How rude - Row over housing scheme which will make an area "look like East Kilbride"

But some have baulked at the prospect of ruining the entrance to Inverness as plans involve building blocks of up to four storeys next to the new West Link road.

And as Highland Council planning officers have recommended to councillors that the project is approved, Ken Gowans, the independent councillor for Inverness South raised worries about Inverness looking like East Kilbride.

He said: “One of the most controversial things about this application is that Tulloch is looking for four-storey flats as well as three-storey.

“It will mean that people coming into Inverness from the rural setting of Loch Ness will cross the new bridge and be confronted with four-storey flats along the roadside.

“With all due respect, do we want to become like East Kilbride?

“I think that to have flats so high at an important gateway to the city and at the edge of the proposed estate, is highly controversial and undesirable.”

But the comments have baffled residents of East Kilbride, whose famous sons and daughters include former Rangers player Ally McCoist, actor John Hannah, and television presenter Lorraine Kelly.

Fiona Dryburgh, the Labour South Lanarkshire councillor for East Kilbride South who lives in Westhill said there were other towns in Scotland more worthy of notoriety.

She said: "It's quite rude really, isn't it. I am not sure why anyone would single out East Kilbride. "I think East Kilbride looks nice. I cannot think there is anything that would actually make me say that I wouldn't want to live here.

"We four storey flats, we have higher high rise flats, but also a lot of parkland dispersed throughout and around East Kilbride so it's not grey and soulless."

East Kilbride MSP Linda Fabiani added: “East Kilbride has always been known as Scotland’s most successful new town, attracting many residents from the Highlands and Islands over the years. We have varied, innovative house-types, and the town is a great place to live and work.

“Of course it’s up to Highland Council and Inverness to decide what suits their own area. What I would say to Mr Gowans though is: 'Become like East Kilbride? Hah, you should be so lucky!'.”

SNP MP Lisa Cameron added: “It is an absolute privilege to be the Member of Parliament for East Kilbride having been born and bred here.  

"In fact our new town is second to none when it comes to choosing a place to work, live and raise a family in Scotland. Everyone knows we are one of the most welcoming places to be, and we would never stoop to deriding any other parts of the country”.

It's not the first time East Kilbride has taken a battering.

Thirteen years ago in the Lonely Planet Guide to Scotland, East Kilbride - along with many of its neighbours - was labelled an "urban nightmare".

In 2004, officials from the Department of International Development (DFID) - many of whom think nothing of travelling to some of the poorest corners of the planet - were up in arms over new moves to relocate them to the department’s East Kilbride office.

The relocation was imposed on the civil servants after then Chancellor Gordon Brown announced he wanted to shift more mandarins out of London into the regions.

But there were protests from well-travelled civil servants said to be dismayed by the prospect of having to work in the new town.

Old East Kilbride Plaza and Centre from 70's and 80's

East Kilbride was designated as the first new town in Scotland on May 6, 1947, and since then thousands of people have flooded in – setting up businesses and building their lives here.

It was once vaunted as Scotland's most successful experiment in social engineering, but it was latern likened to the English town regarded as a planners' nightmare: Milton Keynes.

The town, still known by some as Polo Mint City, in recognition of one of its most prominent feature the plethora of roundabouts, ranks as Scotland’s sixth largest town or city, with 74,740 residents, nearly 30,000 more than in Inverness.

The Whirlies roundabout in East Kilbride.

In her appraisal report, council area planning officer Nicola Drummond said: “At key points the aspiration was to have signature buildings and associated with that was the idea that at key points in the development and along key routes, height would be introduced to create focal points and a sense of enclosure with frontages to the main roads through the development.

“The applicant has followed this approach with the use of flats and town houses alongside the West Link and increased the height. In the remainder of the development the houses are predominantly two storeys.”

A spokesman for Tulloch Homes said: “Ness Side is a vital asset towards meeting Inverness’s designated future housing needs.

“The development would be rolled out over 15 to 20 years and, given a fair wind in relation to our application, we hope to begin infrastructure works in the first half of 2018."