PLANS for major environmental improvements in Bo'ness town centre have been boosted with a £246,000 grant from the European Regional Development Fund.
The £600,000 environmental works programme is extensive and includes new paving, lighting, landsca
ping and pathways around the town centre which forms the core of the Outstanding Conservation Area.
Work should start early next year and will form the first phase of the £6 million Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI), which won a £1.3 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
It is an ambitious plan to bring back into use some of the finest historic buildings in Bo'ness, including the A-listed Hippo-drome, Scotland's first purpose-built cinema.
The THI is part of the wider Bo'ness town centre and harbour regeneration project – a key part of My Future's in Falkirk, the ambitious plan for the local economy conveived by Falkirk Council, BP Grangemouth and Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley.
Falkirk Council this week appointed ING Real Estates, a Dutch international developer, to take forward regeneration plans for the town centre and waterfront.
Councillor John Constable, convener of the Bo'ness regeneration group, said: "The generous grant from the European Regional Development Fund came as very welcome news.
"The environmental improvements were given the highest priority by the local community in the THI consultation process and this funding will allow us to expand the project and ensure we get these town centre improvements moving forward without delay to enhance the exciting THI project, so essential to our commitment to the regeneration of the town."
The THI project includes a number of key buildings in and around the town centre which have been allowed to become derelict or semi-derelict due to the depressed trading conditions in the town centre.
Ownership of all the buildings has now been determined and talks are currently in progress to examine how the THI money can best be spent to enhance these buildings and to try to ensure end-users are found to occupy them.
It is hoped the project will give the delicately-balanced town centre economy a kick-start.
The THI is dwarfed by the foreshore scheme, which includes a swathe of land between Grange-pans and Bo'ness Station and also includes the dock and the foreshore, extending westwards to include the Corbiehall flats.
It is estimated the project could cost £150 million and result in hundreds of new houses being built, as well as possible educational, recreational and shopping developments.
