Local Investment Secured for Town Centres Welcome

Tam Smith has posted a question for me on an older blog entry. He asks:

"Stephen,What do you think of the almost 3 million pounds worth of Town Centre regeneration funding provided by an SNP administration for the constituency we represent.

"We have all been working hard with local groups and our partners in Holyrood to secure such funding thus providing much needed jobs in construction as well as adding a facelift to local shops etc.Where were the Lib Dems when all of this was going on.Come on Stephen let's be positive and work together for the benefit of our local areas.I can assure you it wasn't easy taking part in the bids but it was more worthwhile than critisising [sic] ones web page postings. Tam."

Firstly I welcome the the £2.345 million investment that the SNP administration are earmarking for the town centres of Linlithgow, Bathgate, Armadale and Whitburn. Also for the extra funding that Bathgate's Business Improvement District (BID) Company, Enterprising Bathgate, have also secured from the Scottish Parliament. Although neither of us currently represent any part of the constituency, although very shortly we may both be seeking to do so for all of it.

As for where the Lib Dems have been Tam should ask local business owners just who turned up at their crisis meeting here in Bathgate in June 2005? I'll give you a clue it wasn't any of the local councillors, the MP, MSPs, or 3 of the other parliamentary candidates of the month before. The Lib Dems truly did show they worked for local interests all year round not just at election times. As well as that I've attended meetings about the impact of paid parking to business, residents and others in Linlithgow. As well as meetings that led to Linlithgow becoming a shining beacon of environmentalism in the county.

I've been advocating and been fighting for a fair deal for Whitburn, Armdale, Bathgate, Linlithgow and the other West Lothian town centres that have seemed to suffer in the eight years I have lived here while the Livingston shopping experience grows and increases in size and pull. I've always been there to offer advise and support in their attempts to get a fair deal for themselves, something that the businesses have driven themselves moving forward. I've been working away hard, on the ground, moving things forward for years.

Indeed there are councillors on both side of the council chamber and our independent councillor who know that I already will happily work with them on issues of mutual interest. Tam should have known from our meetings, or from discussion with his colleagues, that I would have been happy to discuss involvement with such an incentive, yet he lays it down as a challenge, almost as if I and the Lib Dems have done nothing.

Sadly knowing as I do the number of businesses that have already disappeared from many of these town centres the investment is too late for some local business owners. But this investment is better late than never.

In March 2008 the Council said it would be matching the BID funding in Bathgate to make a total of £750,000. Though at the start of this year Enterprise Bathgate valued at £990,000 the benefit their funding would bring to the town where I live. Tam, himself, does seem a little confused about the exact benefit of the Enterprising Bathgate portion of the funding, he starts by saying that West Lothian Council and Enterprising Bathgate are investing a further £800,000 into the pot, then later says that it is £935,000 from Enterprising Bathgate topped up with £260,000 from the council. Maybe he would like to clarify which of the three figures is the correct one.

With so many conflicting figures it is hard for the electorate to discern just what level of investment is to be given. The news was too late for this weeks local papers, so I will get the facts straightened when they are available for everyone.

I've borrowed from Tam's website the full list of the projects that will be included:

Armadale

● develop transport and town centre connections by improving access and developing the streetscape, pedestrian walkways and cycle routes.

● refurbish the Goth Tower clock, together with town centre shopfront improvements and signage.

● develop the public realm at The Cross.


Linlithgow

● improvement to connections between the town centre/rail station/union canal, focusing on Low Port as a gateway.

● improvements in the Conservation Area to retail and business shop fronts together with improved signage.

● in partnership with Historic Scotland develop better connections between the Town Centre and Linlithgow Palace, including improved event access, signage, heritage conservation and other physical developments.

● re-location of new heritage facility into the Burgh Halls.


Whitburn

● address safer connections at The Cross and links to residential areas, transport sites and car parking sites, including measures to enhance mobility, pedestrian and cycle use.

● improvements in the town centre to retail and business shop fronts together with improved signage and better streetscape layout.

● acquisition of derelict land site in Whitburn Town Centre and restoration for development.

Bathgate

● The creation of a town centre Wi-Fi zone in Bathgate for customers and businesses.

● Develop town centre cycle network linking park and ride/transport interchange/town centre, regal conference/Arts Facility/Lindsay house including cycling provisions at each site along with signage.

● The provision of new and improved signage/retail frontage within core business to in Bathgate.

● The provision of a transport interchange to connect Bathgate and Airdrie including new signage, lighting and public information.

There is also £350,000 for Bo'ness and Grangemouth at the northern end of the Westminster constituency which had been secured in the first tranche of funding earlier this year as part of the BID pilot projects.

UPDATE: I notice that the BBC indicates that the Scottish Parliament is investing £1.7 million in to Armadale, Almondvale (what more!!!) and Broxburn. Now I know Linlithgow have got £94k from the Climate Challenge fund, even if Enterprise Bathgate is a seperate endeavour, I take it then than Council funding is coming for the Whitburn elements.

PS I notice that the criticism of Tam's use of quotes on his webpage was taken on board and was actually praised for doing so last night. I'm hoping for an honest campaign heading into the Westminster election, the people deserve transparency and openness in their Westminster representative when they get to decide on who that should be.

She Speaks - Tory Candidate Updates Website

Well it only took a year and almost three weeks but Andrea Stephenson has finally found something to talk to the people of Linlithgow and Falkirk East about. She has chosen the supbject of improving your High Street by giving it a makeover.

