DENNY PUBLIC ART PROJECT

Informed by the period of community engagement asking “what would you like to see in your town centre?”, 5 public art projects have been developed. Falkirk Council and Falkirk Community Trust with support from the local community has recruited artists for each of the proposed permanent artworks. The 5 public art projects are:

The Picture House (way-finding and light projection)
The Treasure Trail (small sculptural interventions across the site)
The Railings (sculptural and interactive)
The Staircase (a visual feature)
The Lazy Corner (to provide a stronger identity to this small circle of seating in the town square).

The appointed artists are now speaking with local people to further develop these initial ideas. If you would like to get involved why not pop in to Denny Library on Thursday 12 January from 3pm-8pm to the Meet the Artist event. If you can’t make this meeting and/or want further information please contact Jacquie McArthur on 01324 590973 or by email on jacquie.mcarthur@falkirk.gov.uk

Major Milestone in Regeneration of Denny Town Centre

 

Falkirk Council and Falkirk Community Trust are delighted to announce the opening of the new Denny Library on Monday 5th December at 10am. The Library is the centrepiece of Denny town centre’s £7.8m development which includes 10 shop units, a bigger, improved car park and a new community-designed town square.

The whole building bursts with colour.  The Library is a bright, welcoming and flexible space with a child-size library for our youngest library members, a cosy reading and gaming zone for teenagers, comfy chairs for curling up with a good book and plenty of desk space (with and without PC’s) for those more focussed pieces of work… and 3000 brand new books.

The Library is fully accessible and, like our other libraries, has free public access computers and free WiFi.  Our spacious community room has views out to what will soon be the new town square.

Ian Scott, Chairman of Falkirk Community Trust, said “At a time when libraries are at risk across the UK, it is such wonderful news that we have secured delivery of this new purpose built hub for the community.  I would urge everyone to get along and explore this super new facility.” 

Over the coming weeks, the first tenants will start to occupy their new spaces with Lloyds Pharmacy and Café Anton opening for trade in December and the remaining retailers moving in soon after.  Interest in the last remaining units has been encouraging and we hope to secure tenants over the coming months.

Councillor Dennis Goldie, Portfolio Holder for Economic Development, said:  “We are happy to have reached this important stage in the project and would like to thank the community for their continued patience as we move to the next stage in the development. The super new two storey building is the result of extensive community consultation, and we hope that local people like the mixture of bright colours in the design and textures in the design, intended to reflect a positive spirit and a new start for the town centre.”

Work in now underway to see the demolition of the last remaining remnant of the 1960’s Church Walk block – the octagonal building.  Thereafter, the remainder of phase 1 will conclude in the summer next year seeing the new community designed town square, completion of the car park and the introduction of five public art pieces.

Come along and find out more at the Meet the Artist event in Denny Library on Thursday 12 January 3-8pm, all welcome.

Fankerton Fish Counter
Jo Girvan - River Forth Fisheries Trust

We are delighted to announce that our new fish counter at the fish pass at Fankerton is now up and running. The technical difficulties we have had since the counter was installed earlier this year have been solved and we are starting to receive data on any movements through the fish pass. This information will shortly become available to view through our website and we will be providing regular updates throughout the upstream spawning migration this Autumn.

The fish pass at Fankerton has been in place for one season, which means that adult salmon could potentially have spawned upstream of the weir last winter. We carried out electrofishing at three sites upstream of the weir in August this year to see if we could find any evidence of salmon spawning, but we did not find any salmon fry. It may take some time for enough adult salmon to ascend the fish pass and produce sufficient young so that we can pick them up through electrofishing survey.

Because the area has been inaccessible for many years, there has been no salmon spawning here and it may take time for adult salmon to ascend the pass in any numbers and build a genetic homing instinct to repopulate this part of the river. The counter will help us to monitor this.

