Century when a Flemish entrepreneur called De Leving was granted land in the area. He built a fortified tower which is long since gone and the settlement that grew up around it became known as Levingstoun, Layingston[3] and eventually Livingston.

Contents

Livingston Development Corporation

Livingston was built as part of the New Towns Act of 1946, in part to ease overcrowding in Glasgow. Livingston was the fourth new town of five. The others were East Kilbride, Glenrothes, Cumbernauld and Irvine.

In order to build, manage and promote Livingston a quango organisation was formed, the Livingston Development Corporation.

The corporation guided Livingston until the middle of the 1990s when its mandate expired and the town was transferred to West Lothian Council. The last major construction operation carried out by the LDC was the Almondvale Stadium, which was to become the home to the renamed Livingston FC. A new purpose built campus for West Lothian College and other major developments have also taken place in Livingston over the last 10 years.

Construction in Livingston has continued under the management of West Lothian Council.

Geography

Livingston is one of the largest settlements in Scotland. It lies 35 miles away from Glasgow and 15 miles from Edinburgh.

Destinations from Livingston
Bathgate
Falkirk
Stirling		 Linlithgow
Queensferry
Dunfermline		 Broxburn
Kirkliston
Glasgow
Whitburn
Airdrie		 Edinburgh
Mid Calder
Uphall
   Livingston    
West Calder
Lanark
Hamilton		 The Borders Kirknewton
East Calder
Berwick-upon-Tweed

Areas of Livingston

There are a number of areas which make up the town of Livingston, these include:

Eliburn Reservoir

Employment

The area where Livingston now sits was historically dominated by oil shale mining, which is evident from the bings which still exist on the much of the surrounding landscape. The designation of Livingston in the 1960s attracted new light industries to the area, with high technology and pharmaceutical companies in particular moving into the town. Livingston formed a major hub in Scotland's Silicon Glen. Like most other areas this went into a slow decline with the closures of companies including Motorola and NEC. Several multi-national companies however still have factories in the town and BSkyB has its main call centre in Livingston and is the largest private sector employer in West Lothian. Other large employers include those in the retail sector and the National Health Service.

Town centre and shopping

Livingston town centre sits on the southern edge of the Almond Valley. It is bounded by a ring road and has been purposely planned, distinguishing it from West Lothian's other town centres. Howden Park is located immediately north of the town centre.

Livingston is the sub-regional centre serving West Lothian. It features one of the largest indoor shopping and leisure complexes in Scotland, The Centre (formerly Almondvale Shopping Centre) and the Livingston Designer Outlet (formerly McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Centre).

The Centre, was completed in its current guise on October 16, 2008. The total development has around 155 shops and eating establishments. The Centre has a wintergarden, an outdoor restaurant area, and several famous shopping names. Major shops include Asda Wal-mart Supercentre, Next, Topshop, M&S, River Island, Debenhams and more..

The designer outlet mall contains a VUE multiplex cinema , a gym, bars, restaurants and cafes as well as around 100 outlet stores.

Livingston town centre has an abundance of car parking. The south western edge of the town centre is dominated by retail parks. These contain a number of well known retailers such as Toys 'R' Us, PC World & Currys as well as fast food outlets like KFC and Frankie & Benny's.

There is also a large B&Q in the south-west of the town centre as well as a large Morrisons supermarket. The Homebase store closed in July 2010 and Argos moved across the road. The former Homebase & Argos stores will be turned into a large Sainsburys supermarket which is due to open in August/September 2010. Also in the town centre are foreign food stores such as Aldi and Lidl which is located beside the Almondvale Stadium.

Livingston's town centre also contains a large number of offices, including the local authority's former headquarters building, West Lothian House. Private sector offices are also concentrated at the eastern and western edges of the centre and along the Almondvale Boulevard. Other facilities in the centre include hotels, a swimming pool and local authority gym, restaurants, pubs and Club Earth. Almondvale Football Stadium and West Lothian College are located at the north western edge of the town centre..

The Livingston Civic Centre was completed in June 2009 and officially opened by First Minister Alex Salmond on 25 November 2009. The Civic Centre is located just north of the The Centre on the bank of the river Almond. It is home to the divisional headquarters of Lothian and Borders Police, as well as the sheriff and justice of the peace, West Lothian Council, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration, Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service and the West Lothian Community Health and Care Partnership. The Livingston Civic Centre was completed on time and on budget. It is thought to be the first public sector partnership of its kind in the UK..

Sculpture, Livingston Square

Neighbourhood Shopping Centres are located at stragic points around the town. The first of these to be built was The Mall at Craigshill. This was followed by the Carmondean Centre in Deans and groupings of shops in Ladywell and Murieston..

Transport

Road

Livingston has excellent connections to the central Scotland road network. The M8 bounds Livingston in the north. A899 dual carriageway spine road passes north south along Livingston's eastern edge and connects the M8 in the north to the A71 in the South and has the A89 to the west.

