Deal in our City
If you missed Wednesday’s Observer, you may not be aware that officials and councillors at Stirling Council have their collective fingers crossed in anticipation of announcements within the next five weeks on their ambitious City Deal bid.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond could give the thumbs up to the council’s application for City Deal cash in his autumn statement on November 23.
There’s hope the Scottish Government will do likewise on December 15 when their draft budget for the forthcoming financial year is unveiled.
Council Leader Johanna Boyd has praised officials for submitting a detailed and credible programme to create jobs, boost tourism, enhance sustainable travel and make better use of the River Forth as a transport and recreational facility.
Among the proposals are the setting up of a hub for tech firms in the council’s offices in Corn Exchange Road, Stirling; a ‘harbour’ development at Forthside featuring new council offices plus a national Tartan Centre and square; 60-hectare city park; river taxi service and new investment in rural villages. If all the projects are realised, the bill will come to around half a billion pounds; a staggering sum.
Grandiose plans for the regeneration of Stirling are nothing new. Who can forget ‘Future World’ in the mid-seventies which included plans for a funicular railway from the King’s Knot to Stirling Castle.
And there have been ambitious proposals for Forthside before. Over the years, ‘masterplans’ have been altered as elements failed to come to fruition.
Some will, therefore, temper their enthusiam until they see proposals with the latest blueprint realised.
Others, at the moment, will probably be happy just to get any of their four wheelie bins taken away at the appointed time, or on-street parking sorted out. However, the scope of the City Deal’s ambition is breathtaking, and with the announcement this week of the closure of the Forthside Ministry of Defence base – and hundreds of jobs set to go in the area over the next few years – fresh thinking is needed.
Let’s hope the Westminister and Scottish Governments come up with the cash, and private investors chip in too.
John Rowbotham, Editor