Campbeltown joint top of "most vulnerable" list

[WC1]

Interesting article in today's 'Scotland on Sunday':-

http://www.scotsman.com/scotland-on-sunday/politics/revealed-our-rural-towns-on-the-brink-1-2320887

[Han_OH]

Also in today's Sunday Herald:

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/it-looks-idyllic-but-will-it-still-be-here-in-10-years.17702518

[democat101]

One of Campbeltown's greatest assets are its maritime facilities, yes, ferry connections are essential to bring more people to the area but the harbour is also suited to larger vessels such as cruise liners and tall ships. Why are the tourism bosses not promoting this? It is in an ideal location with easy access from the Clyde and the Irish sea thus providing a gateway to Scotland's world renowned west coast and islands.

[Stebyr]

Campbeltown will be more successful if it moves with the times.
Visitors come and find the shops shut on Wednesday afternoon and Sundays in the summer.
There is no proper town centre, the ideal place 'Burnside Square' which was never designed as a car park is used at just that.
A start could be made by opening the shops for the benefit of customers. Return Burnside Square to the community as a whole.
Just imagine the Schools Pipe Band, the Brass band and local musicians performing in the square. The Music Festival and the Farmers Market returning to the square. Craft Markets in the square, open air café's so many uses when so many people will benefit rather than a car park for the few.

[petewick]

Agree that a bit more ambition and vision is needed for a proper town center
is needed, prior to the Burnside carpark there was actually a block of buildings,
commercial and residential use, it was demolished some time in the mid 60's and
the carpark was implemented then.....a facility that was useful at the time, but times have changed......

[Mzz pasico]

Campbeltown will be more successful if it moves with the times.
Visitors come and find the shops shut on Wednesday afternoon and Sundays in the summer.
There is no proper town centre, the ideal place 'Burnside Square' which was never designed as a car park is used at just that.
A start could be made by opening the shops for the benefit of customers. Return Burnside Square to the community as a whole.
Just imagine the Schools Pipe Band, the Brass band and local musicians performing in the square. The Music Festival and the Farmers Market returning to the square. Craft Markets in the square, open air café's so many uses when so many people will benefit rather than a car park for the few.

An excellent post Stebyr of which I am in total agreement with!

[WC1]

I'm glad the article is beginning to get some responses. I was beginning to find it surprising that something that so much concerns the future of the town should have so few contributions when the Black Sheep Pub is on its fifth page! I would have thought at least the esteemed deputy leader of the Council would have put his head above the parapet again.

I hesitate to say much about a report I've not read (yet) but only seen paraphrased in the press, but it strikes me that it's not really about the town not having a 'proper town centre'. Arguably it does. Stebyr's point about the shops, cafes, etc., still being shut on Wednesday afternoons and Sundays is well made, and you could add shutting at 5 o' clock (and sometimes earlier) so that the folks working in offices can't pop in after close of play. But I think the bigger issue is what happens to services (a) when a town's population falls below a certain level and can't sustain them any more (b) when folk are so much more mobile nowadays and can shop more readily in the city than they did in the past and (c) when so much shopping is now done on the internet. All of that has changed the retail landscape completely, and begs the question of what happens to towns like Campbeltown as a result. If there's little prospect of maintaining the shops we still have in the town centre, or of re-opening the ones that have closed, what happens next? I guess that's what the SAC report is really asking. Does anyone out there have any ideas?

[Anne Baird]

I think you'll find our esteemed Deputy Leader has been busy working and dealing with the press. While I think the points in the article have substance, I don't think it's helpful to Campeltown to be getting this negative press. There's been a huge investment in the golf course, the Ugadale and the Royal, the buyout at the base has great potential and the new wind turbine contract secures jobs. Other investors could be put off by the negatives. Confidence is the magic ingredient when it comes to investment and there's little enough of it around.

Moving into the future, I'm struck by the way Glasgow has blended the old and the new, e.g. the new glass roof on the old post office building. It has a history of adapting and reusing buildings and shows that you can retain the best of your heritage and build on it with the best of the new. The problem with town centres is that they can't compete with the convenience of shopping centres and supermarkets. If you consider, however, what shopping centres and supermarkets actually have, then it comes down to parking, a roof, toilets, perhaps shopping trolleys and a lack of traffic. In simple terms, if you could put those in place and add in some grocery shops, the town would become a shopping centre. It would be great to have a sort of brainstorming session to see what original ideas people come up with to solve that structural problem. This is a problem throughout Scotland and there's a sort of resignation to the idea that nothing can be done about it. I think Campbeltown could be the place that fought back and proved them all wrong.