Buses

Livingston has a central bus terminal located on Almondvale Avenue between the two shopping centres in the town centre. This provides regular services to surrounding towns and villages. First Edinburgh[4] are the main bus operator in Livingston, other operators include E&M Horsburgh[5], Passenger Travel, Blue Bus, Davidsons Buses,[6] SD Travel, Prentice Westwood,[7] Stagecoach and Nordi Travel. Livingston has buses to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Airport, Ocean Terminal, Oban, Lanark, Fife and Falkirk . There are 7 stances at the bus terminal.

Rail

Livingston has two railway stations; Livingston North and Livingston South. Livingston North is located adjacent to the Carmondean Shopping Centre between Eliburn and Deans and is on the Edinburgh to Bathgate Line. Livingston South is located at the Murieston Shops and is on the Shotts Line. On completion of the Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link, Livingston North will be served by trains running to Glasgow Queen Street and Airdrie.

Airports

Livingston is 15 km west of Edinburgh Airport which has regular flights to UK and international destinations.

Ferry

Livingston is in relative close proximity to the port of Rosyth in Fife. This runs three sailings a week to and from Zeebrugge in Belgium.

Politics

In 1983 Livingston formed its own constituency at Westminster. The Member of Parliament for Livingston is Graeme Morrice pf the Labour Party. The Member of the Scottish Parliament is Angela Constance of the Scottish National Party.

General election results since 1983

2010 UK general election result in Livingston

United Kingdom general election, 2010: Livingston[8][9]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Graeme Morrice 23,215 48.5 -2.6
SNP Lis Bardell 12,424 25.9 +4.4
Liberal Democrat Charles Dundas 5,316 11.1 -4.3
Conservative Alison Adamson-Ross 5,158 10.8 +0.6
BNP David Orr 960 2.0 -
UKIP Alistair Forrest 443 0.9 -
Scottish Socialist Ally Hendry 242 0.5 -1.3
Independent Jim Slavin 149 0.3 -
Majority 10,791 22.5
Turnout 47,907 63.1 +4.6
Labour hold Swing -3.5

Youth participation

West Lothian Youth Congress

West Lothian has a formal structure for engaging with young people and including them in the decision making process. The West Lothian Youth congress is a constituted group of young people between the ages of 12 and 26. It includes 2 democratically elected representatives from each of West Lothian’s High schools as well as young people representing youth/ specific interest groups, community councils or local areas from across West Lothian. The Youth Congress meets on a Tuesday evening every 4 to 6 weeks in the Council chambers of the West Lothian civic centre between 7PM and 9PM. The Congress is a full community planning partner and played an integral role in developing West Lothian’s 2010 community plan. The Congress also elects West Lothian’s 4 Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament who are elected to represent West Lothian’s young people at a national level.

Scottish Youth Parliament

The Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) is a body set up to represent Scotland’s young people. Its members are aged between 14 and 26 and are elected from Scottish parliamentary constituencies with each Member of the Scottish Parliament being shadowed by 2 Members of the Scottish Youth parliament. There are also representatives from several voluntary organisations. West Lothian has four Scottish youth parliament seats as it comprises two Scottish parliamentary constituencies.

West Lothian’s current MSYP’s are:

Anna Mcphail
David Leitch (Convener of the Education and lifelong learning committee)
Derek Couper (Chair)
Koren Hamilton

Education

Primary schools

Special schools

Secondary schools

West Lothian College

Further education

The Institute for System Level Integration is situated in the Alba Centre, near the heart of the town. The institute offers postgraduate studies in Microelectronics and awards a joint degree from four leading Scottish Universities: University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, Heriot-Watt University and the University of Strathclyde.

Libraries

Livingston has three public libraries:

Youth activities

Livingston has its own Air Training Corps squadron, 2535 (Livingston) Squadron (located in Craigshill) and Army Cadet Force unit (based at Dedridge). The town also has Cubs, Scouts, Boys Brigade, Brownies and Guides units, and other organisations such as LGBT Youth Scotland and the Youth Action Project (WLYAP),[10] and Youth Theatre also operate in the area.

The youth action project involves a music session and many gigs and is widely attended by many teenagers from the surrounding area.

A skateboard park is also provided adjacent to the town centre. A leisure swimming pool and a Multiplex cinema are located in the town centre.

The Livingston Skatepark opened in 1981, at a time when most commercial skateparks were closing and was one of the most important facilities in Britain during a critical period in the development of skateboarding. It is an example of a free, unsupervised facility which achieved international status. In 2004 it was visited by the stars of the television series Dirty Sanchez, who described it as "The Best Skatepark in the world, apart from the ones in Wales"

Livingston Skatepark Bowls

Sports

The town has a local rugby union club, Livingston Rugby Football Club, a professional football club, Livingston F.C., and a junior football club, Livingston United.

Club crest of Livingston RFC.

Livingston is also home to; two competitive swimming clubs, the Livingston & District Dolphins and the Aquanauts of Livingston; Livingston and West Lothian Hockey Club, which has several men's and women's teams and provides junior coaching; and Livingston & District AAC, a track and field athletics club.

