It’s approaching summer in Scotland’s sunniest city.
Dundee have secured their spot in the Top Six and across the road Dundee United will return to the Premiership at the first time of asking.
Even the Olympia has reopened – again.
All that is to say, things are looking up.
And that air of positivity stretches to the future of our city centre.
High Street Summit
Last Thursday, The Courier hosted our very first High Street Summit – a talk born from our Dundee Matters project that seeks to find positive ways to change the trajectory of our struggling city centre.
It was a frank and open discussion where invited guests shared their views and experiences in tackling the major issues affecting our shops and traders.
Council Leader John Alexander pledged £200,000 to clean up the streets as well as improve vacant unit fronts.
Ron Smith, managing director of Glamis Investments, made a case that business rates favoured out of town retail parks and therefore multi-national companies.
It’s a situation which can severely hamper local enterprise.
Mr Alexander promised to continue challenging the Scottish Government for a change to non-domestic rates.
Perhaps John Swinney’s first task as First Minister can be securing the future of independent businesses.
£20 million to be spent in the city
That fruitful summit, filled with positive conversation and fresh ideas, now has to be followed up with concrete action.
A week on, and that ability to act has been emboldened with a £20 million levelling-up fund from the UK Government.
Money has been set aside within the grant to tackle issues affecting our city centre.
Funding will be made available for Dundee City Council to clean-up the city centre, including updating derelict shop-fronts.
That is on top of the £200,000 already promised by the council leader.
There’s also £1.2m for the Dundee Museum of Transport to develop its long-awaited new attraction at Maryfield Tram Depot – a project which will hopefully benefit the city.
However, questions do remain over the £3m earmarked for another new office block at the Waterfront.
Is that really the best possible use of funds?
Now is the time for action
One of the main factors that often holds back councils from making real change in their communities is funding.
Another is a lack of vision.
Dundee City Council is currently in the enviable position of having access to both.
At The Courier’s High Street Summit, guest speaker Matt Colledge spoke of how his partnership, Altrincham Forward, had changed the fortunes of the English market town of Altrincham.
Since 2010 they have reduced the empty shop numbers by 73% and improved the market’s turnover from £150,000 per annum to over £7m.
Dundee City Council knows it can be done and have heard from those who done it.
And crucially, they now have the money to make a difference.
Taking out the ifs, buts and maybes of the bigger projects, hundreds-of-thousands-of-pounds, perhaps stretching into the millions, has been set aside for the sole purpose of improving the city centre.
That’s enough to start making a tangible difference to our high street while the sun still shines bright in the sky.
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