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Creating a Future for Small Town Centres

5 December 2007
Gordon Arms Hotel, Huntly

Presentations from the event

Aberdeenshire Council’s Economic Development Service organised this event in Huntly to focus attention on creating town centres that cater for the needs of 21st century communities and avoid “clone towns” and empty shops.

We chose the traditional market town of Huntly as a venue as it demonstrates many of the issues facing small towns. It is recognised as having both a beautiful and historic town centre and a wide range of interesting, individual shops. However, recent edge-of-town developments present great challenges to Huntly town centre.

The seminar was extremely well attended with a mix of people from the business community and local authority representatives from Aberdeenshire Council and beyond. The speakers provided an interesting insight from a range of organisations that have all faced challenges in the promotion of town centres, particularly with edge-of-town retail sites.

Participants were invited to take part in a Walkabout around a sunny, if chilly, Huntly town centre after lunch to see at first hand the issues facing small towns. Fresh from their Walkabout they split into groups and took part in workshops led by each of the speakers, where suggestions and ideas were discussed in greater depth.

The event was a great success and raised some interesting topics for debate. This remains one of the Economic Development Service’s main priorities and we will continue to work on ways to make our town centres attractive places to live, shop and work. Feedback from the delegates at the seminar will now be examined to determine what further actions will now be pursued by Economic Development.

We have attached copies of the Speakers' presentations below.

If you have any queries regarding the event or would like any further information, please contact Jacqueline Rattray on 01224 664573 or by emailing business.support@aberdeenshire.gov.uk

Presentations