Really enjoyable and heartening first visit to our latest tackling highstreet vacancy commission…
Kirkcaldy is our 46th location for The Vacant Shops Academy and we’ve now made a start on the ‘audit, engage’ stage by mapping empty town centre units – the first step towards understanding their backstory, building a clear picture of the vacancy situation and agreeing how to move forward.
There’s lots to like in a town with a civic & cultural ‘quarter’ and its heritage buildings that greet you along the walk from the railway station, the High Street itself and, as you emerge beyond that, onto the waterfront and harbour-side.
Especially encouraging was the chance on this trip to be part of the regular meeting of Kirkcaldy Property Network.
You’ll know how strongly we believe in having a positive, proactive, ‘place partnership’ to lead locally on efforts to reduce the number of empty units and improve the mix of uses. It’ll be particularly important here given the fact there’s a number of very large former brand retail store units among the vacant set.
Already a few months in with relationships between different members building, it was great to see the levels of interest in the challenge around the network, and the enthusiasm for playing a part in what follows as well as the extensive skills, experience and connections in the room.
Our ‘audit’ will put some exact numbers on the challenge, and no one here has any doubts there’s much to do, but there seems to be a confidence which I 💯 share that it’s do-able.
It’d be good to hear from other town and city centres how working together is helping tackling your vacancy issue…!
- Our image is of the stunning artwork on Kirkcaldy High Street by Scottish mural artist & designer Kerry Wilson.
