And sites at Annan, Castle Douglas and Newton Stewart are all undergoing appraisals to be potential locations.
Dumfries and Galloway Council chief executive Gavin Stevenson has prepared a report for councillors and will update them further at a meeting next Thursday. In it, he writes: “This will create ‘employment nodes’ that will support the economies of our rural towns while maximising the connectivity that the A75 brings to our regional economy, given that it links Dumfries and Galloway with markets accessed via the M6 and A74(M) and with markets in Northern Ireland.
“The current focus of our work is to undertake appraisals of sites at Annan, Castle Douglas and Newton Stewart.”
Mr Stevenson explained they are looking at the development potential of the three unidentified sites, considering their locational advantages and constraints; assessing existing services and infrastructure; carrying out risk assessments; costing plans; and drawing up indicative layouts, including a mix of serviced plots and/or new build business units. The findings will go into an outline business case.
Meanwhile, all the towns in Dumfries and Galloway are also being analysed as part of a Place Programme for the Borderlands Deal. It would provide resources for communities to ‘repurpose and reinvent’ their towns to make them vibrant places with a long term future. The objectives would be to safeguard businesses and attract new business, retain the workforce, raise the standard of the physical environment, safeguard existing employment and deliver news jobs and increase the number of visitors.
The report adds: “The priority for the programme is to deliver change in local towns that improve their resilience and which delivers practical, positive outcomes for communities.”
