DRAFT All Rise on the Tide: A Place Plan for Stranraer 2023-2033

ALL RISE ON THE TIDE

Skiff Worlds Festival on Loch Ryan, Stranraer’s Waterfront

photo Colin Tennant, CT Productions

What is a place plan?

This Place Plan belongs to the people of Stranraer

A Place Plan captures the hopes and dreams of local people for their town.

It is made by, for and with local people to set priorities for change.

Thanks to the hundreds of individuals and groups who gave their time to come to meetings, take part in focus groups, workshops, meet-ups and conversations between October 2022 and March 2023.

With strong ideas, partnership working and the support of local people, a great plan can unlock funding to invest in the town’s future.

Stranraer has an exciting opportunity to accelerate change through this Place Plan. We are one of 5 towns (with Gretna, Kirkconnel, Whithorn and Wigtown) bidding into the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal pot of £15 million to unlock public funding. Borderlands covers the south of Scotland and north of England working through Councils in Dumfries & Galloway, Borders, Cumbria and Carlisle. The programme is about helping places boost economic activity and recognises the importance of rural market and coastal towns to the local economy. Stranraer is both a rural market town and a coastal town.

Creating Stranraer

Creating Stranraer is the brand that represents the collective effort of producing Stranraer’s Place Plan. The Plan itself captures a snapshot in time. Place Planning is ongoing... a live process as well as a document. The Plan will organically change and evolve. We will print a limited edition of this document Place Plan and publish its full appendices online. We invite comments on emerging plans on Citizen Space - a local democracy platform we are trialling for a year. Find us online at www.creatingstranraer.co.uk.

East Pier and Marina: Allan Devlin

Castle of St John

Stranraer town centre: Scarlett Visuals

We need to build a strong, reliable base to shape the future. And we need to work from the grassroots up.

pic: Nikki-Marie Vjatschlav, left, working with Beth Piggot on The Unexpected Garden project, greening unused ground on Stranraer’s waterfront.

NURTURING GROWTH

What a year! I started on a placement last summer, working on the Unexpected Garden. Things snowballed and I’m now leading the project. As a consequence, I became involved with and ended up as Chair of the Town Team, working with locals people right across the community to shape a Place Plan for Stranraer.

I come from Paisley - another town that’s busy reinventing itself. I moved here 9 years ago. It’s home and I’m passionate about the place. The Unexpected Garden was a great opportunity to use my horticulture training and experience. The garden is one of 12 national Dandelion cultural projects, supported locally by The Stove and Stranraer Development Trust.

The garden’s five aims, tackling food poverty, mental health, nutrition, sustainability, climate change, map directly to the issues identified by locals during our Place Plan consultation. The Unexpected Garden models how together, we can transform the world around us. We can learn through volunteering. We can grow skills for work. We can build community and fire passions… like a team of little Greta Guerillas. We can be inclusive. All the things we want for our Place Plan too.

Growing takes a longer term view - as does the 10 year vision of this Place Plan. It’s exactly what Stranraer needs: planting, tending and nurturing growth is a long game.

At the risk of taking the gardening metaphors too far, our Place Planning approach started with the grassroots - listening to local people. These micro-growers planted the seeds of ideas. Partners and locals helped to dig over the ground. The Place Plan is now a flourishing allotment … mixed beds of ideas and solutions we can grow together. It feels like the time is NOW for Stranraer. It’s ripe for the picking. There’s a fresh impetus in the air… a sense of opportunity, an unprecedented level of connection, collaboration, knowledge and skill-sharing going on. I’m confident that together we can deliver a shared vision. I’m excited for the town and look forward to a Harvest Festival 10 years on.

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CATCHING

THE WAVE

We all share responsibility, day to day, for creating, recreating and sustaining our town in an everchanging world. Place Planning has been embraced positively and energetically by the town as a chance to change the story of Stranraer, and change it together. With a fair wind and a rising tide, it’s time to catch the wave together.

It might seem that the world has not been on our side for a while. The town and the peninsula - the Rhins of Galloway - can feel distant from the municipal heart of the region in Dumfries. Essential services like maternity and health clinics have been taken out of the town causing stress and risk to life for our citizens at their most vulnerable. Locals must journey to Dumfries to access many services. This compounds issues facing people experiencing high levels of poverty and unemployment.

Stena Line pulled their ferries out of Stranraer over a decade ago. The town felt the shock of identity loss, job loss and lower visitor numbers. Ten years on, the abandoned East Pier leaves a desolate gap between the town and the railway station. In 2018, a Dumfries & Galloway report, Reshaping Stranraer, appraised options for the East Pier. It concluded that ‘do nothing’ was not feasible, ‘demolition’ was expensive for little benefit and pointed to ‘Accelerated Development’ as the preferred option. (Like The George Hotel, the costs of development are fundable, usually cheaper and more certainly more promising for the town than demolition.) The report references that Scottish Government set aside £6 million to support economic recovery related to the East Pier and cited a promised £2 million each from Dumfries & Galloway Council and South of Scotland Enterprise. There has been no action at the East Pier and this large, visible space at the entrance to the town is on the Council’s Vacant & Derelict Land Register. We will use the Place Plan to open fresh conversations with all potential funders about their promises and our future. This is a local priority. The Accelerated Development option centred on the expansion of the marina and fixing the Pier to be available as a commercial development site. Stena (the Pier owners) have tried and failed to attract commercial interest. There remains no plan to deal with the East Pier.

The local community believes it is time for action and wants the Council to support investigation into the powers available to drive change. We need to secure this structure for the next 50 years, ensuring strong sea defences and flood protection for Stranraer and dealing with contaminated ground and dereliction.

The Pier dominates conversations about the town’s future but it’s not the only concern.

THE FIVE STRANDS

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

Locals’ messages about their needs have been consistent:

1. We need to address urgently the loss of healthcare in Stranraer and the Rhins.

2. We need more opportunities to get into work and more support for enterprise.

3. We need more wet weather offers for local families and visitors.

4. We need to make the most of our amazing natural environment.

5. We need to fix what we’ve got first ... like The George Hotel and the East Pier.

(With just a little hint of - ‘and stop asking us what we need if nothing changes.’)

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

See Section 6 and Appendix 6 for more detail.

THE FOUR QUARTERS

We have big ambitions for Stranraer and the Rhins and all it has to offer locally, regionally and to visitors from Scotland, England, Ireland and beyond.

Examining the 5 Strands of locals’ needs and solutions through a physical ‘Place’ lens and applying our values and principles, we identified key opportunities to help the town grow and thrive. We have zoned these solutions into Four Quarters across the town.

