I live in a small town called Bellshill in North Lanarkshire. It is a very old town with records dating back to 1654 where quarry workers settled in a small village. Bellshill has always been an industrial town with many mines up until 1953, it is also just under 4 miles from Ravenscraig which was once the largest hot strip steel mil in Western Europe.

Bellshill, like most small villages in North Lanarkshire, does not have much to offer in terms of leisurely places to visit or shop. The town has a library, a leisure centre and two supermarkets. The town has always had a few cafes and pubs but has recently opened two quite successful restaurants given their location, one of which just recently won an award for being the best mediterranean establishment in Scotland. Back in 1958, Bellshill changed their two-ward hospital into a massive two building maternity. This was the first in the whole Lanrkshire area and I quite often find like myself, many of my friends and family were born there. However the maternity was closed in 2001 and demolished in 2003 to make way for new housing developments, which is actually where I am currently living. I also live next to the Bellshill industrial estate, one of the two in Bellshill, so I do not live in a very green part of Bellshill.

Bellshill has many roads, two sides of the town are surrounded my motorways, which are currently having major work done causing in a lot of traffic, or connecting towns Motherwell and Uddingston.

The town does cover a small part of Strathclyde County Park as well as Hamilton and Motherwell. The park covers 1.5 square miles and is centred around a loch. Sadly this loch is artificial as it is simply a flooded mining village from 1970, parts of the loch are unaccessible due to wiring underneath the water. I do not think Bellshill is very green and highly polluted due to its industrial past.

The town has a train station which always has direct trains running to and from Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverly which is very handy and useful. The town also has a good bus service with the two biggest bus services in Lanarkshire running through it. As I mentioned Bellshill falls in Strathclyde park which means its easy to walk or cycle to Hamilton or Motherwell avoiding roads and motorways. I tend to travel to most places by car or train. There currently is a lot of work being done to the motorways A8 and M74 surrounding Bellshill with many road closures and route changes which is causing a lot of congestion and confusion amongst drivers, in the mornings especially.

I do not believe Bellshill is very urban at all. However recent developments such as the new restaurants and housing I do believe this can change. The town should possibly open more shops and leisure places such as a cinema etc.