The cross-border towns aiming to land a share of £50m

Nikki-Marie Vjatschslav says Stranraer is "really bubbling" with ideas right now

Towns and villages across southern Scotland and the north of England are hoping to grab their share of a major investment opportunity.

They are part of the Place Programme, a £50m scheme funded by the Scottish and UK goverments as part of the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal.

The locations were identified by their local authorities as areas which have "opportunities and challenges" and had not previously received significant public investment.

Representatives gathered on Tuesday in Gretna Green to discuss their experiences and share a vision of the way forward.

The investment will be dotted right across the Borderlands area

The Borderlands deal is a 10-year programme of investment signed by both governments in 2021 to boost the economies across the Scotland-England border.

In total 22 towns throughout the area will benefit from this section of support.

In alphabetical order they are Alnwick, Bedlington, Bellingham, Dalton in Furness, Egremont, Eyemouth, Galashiels, Gretna, Haltwhistle, Hawick, Jedburgh, Kirkconnel, Longtown, Newbiggin, Penrith, Prudhoe, Rothbury, Stranraer, Ulverston, Whithorn, Wigton and Wigtown.

In Stranraer - on the western tip of Dumfries and Galloway - they are focussing on distinct quarters within the town including a waterfront and enterprise zone.

Nikki-Marie Vjatschslav is leading its "town team" hoping to transform the former ferry town and aiming to secure support in the not-too-distant future.

"It is the anxious stage that we are at just now," she admitted.

"It is exciting - Stranraer is becoming really bubbling, there are a lot of creative ideas going.

"You can feel the momentum in Stranraer just now."

Tackling the "grey scar" of the East Pier in Stranraer is among the targets for the town

An initial consultation came up with a lot of ideas and that was whittled down to a number of priorities including a sanctuary project, a wellbeing hub and tackling its East Pier.

She said securing funding could make a "huge difference".

"We want some quick wins so we can show the community that there is progress happening," she said.

"Some things will take longer but there are some things that can happen relatively quickly.

"We are all guinea pigs for this process a little bit."

Emily Reid said visitor numbers in Penrith could be boosted by the investment

One of the places further along in the process is Penrith which is taking forward projects centred on arts and culture, transport connections, and business and industry.

Emily Reid works in the economic development team at Westmorland and Furness Council.

They have worked up six projects to help regenerate the town.

These include making the town hall an arts and cultural facility, bringing unused space at Penrith station back into use and improving the "look and feel" of the town centre in general.

The investment could make the town hall in Penrith an arts and cultural facility

She said it could all have a big impact if it goes ahead.

"We are looking at increased footfall, increased visitors, increased visitor spend," Ms Reid added.

In addition it hopes to boost participation in arts and community events.

That, in turn, could see new businesses open and more jobs created.

Keith Johnson said bringing empty buildings back into use was a priority for Hawick

Back in Scotland, Hawick is another place involved and Keith Johnson, of its town team, said there were dozens of ideas of what could be done but one was to tackle empty properties.

"It is quite strange the way the town is put together - about 50% of the people that live in Hawick are within 500 metres of a derelict building so those kind of things are quite important to us," he said.

Another small project is to help a local walled garden.

"They have a terrible potting shed that they sit and have their cups of tea in and whatnot and just no facilities," he explained.

"So that would be a really nice one if we could help with that."

He said people would see a real difference if the funding could be secured and all the projects proceed.

"It is really all about making the town a better place to live and to work in and to grow up," he said.

"If we can target all the funding that we can get to get all of these things done Hawick would be a much, much better place."