A Scottish Government press release states:
"A new online toolkit will give communities information and advice on how they can make their town centres more attractive, active and accessible.
The Town Centre Toolkit has been developed as one of the key actions from the Town Centre Action Plan, a plan which sets out measures to revitalise Scotland’s town centres.
Using case studies for inspiration, the toolkit is designed to give everyone the opportunity to be involved in making improvements to their local area and offers guidance on how to make best use of the assets already in place." More from the Scottish Government here.
Here in Nairn we certainly have gone round the course a few times with consultations and charretttes etc, when it comes to the town centre, with ongoing efforts still on the boil. Perhaps this new online facility might be of some use to those many serious students of town centre matters and, more importantly, to those actively engaged in trying to improve the town centre.
At first glance the Town Centre Toolkit site looks very user friendly. Perhaps any gurnites with a bit of spare time over the next day or two might wish to have browse and share their thoughts on any potential help or inspiration it could provide to us here?
6 comments:
I bet NICE already have their fingers on it
all talk and no action,,how much longer before sainsburys money gets used,,or has it been gobbled up in useless non productive meetings,,a complete shambles from start to finish,
narook.
First impressions of the Toolkit are that there have been so many missed opportunities in Nairn to make it better as a town, or rather more attractive both for visitors and tourists
There have been individual initiatives but nothing seems to have been thought through when it comes to how one new building might impact on the town
Our harbour had new pontoons installed some years back now but that seems to be the only investment as the piers crack and crumble away
The High St seems to be in demise especially when you look at the contents of many of the shops, the exteriors are not attractive
It's hard to see as to how we might reverse the decay in Nairn
Everything in Nairn will hinge on the post A96 bypass era,
there is a real opportunity to make the town something special, it has a lot going for it :-
a lovely undeveloped beach
riverside
old town old high street
an arts center
what we need is to link all these together in a bold manner that is not seen anywhere else in the region, this will give people a reason to come.
pedestrianise huge sections and allocate outdoor eating and cafe spots, an outdoor farmers market / local goods (no not an outdoor market that has people selling cheap handbags from china)
let people be able to spend their whole day in Nairn without ever having to use the car or cross a road.
IF we ever get the bypass there's every reason to believe that the town will go into further decline as potential visitors won't stop in Nairn as they do now, but drive past
As an example I'm sure many of us have driven up and down the A9 but who has actually diverted off the A9 to stop other than to visit one of the few eateries or to use the toilets. The tourist signs telling of attractions are plain to see but most of us sail by them
Nairn will have to make a momentous effort to attract visitors post the bypass or it'll be even more of a ghost town than it is now
Anon @7.09pm, your comment "The High St seems to be in demise especially when you look at the contents of many of the shops", is a wee bit strange. I feel that, compared to many other High Streets, Nairn is not actually doing too badly, not too many empty shop's and, as is often recommended by the "experts" many of the shops are specialist businesses. Anon@ 7.36, your comments forget one vital thing, the local community live here, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. How would your suggestions affect them?
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