Fish counters are one of the primary mechanisms for fisheries management, providing accurate figures on the number of adults returning to a river. This type of information can help with many aspects of management such as assessing the passability of existing fish passes and accurate conservation limit setting. We hope this will be the first of many fish counters that we will be able to install on the rivers of the Forth District. Two more counters are already in the pipeline through the RiverLife: Almond & Avon Project, with plans for others to follow.

Thanks to Andy from ACE Ltd UK and Gareth from Vaki for helping resolve the technical issues.

FALKIRK COUNCIL
BRIEFING NOTE

From:         Douglas Duff, Head of Economic Development & Environmental Services

Subject:     Denny Town Centre Regeneration – update

Date         8 September 2016

1.0    Introduction  
1.1    The purpose of this report is to provide an update on the status of the Denny Town Centre Regeneration Project

2.0     Phase 1
2.1     Work is nearing completion on the first phase of the new town centre.  Clark Contracts Ltd is the Phase 1 main contractor and has confirmed that works are proceeding to programme.  The first stage of the Phase 1 works, including the development of the commercial building, is identified for completion on the 17 October 2016.  The second stage of works, include the demolition of the octagonal building, completion of the car park and town square will be completed during 2017.  


    Denny Phase 1

Phase 1 Marketing
2.2   The Council has appointed marketing agents to promote and invite interest in the vacant units within the Phase 1 development.  The marketing brief was issued on the 28 June inviting interest from prospective tenants with responses returned on the 26 August 2016. The responses will be considered at the Council’s Executive meeting on the 27 September.  Three units are already committed, with agreements in place with Lloyds Pharmacy, Boots and Café Anton.

Phase 1 Public Art Proposals
2.3   The Council, with support from a local community panel and Falkirk Community Trust, is currently agreeing contracts with the recruited artists for 3 of the 5 public art projects. 

1.  Interventions (Sculptural Treasure Trail) - Joseph Ingleby (details at: http://www.josephingleby.com/)

2.   Railings (Sculptural/Interactive) – David Annand (details at: http://www.davidannand.com/ )

3.   The Lazy Corner) – Blair Cunningham (details at: http://www.axisweb.org/p/blaircunningham/#info )

The additional Public Art projects are:

4. Way finding (The picture House) - At the initial stage of the recruitment process, only one application was received for the Way Finding (The Picture House) commission.  However during the assessment process the applicant withdrew their interest.  This commission will therefore be re-advertised and further information provided as this is progressed. 

5.  Staircase (A Visual Feature)
There were two applicants for the Staircase commission and one of the two withdrew their interest.  Whilst, the local community panel was very satisfied with the other bid that was proposed, however it was over the anticipated budget.  The available budget for this commission is being reviewed with a view to re-advertising the opportunity.

Public Art Project Timetable
·    August/Sept 2016: appointments/contract commences
·    Oct/Nov 2016: research, design and outline design proposals
·    Dec - Jan 2017: community engagement
·    Feb 2017: finalise design
·    Spring/Summer 2017: Installation

Public Wi-fi
2.4    The Council, in collaboration with BT, hopes to deliver a public wi-fi scheme as part of the phase 1 plans.  It is expected that the free wi-fi coverage will include the town square and surrounding area.

3.0    Phase 2 Development
3.1    Following B & M’s decision not to progress their previous interest in the Denny Phase 2 site, the Council’s Executive, on the 7 June 2016, agreed to remarket the site on completion of the Phase 1 development.

4.0    Denny Regeneration Office – 35 Church Walk, Denny
4.1    To progress the next phase of the town centre works, the octagonal building is scheduled for demolition.  Clark Contracts have now applied for the disconnection of utilities to this building and therefore, the Regeneration Office will close at 1pm on Tuesday 20 September.  Council officers will continue to liaise fully with members of the community on the project and enquiries can be made to the Growth and Investment Unit on 01324 590973.

5.0    Denny Newsletter Update
5.1    A newsletter will be issued in Autumn 2016 providing an update on the Denny town centre regeneration activity.