Shop Front Improvements and Small Grants Scheme - Now Closed
This three-strand scheme is currently closed to new applications, however this will be reviewed round August 2023. The scheme seeks to significantly improve the appearance of the town centre. Recent surveys have indicated buildings in the central part of the town are in a poorer state than originally envisaged which is causing budget issues. The three schemes are:
- Homeowner Grants scheme
- Shop Front Improvements
- Shops back into use
Shop Front Improvements and Shops back into use aims to bring significant improvements in the street level visual landscape and help preserve historic buildings and improve shopfronts to make the High Street a more attractive place to visit while supporting new and existing businesses. Homeowner Grants scheme aims to support homeowners conserve and preserve their buildings. The scheme's focus is the central area of the town to maximise the positive visual impact of the investment.
Look out for the below posters which will be appearing in the town over the next few weeks.
Activities and Training Project Update
The project continues to gather momentum and has an exciting time ahead with the beginning of several new and vibrant multigenerational projects- all of which are linked together by themes of local heritage, built environment and citizenship.
We are very pleased to show that there have been over 2100 community engagements in our Community Projects so far, with more to follow.
| Community Activity in Maybole's Regeneration Projects | Nos. of Projects | Nos. Engaged as at
Jan 23 |
Number Projects
Complete |
| Training | 19 | 91 | 2 |
| Activities | 14 | 2100+ | 2 |
| Number of contractors benefitting from training | 30 |
| Number of Community members engaged in an activity | 2100+ |
| Number of volunteers recruited for Community Champions | 8 |
Youth Drama and Media Project
We had a Christmas Panto! Making a Maybole Christmas- a Town’s Past, Present and Future. This project was multi-partner project which brought together all 3 Maybole Primary School’s P7s to integrate before secondary school. The 55 young participants each earned a Dynamic Youth Award for their input.
Ice Cream Architecture
Four exciting projects have begun with a splash of colour!
Heritage Trail- Building on existing Trail and having a QR Code at each site which links to a short film clip that will tie in with Youth Drama Project. Also hoping that there will be a tie in with Artist in Residence to create a piece of art along the way.
Mapping and Recording Project- looking at how the town has shaped and evolved. This will have tie into the heritage trail and will also be displayed in the book of memories.
Book of Memories- Lovely multigenerational project where younger people will be working with older people to share memories and photographs of Maybole in years gone by.
School Shop Fronts Project- Working with all 9 North Carrick Schools to look at changing High Street and Shop Front Design and bringing ideas to life on one of the shops in the High St.
Scaffolding is up at the Charity Shop!
Work is progressing internally and externally in the Maybole Charity Shop with scaffolding being erected to tackle roof and building repairwork. Further details on progress will follow as we are looking forward to seeing the Charity Shop open after the extensive works are completed.
“Maybole Castle construction works to begin!
The construction contract for the Maybole Castle has now been signed which will assure the historic Castle’s community future and bring the building back into and a key driver for Maybole’s regeneration becoming a major attraction as it is brought into use. Construction works are expected to start by early March 23 with six weeks of underpinning works followed by external works with scaffolding expected to be erected in April 23. The scheme works are expected to run into summer 2024. It has been challenging to bring this project to this stage with the well-publicised issues in the construction sector and inflation putting additional stress on the budget. We would not be able to have reached this stage without the financial support of the Scottish Government through a generous additional grant via the Regeneration Capital Grants Fund and further funding support from Historic Environment Scotland, The National Lottery Heritage Fund and lottery players and the Castle owners and continued operational support from the Project Board and South Ayrshire Council.
What is Maybole Made Of? FREE Online Evening Talk 28 Feb 6-7pm
What is Maybole Made Of?
FREE Online Evening Talk
6pm until 7pm - TUESDAY 28th February 2023
Email [email protected] for invite
Join Dr Katie Strang Archaeologist, Mitchell Fotheringham Surveyor and Roz Artiz Director of The Scottish Lime Centre to hear the story about the amazing built environment of Maybole. The results are based on a Stone and Slate Survey commissioned by Maybole Regeneration Project.
Activities and Training Project Update
The project continues to gather momentum and has an exciting time ahead with the beginning of several new and vibrant multigenerational projects- all of which are linked together by themes of local heritage, built environment and citizenship.
We had a busy lead up to Christmas. Activities included: Youth Drama and Media Panto, MRP Christmas Scavenger Hunt, Multigenerational AiR Christmas Crafts in Fairknowe, Christmas Card Street Scape Competition and work with Carrick Academy in making Traditional Christmas Crafts.
