Scottish Government Minister praises Midsteeple Quarter ambitions
A Scottish Government Minister shone a spotlight on the vision of Midsteeple Quarter as a local MSP said community action in Dumfries provided a “hope” for the future of town centres.
The comments were made during a Scottish Parliament Debate on a report by its Economy and Fair Work Committee into the future of retail and town centres.
Members of the committee last year visited Dumfries - speaking to Midsteeple Quarter and other organisations - as part of fact-finding to discover how action by community groups throughout the town is helping to build a better future.
You can read more about the committee’s report and visit here.
Tom Arthur, Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth, also visited the town last year (pictured above) to officially launch construction work on the transformation of 135-139 High Street into new homes and enterprise spaces.
Speaking in the chamber at Holyrood, Mr Arthur said: “I will close with a couple of examples of successes on the ground that support town centres and retail. I was hugely impressed by the strategic approach to investment in Galashiels, where the great tapestry visitor centre forms a focal point, and by the Midsteeple Quarter project in Dumfries, where the Scottish Government’s Regeneration Capital Grant Fund is helping to deliver wider plans to repurpose the town centre as a fully refurbished contemporary living, working, socialising, learning and enterprising quarter.
“Both of those projects align strongly with my ambitions to support community wealth building and create places where the community can shape its own future, interventions and investments to support local businesses and take decisions for the benefit of all.”
South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth - a member of the Economy and Fair Work Committee - also spoke as part of the debate.
He spoke of how pleased he was that colleagues had chosen to visit the town, saying “the town centre really matters to me and all my fellow Doonhamers”.
And he added later: “Every town is unique, with its own challenges and, therefore, its own unique solutions. In many ways, however, Dumfries is a microcosm of town centres across Scotland. It has been hit by the impact of out-of-town developments, online shopping and easy access to cities, and the consequence has been more and more empty shops. However, our visit gave members a glimmer of hope, due to the way in which the community is fighting back.
“The visit that members made to Dumfries gave them the opportunity to meet people from Midsteeple Quarter, which is a community benefit company that is directly tackling the problem of absent landlords by becoming the landlord itself.
“Shop by shop, it is taking back the high street and investing in neglected properties to deliver the uses that the town has identified that it needs—affordable retail space, community space and, crucially, new housing in our high street.
Colin Smyth MSP talking during the committee’s visit to Dumfries last year
“That journey was hampered and made slower by the lack of revenue support as that work became established. That is why the committee urged the Government to consider the need for seed funding for community-led projects that really listen to communities and drive regeneration forward.”
Work taking place in Midsteeple Quarter was also highlighted by Economy and Fair Work Committee chair, Claire Baker as she opened the debate.
She said: “Members were able to see first hand what is being achieved through the Midsteeple Quarter development. Midsteeple Quarter is a community benefit society in Dumfries that is developing empty high street properties to provide space for local businesses and to bring homes to the high street, giving the community a stake in their future.”
You can watch the full debate here.