Quarter 1: One Waterfront

Quarter 2: Uptown

Quarter 3: Enterprise Zone

Quarter 4: Sanctuary

Q1: One Waterfront

Reimagine the whole lochside as One Waterfront, an amphitheatre for watersports, a hub for eco-tourism around the Rhins, repositioning Stranraer as a marine leisure destination with the new Watersports Centre and much expanded Marina. Transform the East Pier and Station to create a promenade, piazza and event space connecting to paths along the Waterfront and into town. Develop an integrated Transport Hub as a safe and well-designed starting point for the thousands expected to flock to the new Coast to Coast Cycle Route. Long term, explore the best position for the station.

Q2: Uptown

Define a new town centre quarter, Uptown, around the phoenix-like return of The George Hotel as an arts hub, bunkhouse and climbing/caving centre, encompassing the town’s key public venues: the Millennium Centre, Ryan Centre, Museum, Library and King Street arts hub. Explore the viability of wet weather leisure. As Stranraer’s culture, leisure and community zone, Uptown offers fresh and compelling reasons-to-visit for wide-ranging users, growing the town’s culture and leisure economy.

Q3: Enterprise Zone

Transform the town centre to secure and revive the historic town centre for housing and enterprise. Invest in a makeover that includes wayfinding and view/path-making from town centre to sea. Animate the high street through ‘meantime opportunities’. Move proposed lorry parks from the East Pier to the industrial estate. Work with the Furniture Project Review vacant and derelict properties

Q4: Sanctuary

Develop unused land along the Black Stank burn as a 20-acre wellbeing sanctuary, protecting and promoting blue-green life. Link to Dick’s Hill Wellbeing Hub power a culture of growing, cooking, diet and food knowledge. Connect to Net Zero park to protect the environment and promote climate knowledge. Develop Adventure Playground, Tonic Wild Wellness Hub and Outdoor Learning Centre. Link to Active Travel with circular routes and paths.

See Section 7 Solutions for more detail on the Four Quarters.

THE BORDERLANDS ASK

The Town Team had made broad brush estimates of the cost of the town’s priorities. We had no expert knowledge informing this. We reckon the town needs around £13 million. And this figure doesn’t even take into account the significant issue of remediation of the East Pier.

We’re aware that the Borderlands pot is less that £15 million, with 5 towns bidding into it. As the second largest town in the region, with significant issues of deprivation (according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation), we believe a bid of £5 million is reasonable. We are also looking to Scottish Government to finally release the promised £6 million - index linked and will ask Dumfries & Galloway Council and South of Scotland Enterprise to confirm the status of the £2 million each earmarked in a 2018 report, as well as the £100,000 Dumfries & Galloway Council promised for the Dick’s Hill Community Hub replacement.

In order to get ‘the ask’ down to £5 million, we identified priority projects that matched local people’s needs. We are taking this Place Plan back out to the public to rank these priorities using Citizen Space platform on the Place Plan website: www.creatingstranraer.co.uk.

See our £5 million ‘ask’ overleaf.

READY FOR CHANGE

Throughout the engagement process, we emphasised to local people that arriving at a Place Plan is not the end; it’s a new beginning. The process has been a catalyst for change: permission to partner and work more collaboratively. Many of the priority issues identified by locals are complex. It will take ongoing partnership working and co-designing change with local people to achieve meaningful and lasting change.

We are taking the final draft of the Place Plan back to the public, to neighbouring Community Councils and to Councillors for a formal 28 day consultation to align with Local Planning needs so that the Place Plan can be adopted as an official record of local need and aspiration and considered when future plans are being made.

We will use Citizen Space - our new Local Democracy voting platform on our community website, www.creatingstranraer.co.uk - to continue and build on engagement, ensure long term community ownership and build citizenship, shaping the town’s future together.

We’re excited about the town’s potential. We’re ready and able for change.

THE BORDERLANDS ASK: £5 MILLION BID

EventSpace

Dick's Hill

Hub

Take the East Pier into community ownership. Revitalise the site as a unique EventSpace with rail access straight onto the seaside site. Provide infrastructure to support and attract events. Create promenade, piazza and open space for walking, cycling, learn-to-cycle park.

Community Asset Transfer of vacant building in Dick's Hill to grow skills and confidence to support local people into work. Shared community tenancy with HomeStart, Food Futures Lab, Allotments, Health and Wellbeing partners, Community Radio, Royal British Legion, Apex Reablement and more.

Sanctuary Outdoor

Nursery

The Sanctuary grows children, skills, green-blue life, community. The Nursery supports locals to work by providing childcare. Dumfries & Galloway College provide training qualifications in childcare. Sanctuary nursery provide placements, work experience and jobs in childcare... and delight for children. Learning in line with Curriculum for Excellence.

The Big

Makeover

Transform town centre facades and public realm. Supplement the town’s Shopfront Improvement Scheme to support the town’s independent shops with colourful paint schemes and awnings over shops; apply decorative vinyls to windows of vacant buildings; commission murals for gap sites and buildings; remove weeds from roofs and facades. Improve wayfinding. Make derelict properties safe. Improve arterial routes into town centre.

Revive:

Town Centre

Living

Redesign the town centre for mixed use: housing, business and leisure, including ‘meantime opportunities’ for creatives and entrepreneurs in vacant properties. Audit vacant and derelict land and properties. Work with landlords, agents and developers to create opportunities to model change and reanimate the town centre.

Wet Weather

Escapes

Develop a community-managed wet-weather family leisure offer, eg 10-pin bowling alley/laser tag. Safeguard and upgrade existing leisure venues, infrastructure and facilities including the new Creative Hub trailing the way for the George Hotel. Offer local trades work, placements and skills building to enable long term unemployed to get into work.

Grow events economy. Grow local work opportunities.

Attract visitors. Improve visitor experience.

Develop opportunities for growing the economy.

Upskill local people for work.

Share resources. Build community. Maximise potential.

Provide childcare to release people for work.

Provide training and skills for work. Provide local employment. Grow children's skills and confidence.

Improve environment. Improve visitor experience. Make vacant shops attractive to businesss. Grow entrepreneurship.

Develop housing. Bring footfall into town centre. Attract new business. Grow a culture of enterprise. Grow economy.

Empowerment and skills development for disadvantaged and long-term unemployed. Develop the visitor offer. Attract day visitors. Bring jobs to locals. Grow economy.

(£ 1,500,000)

(£ 300,000)

(£ 500,000)

(£ 500,000)

(£ 1,000,000)

(£ 1,200,000) (£ 5,000,000)

Negotiate with Stena. Apply for Community Asset Transfer. Feasibility study options appraisal.

Dumfries & Galloway Council, Stranraer Development Trust, Stenaline, Crown Estates

Support Community Asset Transfer. Seed fund building transformation.