Livingston FC are the most notable sports team in the town. They were formed in 1995 on the relocation of Edinburgh-based side Meadowbank Thistle, who had relocated to a new stadium in the town. They were Scottish Division Three champions in their first season, and in 2001 reached the SPL. They finished third in their first season in the top flight, qualifying for the UEFA Cup. In their ninth season of existence they won the CIS Cup, but were relegated two years later back to Division One.

The West Calder Model Flying club meets regularly and host open days, national competitions and club training events.

Livingston also has a popular cricket club which holds teams for juniors and seniors and has seen some professionals play for them over the years.

Livingston FC

Livingston F.C., known to locals as "Livi", "The Black and Ambers", or "The Lions", are the most successful football team across the county of West Lothian. They were formed in 1995 after the re-location of Meadowbank Thistle, who were formally known as Ferranti Thstle from Edinburgh. They started life in the Scottish Third Division and were promoted to the Scottish Second Division in their very first year of existence.

Club crest of Livingston F.C.

In the season of 1998-1999 Livingston were promoted to the Scottish First Division, after they were crowned champions of the Second Division. They spent two seasons in the second teir of Scottish football and in the 2000-2001 season they were promoted to the SPL. Many people thought that Livi over-achieved in their first SPL season after they finished in third position behind Celtic and Rangers. The club also recorded a famous league victory over Rangers that season a last-minute "wonder goal" from Stuart Lovell secured a 2-1 victory.

Almondvale Stadium's East Stand - right section.

Livi kicked of the 2002-2003 season in the UEFA Cup. They managed to get through to the second round of the competition after beating FC Vaduz of Liechtenstein in the first round on the away goals rule. The first leg finished 1-1 in Liechtenstein and the return leg finished in a goaless draw at the 'Vale However, they faced a tougher task in the second round against Sturm Graz of Austria. They went out of the competition at this stage after a thrilling 8-6 aggregate loss, however recorded their first and only ever European victory in the return leg after a 4-3 win at the 'Vale.

More success came the following season as the club won the Scottish League Cup. They beat Hibs 2-0 in the final after knocking out Dundee in the semis. The goal scorers at Hampden Park were Derek Lilley and Jamie McAllister. However since that cup final on the 14th of March 2004 things at Livingston F.C. have only got worse. Relegation to the Scottish First Division in 2006 came after the club entered administration in 2004 as well as other financial problems. In July 2009 the club were hours away from going out of business but were saved by administrators. However, the SFL decided to relegate the club back to the Scottish Third Division on the 5th of August 2009 due to insolvency problems. The Lions managed to gain promotion from the division though, at their first attempt. They currently compete in the Second Division.

Churches

Uniquely in Scotland, Livingston has been designated an "Ecumenical Parish" in a joint initiative by the Church of Scotland, Scottish Episcopal Church, Methodist Church in Great Britain and the United Reformed Church. The Ecumenical Parish has six places of worship.

Apart from the Ecumenical Parish, Livingston Old Parish Church is a congregation solely within the Church of Scotland. There are also churches of other denominations, notably the Catholic Church and also the Baptist Church (who have two congregations in Dedridge and Ladywell).

In Livingston there are two Catholic Churches. Saint Peters, in Carmondean as well as Saint Andrews in Howden.

Livingston Round Table

There has been a presence of the social networking club and charity Round Table in Livingston since 1979, although the original Livingston Round Table was disbanded in the 1990s. However, in 2009 a membership base was re-established and now meets regularly.

Freemasonry in Livingston

Livingston is home to three Masonic Lodges, Lodge Buchan St John number 636 and Lodge St Andrew number 1548 meet in Deans and Lodge Almondale 1658 meet in Craigshill. In addition Strathbrock 237 Royal Arch Chapter, Strathbrock 237 Cryptic Council and the Deans Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star also meet in the Deans Masonic Hall. Most of the surrounding villages also have a Masonic Lodge including Lodge St John Mid Calder 272, Lodge Thistle 270 in West Calder and Lodge Torphichen Kilwinning 13 in Bathgate.

Notable people from Livingston

Town twinnings

Livingston and West Lothian are twinned with the following cities:

References

  1. ↑ "GROS Website". http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files1/stats/04mid-year-estimates-localities-table4.pdf. 
  2. ↑ "West Lothian Settlement Populations". http://www.wlinfo.org.uk/popsettle.asp. 
  3. ↑ "NLS Website". http://geo.nls.uk/roy/. 
  4. ↑ "FirstGroup - UK Bus South East & Central Scotland". http://www.firstedinburgh.co.uk/. 
  5. ↑ "E&M Horsburgh Coaches, for contract and private hire". http://www.horsburghcoaches.com/. 
  6. ↑ "Davidson Buses". http://www.davidson-buses.com/. 
  7. ↑ "Prentice Westwood Ltd". http://prenticewestwoodcoaches.co.uk. 
  8. ↑ Livingston UKPolling
  9. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/constituency/843.stm
  10. ↑ "WLYAP". http://www.wlyap.org.uk. 

Primary sources

External links

Further reading

New Towns