Yesterday David attended meetings with groups focused on the regeneration and economic development of Fraserburgh and Peterhead town centres, run by Scotland’s Towns Partnership.
Local regeneration is an issue David is very keen to promote, and was delighted to see first hand how this work is progressing.
David joined MSPs Liam Kerr and Peter Chapman for the day-long tour of the Buchan ports.
The Fraserburgh leg of the visit took in the £2.6million Faithlee Centre, the Fraserburgh Develoment Trust and new £1.2million sports centre facilities at the South Links. The Faithlee centre will provide new council facilities,a community space and an enterprise hub, more information on the project can be found at Fraserburgh 2021 Heritage regeneration. Also included in the visit was Peartree Coffee House and Bistro who are a newly opened café and restaurant in the town centre with plans to promote local seafood produce and to work with local students to introduce them to the catering and hospitality sector.
They also sat down for a meeting with the Fraserburgh harbour commissioners. The Broch port has recently been announced as the preferred location for the onshore element of the Moray East Offshore windfarm development.
In the afternoon, representatives from Rediscover Peterhead, the Business Improvement District (BID), conducted a ‘walk-about’ of the town centre with visits to a variety of businesses.
The group also visited the Arbuthnot Museum and the Peterhead library to discuss an enterprise project being run in partnership with the Robert Gordon University.
The idea behind the scheme is to allow community groups and business organisations to host local politicians and discuss ongoing work to improve their local area.
David has been a strong advocate of town centre regeneration in Peterhead and Fraserburgh - indeed across the whole of his Banff and Buchan constituency.
David said “Increased activity, both in commercial and cultural terms, will attract more people, which in turn can help business and create jobs. There are some great projects already and plenty in the pipeline – but there is still work to be done to grow the local economy and make these towns even better places to live.”