Danish delegation welcomed to Stirling
Visit follows council officials’£2k trip to Denmark
A delegation from Denmark were recently welcomed to Stirling as part of a “fact-finding mission”.
Delegates from the Danish municipality of Billund arrived for the three day visit and were shown around some of Stirling’s iconic landmarks.
The Danish contingent included the Mayor of Billund, Stephanie Storbank, and a number of elected officials.
Best known as the home of LEGO, Billund has big economic ambitions and wants to be known as a great location for business and visitors beyond its globally renowned theme park.
The travelling party were given a tour of the National Wallace Monument, Transition Stirling’s Re-use Hub at Springkerse and Codebase Stirling. This allowed Stirling to showcase its worldclass heritage, introduce some of its young people with a passion for reuse, recycling and craft skills; and to demonstrate the area’s progress in new sectors such as digital innovation.
Stirling Council Leader, Cllr Chris Kane; Stirling Provost Douglas Dodds; Stirling Council Chief Executive Carol Beattie; and Stirling Council Chief Officer for Infrastructure and Environment, Brian Roberts, were among the group who greeted the guests and showed them around the three locations.
Gifts were exchanged between the two regions at a short civic ceremony before the Danish delegation’s departure.
Cllr Kane said: “We were honoured to welcome the delegation from Billund and take them on a tour of locations that show Stirling at its best and how the area is achieving sustainable growth.
“Billund has obvious similarities with Stirling’s tourism economy, and the visit focused on strategies for creating wealth and wellbeing across a variety of sectors, building on the strong foundations enjoyed by both regions.
“It was a really beneficial learning experience and hopefully we can continue to collaborate with Billund, sharing ideas and experiences to help grow our economies and create greater prosperity in support of our net zero aims.”
In December 2020, the Observer told how three Stirling Council officials made a three-day fact-finding trip to Denmark at a cost of almost £2000.
Council chief executive Carol Beattie and two other senior officers stayed at the tropical waterpark, Lalandia, and also met with officials of LEGO. The trip took place in 2019.
In response to two Freedom of Information requests, the council said the massive Lalandia complex fits the profile and scale of the type of development the council hoped at that time to attract to Callander as part of the £90.2m Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal.
Stirling Council’s annual accounts for 2019-20 showed that Ms Beattie claimed expenses of £1,917.
The council said this related to the total booking costs for a delegation of three council officers, including Ms Beattie, to attend an overseas event relating to the City Region Deal.
Accompanying Ms Beattie were the council’s chief operating officer for people and performance Isabel Mcknight and senior manager for economic development and communities Stuart Oliver.
The council explained: “At the time of booking, the total amount was paid for using the chief executive’s personal credit card due to the amount payable exceeding the one-off transaction limit of the council’s purchase card.”
Asked about the purpose of the trip, the council said it was a “fact-finding mission related to several aspects of Stirling’s economic growth ambitions”.
“The delegation met with economic development and planning officials from the municipality of Billund to learn from their successful place development strategy,” they added.
Officers also met with officials at LEGO which has its headquarters in Billund.