Youth Drama and Media Project
We had a Christmas Panto! Making a Maybole Christmas- a Town’s Past, Present and Future. This project was multi-partner project which brought together all 3 Maybole Primary School’s P7s to integrate before secondary school. The 55 young participants each earned a Dynamic Youth Award for their input.
Ice Cream Architecture
Four exciting projects have begun with a splash of colour!
Heritage Trail- Building on existing Trail and having a QR Code at each site which links to a short film clip that will tie in with Youth Drama Project. Also hoping that there will be a tie in with Artist in Residence to create a piece of art along the way.
Mapping and Recording Project- looking at how the town has shaped and evolved. This will have tie into the heritage trail and will also be displayed in the book of memories.
Book of Memories- Lovely multigenerational project where younger people will be working with older people to share memories and photographs of Maybole in years gone by.
School Shop Fronts Project- Working with all 9 North Carrick Schools to look at changing High Street and Shop Front Design and bringing ideas to life on one of the shops in the High St.
Small Grants and Front Shop Tenders Received
The Maybole Regeneration Team is delighted to announce that we have now received tenders back from a number of contractors for four projects which are currently being assessed, with a view to work commencing late February. There are an additional two schemes currently being prepared for tendering with the hope they will start in March. We also have other projects being assessed and we are confident that more grants will be approved in the coming months.
We expect some Ambition shop front work to start shortly and the High Street will soon be buzzing with activity.
Priority Projects for 2022
Priority Projects for 2022
Priority projects are agreed with funders at grant application stage and are supported with additional investment due to the special nature of the building and / or its community or townscape value. Funder by owners and a range of grants up to £4.1m will be invested into five key historic buildings in Maybole over the period of the project. Funding from the project has already helped contribute to renovating and preserving Goudie’s (the former Speakers).
Agreement with funders has led to four further projects to be supported
Maybole Town Hall – Works have begun with our contractors, Procast with works due to complete in Feb 2022
Maybole Charity Shop – works have begun with the works due to complete in Dec 2022
Maybole Castle – The contract is expected to be awarded in Late Aug / Sep 2022 with works starting soon after for a period of up to 14 months bringing the Castle back into use.
Camerons – it is hoped this scheme will start in 2022.
Funders: Priority building Improvements are generously funded by owners, Heritage Lottery, HES, SAC (Town Hall Only), Scottish Government, Scottish Land Fund (Charity Shop Only)
Bypass Open A Historic Day for Maybole
Maybole Regeneration Project.
Bypass open historic day for Maybole!
31st January saw an amazing and historic day for Maybole!
The first of the Bypass traffic being led through by the police. Great thanks from our community to those who worked so hard over the years to see this happen.
With the Bypass now open projects on the High Street will start and it is going to be an exciting time for Maybole.
Recap and Reboot with our new Podcast
Maybole Regeneration Project.
Recap and Reboot with our new Podcast!
Back in February of this year, the Maybole Regeneration Project started a partnership with the University of West Scotland’s media students to make a monthly podcast.
The Podcast is called Recap Reboot. Every month UWS students will talk to the people who are working hard to bring new life to the South Ayrshire town while looking back at its rich history and the community who live and work in the ancient capital of Carrick
The aim of the podcast is to:
- Take a co-production approach to involve the local community in the production process, not just through interviews but also hands on activities and opportunities to be exposed to new skills.
- Be aimed at and accessible to the local community, to keep them informed of the progress of the Maybole Regeneration Project.
- Promote the Maybole and North Carrick area to a wider audience.
In this first episode (link to listen is below) you get to meet the team and hear what we love about Maybole and there is a great snippet on Maybole’s long and fascinating history.
Going forward we really want to get the community involved if you have any ideas and want to be interviewed please email [email protected].
Without further ado is here the link to Episode 1 of Recap Reboot: https://anchor.fm/recap-reboot/episodes/Recap-Reboot—Episode-1-evt6ea?fbclid=IwAR27uyrH92lDSh6Ct8Ibc48ftW5Tdv2iKuPtWm2NzJt24RE-4t4RVaQtEGM
The Maybole Regeneration Project would like to thank the UWS students for all their hard work and Liam McCourt from Carrick Academy for making the music of the podcast!
You can also listen to the podcast on other platforms:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3x7sHiMKBoFTr5gtymxafO
Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy81OTBkZTRmMC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==
PocketCast: https://pca.st/t2rlmsh3
RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/recap-reboot-podcast-69LlK2
Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/recap-reboot-podcast
We hope you enjoyed it!
