8. Location of derelict land

8.1 The survey covers derelict land in both urban and rural areas. Table 14 shows the urban rural split of derelict land by council.

8.2 The authoritites with the highest levels of urban derelict land in 1997 were Glasgow (899 hectares), North Lanarkshire (830 hectares) and South Lanarkshire (299 hectares). While the authorities with the highest levels of rural derelict land were North Lanarkshire (820 hectares), West Lothian (607 hectares), Fife (458 hectares) and East Ayrshire (379 hectares). The table also shows the split for total area and number of sites for each council.

8.3 It can be seen, from table 15, which shows derelict land by location and site size, that the majority of sites under 5 hectares are in urban areas, while the majority of sites over 10 hectares are in rural areas. The average area of a rural derelict site is 4.3 hectares compared with an average of 2.7 hectares for urban sites.

8.4 Chart 5, shows the 12 councils with the highest percentage of urban derelict land in relation to their total urban area. Using the postcode directory supplied by the General Register Office (Scotland), urban areas have been defined as localities which contain 1,000 residents or more. The figures for all the councils can be found in the Annex, which also includes the percentage of rural land area which is derelict.

8.5 From chart 5 it can be seen that of the urban area of North Lanarkshire and Glasgow, 7.6 per cent and 5.1 per cent, respectively, were derelict.