Dumfries & Galloway Council, Stranraer

Trust, HomeStart, community partners

Develop plans for nursery within Black Stank scheme.

Dumfries & Galloway Council, SEPA, Dumfries & Galloway College

Audit. Scope action. Engage with agents/owners. Promote opportunities. Programme and deliver change.

Dumfries & Galloway Council, Stranraer Development Trust, Local Business Sector, social housing agencies

Audit town centre property. Engage with agents and landlords. Develop scheme for change. Programme and deliver change.

Cost appraisal and business modelling. Audit venues. Plan and deliver enhancements to existing leisure infrastracture.

Dumfries & Galloway Council, Stranraer Development Trust, Local Business Sector

Dumfries & Galloway Council, Millennium Centre, Ryan Centre

Galloway Council

3: Play

5: Destination Stranraer

2. OUR MISSION Mission

ONE VISION, ONE PLAN

Get locals on the same page.

ALL RISE ON THE TIDE

Put locals* first.

Prioritise actions that see Stranraer flourish and locals thrive.

*Locals include all newcomers who choose the Rhins as home - from Ukrainian guests to friends who cross the sea or border.

Vision Values

FAIR Let’s be inclusive.

GREEN Let’s protect and enhance our environment.

OPEN Let’s be open to the new: try, learn, share, improve.

STRANRAER ACCENT

Stranraer has its own accent; literally and metaphorically. The Plan’s Mission, Vision and Values emerged from conversations with locals about what they want for their town.

Stranraer the south western tip of Scotland and historically the short sea crossing to Northern Ireland, is renowned for its broad Galloway Irish accent with long, soft vowels (‘laang, saaft’). There’s a particular flavour to the folk. Kind, friendly, dry, witty, spiky, resilient, brave, unflappable, unassuming. There’s an equanimity of spirit that could be characterised as: “nobody’s better than me and I’m no better than anybody else.” We use the Scots word ‘Strand’ in this Plan, the stem of the town’s name, charting the flow of thoughts shared by locals.

3. OUR CONTEXT

IN A GOOD PLACE

Stranraer is the Gateway to Galloway, a family friendly town attracting visitors from Scotland, Northern Ireland and the North of England. The town has ambitions to reinvent itself as a destination for eco-tourism - a strategically placed hub, a leisure destination with a focus on watersports, a growing cultural offer and most of all, a glorious green place with wellbeing at its heart.

Stranraer is the second biggest town in the Dumfries & Galloway region, on the southwest border of Scotland. With a population of just under 11,000, it is the main town in the Rhins of Galloway and commercial hub for rural and coastal villages … Portpatrick, Lochans, Leswalt, Sandhead, Stoneykirk, Kirkcolm, Drummore, Port Logan, Dunragit, Castle Kennedy, New Luce, Glenluce and Cairnryan… a total population of 15,397.

Our green peninsula is great for outdoor life - walking the Southern Upland Way, golfing, sailing, fishing, swimming, cycling. The South West Coastal 300 Route identifies a route for explorers. The new Coast to Coast Cycle Route from Stranraer to Eyemouth launches in summer 2023. The Rhins is home to the Mull of Galloway, Scotland’s most southerly point. The town sits on Loch Ryanan important asset, as Scotland’s last remaining sustainable, native oyster fishery with an annual Autumn Oyster Festival for the last 5 years.

STRANRAER’S OFFER

• Scotland’s only native oyster bed at Loch Ryan.

• Scotland’s only annual Oyster Festival and Shucking Championships.

• Scotland’s most southerly point, the dramatic Mull of Galloway.

• 93 miles of coast for swimming, surfing, fishing, sailing.

• Golf courses, country estates, gardens, and a Royal Botanic Garden.

• Birdlife, sealife, wildlife, flora and fauna.

• The Southern Upland way and coastal paths.

• Historic Stevenson lighthouses, brochs, castles, standing stones.

• 14th century Castle of St John with historic interpretation.

• North West Castle, 73-bed 4 star hotel, with curling rink and pool.

• Family events: ParkFest, Spring Fling, Hogmanay Hoolie, the Cattle Show.

ON THE GO AND IN THE PIPELINE

• One Waterfront - a single vision, transforming the seafront.

• Watersports Centre: kayak, canoe, swim, sail, learning, instruction.

• George Hotel: creative hub, bunkhouse, climbing/caving fun.

• Millennium Centre for events, cafe, clubs and adventures.

• Solway Coast and Marine Project (SCAMP) protecting our coast.

• Furniture & Bike Project: recycling, upcycling, upskilling.

• Food and friendship: Apex food bank and the Fed Up Cafe.

• Skills, growing and connection at the Unexpected Garden.

• Stair Park upgrade of skatepark.

• 50 new allotments proposal and BMX Pump Track at King George V park.

• Coast to Coast Kirkpatrick cycle route, Eyemouth to Portpatrick via Stranraer.

4. PLACE PLAN PROCESS

BORDERLANDS APPROACH

Stranraer is one of 5 towns in the region invited to submit a Place Plan with the potential of unlocking funding from Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal. There is a fund of just under £15 million, to be allocated by 2033. It focusses on capital needs and inevitably has to rank Stranraer’s needs against other towns’ needs for the fund.

Borderlands Programme’s aims are:

Place Planning Aims

• Keep and attract business

• Grow jobs and work

• Improve the look of the town

• Grow the town’s population

• Attract visitors

• Improve transport

• Make the most of natural assets

• Attract investment

Borderlands Investment

• Buy land and buildings

• Sort empty/derelict buildings

• Develop property

• Encourage/support investment

• Remodel business premises

• Enhance shopfronts and premises

• Public realm improvements

• Support arts, culture and community developments

Stranraer submits its Plan to the Council for endorsement, then on to Borderlands. Any project with potential for support has a Borderlands Town Improvement Plan developed to determine cost-benefit value. We understand this will be done sequentially, assessing our top priority first. Dumfries & Galloway Council has offered to support the town to point us to other funds that might support any hopes that don’t qualify for Borderlands funding.

STRANRAER’S APPROACH

This is our approach to engagement on the Place Plan:

1. Community-led: keep ownership with locals, building community.

2. Collaboration: bring community partners together to share a vision.

3. Co-design: keep user-needs and ideas at the heart of solutions.

4. Citizen Space: use an online platform to gather votes for prioritising spend.

Engagement has been a catalyst for community building. Various groups have started to meet to develop solutions... on healthcare, wellness, drugs and alcohol, food poverty, active travel, arts development.

5. ENGAGEMENT

Place Planning is designed to promote a community-led approach to shaping an area’s future.

