Placemaking regeneration initiative for Rothesay

Rothesay on Bute is shortly to host and experience one of the most exciting regeneration initiatives.

This is ‘placemaking’. It is a specific approach to the parallel regeneration of community and place, developed in the United States and offered here through Greenspace Scotland, an independent charitable company.

What it does is involve all interested people from across entire communities – and all possible public sector agencies with the power to bring about constructive change of all kinds – in a collaborative new look at where and how they live and how it works – or doesn’t.

They consider a spectrum of pubic places in other communities and towns and discuss what makes them ‘people friendly’ an what repels boarders. They then take this sort of perspective into team investigations of key areas in their own place.

When all the ideas are brought together they begin to form a strategic developemnt plan – and at that stage Greenspace start turning to public sector agencies to see what creative solutions they may hae to bring to the table. Many of htem will have representatives involved in the project anyway.

The village of Ardrishaig on Loch Fyne, at the Clyde entrance to the Crinan Canal, has used the intervention of Greenspace Scotland and Placemaking in its own redevelopment plan. For Argyll joined the process for a day and evening long event and reported on it: Placemaking at Ardrishaig, a community with its foot to the floor. This is worth reading for Rothesay folk wanting to start thinking about how this process will work with them.

We saw what happened during the session at Ardrishaig we attended as fully positive. A revelation was members of the Cluncil’s planning department – who regularly take stick from all quarters but who, free from the confines of their job, were some of the most inventive and creative-thinkers in the room and very willing to think their way around corners in the interests of getting a good result for the community.

Something we noted that had clearly been a profoundly successful contribution to the work in Ardrishaig was the partnership between two key people who drove the initiative. They were Jeanette Lawson, Secretary of Ardrishaig Community Council and Stuart Green, from Argyll & Bute Council’s Planning Department. They are from different generations but they worked in creative harmony with parallel commitment, enthusiasm and energy.

The resulting action plan for Ardrishaig is on the front page of the Council’s website.

So – if you live in, work in or visit Rothesay and you’d like to be part of this process, applied to the regeneration of Rothesay’s Town Centre, it is open to you to do so.

The central ethos of Placemaking is that ‘the community is expert’ and Greenspace Scotland is gearing up to assist the expert local community in developing a plan for the revitalisation of the heart of Rothesay.

• The date for the first Placemaking session in Rothesay is Wednesday 3rd February.
• The place is Rothesay Pavilion and it runs from 10.00am to 1.00pm, with lunch then provided for everyone present.

The event is being facilitated by Argyll and Bute Council in partnership with Greenspace Scotland and with funding support from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The aim is to make progress in developing plans for the Rothesay Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI), part of the Council’s wider £30m CHORD programme. This is targeted on waterfront regeneration in five key Argyll and Bute towns: Campbeltown, Helensburgh, Oban, Rothesay and Dunoon.

If it’s going to be really successful, th session needsthe widest possible spectrum of the community to be there – young people, parents, businessfolk, health professsionals, senior citizens, singles, couples, sporting interests, the cultural community, tourism industry operators, community councillors… the more people and the wider the sweep of the interests and expertise brought to bear the more fun and the more valuable it will be.

The heart of this exercise is the mosrt constructive fun possible.Coming together to turn your powers of observation and your creative inventiveness on your own place produces a community bonding in a sense of excitement, possibility, hope and self-belief. And that’s only the start of it.

Be there – and bring suitable outdoor clothing, as you’ll be spending around an hour out looking around the town centre.

Councillor Len Scoullar, Chair of the Rothesay CHORD Project Board, says: ‘This is an excellent opportunity for everybody with Rothesay’s interest at heart, to engage with the regeneration of one of Argyll and Bute’s most important towns.

However, I must emphasis the need for people to participate and get involved to ensure that their needs and ambitions are heard and properly documented as we move forward in the exciting development of Rothesay’s Townscape Heritage Initiative’.

Contact Lorna Pearce, THI Project Officer, to let her know you’re coming:

• by phone: on 01700 501374
• by email: lorna.pearce@argyll-bute.gov.uk