Consultations on ambitious proposals to regenerate Stornoway Town centre get underway on Wednesday evening (7th February) at a public meeting in the Town Hall at 7pm. 

Present at the meeting will be local organisations, Comhairle members, local building interests and the event is also open to the general public. 

The meeting will focus on the Township Heritage Initiative (THI) which has granted £1.2m towards the regeneration of Stornoway.  

The Townscape Heritage Initiative is a funding partnership locally between Western Isles Enterprise and the Comhairle and nationally with the Heritage Lottery Fund and Historic Scotland. 

 Together with the funding committed by the  partners, the project has a total value of £2.2m.  A presentation will be given on how THIs have worked in other areas. 

The THI will operate in the town centre and will concentrate on regenerating the historic heart of the town which forms part of the Outstanding Conservation Area. The project will work to remedy inappropriate changes that have been made to the historic environment and to bring vacant floorspace back into use. Two major projects are the restoration of the Town Hall and Lady Matheson’s Seminary (also known as the Industrial Female School). The restoration of architectural detail on derelict and currently under-used buildings will be enabled through a grants scheme allowing owners and developers to undertake programmes of work which they would not otherwise be able to complete. 

The project is a huge boost to the regeneration of Stornoway and will hopefully act as a lever for additional funding, creating jobs and helping to address economic and social decline. 

Light refreshments will be available at the meeting.