We took a service design approach. The starting point is understanding local experiences and needs. From a standing start, we worked with partners to identify stakeholders, built contacts and set up conversations, focus groups, collaboration workshops and drop-ins to connect. See Appendices for more detail.

ENGAGEMENT EVENTS

Wigtownshire Wellbeing

Listening & Visioning meet

Listening & Visioning meet

Public consultation

Connectors Huddle

Pupil Council focus groups

Listening & Visioning meet

Field trip

Information display

Depth interviews

Wigtownshire Stuff

Christmas gathering

Co-Lab workshop

Drop-in week

Saturday stall

Listening & Visioning

Listening & Visioning

Town Team meets

Student focus group

Focus group

Parents Night

Governance workshops

Vision & Action

Governance workshops

Ryan Centre

Millennium Centre

Stranraer Academy

Millennium Centre

Millennium Centre

Stranraer Academy

Fig & Olive cafe

Langholm Alliance

Millennium Centre

Zoom/chats/in person

Friday Group drop-in

Gateway to Galloway

Millennium Centre

Ryan Centre

Castle Square

Rugby Club

Zoom Live

Millennium Centre

Dumfries & Galloway College

Rephad Primary Schools

Park Primary School

Millennium Centre

Rugby Club

Millennium Centre

ENGAGEMENT DESIGN

We designed engagement to throw the net widely and listen deeply. We started with a public consultation at the Millennium Centre and had a 6 month information display there. We had a Huddle with partners to identify stakeholders. We had a week-long information stall at the busy Ryan Centre. We set up stall in the town centre. We met people where they’re at... in clubs, groups, at school, in college. We carried out depth conversations with scores of key stakeholders. Once we’d gathered information on issues and potential solutions: the Five Strands we talk about. We ran a Co-Lab ballot to vote on priorities. The Town Team formed to shape the Five Strands into Four Quarters... core ideas for the town’s transformation. We’re taking this Plan back to a 28 day consultation and using Citizen Space to rank priorities.

6. FINDINGS

PLACE PLAN TOOL FINDINGS

We shared the national Place Plan Tool in paper and online via the 5 key community partners and big local employers, the Council and NHS. The Place Tool prompts users to view our world (Stranraer in this context) ) through 14 lenses and rank them.

Here are the best and worst aspects of life in Stranraer (where 1=best):

TOP 5

WHAT LOCALS LOVE ABOUT STRANRAER

1 Natural space

2 Feeling safe

3 Identity & belonging

4 Play & recreation

5 Social interaction

BOTTOM 5

We were least happy with these (14= worst)

14 Work & economy

13 Care & maintenance

12 Public transport

11 Influence & control

10 Play & recreation

NEUTRAL

This group was fairly neutral

6 Traffic & parking

7 Moving around

8 Housing & community

9 Facilities & amenity

THE FIVE STRANDS

From our engagement, key issues clearly emerged. We organised these into Five Strands and in a workshop of stakeholders, balloted for priority issues. Find more granular detail on The Five Strands in the Appendices.

Strand 1: QUALITY OF LIFE

• Healthcare maternity services; clinics; sexual health; mental health

• Poverty social housing; employability; funeral, fuel and food poverty; resettlement

• Drink/drugs risky behaviour; emergency to recovery

Strand 2: WORK & OPPORTUNITY

• Transport timetables; routes; connections

• Enterprise culture of enterprise; de-risking/supporting enterprise

• Employment opportunities; courses; apprenticeships; volunteering

Strand 3: PLAY AND CREATIVITY

• George Hotel creative hub; workshops; studios; bunkhouse; climbing/caving

• One Waterfront Watersports Centre, Marina expansion, Unexpected Garden

• Playtime community/leisure centres; parks/outdoor; programming; youth

Strand 4: ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE

• Climate renewable energy; free/low-cost energy; active travel; routes and paths

• Food futures food poverty, local produce; growing; cooking; social connection

• Environment green-blue environments; marine protection;

Strand 5: PRIDE & CITIZENSHIP

• Vacant/derelict spaces East Pier; shopfronts; community assets; public realm

• Democracy refreshing democracy; growing community; Citizen passport; inclusion

• Destination Stranraer: One Waterfront; Rhins; Biosphere; events; connectivity

1: Quality of Life

BIG FAT GOAL

Improve the quality of life for everyone in the town, focussing where need is greatest.

PRIORITIES

1. Healthcare maternity services; clinics; sexual health; mental health

2. Poverty social housing; employability; funeral, fuel & food poverty; resettlement

3. Drink/drugs risky behaviour; emergency to recovery pathways

FIT WITH BORDERLANDS 4 THEMES

Enabling infrastructure

Improving places

Supporting business, innovation and skills

Encouraging green growth

There are long-standing issues of poverty and deprivation in Stranraer. The town is one of five poorest areas in the region, according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation. Over half our citizens are officially categorised as ‘Financially Stretched’. More than double the number of people in town are ‘Poorer Pensioners’, compared with the wider region.

It’s well evidenced that poverty is the key marker for poor health and wellbeing. For some, juggling 3 low-paid jobs with childcare, they are time poor. For others, with no work and poor prospects, they are time rich, cash poor and without support, skills and a leg-up, opportunities are closed to them. Both scenarios limit locals’ ability to fulfil their potential as a contributor to their town. We’re all the poorer for this in an unequal world.

Our first Strand aims to right this balance by addressing the breakdown in some key services. Place Planning has been the catalyst for partners who provide services in these areas to come together and begin conversations. The next stage is to work with local people who need help to scope and cost options. A wellbeing hub could create change across these connected issues. A transport hub and review of public transport could help people get to work. All solutions very much rely on partnership working and co-designing solutions with service users. If we can get these right, we will all be better

SOME FAMILIES ARE DESTITUTE… THAT’S THIRD WORLD TALK

MY 14 YEAR OLD FRIEND IS DOING COKE. IF SHE CAN FIND DEALERS, HOW COME THE POLICE CAN’T?

YOU HAVE TO TRAVEL TO AYR FOR CREMATION. IT’S NOT RIGHT AND IT’S MORE COST

GETTING TO THE LABOUR WARD IN DUMFRIES IS A RISK TO LIVES

I HAVE A 5-HOUR ROUND TRIP TO DUMFRIES FOR APPOINTMENTS. LAST TIME, THE CONSULTANT COULDN’T SEE ME

Strand 2: Work & Opportunity

BIG FAT GOAL

Offer skills-for-life and opportunities for everyone in the town who wants to grow.

