Regeneration

I will be meeting with Council Officials soon to discuss a bid for a share of the £62 million being provided by the Scottish Government.

I think that The Business for Dumbarton Action Plan should form the basis of the application.

When Being Proved Right is Bitter Sweet

I have a shop in Dumbarton. I have traded there for twenty four years, the last seventeen of which have been from the town’s High Street.

When I initially took a shop there there was 100% occupancy of shops.

There were butchers, fishmongers, fruit shops, gift shops, electrical stores, general stores etc.

In 1993 when I’d been in the High Street for a year, the council closed the street off to traffic for about six weeks in order to make repairs to a bridge.

I immediately lost 35% of my trade.

Thankfully at the completion of works things returned pretty much to normal.

Then West Dunbartonshire Council came up with the idea of pedestrianising the place.

I opposed this proposal with every fibre. Not only did I know that this measure would be a disaster for my business and of the other businesses there, I also knew it would be a disaster for the town.

However the cooncil in their wisdom were determined. Exhibitions were held in Dumbarton festooned with photos of Paisley which had just been pedestrianised. They clearly saw Paisley as best practice in the field. They only just stopped short of claiming that it was the eighth wonder of the world.

Here is a quote from a Scotland Office document from 1999

Ruining Towns a Speciality

“A £3.7 million Paisley Town Centre Regeneration Project was today given the seal of approval by First Minister Donald Dewar and Scottish Secretary John Reid. To mark the successful completion of Phase 2 of the pedestrianisation scheme Mr Dewar and Mr Reid jointly laid a commemorative plaque in Gilmour Street.

Speaking during the visit Mr Dewar said:

“I am delighted to be in Paisley today to celebrate the successful completion of Paisley’s £3.7 million pedestrianisation scheme. The renewal of County Square and Gilmour Street has transformed the heart of the town. Paisley should rightly be proud of the efforts to make its centre more accessible, improve the environment and stimulate new development.

“Partnership projects can make a real difference. The commitment and dedication of the key sponsors involved in the Paisley Regeneration Project have helped the town become a revitalised place in which to live, work, visit and invest. The Government will continue to do everything it can to assist.”

Full article
HERE

I contacted the Traders in Paisley. It is fair to say that their version of events was somewhat different to Messrs. Dewar and Reid.

Their representative John Murphy who owned a stationers in Paisley which had been there for a century told me that the changes in Paisley were akin to a bomb being dropped on the place.

The Paisley traders were already campaigning for the pedestrianisation works and traffic limitations to be reversed.

I relayed this information to West Dunbartonshire Council. I relayed the result of my consultations with retailers in Dunoon, Airdrie, Bathgate, Kirkcaldy, Fort William, Dumfries and other places, many in England where pedestrianisation/traffic management had killed small to medium sized towns.

Towns like Dumbarton.

The Council wouldn’t listen.

The Council Officials wouldn’t listen.

The Town Centre Manager wouldn’t listen.

The Trader’s representative wouldn’t listen.

It looked like the town was finished.

The town was finished.

In 2005 the traffic management scheme in Dumbarton was implemented. This according to the council was the jewel in the crown of an action plan published in 2000 that promised to “regenerate and revitalise the town within five years”.

Here is my sardonic presentation of what actually happened.

In 2007 Paisley lifted the traffic ban in two streets.

Dumbarton’s Traffic Management scheme fell soon afterwards.

However we are left with narrow streets and unfeasibly wide pavements.

Most of the shops have closed.

Meanwhile in Paisley (taken from This BBC news article yesterday )

The leader of Renfrewshire Council, Councillor Derek Mackay, said: “When pedestrianisation was delivered in the town a lot of people felt it went too far and was over restrictive.

“We want to bring people back into the heart of the town.

“By giving better access we can help showcase what Paisley has to offer and generate more activity and life in the town centre, particularly at night.”

The council insisted the move would not be an expensive one.

Mr Mackay added: “The current lay out of the High Street is very attractive and amenable to car access which would mean, with a fairly limited budget, we could bring cars back in on a shared basis with pedestrians.”

Roughly translated this reads.

“We are reversing the disastrous pedestrianisation scheme that nobody wanted”

“If we had listened to the traders and townspeople in the nineties instead of shelling out money to consultants, we might have saved millions of pounds and still had a town centre”

John Murphy’s shop, like many others didn’t survive.

Dumbarton has the highest rate of unoccupied shops in Scotland.

Footnote: I should point out that my criticism of West Dunbartonshire and Renfrewshire Councils relate to the administrations at the time the traffic decisions were taken. The current administration in West Dunbartonshire has supported us in two crucial decisions in recent months and we appreciate that support.

Dumbarton Town Centre in the News

And for the wrong reasons.

Last week the Sun carried an article on a report by consultants Experian on Scotland’s Ghost Towns. Dumbarton was listed along with Ardrossan as having the highest percentage of empty shops in its town centre.

Of the ‘top’ five towns Paisley and Airdrie, both fellow victims of failed traffic management initiatives were featured, as was Cumbernauld (which has a built-in failed traffic management scheme).

I wonder how much money has been wasted on consultant’s reports in these towns over the years? In Dumbarton “Re-discovering Dumbarton” the Action Plan which arose from a report by consultants EDAW has served only to exacerbate the problems and challenges faced by all traditional town centres.

It is glaringly obvious where Dumbarton town centre’s problems lie. Amongst the most relevant are:

1) Demographic Profile.
2) Lack of adequate convenient parking and legacy of failed traffic scheme (what ARE those acres of pavement for?)
3) Inadequate security, safety & street lighting.
4) Hopelessly inadequate public toilets.
5) Crumbling infrastructure.
6) Rent and rates which are too high.

If a team of consultants were appointed to look at it however we’d all be blinded and baffled by terms like retail offer, footfall, signage, public realm, pedestrian/vehicle conflict etc. etc. It’s all nonsense and our town centre stands as proof of that.

The “retail offer” is poor because the conditions for it are poor.

You don’t get a good crop from bad soil.

Create the conditions for business to flourish and it surely will. This requires action by government national and local and by landlords too.

Meeting

Business for Dumbarton will meet on 21st April at 6pm Aunties Tea Room next to the Co-op. All members welcome.