West Kilbride Craft & Design Initiative win Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum Award
Wednesday 20th of December 2024 21:56
West Kilbride has once again lifted the top award in a national competition.
West Kilbride Craft & Design Initiative was recognised by the Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum in its annual Awards for Best Practice in Urban Regeneration.
At a reception given at the Radisson Hotel in Glasgow, Councillor Elizabeth McLardy and Maggie Broadley, Craft & Design Officer, received the award from Deputy Communities Minister, Des McNulty MSP on behalf of the Directors, volunteers and studio makers. One of twenty nominations in it's category, West Kilbride Craft & Design Initiative was the overall winner of the “Place” section in the SURF awards 2024.
Councillor McLardy was hugely impressed with the other projects short-listed for awards “It is absolutely brilliant that what we are doing in West Kilbride has been recognised, especially when you see the level of dedication and commitment from other communities across Scotland. To have been chosen from such a strong list is a real boost for everyone involved, not just this year but over the many years of disappointments and setbacks.”
The SURF awards are now in their eighth year, and this is the fourth year that Communities Scotland’s Scottish Centre for Regeneration has been their key sponsor. They are well established as the major independent awards for community regeneration projects in Scotland. Presented each year to projects judged to be doing outstanding regeneration work in some of Scotland’s most disadvantaged communities, the process is intended to promote all of the excellent, but often unsung, work being done day to day.
“The Judges were hugely impressed with the level of commitment and innovation that has been shown by the West Kilbride Community Initiative Ltd. The effect that the project has had on raising community pride and providing an attractive and sustainable townscape is quite breathtaking. The West Kilbride Craft & Design Initiative is a worthy winner of the Place Category of the 2024 Surf Awards.”
Speaking to Maggie Broadley at the award ceremony, George Pitcher of Community Voices (and one of the two judges who visited the Craft & Design studios) said, “ I thought it was marvellous, these studios and all the makers whose work would not have been out of place in Bond Street in London!”
http://www.scotregen.co.uk/news/default.asp?ItemID=571