PRIORITIES

1. Transport timetables; routes; connections

2. Enterprise culture of enterprise; de-risking/ supporting enterprise

3. Employment opportunities; courses; apprenticeships; volunteering

FIT WITH BORDERLANDS 4 THEMES

Enabling infrastructure

Improving places

Supporting business, innovation and skills

Encouraging green growth

The population of Stranraer has fallen. We have fewer people of working age and more retired people. This has a knock-on effect in the local economy with lower spending in local shops and commercial retailers less inclined to want to locate here. This in turn reduces work opportunities.

Transport links are patchy. Few can use public transport to get to work or study. With the HQs of the Council and NHS in Dumfries, senior, higher paid roles are based there. This takes higher paid jobs out of Stranraer which has a ripple effect in the economy. Scottish Government’s Strategic Transport Projects Review plans to upgrade the A77 and A75. Helpful for the many locals who have to drive this road regularly for work, meetings and medical appointments (though we’d rather they had a rail option or even better, keep life local.)

We want local talent to stay in the town and we want to attract fire-starters and catalysers to help us thrive. The College has a limited curriculum: many leave to grow and never return. For a student finishing their HNC in Stranraer, their next step is to jump on the 6am bus to Dumfries to join the HND course, returning around 9pm each day if they want to live in Stranraer. We want to be able to attract engineers and professionals to jobs and attract more high value manufacturing jobs. To attract inward investment and relocation, we need to start by tackling a train station and pier that looks abandoned, develop a road network that’s fit for purpose and develop our offer - like an arts centre - that will attract new residents.

THE ENTERPRISE PEOPLE WITHDREW BUSINESS SUPPORT SERVICES

WHEN I LEAVE SCHOOL I’LL LEAVE THE TOWN… MAYBE RETIRE HERE

YOU NEED EXPERIENCE TO GET A JOB ... YOU NEED TO BE IN WORK TO GET AN APPRENTICESHIP

THE ENTERPRISE COMPANY SHOULD INCENTIVISE COMPANIES TO SITE HERE

I GOT A STUDENT PLACEMENT - NOW I HAVE A JOB

Strand 3: Play & Creativity

BIG FAT GOAL

Offer many reasons to visit Stranraer as the district’s hub for locals, families, visitors.

PRIORITIES

1. George Hotel creative hub; workshops; studios; bunkhouse; climbing/caving

2. One Waterfront Watersports Centre, Marina expansion, Unexpected Garden

3. Playtime community/leisure centres; parks/ outdoor; programming; youth

FIT WITH BORDERLANDS 4 THEMES

Enabling infrastructure

Improving places

Supporting business, innovation and skills

Encouraging green growth

From the get-go, The George Hotel was on the lips of locals in Place Planning engagement. With a sense of resignation after years of complaining, they had begun demanding that The George should be pulled down. The Council stepped up and invested in the building. By the end of 2022, they secured £8.7 million to start the transformation. In the same Levelling Up Fund round, Stranraer WaterSports Association secured £4.6 million for a watersports centre that will unlock a One Waterfront approach to reimagine the lochside and make Loch Ryan an amphitheatre for watersports.

These initiatives provide a solid infrastructure for leisure in town. The George for culture, creativity, climbing and caving. The Watersports Centre for kayaking, canoeing, paddle-boarding and GetWet fun. The Millennium Centre for socials, meetings, clubs and performances. The Ryan Centre for swimming, sports, film and classes. These key venues must be safeguarded. In a town with high levels of poverty, they are not money-making operations.

We have buoyant and popular local events… the Cattle Show, Oyster Festival and Parkfest. The new-for-’22 Harvest Festival. Locals want more indoor/wet weather options like bowling, roller discos, activities for toddlers. Much of this is about programming, as much as infrastructure. Joint programming and joint working to promote all that’s available is essential.

THERE’S NOT MUCH FOR TEENAGERS...

WE NEED WETWEATHER ACTIVITIES... 10-PIN BOWLING, AN ARCADE, LASER TAG

FAMILY ACTIVITIES NEED TO BE AFFORDABLE -

WE NEED MORE EVENTS AND FESTIVALS...

WE GO TO AYR - SPEND £100. WE COULD BE SPENDING THAT IN STRANRAER

Strand 4: Climate & Environment

BIG FAT GOAL

Celebrate, promote and protect our unique natural environment.

PRIORITIES

1. Climate renewable energy; free/low-cost energy; active travel; routes and paths

2. Food futures food poverty, local produce; growing; cooking; social connection

3. Environment green-blue environments; marine protection; Biosphere

FIT WITH BORDERLANDS 4 THEMES

Enabling infrastructure

Improving places

Supporting business, innovation and skills

Encouraging green growth

The Rhins of Galloway is a beautiful and relatively untouched part of Scotland. With first class farming land, lush and tropical gardens and 93 miles of coast, growing, environment and climate concerns are close to locals’ hearts. It’s a sobering thought that by 2050, Tescos will be at risk of flooding. We need to reduce cars, develop renewables and take advantage of government schemes - tax relief, tax benefits, support and incentives - to drive sensible, responsible, future-focussed stewardship of our environment.

Our peninsula has recently been recognised as part of Galloway’s Dark Skies initiative. In 2022, the Rhins was invited to join Galloway and Southern Ayrshire’s Biosphere… recognised and protected by UNESCO as a world class environment for people and nature. There are opportunities to develop as a centre for learning and research for marine life. The Unexpected Garden is a successful model project we want to nurture, with a focus on growing, learning, protecting the environment and building community.

We welcome tourists. We ask them to be caretakers of our riches, as we do our citizens. It’s essential that in the process of change, we protect the natural environment and historic assets and manage clean energy capture and production with low emissions and careful waste management.

LET’S POWER THE TOWN, FOR FREE - IT’S SO DOABLE

MY PARENTS RECYCLE, I DON’T

THERE ARE WASTELANDS AT THE HEART OF THE TOWN

LET’S CELEBRATE OUR AGRICULTURAL HERITAGE

JOIN UP THE MOVING PARTS OF THE FOOD CHAIN

Strand 5: Pride & Citizenship

BIG FAT GOAL

Use the Place Plan process as a trigger for transformation (nothing less will do).

