News & Resources

Scotland’s Improvement Districts has produced a wide range of resources and opportunities to increase awareness of Business Improvement Districts and support those already working across Scotland. We also host useful resources by third party organisations.

On Tuesday 5 February 2019 the Chair of Scotland’s Towns Partnership, Professor Leigh Sparks, was interviewed on BBC Good Morning Scotland. The discussion focused on the future of Scotland’s towns and high streets in the face of pressures on retail and other challenging trends for towns. Matt Baker of the Midsteeple Quarter initiative in Dumfries also took part in the feature.

National Lottery Heritage Fund - A major devolution of decision-making across the whole of the UK is at the heart of new plans to distribute more than £1billion of National Lottery money to the UK’s heritage over the next five years.

Walking charity Living Streets has put together some new campaign tools to help support efforts to make pavements safe and clear in your area.

Stornoway BID Steering Group has attracted funding from the Scottish Government and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar to promote and progress the development of a Business Improvement District (BID) for Stornoway, Isle of Lewis.

Walking charity Living Streets has put together some new campaign tools to help support efforts to make pavements safe and clear in your area.

Assoiation of British Bookmakers Scotland (ABB) - A campaign to raise awareness of prostate cancer by targeting men in betting shops has reached thousands of men and generated tens of thousands of pounds for leading men’s health charity, Prostate Cancer UK, to fund life-saving research.

Better ‘Plaice’ Making – it’s a relatively new concept being bandied about a lot, so beware of the shapeshifters, and do we really understand what it is? STP Chief Officer Phil Prentice discusses the meaning of the ‘place-principle’ and how it can be applied to place-making in Scotland’s communities.

This is a blog article written by Christie Frail, a pupil at St. Mungo’s High School, about changes in her hometown of Falkirk. She recently undertook a work placement with Ross Martin, advisor to the Scottish Government on Regional Economies.

Youthlink Scotland is developing resources around ‘cyber resilience’ - this means people are better able to think about and protect themselves from risks online. They want to hear from you to inform the development of the resources.

A Scottish high street renaissance could be around the corner if new Scottish Government funding is complemented with local business and public sector support, according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

Following FSB campaigning, the Scottish Government has pledged £50million for high streets in their draft budget, which will be spent by Scotland’s 32 local authorities.

Data firm Didobi has created a free, simple aide-memoire for Councils and stakeholders in towns that identifies and clearly defines best practice, methodologies and the key ingredient for Creating Better Towns. This also draws upon the experience of towns support in Scotland.

Welcome to the December 2018 bulletin from Scotland’s Towns Partnership and Scotland's Improvement Districts. We would like to wish you a wonderful winter break and a positive start to supporting Scotland's communities in 2019!

The Chief Officer of Scotland’s Towns Partnership, Phil Prentice, has welcomed Derek Mackay’s new £50m Town Centre Fund, announced in the Scottish Budget, as a timely boost for communities ahead of the festive period.

East Lothian Council are recruiting for the following positions, with 27^th January as the closing date for applications.