An event will be held in Lochgilphead next month to ask for comments on the Lochgilphead Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan, and to outline proposals for a Lochgilphead Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (CARS).
As a council, we are required to periodically review our conservation areas. An appraisal of Lochgilphead’s conservation area has therefore been carried out, and members of the public are invited to comment on the result of this work – the draft Lochgilphead Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan.
This event, on Wednesday 15 May from 1pm-7pm at the Baptist Church Hall on Argyll Street, is designed to inform and seek the views of residents and other interested parties within the conservation area.
The purpose of this appraisal and management plan is to define and evaluate the character and appearance of the existing Lochgilphead Conservation Area. The draft report seeks to identify key characteristics to ensure that there is an understanding of what is desirable to protect as well as looking to define how change can be managed within the conservation area, and to identify specific opportunities for positive enhancement.
Lochgilphead’s historic town centre was recently handed a £1million boost in the shape of a grant from Historic Environment Scotland (HES).
The funding, part of the HES’s Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (CARS), will see Lochgilphead benefit from similar CARS projects that have improved Campbeltown, Inveraray, Dunoon and Rothesay.
Along with the £969,700 from HES, Lochgilphead CARS is backed with £386,000 in council funding, and estimated contributions from building owners of £250,000 – bringing a projected total budget of £1.6m over the five years that the CARS scheme will run.
Work is also underway on the Lochgilphead Front Green project, which has benefitted from excellent community turnout at recent consultation events.
With these projects in the pipeline, we hope to hear the views of local people on the appraisal and management plan for the conservation area on 15 May.