6. THE FIVE STRANDS

These pages capture a flavour of the issues shared during engagement and the hopes and wishes of local people that form solutions. There’s a huge amount of detail behind this from our many conversations. They are organised into 5 Strands.

Few of our solutions are oven-ready. Mostly, there’s more work to go, continuing conversations and collaboration among the many organisations working across the town and building involvement of local people in shaping the future.

A status bar for each topic gives a broad sense of:

- priority (how much the topic matters)

- impact (how much difference it can make)

- urgency (priority x impact)

There are links and crossovers between our Five Strands. This can be a virtuous cycle if we get it right: eg we need health to be able to work; work helps us feel fulfilled and well; income improves quality of life and grows the local economy; transport helps us to get to work; how we travel impacts on the environment; a clean, green environment is likely to encourage us to be out and about more keeping fit (and keeping cars off the road); exercise, passions and pastimes, socialising and creativity all help us feel more balanced and enriched; fulfilled people are more likely to contribute to society.

Through local engagement, we gathered and sorted issues and solutions into themes: the Five Strands.

Strand 1 : QUALITY OF LIFE

Healthcare * Poverty * Drink/drugs

Strand 2: WORK & OPPORTUNITY

Transport * Enterprise * Employment

Strand 3: PLAY AND CREATIVITY

George Hotel * One Waterfront * Playtime

Strand 4: ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE

Climate * Food Futures * Environment

Strand 5: PRIDE & CITIZENSHIP

Vacant/derelict spaces *Democracy * Destination Stranraer

Over the next few pages, we explore the issues and potential solutions for each of the Five Strands. We have woven these strands together to create the 4 Quarters that form the basis of our Place Plan.

The first Strand is Quality of Life where significant health and wellbeing issues lie. As cited by Cloe Allison, Youth Councillor, and a key member of our Town Team, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs paints a resonant picture:

“We need to get the basics right - food, fuel, shelter - if we’re to work our way up the pyramid towards living our best lives.”

Cloe Allison, Youth Councillor, Town Team