41 regeneration projects – making a real difference to East Ayrshire communities

The Council was awarded a total of just over £2.3m in funding from the Scottish Government’s Town Centre Regeneration Fund. This money, which was to support investment in our town centres to make them more attractive, vibrant, enterprising and accessible.

As a result 17 projects were developed in co-operation with local communities, businesses and community organisations. These projects were identified as priorities through local community engagement and existing Community Action or Place Plans.

11 of the original 17 projects in the scheme have now been completed, with the remaining six in the final stages of development

The funds have been used to complete some smaller scale projects, while in others they’ve acted as a catalyst to develop much larger projects, such as The Corner in Darvel, The Castle in New Cumnock , Morton Hall in Newmilns and the White Tile Building in Kilmarnock Town Centre. In all these projects,  the communities themselves have also been proactive in securing the extra funding needed  to progress their ambitious plans.

In keeping with the council’s Clean Green Climate Change Strategy,  schemes involving environmental improvements have been a big priority for funding. Whether large or small scale, they have had a positive impact on the community.

Examples of this include new art installations in Auchinleck, creation of community meeting spaces and safer pedestrian access in Hurlford and Dalrymple and a larger scale community “green space” at  St Marnock’s Square in Kilmarnock.

Making pedestrian access more attractive and safer has been a priority too, with the  improvements on the Academy/North Stairs at Kilmarnock and subway art project making life easier for those travelling to and from the town centre and the Ayrshire Arts Academy and Cultural Quarter.

In October 2021, Cabinet was told about the award of  £1.310m from the Scottish Government’s  Place Based Investment Programme, which  is supporting a further 24 community led regeneration projects throughout East Ayrshire. This carried a deadline of having contracts signed or a start made by 31 March 2022 with no specific deadlines for completion.

These projects fall into three categories:

• Support for existing projects which need extra funding to achieve their outcomes and/or which have been adversely impacted by the challenges presented by Brexit and Covid
• Projects already identified in Community Action Plans, Place Plans or through other community led regeneration work
• Projects arising from consultation with local communities, organisations and businesses

So far two of the projects have been completed,  15 have contracts in place and the remaining seven projects have contracts in progress.

Cabinet approved the progress of all the projects concerned and agreed to delegate the Depute Chief Executive to continue to spend the money allocated to complete the projects and provide regular updates.

• Read the full Cabinet report, including the list of TCRF and PBIB projects
• Visit our Town Centre Regeneration webpages
• Read about the St Marnock Square project