'Kabul of the North' reels from a royal insult

As if the residents of Cumbernauld, reputedly Scotland's ugliest town, have not suffered enough insults it appears such scorn has now received the royal seal of approval.

Yesterday the much-maligned community was once again in the spotlight after the Princess Royal apparently said that she could not wait to leave "as soon as possible".

The Princess was in town to officially open a new £40m shopping centre. The 350,000sq ft Antonine Centre was designed to breathe life into the beleaguered area, kick-start regeneration and restore the town's reputation.

But a day of celebration, not least because Cumbernauld has reached the grand old age of 50, was reportedly marred by one small sentence.

At the end of a packed visit, Bob Chadha, a councillor, was chatting to the royal visitor. "She told me she was planning to get on to a flight to London as soon as possible," he explained.

Whether the Princess intended to cause offence is debatable. But the people of Cumbernauld are understandably sensitive to slurs and several accused her of being rude.

The 60,000 residents of this small corner of Scotland just outside Glasgow have become all too accustomed to mud-slinging.

The insults are as colourful as they are diverse. Twice winner of the Carbuncle Architecture Award for the most dismal town in Scotland, its centre has been described as everything from "the Lego fantasy of an unhappy child" to "a rabbit warren on stilts".

It has featured in the TheIdler Book of Crap Towns and one writer described its grim, concrete architecture as an excellent example of the "Kafkaesque urban hellholes that state-led social housing plans inevitably create". Its own inhabitants have nicknamed it the Kabul of the north. And at the time of the 2005 award, one said: "I think Cumbernauld should be applauded because it's the best nuclear deterrent ever. It shows what we'd be left with if the missiles were ever used."

It is not as if the town has not tried to lift its spirits. Last year Carolyn McGoldrick, a singer, was given a £2,000 grant by North Lanarkshire Council to record a ballad, "Cumbernauld, A Love Song". It can also boast the historic St Enoch's clock, which featured in the film Gregory's Girl.

Gordon Murray, 80, North Lanarkshire's oldest serving councillor, said Cumbernauld had been an experimental town. "The trouble is, people washed their hands of Cumbernauld and have not been prepared to straighten out the defects that came from experimental building," he added.