Page\Park

Check our our page of useful links including one to Page\Park who are the Architects commissioned by the Bishopbriggs Town Team to put together a community led town centre vision.

http://cleddensresidents.blogspot.com/p/links.html

We are now just waiting for a public meeting to be arranged when the Town Team unveil their alternative masterplan or vision for Bishopbriggs Town Centre. Watch this space-details will be posted shortly!

20 things to do in the high street without shopping

Some of Bishopbriggs Town Team recently went along to a workshop held at the Lighthouse in Glasgow by Architecture+Design Scotland exploring the future of Scottish High Streets.

Here's a link to a blog by one of the presentors Julian Dobson whose title was 20 things to do in the High Street without shopping

http://livingwithrats.blogspot.com/2012/02/20-things-to-do-on-high-street-without.html

We’re going to design our own town centre!

The following article recently appeared in the Evening Times:

Bishopbriggs Town Team has instructed its own designers to create a vision based on what residents want.

The Town Team was formed because of concerns over the scale of a proposed supermarket.

Morrisons has been granted outline planning permission by East Dunbartonshire Council for a development. Local people saw the plans last month when they were put on public display.

It is understood the supermarket chain wants to double the size of its existing store and parking area at the The Triangle shopping centre.

Town team member Donald Macdonald said architects had been commissioned after residents raised funds to cover the cost, believed to be several thousand pounds.

Mr Macdonald said: “We are not against a supermarket development, but we are concerned about the scale and the way it will progress.

“As a community we want to see the town flourish and decided to instruct designers.

“We are having our alternative plan put together and want to present it to Morrisons and East Dunbartonshire Council within a couple of months.”

Mr Macdonald said the town team was not looking for a fight against future development, but members were concerned with how future projects would impact on Bishopbriggs.

He added: “We hope planners will work with the community.

“Our plan will look at the Morrisons development and how it could link with the town and areas such as the railway station.”

Last year a UK Government-commissioned report described some town centres as “dead,” with huge increases in the number of empty shops.

Retail expert Mary Portas, presenter of the BBC2 programme Mary Queen Of Shops, said it was too late to save every city and town high street, but casualties would continue unless action was taken to tackle the “crisis.”

She said one of the most important solutions was the establishment of town teams and praised the system in France in which senior officials protect their town centres.

Town Centre Theme?

There is an interesting High Street exhibition on at The Lighthouse in Glasgow just now questions a value on our High Street and looks to the future to see how to make them thriving and unique places. It is on until April 2012.

http://www.ads.org.uk/access/events/high-street-exhibition-2

Also here’s a link to an article about the exhibition that suggests that the way to get people back to our High Streets may be through adopting a theme for your High Street. Wigtown is Scotland’s book town, Castle Douglas is a foodie destination and Kirkcudbright is an artists’ haven. What could Bishopbriggs be?

http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/arts-blog/how_do_you_bring_people_back_to_town_centres_1_1993931

Jo Swinson met with Morrisons

Jo Swinson last week circulated an update about the Placecheck event and Morrions town centre plans:

“Along with 120 other local people, I attended the placecheck, arranged by the Community Champions – a group of local people formed a couple of years ago to negotiate and discuss with the land owners (first Muse, now Morrisons). Six groups each visited five key locations around the town centre, with views and ideas gathered at each one. Tomorrow night the community’s views are being sought on which ideas are the most important.

As you may have read in this week’s Bishopbriggs Herald, Morrisons have confirmed that they are not going ahead with the proposals they put forward just before Christmas. Instead, Morrisons have said that they will engage with the community, and the Council will convene a forum of key stakeholders such as elected representatives, St Matthew’s Church, Derwent (formerly Caledonian Properties) and members of the community to form a masterplan for the area.

I’m pleased that Morrisons have recognised that their original plans were not acceptable to the local community and this is now an opportunity for local people to put their views across so that a community-led plan can be created for the good of everyone in Bishopbriggs.

Last Friday, I met with the Bishopbriggs Community Champions and then with Richard Bakes from Morrisons to discuss this. I made clear to Mr Bakes that from now on, Morrisons needs to engage fully with local people, in contrast to the pre-Christmas debacle when locals were left feeling isolated.”

Here’s a link to more information about the Town Team, the recent Placecheck event and the ideas that came out of it.

http://www.howsthis.co.uk/townteam.html

Have your vote

A number of things have been happening on the Town Centre plans within the last two weeks.

1. A number of you took place in the recent ‘Placecheck’ – walkabout consultation of the town centre organised by the Town Team. Input from that day has now been collated, and the team is inviting as many residents as possible to review the suggestions and choose their preferred ones. The information will be available tonight in the Memorial Hall on Thursday, 26th January between 7pm and 9pm. It should only take each person about 10 minutes to record their preferences. This is open to all residents, not just those who took part on the day. We would encourage as many of you as possible to go along for a few minutes and record your views. Output from the exercise will be passed to Page and Park, the architects who are preparing the town centre report for us.

2. You will see in the Bishopbriggs Herald that Morrisons are rethinking the plans which they presented to us at the Memorial Hall in December. This is following the ‘massive public outcry’ which they received for those plans. We believe that very many of people who went along that day were from Cleddens Residents Group which shows that making our voices heard can have an effect. We are still waiting to hear how Morrisons plan to proceed.

The Town Team is still planning to go ahead with the work we have asked the architects to do to ensure that we have recorded what we want for the centre.

For both these reasons, we would encourage you to go along tonight to record your preferences. Can you please pass this message on to any neighbours who do not have e-mail. We will try to hand deliver this letter, but given the short time, may not get to everyone.

3. Finally, we would like to thank the many of you who contributed to our funds following our request. As a result, we have been able to commit the £500 requested for the architect fund, and have some left over for any future ‘campaigning’ needs. We hope to acknowledge the contributions individually in the next two weeks.

Town Team

Last month retail expert Mary Portas was commissioned by the Government to put together an independent review into the future of our High Streets and Town centres. Here are some quotes:

“I want to put the heart back into the centre of our High Streets”

“They need to be spaces and places that people want to be in. High Streets of the future must be a hub of the community that local people are proud of and want to protect.”

For the full 28 recommendations for High Street and Town Centres click on the attached link:

http://www.maryportas.com/news/2011/12/12/my-28-recommendations/

Recently Donald MacDonald challenged Marty Portas on Facebook to come to Bishopbriggs and give some recommendations for our Town Centre. He was declined but instead the Community Champions have set up their own Town Team for Bishopbriggs, the first action being a Placecheck event last Saturday which will form the basis of a brief for a firm of Architects and Town Planners to put together some proposals for Bishopbriggs Town Centre.