WHEN the Duke of Rothesay saved Dumfries House in East Ayrshire for the nation in 2007, the hope was that the restoration of the estate would help the wider regeneration of a relatively deprived part of Scotland that struggled to recover after the closure of the mines in the 1980s.
Ten years on, the first stage of the regeneration, New Cumnock Town Hall, has now opened for business. Like many other buildings in the village, the hall had been allowed to decay and was on the point of being demolished when Prince Charles’s charity The Dumfries House Trust became involved. Now, after a full renovation funded by private donors, the hall has reopened.
Members of the local groups who will use the hall told the prince at the opening at the weekend how much they valued the new facility and the good news is that it is the first stage in a wider programme of regeneration – funded by the local council, private donors and the prince’s charities – that will include a facelift of one of New Cumnock’s best facilities: its outdoor pool. For a community that had been starved of funding and support by successive local councils for decades, it is an important fillip.
The personal interest and support of the prince has also been a boost for a community that had often felt ignored. Ten years ago, when the prince led the buy-out of Dumfries House, there was some scepticism about the project and whether it could make a significant difference, but, as the prince said at the ceremony, the opening of the town hall is a demonstration of what can be achieved by a combination of philanthropic giving and public money.
There is still a lot to do, but the principles on which the prince’s programme is built – saving what’s there rather than building something new – are sound. And for a community that had been shamefully ignored for decades, the opening of the town hall is a great sign, at last, of hope for the future.
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