Parking in Kilcreggan needs to be ‘sorted’ before any other issues are addressed, a meeting heard this week.
The £170,000 ‘Our Community’ project was launched in 2022, aiming to produce a Local Place Plan for Cove and Kilcreggan.
But the villages’ community council heard on Tuesday that there had been ‘a lack of engagement’ from consultants SKS with local businesses, which were suffering because parking problems had not been addressed.
After the meeting the project’s convener said there had been multiple attempts to engage with local businesses, while parking had been discussed in a workshop with businesses last month and was on the agenda for another meeting next week.
Derek Fowlis, who runs The Creggans pub, said there had only been one meeting for businesses, who were ‘way behind’ other parts of the project.
“The business owners had no consultation whatsoever at the start,” he said.
“As a business owner myself, and other businesses within the community, we have not been approached by anyone within the steering group, only in the last three weeks.”
Other community council members said they thought convener John Auld was going to talk to local businesses – he said: “There have been lots of discussions with Euan Wright (the Our Community convener) to try and find a way forward to how to engage with businesses, but one of the things that was noted by all the businesses was the lack of engagement from SKS to the businesses and to try and get involved with SKS.
“There is an awful lot still to be done.
“Parking is still not addressed and it is one of the critical issues for this village, that is one of the things that still needs to be addressed within the business group.”
Mr Fowlis added: “We are the only group that has suffered because of parking.
“It needs sorted before anything else is sorted.”
Our Community convener Euan Wright said he had hand-delivered personal letters to all the businesses which had a physical presence in the village and SKS had been engaged on a separate contract to help form a business group.
He said SKS had been in touch with all the local businesses and they were invited to meetings in Cove Burgh Hall in January and July of last year, but a business group had still not been formed.
Public notes from the recent workshop states that ‘parking in the centre of Kilcreggan is ‘lacking and often congested, discouraging visitors to stop and visit shops, pub, café etc’.
They add that at the next workshop it is planned to set up working groups to look at issues including parking, ideas to be addressed in 2025 include improving and controlling parking in the existing car parks, as well as adding extra capacity.
That workshop will be in Cove Burgh Hall n Wednesday February 21 from 4pm to 6pm and all businesses are welcome to attend even if they were not represented at the first workshop.
It will also be attended by Tom Prentice, former chief officer of the Scotland’s Town’s project.
The Our Community summary of the first workshop for businesses is here: Workshop 1 – review & analysis document
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