And W.C. you're entirely right. If the population keeps declining everything becomes so much harder. It has to be said however that the only mainland authority which still has a declining population is Argyll & Bute. Everywhere else there's a modest increase. Let's hope that the new administration in Kilmory starts to challenge that. People don't simply disappear. They go for a reason, and that needs tackling. Argyll & Bute is such a beautiful area with so much to offer, especially for families, that it shouldn't be harder to sell than all the rest of the Scottish mainland.

[argylltourist]

A couple of thoughts to start the process!

Pedestrianise part of town. Install seating. Thinking of Keswick, put canopies over some shops, provides shade or prevents

shoppers getting soaked! Place greenery around.

There must be loads of other ideas which are simple and inexpensive and encourage folk to linger.

[Swanseajock]

Re: Kinloch Road Regeneration - Have your say!!!
by Mr Plod » Mon Oct 03, 2011 4:09 pm
This is not a rant. It's just my personal opinion as someone who has chosen to live here, and who wants his adopted homeplace to thrive.
I would like to see the whole town centre pedestrianised with traffic flowing around and not through it. You could easily pedestrianise Longrow South from it's junction with Main street to it's Junction with Union Street. Vehicular access to the carpark in Burnside Square would be unaffected by this. You could also pedestrianise Main Street from it's Junction with Bolgam Street/Shore Street up as far as it's Junction with Cross Sreet/Kirk Street thereby still permitting vehicular access to Bolgam Street, Shore Street, Kirk Street and Cross Street all of which are one way streets leading off the Main Street. This would provide a safe pedestrian area where one could place sufficient seating and planting which people could enjoy whilst visiting the shops. And maybe the Cross could be re-sited at it's original location.
There are many takeaway food shops in the town centre but there is nowhere for people to sit in comfort to consume their takeaway food in pleasant surroundings. And our excellent young pipers could march up and down the precinct to the enjoyment of all.
I know that the shopkeepers will "go mental" at any suggestion of removing the 20 or so parking places in main street. 20 parking places I would add that some of them are also taken up by 9 to 5 workers who leave their vehicles there all day most week days.
I don't think pedestrianising the town centre would be detrimental to the local shops. My wife ran a business from a shop in Longrow south and no-one could park outside her business but it had no effect whatsoever on her takings. If you have something for sale that people need or desire, at a price they like, they will spend their money on your wares and come back again and again.
Campbeltown is a real gem, and a lot of good hearted local people are working hard to progress the town's development. We should be developing the town with a view to creating a better environment for all, citizens and tourists alike. Everywhere I go I promote the town and invite people to visit and when they do come they bemoan the fact that there is nowhere to sit other than Hall Street, where they can look on in wonder at the filth floating in the water at the foot of the steps there.
There is plenty of parking space in Kinloch Road, Longrow, Hall Street and the Esplanade. Burnside Square can be made available to events organisers if they apply to the local authority for a road closure on the day of the planned event. The rest of the time it could remain a parking area.
I just want to be able to buy a Roll on sausage with onions and broon sauce from my favourite grub shop, and have somewhere nearby to sit, eat my grub and watch the world pass me by, not spend 20 minutes waiting for a parking place to present itself.
Kind regards
Keith

Not a bad suggestion about a year ago

[Anne Baird]

I don't know how it would be done - you'd need an architect for it - but my pet dream is seeing a glass roof over a pedestrianised main street and Longrow. That way you could sit out even on a wet summer's day. It's been done in loads of other places where it doesn't rain half as hard. I think if you did that then businesses would just naturally begin to decorate the landscape around them.

[Mr.Everready]

Places like ?

[Anne Baird]

There are several in Glasgow which incorporate older buildings and/or cover what were once open spaces. Princes square is the one most people have been to. There's one in Perth that I can't recall the name of and Dundee has variations on the theme.

[Anne Baird]

Google images has examples from Tokyo, Milan, Marrakesh, Seville, Istanbul, all different styles and materials. Las Vegas makes it into an event. http://www.loudountimes.com/index.php/b ... eal_vegas/

But if people don't want a roof then there shouldn't be one. I'm just throwing the idea out as it solves one of the problems of town centres. If there wasn't another town with a roof anywhere else in the world there's no reason why Campbeltown couldn't set a trend, is there? If the idea is rejected, it should be because it's not wanted, not because there isn't a precedent. Campbeltown should be able to innovate and explore new possibilities without reference to other places. There's some good stuff to build on - some great buildings, some great shops - but something is needed to compensate the town centre for its specific difficulties in competing with the supermarkets or the internet.

