Lochgilphead’s turn now Campbeltown completed

As councillors hailed the ‘incredible transformation’ of Campbeltown sparked by the CARS scheme, Lochgilphead looks forward to its own renaissance under the same initiative.

Named the ‘most improved place’ under the 2020 SURF awards, Campbeltown has just finished its Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (CARS) programme.

At the latest meeting of the council’s Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands (MAKI) area committee, Councillor John Armour described the improvement in the town as ‘incredible’, joining the committee in praising project officer James Lafferty for his work in leading the scheme.

Mr Lafferty now turns his attention to Lochgilphead, where a similar town centre CARS project, worth around £1.3 million, is under way with £970,000 from Historic Environment Scotland (HES) and £386,000 allocated by Argyll and Bute Council.

Though the five-year scheme officially started on the April 1, 2020 the pandemic interrupted, so HES granted a one-year extension.

Some progress was made despite Covid and one priority Lochgilphead building has been addressed so far, with tenders for other work due to be issued shortly.

A budget of £403,000 has been set for a small repair projects and shopfront improvements scheme, due to be launched in August and to be followed by initial expressions of interest.

More than £900,000 is available to be spent on three priority building projects, with a contribution from building owners.

Training and education schemes will also be run as part of the project.

Speaking at the MAKI area committee meeting as Lochgilphead CARS project officer, James Lafferty said: ‘We’re obviously getting to know Lochgilphead and where the money needs to be spent, so we need to be careful where the funding is allocated, but we hope to see scaffolding erected either later this year or by the spring.

‘The shop front scheme, public realm project and the front green are definitely whetting the appetite in Lochgilphead, which is positive.

‘It’s all set up; we’ve got our design team and we’ve had initial discussions with building owners.

‘Basically the first year has been written off, so we now have the full five years to work up the scheme and any parallel projects as well.’

‘We hope to see scaffolding erected either later this year or by the spring’