To highlight this initiative from the conservative concessions on the Nat budget has two pictures. One is at the cross in Linlithgow, possibly the most picturesque stretch of High Street in the constituency. The other looks like a renovation that is being carried out in Bo'ness. The poeple of Bathgate, Armadale and Whitburn with their more egalitarian appearance Main Streets wouldn't have fitted with the appearance of the Conservative PPC's website no matter that these are possibly of greater need of a makeover, with empty shop fronts and rundown, as opposed to historic, appearance of many others.

Judging by the summer clothing worn in the pictures I'd assume that neither of them was taken since the budget was passed either.

Why Whitburn Needs the X33

When I first moved to Scotland and indeed West Lothian the after a few month living with the then partners family I moved into my own wee flat, it was in the old Croftmalloch ward of Whitburn.

While at the start of my time there I had my own little car but later on I didn't have my own transport. I had to get to work in Edinburgh and if I was on a early shift the only way I could guarantee getting there was to get on the X33 service (or it's equivalent then) to get into town. Even then with the vagrancies of public transport there were occasions that I failed to make it on time. I only had to get to Sighthill on the Western edge of the city heaven knows what others did who had to go the whole way into town.

As I worked shifts there were occasions that both in and out of Edinburgh I had to make alternative arrangements. For me that meant taking the 12 into Livingston and then hopping on a 27/28 onwards to Edinburgh and the reverse getting back out. There were occasions when I was leaving work at 8pm and not getting in before 10 if I was lucky with connections at Livingston's centre. on occasions I was not getting back from that finish before 11.

The X33 as with the X1 to Bathgate is a key service to deliver fresh workers to and from their place of work. Understandably a lot of West Lothian bound buses meander through Livingston to serve its various areas but the ones that by pass Livingston (like the X1 on which I am typing this) are key fast services that greatly benefit the community living beyond that hub.

As Angela Constance Livingston's MSP also points out in this week's West Lothian Courier "some people have to plan their daily journeys around their childcare arrangements and only the availabilty of the X33 allows them to do this".

Therefore I wholeheartedly support the efforts of the local elected representatives Michael Connarty MP, Mary Mulligan MSP and local councillors Jim Swan, George Paul* and Neil Findlay in trying to get this service reinstated unto the timetable as soon as possible. It may yet be withdrawn from Monday but it or an equivalent fast link is vitally important to the community of Whitburn.

UPDATE: Good news on Saturday I was checking the first website for Times of Buses to Glasgow and found that a limited one morning and one evening X33 service is to be reintroduced from Whitburn from Monday, Feb 9.

*Jim and George where my SNP and Labour opponents in that 2003 Croftmalloch contest.

Nat Council Leader Embroiled in Planning Scandal

The leader of West Lothian Council, Peter Johnston is facing calls for his resignation following a police investigation being called to look at a conflict in an £8m planning application involving Action to Save St John's Hospital (ATSSJH) Councillor Gordon Beurskens. The case had been referred to Lothian and Borders police by the chief executive Alex Linkston.

The application faced objections from the local authority's planning officers, but Cllr Beurskens who serves on the council's development control committee also acted as a consultant for the Aftondale application at Whiterigg, Whitburn close to the Robert Wiseman dairy to the east of the town. Similar to the controversial Trump development in Aberdeenshire the application came down to the chairman's casting vote. But unlike Martin Ford who voted for the status quo, my one time opponent in the old Croftmalloch Ward Cllr Jim Dickson used his casting vote to support the application.

It is alleged the Beurskens, who along with his two fellow ATSSJH shore up the SNP's slim majority in the council chamber, threatened to bring down the Nationalist administration if the application was rejected. Apparently there are emails sent from Cllr Beurkens consultancy address threatening the planning officials with just such an outcome. Council leader Peter Johnson was copied in on these emails yet failed to act to prevent this major conflict of interests, or the seemingly threatening and aggressive behaviour of Beurskens.

Johnston who stood for the Livingston Westminster seat for Livingston in Westminster and Holyrood elections in the past has been accused by the Labour group leader Graeme Morrice as being 'complicit' in the 'alleged wrongdoings' and is calling for the resignation of the council leader. The area's MSP Mary Mulligan has said she hopes that:

"alongside the Police inquiry there will be a full investigation into exactly
what happened in this case and that all papers are released."

Also stated that concern regarding the development's impact on employment at Wisemans was a major issue for her objections to the application.

Johnson has denied any indication of support for the application but also has stated that he thinks Cllr Beurskens will be exonerated through this investigation. One does have to wonder whether that is a thought based on hope over evidence but only time will reveal that answer.

When you Wish Upon a Star

This West Lothian man went far.

The chairman of Disney Consumer Products Worldwide is Andrew Mooney originally from Whitburn, West Lothian and is today featured in the Edinburgh Evening News. The son of a late miner who then worked at the British Leyland plant at Bathgate.

Having left school at 16 to become a trainee accountant instead of going to college Mooney worked up his experience level while others were getting their qualifications. Via 20 years with Nike where he was worldwide head of marketing, Disney came headhunting for him in 2000.

After a recent trip to Scotland he reflects in relation to how we are placed to rise the economic downturn:

"Scotland is a hotbed of creative talent, for example in video
gaming.

"I think there is a lot more opportunity than Scotland is taking advantage
of.

"The good news is multi-national companies will see Scotland as a good
place to invest, but it is equally easy for them to take the money out of
Scotland."

While Andrew himself took life by the scruff of the neck, others can and probably will surely do the same in the current environment. We'll see who can ride the tide and come out strong at the other end.