PRIORITIES

1. Vacant/derelict spaces East Pier; shopfronts; community assets; public realm

2. Democracy refreshing democracy; growing community; Citizen passport; inclusion

3. Destination Stranraer: One Waterfront; Rhins; Biosphere; events; connectivity

FIT WITH BORDERLANDS 4 THEMES

Enabling infrastructure

Improving places

Supporting business, innovation and skills

Encouraging green growth

The south west of Scotland is one of only two UK destinations Lonely Planet lists in its Must See 2023 Guide. Visitors arriving in Stranraer by train might be disappointed. Elaine C Smith asked the audience at Stranraer’s Millennium Centre, “why do you put up with this”, talking about the state of the East Pier and station. Limmy, comedian and Twitch streamer, giving a running commentary on his onscreen, virtual arrival at Stranraer railway station was left almost speechless: “Is that the station?! (... stream of expletives…) That’s shocking.” Stena is in the process of contracting with two haulage firms to set up two lorry parks on the East Pier bringing 70-80 lorries a day to park on our seafront. This is not a vision for the future that local people share. They are not short of ideas for the Pier. Indeed they have shared them over and over in the last decade. They express frustration at having experienced over-consultation and under-delivery over the years. And on engagement, we hear old democratic processes - meetings - don’t suit everyone. Many would rather use the technology in their hand (their mobile phone) and vote online. This idea secured Community Led Vision funding for Citizen Space, a digital engagement platform to open up democracy. We will harness this to continue engagement and invite locals to vote on priorities as they shape up.

Stranraer has ambitions to refresh community pride through this Place Plan process and the vision we have for the town’s newly delineated 4 Quarters. The future’s bright.

THE BLIGHT OF THE FRONT… THE EAST PIER IS A DISGRACE

IT’S TIME TO SHIFT GEAR: DO IT UP OR TAKE IT DOWN

IF YOU NEED HELP BUYING TRAIN TICKETS, GO TO GIRVAN

HE WAS BULLIED OUT OF THE COMMUNITY GROUP

SOME ARE OVERREPRESENTED, SOME UNDER

7. THE FOUR QUARTERS

WORKING WITH THE ISSUES AND SOLUTIONS IDENTIFIED BY LOCAL PEOPLE (THE FIVE STRANDS), THE TOWN TEAM OVERLAID IDEAS ONTO A MAP OF STRANRAER.

WE CONCEIVED OF FOUR QUARTERS THAT COULD DEFINE THE TOWN’S TRANSFORMATION AND LATER, MAY HAVE A ROLE IN WAYFINDING AND MARKETING AS THE TOWN GROWS ITS PROFILE AS A DESTINATION FOR RELOCATORS, VISITORS AND BUSINESS INVESTMENT.

Quarter 1: One Waterfront

Quarter 2: Uptown

Quarter 3: Enterprise Zone

Quarter 4: Sanctuary

Q1: One Waterfront

Aim:

Reimagine the whole waterfront as one wellbeing scheme and hub for eco-tourism around the Rhins, repositioning Stranraer as a marine leisure destination with the new Watersports Centre and much expanded Marina. Transform the Vacant & Derelict East Pier to create a promenade, piazza and events space connecting to paths along the Waterfront and into town. Develop an integrated Transport Hub as a safe and welldesigned starting point for the thousands expected to flock to the new Coast to Coast Cycle Route. Phase one would secure and establish this significant piece of public realm ready for its next chapter.

Cost:

Previous reports show tens of millions are needed to develop this historic pier. For this phase, we are looking for £1.5 million from Borderlands to unlock Scottish Government’s historical commitment of £6 million (index-linked) and explore the potential £2 million each from the Council and SoSE cited in a 2018 Council report.

Stranraer Watersports Centre has already secured £4.6 million Levelling Up Funding with 10% match funding by Dumfries & Galloway Council. Funding for the Marina expansion is being driven by the Council and progresses.

Loch Ryan looking to Ailsa Craig and Arran: photo Colfin Capture

QUARTER 1: ONE WATERFRONT

With a dramatic arrival by train, spectacular sunsets and views to Arran over Loch Ryan, the East Pier could be Stranraer’s greatest asset. It is currently, and for the last decade, has been its biggest liability. Let’s flip that.

The Pier is leased by Stenaline (marked purple) Network Rail own the railway line (marked orange)

MAP SHOWING OWNERSHIP OF THE EAST PIER Crown Estates own the seabed

Photo: Scarlett Visuals

Loch Ryan as an amphitheatre for watersports

Develop the seafront from the Cockleshore to Broadstone, embracing the transformed East Pier promenade and piazza, a much expanded Marina, The Unexpected Garden, Agnew Park and the new Watersports Centre and Solway Coast and Marine Project marine research centre. The inclusive Watersports Centre adjacent to the 230 berth Marina will create an anchor attraction in the town centre and develop Loch Ryan as an amphitheatre for watersports, attracting watersports events. Locals and visitors will be attracted to play, learn and thrive on the water, offering locals training and job opportunities, attracting sailing boats to the substantial marina and visitors to the Rhins of Galloway. Embrace our Green value and the opportunity to be the starting point of the new Coast to Coast Cycle Route with its projection of 70,000 cyclists - 400 a day in the high season - setting off on the 250 mile cycle to Eyemouth, launching Summer 2023. Support Stenaline to move lorry parks to the industrial park, freeing the East Pier and directing 70-80 vehicles a day away from town centre, avoiding clash with the Cycle Route and aligning with the emerging Active Travel strategy and Transport Review. The town needs a strategic, single scheme approach to its waterfront. These are key elements in

The Council’s marina expansion plan shows one vision of the scale and potential of the East Pier

Integrated waterfront

the scheme:

• East Pier EventSpace: Explore using available powers to take the East Pier into community ownership. Launch a design competition to revitalise the space to create a promenade, piazza and open space for walking, cycling, learn-to-cycle park, circular routes and paths, events space for the Oyster Festival, the Shows (visiting fair), an iconic beacon sculpture and green pockets.

• Lorry parks: Work with Stena on their plans to site proposed lorry parks on the pier and move them to the industrial estate or periphery. This would avoid bringing 70-80 vehicles into town daily with harmful environmental impact, limited economic benefit and a clash with the new Kirkpatrick Coast to Coast Cycle Route. This route projects that Stranraer, as it’s kick-off point, might welcome up to 400 cyclists daily. We want to avoid them crossing their path with lorry traffic on an already busy route with no cycle path.

• Station: flip the shame of the station to be a visitor attraction: showcase Scotland’s oldest signal box currently protected but hidden from view at the end of the pier, creating a railway enthusiasts visitor attraction, with occasional steam trains tooting all the way down the track. Otherwise explore the cost-benefit of moving the station/platform towards the town end of the Pier at Port Rodie or revive the old station at Station Street, aligning with the new Transport Hub.

• Transport Hub: create a safe hub for rail, bus, car, cycle, pedestrians with timetables, public information, water point, charging points for phones, bikes and cars. Embrace the opportunity to be the starting point of the new Coast to Coast Cycle Route - a muchcoveted pole position. Factor into transport review the projection of 70,000 cyclists - 400 a day in the high season - setting off on the 250 mile Coast to Coast Kirkpatrick Cycle Route to Eyemouth, launching June 2023. Align to Active Travel strategy and Transport Review. Keep our ‘Green’ value in check.

