Community Empowerment Secretary Visits Midsteeple Town Centre Regeneration Project    

Scotland’s new minister for community empowerment joined Dumfries’s “Doon Toon Army” this week when she visited the Misteeple town centre regeneration project.

Ms Campbell visited the project’s head-quarters at The Stove at the invitation of the community benefit society’s board and south Scotland MSP Joan McAlpine. The Project’s founders led a walking tour of the town centre buildings they hope to purchase, and presented their plans to the Cabinet Secretary and Alasdair McKinlay – the leader of the Scottish Government’s Community Planning and Empowerment Unit.

Ms McAlpine commented:

“I was very pleased to welcome the Cabinet Secretary to Dumfries this morning to see the Midsteeple Quarter Project first-hand.  It is significant that this was one of the first projects Ms Campbell has visited in her new role.

“Midsteeple Quarter really is an innovative, community led initiative aimed at getting young and old people actually living in the town centre and to end land banking by faceless investors which results in buildings lying empty.

“I knew that Ms Campbell would enjoy visiting the project as it is the vanguard of urban regeneration using Scottish Government community empowerment and land reform legislation. It is also of particular interest as it grew out of an initiative by the creative community in Dumfries.”