Kirriemuir: focus on action brings a clearer vision for the future
SOMETIMES a small event can be the catalyst for something mighty. When the closure was announced of Kirriemuir Camera Obscura, which creates picturesque panoramas of the town for visitors to enjoy, locals were naturally upset.
Their response to the prospect of losing the rare and historic monument gifted to the town by Peter Pan author JM Barrie, a son of Kirriemuir, was to volunteer to run it themselves.
Fast-acting community volunteers managed to take possession of the keys to the 85- year- old building just two months after the closure was announced.
The proposed shut- down had been precipitated by Angus Council’s withdrawal of five- figure funding to the National Trust for Scotland to run the attraction.
The loss of such a rare asset to a community would cause visitor numbers and tourism spend to dip, with far reaching effects. Wasting little time, the volunteers formed Kirriemuir Regeneration Group and established a service level agreement with the local authority.
The group has also established a cafe and mini- museum in a nearby cricket pavilion in order to improve the visitor offer for those who wish to climb into the roofspace of the building to take in the view.
A group spokesperson said: “We have a service level agreement with Angus Council which allows us to run this as a tourist attraction. In time, we hope that we will eventually be able to do a community asset transfer.”
Since launching a Facebook group, support has come in from all over the world. Local councillors have also been very supportive. Last year the camera obscura had 3200 visitors and this year it has already welcomed around reaching 2500.
“Of course, we would not be able to do this without our wonderful volunteers,” t he spokesperson added.
LOOKING to the next 10-20 years, I see five drivers of change, all in a delicate state of ‘push-pull’ tension in each town. To flourish, Scotland’s towns will need to attract new people, particularly younger, economically active people, maintaining vitality and purchasing power. Many towns with decent access, such as from the new Borders Railway, should connect into a wider set of opportunities for work and leisure. Some places will have more ethnic, age and cultural diversity, and therefore vitality. The strongest ones will have positive ways to embrace and integrate the incomers, build cohesion and help support initiatives, business start-ups, restaurants, studios, etc. It will be important to tune in to the interests of the next generation, if they are going to be attracted to a town, – through more outdoor activity, technology, different housing or new types of employment? Our more go-ahead towns will continue to diversify their roles and functions away from traditional industry, adding tourism, leisure and culture to local services and market town functions, with others rediscovering specialist craft roles. Many will turn to visitor activity just as the towns of Fife’s East Neuk. To succeed in bigger roles, whether new types of design or specialist manufacturing, towns will need access to high speed internet and technology. This will apply equally to microbrewing, catering, crafts and digital design. The access to latest technology will be essential in places like Lerwick and Lochgilphead. The towns that don’t create jobs will have more older people living in them, which may lack the energy and economic activity needed for survival. They will also keep losing young people. What our towns will look like is also of great interest; and many town heritage and photographic societies enjoy rediscovering and reinterpreting the past, in terms of the buildings and the people who lived in them, as well as commenting on live proposals. Access to digital mapping has enabled more people to appreciate and share the ‘new town’ legacies of Inveraray, New Lanark and Glenrothes; or the radical histories of Bonnymuir, Strathaven and Tranent. Conventional appearances may disguise myriad creative, productive and leisure activities going on inside older buildings and neighbourhoods. Some will benefit from a creative leap employing imaginative new developments that draw on various traditional forms, without slavishly copying them. Could the subtle and intricate intervention in small scale towns allow these to be an integral part of progressive and creative conservation? This leads us to the kinds of places towns could provide. Will they just be the trading, market or manufacturing places of the past? Or can they be more complex combinations, not quite mini-cities, but something offering more? One risk is towns are swamped by city-scale housing estates that fail to distinguish between Elgin or East Kilbride. There needs to be something more to give the place identity, and it is the creative types who provide the artwork, poetry, festivals and engaging stories that will make the spirit of the place. We may need to support them with studios, kitchens, shops, kilns and performance venues. But they can stimulate the transformation, acting as a creative glue, adding a sense of belonging for the host community and incomers. Many towns feel they have lost autonomy, confidence and identity, swamped under ever-larger Council bodies in administrative reform. Towns still need leadership, partnership and the collective energy that embodies the aspirations of its communities. Look instead to counterparts like Clonakilty in Cork, who reintroduced a local Mayor and Mayoral Council in 2014. Or consider other alternatives models that may emerge from the recent Community Empowerment legislation, such as Community Right to Buy and run local facilities. I see a future emerging where some formerly less fashionable towns break through into new roles, building on their earlier identities with a new wave of enthusiastic placemaking and creativity. So look out for Carluke, Dumbarton, Hawick, Kilmarnock, Kirkcaldy, Prestwick and Tranent. The future may be yours.