• Welcome: design arrival, wayfinding routes and digital visitor information from Transport Hub to Enterprise Zone, One Waterfront, Uptown and Sanctuary. Considering new visitors attracted by the town’s new Quarters offer and the thousands of cyclists attracted by the Cycle Route, ensure the infrastructure supports and directs their stay, with spending in the town before setting off, staying in hotels, B&Bs and The George bunkhouse.

Watersports Centre from slipway looking towards marina. Image: John Renshaw Architects

Solway Coast And Marine Project (SCAMP).

Photo courtesy Dumfries & Galloway Council

Q2: Uptown

Aim:

Develop the town centre’s Uptown as its culture, leisure and community quarter. Develop a community-managed wet weather family leisure offer, eg 10-pin bowling alley/laser tag. Safeguard and upgrade existing leisure venues, infrastructure and facilities including the new Creative Hub trailing the way for the George Hotel. Offer local trades work, placements and skills building to enable long term unemployed to get into work.

We’re asking for £1.2 million for phase 1 to safeguard existing leisure infrastructue and develop wet-weather alternatives.

The George Hotel transformation has already secured £8.7 million from Levelling Up Fund and Dumfries & Galloway Council; an anchor change for the town’s culture offer.

• George Hotel: funding secured to transform the crumbling George as an anchor attraction for the town’s recovery with creative hub, workshops, artists studios, climbing/caving playground and 30 bed bunkhouse for artists residencies and active travellers: cyclists on the Coast to Coast Cycle Route and walkers on the Southern Upland Way.

• King Street Hub: develop hub for creative community engagement for Creating Stranraer Place Planning and Creative Stranraer activities developing audiences, users and projects and trailing the way for the launch of The George in 2025.

• Millennium & Ryan Centres: safeguard and upgrade the town’s key community and leisure centres: Millennium for live performance, groups, courses and classes with dance studio and recording studio; Ryan Centre for film and performance theatre and leisure. Develop youth spaces, zones and resources in each. Explore potential to develop a 10 pin bowling alley with laser tag fun in currently empty spaces eg next door to the Millennium, run by the Centre.

• Museum & Library: refurbish and upgrade these essential elements of our cultural heritage, learning and research centres.

The roofless George Hotel, now rescued for development as a creative hub.

George Hotel creative hub: Collective Architecture

George Hotel creative hub climbing and caving centre (left) The restored George Hotel creative hub in the new Uptown Quarter with neighbouring museum (above): Collective Architecture

Q3: Enterprise Zone

Aim: Cost:

Transform the town centre facade and infrastructure to support and encourage enterprise and revive town centre living to drive footfall into the town, nurture and grow Stranraer’s economy and create new employment and entrepreneurship opportunities.

£1.5 million in total for The Big Makeover and Revive projects.

• Town Makeover: Transform the high street, supplementing the town’s Shopfront Improvement Scheme to support the town’s independent shops with colourful paint schemes and awnings over shops; apply decorative vinyls to windows of vacant buildings; commission murals for gap sites and buildings; remove weeds from roofs and facades. Improve wayfinding. Make derelict properties safe. Improve routes into town centre.

• Revive: Town Centre Living: Animate the town centre. Audit vacant and derelict land and properties. Work with landlords, agents and developers to explore opportunities to inject life into the town centre. Develop mixed use sites and schemes for business, enterprise and housing. Offer ‘meantime opportunities’ - short term, low cost leases - in the town centre for entrepreneurs and artists, de-risking start-ups, growing the creative community. Create a community chest to help with low cost, self-build makeovers in vacant shops for selfemployed, social enterprises and small businesses, working with the Furniture Project to reuse material.

• Industrial Park: keep heavy lifting enterprise in this secondary, out of town zone. Move Stena’s lorry parks here. Improve safe Active Travel routes to the expanded Furniture Project site. Invest in green energy to power community assets. Attract high value manufacturing.

• Vacant/derelict sites: audit and act to save significant historical buildings from ruin.

Q4: Sanctuary

Aim:

Develop unused land along the Black Stank burn as a 20-acre wellbeing sanctuary, protecting and promoting blue-green life. Sanctuary meets historically oft-polluted Stank: it’s already affectionately referred to as Stanctuary.

Cost:

£500,000 for Sanctuary Outdoor Nursery: use nature to nurture, provide jobs and support parents to return to work.

£300,000 to develop Dick’s Hill Hub growing/food project to trail the way for the Sanctuary.

• Outdoor nursery: Support locals back into work by providing childcare. Dumfries & Galloway College provide training qualifications in childcare. Stanctuary nursery provide placements, work experience and jobs in childcare.

• Adventure Playground: creative, adventurous, outdoor play centre for a wide range of ages, growing physical and mental wellbeing, developing confidence and skills, learning about risk, reducing risky behaviours, building strong community resilience.

• Tonic: Wild Wellness: work with neighbouring community hospital and groups like Drug & Alcohol Partnership to offer zones, spaces and structures for people in recovery, Wild Wellness projects, Men’s Sheds for mental health promotion. Build intergenerational volunteering and skill-sharing. Teach self-build skills to create spaces working with material from the Community Reuse Shop.

• Dick’s Hill Hub: Community Asset Transfer of vacant building in Dick’s Hill to support families and grow skills and confidence to get into work. Shared community tenancy to develop growing and community, linked to the Sanctuary site. Work with local residents as community catalysts, sharing space and growing food knowledge and cooking skills. Link the Hub with Moveable Feast, a growing and food projects across the Rhins and linked to a regional and national Food Futures movement, a potential partner in the South West for Glasgow School of Art’s Forresbased Rural Food Futures Lab.

• Active Travel: develop routes and paths through the sanctuary for walking and cycling as part of the town’s broader Active Travel scheme.

Left: Black Stank site beyond the railway line and behind Stranraer Football Stadium

Galloway Glens project modelling the way for our new Sanctuary quarter: images Duncan Ireland

The Unexpected Garden, one of the national Dandelion projects on Stranraer’s waterfront proving if you can grow it here, you can grow it anywhere. The Garden’s Moveable Feast project will trail the development of Sanctuary.

8. Conclusion and thanks

This has been an energetic, collaborative process. The community has united around One Vision, One Plan… a shared ambition and collective understanding of opportunity that has emerged through this Place Planning approach.

Acknowledging the decades of neglect, broken promises and under-investment in Stranraer, we look to Government and its agencies - national, region, local - to get behind our ask. We are in desperate need of the capital funds promised a decade ago (and now worth a fraction of their value then) to transform the town and its hollowed out infrastructure.

