Communities from both ends of Dumfries and Galloway move a step closer to securing significant capital funding for their towns.
Members at the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal Partnership meeting (23 June) have approved a Place Plan for Whithorn, enabling the community to progress to the next stage of the Place Programme, while Kirkconnel and Kelloholm have received approval for their Borderlands Town Investment Plan, identifying key strategic investments for the area.
Following a comprehensive public and stakeholder consultation process, the Whithorn Place Plan has now been successfully completed.
The plan highlights the community’s ultimate six initiatives for the town:
1. Improvement, Reinstatement and Care of Buildings
2. Intergenerational Upskilling and Training
3. Improve Connections Within and Beyond Whithorn
4. Safeguarding Existing Heritage Assets
5. Places to Wait and Rest
6. ‘Filling the Gaps’ in the Bus Service
Taking these initiatives into consideration, there have been six priority projects identified and proposed by various groups within the town, the proposed projects are:
1. South Machars Community Centre Evolution
2. Reinstatement of Derelict Historic Building at Grapes Hotel
3. Net Zero Training Flagship at Whithorn Old Town Hall
4. Centre for Understanding Early Mediaeval Scotland
5. Aet Hwitan-Aerne: ReBuilding Whithorn’s Anglian Minster
6. Townscape Improvements at the Heart of Whithorn
Once approved by Borderlands Partnership Board the process of developing a Borderlands Town Investment Plan can commence, this process will consider the concept of each project, whether it meets specific Borderlands criteria and importantly how they would benefit the community of Whithorn.
Since the Kirkconnel and Kelloholm Place Plan was approved in January 2024, the community has undertaken community engagement to prioritise the ten key economic development projects detailed in the plan. Criteria aligning projects with, local, regional and national strategic objectives resulted in the community bringing forward three key areas for investment:
• an inclusive model of supported housing for the elderly, enabling those who wish to remain in their community through independent living
• a new development of small business units/workshops, increasing employment opportunities and skills to the area
• a programme of Main Street regeneration, bringing a number of vacant properties back into use as part of realising wider community ambitions to improve Kirkconnel as a place, to attract passing trade and capitalise on the wider tourism offering in the area
The approval of Kirkconnel and Kelloholm’s Investment Plan enables the community to progress to the next stage of the process, developing a series of robust business cases to secure up to £3 million of Borderlands capital investment over the next five years.
Cllr Stephen Thompson, Leader of Dumfries and Galloway Council, who sits on the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal Board said:
“The Borderlands Place Programme is an integral part of the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal which sets out to provide financial support to enable towns and town centres to become more economically resilient and make the most of local cultural and heritage assets.
“This approval from the Borderlands Partnership is welcome and positive news and it will give the local communities of both Whithorn and Kirkconnel and Kelloholm a real boost to reach this milestone. Their hard work in progressing their Place Plans and respective visions for the future are significant achievements and ones they can be very proud of.”
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