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Saturday, 14/Nov/2009
Bowmore Regeneration x 2
Bowmore could quite soon be one of the busiest places on Islay, at least as far as construction projects is concerned. The waste water treatment works are already in an advanced stage, but there are two more in the pipeline: Back in September I already mentioned the Bowmore Shoreline Project and now Bowmore has won a £300,000 grant for town centre regeneration. Will they link together?
Apart from a report in The Ileach (which largely quoted the project website) I haven't seen too much new about the Shoreline Project the last few weeks. Some people questioned the wisdom of the site keeping in mind the location of the new water treatment works close to it. Something Richard Heggie and his team as well as Islay Estates will have to keep in mind in their plans.
There is something new though some of you might find interesting: If you go to the Urban Animation homepage and scroll down to the Urblog (although at some point I expect it will move to the Urban Animation blog page) you will find an interesting comparison between Lanzarote and Islay:
Lanzarote may not seem an obvious spiritual companion for the Hebridean Isle of Islay. One is known for harsh volcanic landscapes bathed in year round sun, the other for windswept northern beauty and distinctive whiskies. Ending a week in Lanzarote on Sunday, I was on Islay by Monday, working on our master plan for extending the original planned village at Bowmore. However, Urban Animation isn’t the only connection between these two distant places.
I wonder if this project will also link to some of the other work about to progress in Bowmore at some point, the work related to the £300,000 grant for town centre regeneration? Assuming the information about the planned work at least some of the points are likely to raise questions on Islay and elsewhere:
- a traffic management system
- the refurbishment of public toilets
- the replacement of pontoons and dredging at the harbour
- the creation of a play area for children
- the installation of a lift in the Public Hall.
- ‘Additionally, provision can now be made for environmental enhancements in planting of flower beds and the provision of seating in open spaces’.
A ‘traffic management system’? In Bowmore? What's that all about? Traffic lights? Matrix display boards? Pay and display parking? I've already seen quite a few questions and comments on Twitter, depending on what this really means I suspect there could be some opposition…
The play area for children, could and should this be linked to the Shoreline project? After all it has to go somewhere. Generally I wonder how much of this will be decided by the council and how much local influence there will be.
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