We need revenue funding to develop and deliver our plans. We flag this as the most significant issue facing us beyond the lack of capital investment. Council community development posts have disappeared over the years. The current short-term, piecemeal project funding environment pits neighbouring organisations in our small community against each other. It’s not conducive to partnership working. It’s exhausting and drains the limited resources in the town. It’s not sustainable for a town like Stranraer. We need a longer term, more robust base for growth.

There’s a conflict in the Borderlands process. On one hand, the Plan is community-led. On the other, Borderlands retains control of the purse strings and determines how and with whom any money is spent by controlling procurement. This level of patronage seems at odds with building ownership, skills, experience, responsibility and accountability within the community.

Stranraer is a town facing multiple deprivation and has been for some time. It’s unrealistic to expect to build an arts centre or community centre and hand it over to the community to develop and run as a cost-neutral operation. It will take years to stabilise and work into profit. These and other points are covered in Appendix: Insights.

The real deal

“This Place Plan is the real deal. This is our chance to change the story of Stranraer, and change it together. We have understood the importance of speaking to everyone, listening to everyone. It’s not about what others think Stranraer could have or should have, it’s what locals want and need. We are grateful and delighted to have this invitation to unite as a community behind one vision, one plan. It is our absolute intention to deliver for local people.”

Romano Petrucci, Chair, Stranraer Development Trust & Steering Group member

STEERING GROUP STATEMENT

A Steering Group of volunteers - Romano Petrucci, Douglas McMillan, Alex Haswell, Harry Harbottle - brought long experience of government agencies, community activism and enterprise to support the Place Project Manager, along with funding partners from South of Scotland Enterprise and Dumfries & Galloway Council. These are the words of the Steering Group:

“This Place Plan gathers all the strands of locals’ threads of thought and weaves a picture of a bright future. We are very grateful that over the last 6 months the whole town has come together to support this process.

“We, the Steering Group volunteers, need the support of a charismatic, agile catalyst to keep the pot boiling, keep the lines of communication open, and help us to vault barriers - like Stena’s proposed lorry parks - while this Plan progresses through formal funding channels. There is no question that we should look to South of Scotland Enterprise, Dumfries & Galloway Council and Scottish Government for the resources needed NOW to keep up the momentum built over 6 months of Place Planning.

“Borderlands invited the town to bid for a share of its £15 million pot. We’ve secured Levelling Up Funds for two flagship change projects. A dedicated resource is essential not to lose pace on our road to social, economic and physical regeneration of Stranraer. This is not a new ask. It has been on the table for some considerable time.

“Finally, many have been championing change for decades - too many to mention - but let’s acknowledge Councillors Willie Scobie and the late Grahame Forster, authors of Stranraer Tourism, Leisure & Culture paper and Steve Sloane’s Phoenix paper on behalf of the Smart Group, paving the way for this Place Plan. We were delighted that Stranraer born-and-bred Barbara Chalmers led the mission to engage and craft the Plan. A truly community-led Plan.”

“We have been told for years by public bodies that Stranraer ‘needs to get its act together’ to unlock funds to transform the town and its people’s wellbeing. Well, we got our act together. We’ve undertaken extensive engagement with our citizens – not just the usual suspects - culminating in an aspirational Place Plan. Let’s catch this wave and ALL RISE ON THE TIDE!”

WITH THANKS

TOWN TEAM

Thanks to the commitment of local individuals who joined our Town Team to shape the Plan:

• Nikki-Marie Vjatschslav, Chair - growing and community

• Cloe Allison - youth and democracy

• Harry Harbottle - community, watersports

• Fiona Herron - further education

• Finlay Lamont - inclusion and active travel

• Mike Lane - enterprise and education

• Catriona McGhie - music, arts, culture, community

• Sandra McHarrie - community council and arts

• Murdo Macleod - health and wellbeing

• Douglas McMillan - business development

• Eva Milroy - further education

• Paul Smith - environment and enterprise

Thanks to Dumfries & Galloway Council’s Chris Churms, Borderlands Programme and Kerry Monteith, Council Ward Officer; to Lena Hutton, South of Scotland Enterprise and to Jane Stanistreet, Third Sector Dumfries & Galloway for support.

5 COMMUNITY PARTNERS

Thanks to the teams at 5 key community partner organisations who collaborated on the Plan:

• Stranraer Development Trust - this charity runs the Gateway to Galloway tourist office, the annual Oyster Festival, organises flower beds across the waterfront and coordinates projects. The Trust has hosted the Place Plan process on behalf of the whole town through a short-term role funded by South of Scotland Enterprise.

• Millennium Centre - this charity runs Stranraer’s main community centre in the heart of the town, with meeting rooms, hall/theatre, dance studio and recording studio. The Centre is home to weekly groups, classes, clubs, monthly markets and runs youth and arts activities.

• Furniture Project - with a 20-year Council contract to deliver local reuse services, this social enterprise runs a dynamic community reuse centre and town centre thrift shop recycling clothes, homeware, office furniture, bikes and more, tackling poverty, reducing waste, offering volunteer opportunities and employability skills.

• Stranraer Watersports Association - developing Stranraer Watersport Centre as a community hub encouraging inclusive access to the water and developing skills; stimulating commerce on Loch Ryan with a watersports events programme of national and international importance.

• Stranraer Community Council - the first tier of democracy, linking local people to Council and Scottish Government issues.

Afterword

I have been delighted to work with locals to pull this Plan together. It’s a personal mission and passion to help this town flourish.

There’s history.

Of my 4 sets of my great grandparents, one ran the Poor House in Stranraer, another the drapers in George Street, one ran the Downshire in Portpatrick and the others were farmers in Girvan who followed that era’s trend and migrated south to Wigtownshire to farm near the Lochans where I grew up and went to school. On their dad’s side, my children’s grandfather was one of the surviving crew of the Princess Victoria and his scrapbook is currently on display at the Millennium Centre for the 75th anniversary of the tragedy. Other folks in the town have similar patchwork quilts of family stories.

Names and faces echo down the years in these streets and key features like the Princess Victoria memorial, the Gardens of Friendship, Agnew Park, Stair Park remain. I love that many aspects of this town have changed little… the high street still features independent shops and cafes from my childhood: Barbours, Simpsons, Gillespies, Aitkens, Baxters, Lochs, the Alexandra, the Petrucci family now at the Central Cafe, the McMillan family just recently moved on from North West Castle - and their family members all play key roles in sustaining the town, active in community leadership.

Adding to the sense of community built by those who’ve stayed with the town through its ups and downs, there are always new faces arriving, bringing fresh energy, diversity and new ideas that just make us stronger. Together, we look forward to seeing this Place thrive.

Barbara Chalmers, Place Plan Project Manager

New One Waterfront quarter - Stranraer marina and East Pier: photo Pete Robinson