New life for old towns:
It was the day Her Majesty The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh came to town. Well, not quite. As the local paper put it, the Royal visitors were “in the Falkirk area”, actually undertaking public duties at the Kelpies and opening a new section of the Forth & Clyde canal. She did not call in on Falkirk town centre. No surprise, really, as that seems to be how the locals also feel about the place.
Fewer people are choosing a visit to its dwindling range of shops which, it has to be said, are not a pretty sight.
“There has been talk of bringing in more visitors, says Alistair Campbell. “Falkirk is not a tourist town. They are trying to make water flow uphill.”
Campbell is a property developer who has come up with a few ideas of his own to revitalise the town.
“Look over the road behind us,” he says, pointing through the window of his Vicar Street office towards the neighbouring retail park. “It’s fully occupied with all the culprits who have sucked the life out of the town.”
It’s a typical scenario: shoppers opting for modern retail outlets occupied by the top names with easy access. While they are able to park for free it cost £2.30 for a couple of hours in the pay and display outside Mr Campbell’s office which also meant running the gauntlet of a fast-flowing one-way system. The main road into the town centre is rimmed with long stretches of railings to ensure the pedestrians are kept in their place. Shopper friendly? Not a chance.
“We’re slowly killing our towns,” says Campbell. “We have to do something about it or they just won’t survive.”
Campbell is Falkirk born and bred. Now 67 he is determined to do something to breathe new life into it and has just unveiled a plan to redevelop a swathe of nearby land straddling the Grahamston rail station. Artists’ impressions showing a 500-seat arts venue, housing and a civic centre for the district council adorn the boardroom at the Falkirk Hub which he has developed in the former General Post Office.
The hub was an early attempt at bringing life back to the centre, occupying a building at the end of a once grand (or grander) thoroughfare. The post office is one of the few treasures in a town that, like many others, suffered the indignity of sixties and seventies ‘modernisation’. In 1971 the bulldozers tore down the sorting offices behind the old GPO and somebody thought it was a good idea to build an outsized office block of offices for the Department of Employment. It obviously provided a good many jobs, but it would not have won any architectural prizes.
These days it forms part of a new enterprise that reunites the seventies monstrosity with its more splendid nineteenth century neighbour which, under an earlier plan, had been earmarked for residences. Travelodge wanted to turn it into a hotel, until Mr Campbell came along in 2011 with his idea to turn it into a business centre.
“The council told me it wouldn’t work,” he says. “They said there was no demand for offices in the town centre.
“When someone tells me something can’t be done that’s when I get motivated to make it happen,” he says with a mischievous grin.
Six years on and he has 38 tenants and a waiting list. “There a real community here. We have a busy cafe, rooms for hire, wellness facilities. They pay one cheque and get all the services. It works.”
He says the days of 25 year leases are gone and that tenants like the shorter terms on offer. He adds that it has brought people into the town who will also shop locally.
“It’s obvious that we need to bring back the mix of activities we used to have. Bringing an arts centre into the town would be a huge thing for Falkirk. It would bring people from Edinburgh and Glasgow.”
He notes that a Virgin train connecting the north of Scotland and London passes through Grahamston and he is in talks with ScotRail operator Abellio about getting more services and possibly renaming the station Falkirk Central to make its location clearer.
It is close to the town centre, unlike Falkirk High, and it brings people right into the centre of the project area.
He says his plan is the ‘most exciting’ thing he has worked on and believes it could form part of wider plans for re-booting Britain’s smaller towns. He is keen on a British Property Federation report which proposes replicating the very things that work for out of town shopping malls.
“No charity shops, nail bars and bookies. We need mainstream retailers and we need to create a proper leisure experience, somewhere people want to go to relax and do a bit of shopping. That’s all gone and needs to come back.
“Look at what Perth has done. It has made itself fit for purpose and has seen restaurants and bars opening. Falkirk needs a civic heart, it needs a trophy hotel and we are proposing a replacement building for the council. Their offices are a mess and need millions spending on them.”
This last proposal could help push the plan ahead. Campbell is looking at an initial £50m to get the Grahamston development off the drawing board, but says it could generate three times as much in economic value.
For it to happen it will need the council to use the financial vehicles at its disposal and to sell and lease land assets. Much of the 6.7 acre site is council owned, currently used for car parking and down-at-heel business premises. The ‘new’ sorting office that replaced the one behind us is also included in the site.
There are other plans for the town, including options to develop another shopping centre and a project led by accountancy firm Grant Thornton which is taking an overview of options.
To help drive the project Campbell has brought his son Colin into his Bellair property company, together with consultant Crawford Geddes who has worked with the company for years.
So will the new project ever come to fruition?
“We have the ear of the council,” he says. “It will be a challenge to get it to fly. I believe it is the sort of intervention that towns need and we have given advice on how it could be funded. I’m hopeful.”
PERSONAL CHECKLIST
Birthplace: Falkirk
Age: 67
Career highlights: 45 years ago joined the family plumbing and contracting business established by his grandfather and has been with it ever since.
Where does the name come from?
Bell and Air are taken from my name.
Outside work?
I play golf. Not very well. I’m having lessons
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