[Kintyre Forum News]

Argyll & Bute Council's responses to the various articles appearing in the papers on Sunday.

On-going regeneration and redevelopment initiatives in Campbeltown and Dunoon

Argyll and Bute Council’s new Administration welcomes the Rural Scotland in Focus 2012 report from the SAC Rural Policy Centre. The report’s findings, outlining the need for investment in some of Scotland’s most vulnerable areas, support the development and regeneration plans that the council and its partners already have underway for towns such as Campbeltown and Dunoon. The report also underscores the fact that to reduce rural town vulnerability all sectors must work in partnership - private, third and public sectors and national government.

Commenting on the report, John Semple, Lead Councillor for Energy, Development, Infrastructure and Tourism at Argyll and Bute Council said, “This report reinforces the importance of the package of multi-million pound regeneration and development projects we already have in place in Argyll and Bute aimed at reducing the vulnerability of remote towns such as Campbeltown and Dunoon.

“The new council has an unenviable task - we seem to have the worst roads in Scotland, most vulnerable rural towns in Scotland and communities concerned about vulnerable rural schools. I believe that rural should not equal vulnerable. We will be working hard on our plans for improvement in the months ahead.

“Our new Economic Development Action Plan will be published next year, it will be led by the council and developed in collaboration with community planning partners, such as Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the local business community of Argyll and Bute and will have strong links with Government Priorities. It will build on initiatives such as the council’s CHORD programme which is beginning to stimulate the regeneration of five of Argyll and Bute’s main towns including Campbeltown and Dunoon and will integrate transport improvements to economic development.”

Argyll and Bute’s renewable energy action plan is also already underway and will unlock the potential of the area’s renewable energy assets with £7billion of private and public investment planned over the next decade. Through Business Gateway, over 1000 new businesses are being supported in Argyll and Bute and major infrastructure investment into transport, the grid and utilities has also been prioritised as these are seen as an essential enabler for the area’s growth.

Redevelopment work specific to Campbeltown and surrounding areas includes the townscape heritage initiative, which builds the economic regeneration of the town centre; improving the town’s berthing facility; and the Kinloch Road residential development. All of these initiatives support the Kintyre Renewables project that aims to facilitate the development of Campbeltown and Machrihanish as a centre of the renewable energy industry in Scotland. As outlined in the national renewables infrastructure plan, this area will create a national ‘hub’ for the renewable energy industry based on the west coast of Scotland in terms of manufacturing, maintenance, installation and research and development. This investment and development will create significant employment opportunities and will promote sustainable economic development at the local, Argyll and Bute and Scottish levels. Already Wind Towers Ltd has made a multi-million pound investment near Campbeltown safe guarding and creating over a hundred manufacturing jobs. In addition, nearly £10million of investment into road and harbour infrastructure is also planned to assist the growth of the renewables industry in Kintyre.

This type of development has attracted inward investment into the area and can be marked by examples such as the recent opening of the Royal Hotel and the Ugadale Hotel - representing a multi-million pound investment by US developers, which is a positive and significant step for employment and prosperity in the town.

In Dunoon, on the Cowal peninsular and closer to Glasgow, a number of regeneration projects and initiatives are also underway. The CHORD programme will see investment into the redevelopment and refurbishment of the Queen’s Hall to make for a more vibrant waterfront area and in addition, the Burgh Hall has recently been opened focusing on the Arts to help promote the area’s heritage. To make the most of these projects, and to help make Dunoon connected and competitive, the council and its transport partners are working with Scottish Government to identify the most effective ferry infrastructure improvements in order to take advantage of the town’s proximity to Glasgow as well as its potential as a hub for tourism. Between 2001 and 2008, Dunoon saw a 5% increase in population including an increase in the working age population. More recently, private sector investment has been attracted to Dunoon and Cowal through the likely development of Castle Toward as a major tourism resort destination attracting potentially in excess of £20million into the area.

The council and its partners remain committed to these plans and initiatives, amongst others, to minimise the vulnerability of towns such as Campbeltown and Dunoon and to ensure that the potential of these outstanding areas and their communities is realised.