Moffat Community Council have long aimed to make the tourist the town the best and brightest in the region, as well as the most accessible in Scotland.
And now their scheme ‘Attractive Accessible Moffat’ has a new project manager, Diane Laws, and a grant from Sustrans to initiate the planning stage of the initiative.
This stage will look at potential developments in the layout of road and pavements in the town centre to make it safe and accessible for everyone.
Previously ideas such as levelling off the entire town centre – making the road and pavement the same height – were mooted.
But before any decisions are made, a rigorous public engagement process will take place, beginning today.
A consortium of consultants, led by Harrison Stevens of Edinburgh, is starting the engagement process with the first of three pop-up events in the high street today from 12 pm to 5.30 pm.
The broad theme of the event will be ‘cultural Moffat’.
There will be opportunities to speak to the consultants and some members of the community council, with various ways of expressing opinions on how the town centre should look in the future.
Dr Derek Cox, chair of the community council, said: “I’m really pleased to see this project finally getting off the ground.
“I think our consultants have designed an innovative way of drawing out opinions on the project from people who use the town centre and so I hope that as many people as possible will stop by the pop-up events to let us know their issues with the present and their vision for the future of the town centre.”
He added: “These events are only the beginning of testing out public opinion.
“Next week every house in Moffat will have a questionnaire delivered and I hope that everyone will complete this to give us as complete a picture of opinion as is possible. As the project develops there will be many other opportunities for members of the public to contribute.”
The next two pop-up events will be at the same times on Thursday April 25, which will look at ‘productive Moffat’ and on Thursday May 2, which centres around ‘active Moffat’.
