A new tourist attraction which will help create jobs and revitalise the economy of a West Lothian village is set to bid for planning permission in what could be a crucial year for the ambitious proposal.
If agreed West Calder could be home to attraction likened to ‘Glasgow’s science museum’.
West Calder and Harburn Development Trust has been working on proposals to revitalise the village’s central and pioneering role in the creation of the Co-operative movement in Victorian Scotland.
Plans to develop the Scottish Co-op Discovery and Activity Centre in a former Co-op Bakery in the centre of the village are now being finalised. Staff at the CDT are working with architects and the council on the proposals.
Matt Pearce, the Trust Manager of the CDT gave an update on the plans to a meeting of Fauldhouse and the Breich Valley Local Area Committee.
The new museum will tell the story of West Calder’s role in the development of the co-operative movement in the villages and surrounding hamlets. It will be a hands-on experience providing active learning for schools and family visitors.The development will also provide flexible learning space, a shop kitchen and cafe.
The entire £6m project could be completed by 2026 “with fair winds”, Mr Pearce told councillors this week. But, he added, that the rest of this year would be crucial securing finances and advancing plans.
“The next 12 months will be challenging in terms of moving to that timeline.”
Construction work would provide 65 jobs while the attraction would provide 22 jobs once fully operational.
In the spirit of the Co-operative movement, the Trust has also recently been given approval to issue shares which would give local people a chance to vote and sit on the management board. Two share issues are planned, one in the next two months for villagers in West Calder and Harburn and one later in the year for wider national investors.
Mr Pearce said the new centre would be: “a mixture of interactive and old school ‘look don’t touch’. A good example is Glasgow’s Science Museum.
“It will be a hands-on heritage attraction based around the Co-operative heritage both locally and nationally.”
The Trust has built connections with museums in Glasgow and Edinburgh and hopes to be able to secure Co-operative movement artefacts currently in storage for display. It already has a sizeable collection of West Calder Co-op memorabilia and photographs. The Trust has also established links with Co-operative museums in England which celebrate the wider development.
Support for the project has come from West Lothian Council, the national lottery heritage fund, national government agencies as well as local schools and community groups. Scotmid and the Co-op in Scotland have also backed the project.
The former Co-op building sits alongside the railway through the village and is a rare example of a Victorian brick built factory from the same architect who designed the village’s Carnegie Library and the main co-operative buildings. West Lothian was one of the first villages in Scotland to have a “Co-op department store” on its main street and it retains a unique roof design.
Chairing the committee Councillor Craig Meek said: “Have we managed to resolve concerns about parking that the community might have?”
Mr Pearce said “We have been working with roads department prior to the planning application and we have developed a parking strategy. The parking in West Calder is not good in certain areas. It’s not as bad as it appears to be in other areas, and there is underused capacity we have identified. We have a strategy that meets planning requirements but goes beyond that and meets the community’s requirements.”
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