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Ellon- New Thinking for a Historic Town 0 ` Ellon- New thinking for a historic town 0. About Ellon Now, Ellon New and this Document Ellon Now, Ellon New is a Making Places project supported by Aberdeenshire This document – “Ellon – new thinking for a historic town” – sets out the Council and the Scottish Government, with the active involvement of Ellon findings of “Ellon Now, Ellon New” to date and represents an overall Community Council. It is being delivered by a project team comprising community-led strategy for the town centre. It aims to be an engaging and research and place design specialists from IBP Strategy & Research and focused overview document that sets a clear direction for Ellon Town Centre. colinross:workshop. The project is all about encouraging the communities of Ellon to become actively involved in developing ideas for the future of the town centre and to make plans for the future. The aim is, in the words of the Scottish Government’s “Making Places” guidance: “To support the delivery of places that enable a high quality of life, help tackle inequalities and allow communities to flourish”. The focus of Ellon Now, Ellon New (and this document) is the town centre, looking to move towards a situation where it has a sustainable and prosperous future and where it is a valuable asset to the town as a whole. The key stages of the Ellon Now, Ellon New project have included: ❖ A review of existing background information of relevance to the town centre. ❖ Engagement with the communities of Ellon (including the business community) to gather views through the completion of a Place Standard survey and associated discussions. ❖ Project team observations and study of the town. ❖ Community events to develop a vision and specific ideas for the town centre in the future. ❖ Follow-up “drop-in” discussions in the community on emerging ideas 0.1 Ellon overview sketch ❖ From this, the creation of this strategy document. Contents 1. Ellon’s Story 2. Ellon Now 3. Ellon in the Future 4. Vision and Key Themes 5. Promoting Ellon 6. Connecting Ellon 7. Enriching Ellon’s Town Centre 8. Improving Ellon’s Public Spaces 9. Key Projects July 2019 1. Ellon’s Story Ellon lies on the River Ythan, approximately 16 miles north of Aberdeen. The The town centre has an extensive and diverse range of small independent town’s history dates back to the 13th century when it was created a burgh of businesses (there are 69 independent goods and service retail businesses barony under the rule of the Earls of Buchan. The name “Ellon” is thought to within the small area of the town centre itself) along with an Aldi derive from the Gaelic term “Eilean”, meaning island, on account of the supermarket and a small number of branches of national retail chains. It has presence of a nearby island in the river, which offered a convenient fording a range of cafes, hotels and restaurants which are, again, generally owned point. Much of the town has been the product of the 19th and 20th centuries independently. but the past remains very much present in Ellon with the ruins of Ellon Castle and Ellon Parish Church. The town has three primary schools (Ellon, Auchterellon and Meiklemill) all of which feed into Ellon Academy, a modern secondary school and Ellon has an estimated population of 10,832 people. The town has grown community campus on the outskirts of the town, which opened in July 2015. rapidly over the past 30 years, with families locating in Ellon as a commuter The community campus houses a swimming pool and other leisure facilities town for Aberdeen and elsewhere, with the town being close to the main and the other significant leisure facility is the Meadows sports centre, which A90 road. The housing stock grew further by 5.5% between 2011 and 2016. offers football, rugby and hockey pitches as well as a gym and multi-use sports hall. The town centre is framed by the river to the south, woodland to the north, castle to the east and a series of bridges over the river, principally the Like many small towns, Ellon (and especially its town centre “high street”) Category A Listed Auld Brig, which leads directly into the town. The aerial faces challenges brought on by social change, new technologies and photograph on the front page of the document provides some context to the economic uncertainty. However, its communities are ambitious for positive physical nature of Ellon, with the original village / town located centrally change in the town and this document seeks to reflect those ambitions. (within a natural / green space setting – “a village on a river”) surrounded by substantial areas of housing that have developed over the past thirty years, and more recent industrial and commercial activity towards the A90 road. Welcoming town? Producing town? Attractive town? Healthy town? Attractive? Attractive? Attractive? Ellon- themes to discuss…..type of town 1.1 Early analysis and themes 2. Ellon Now Successful town centres are places that serve their communities, visitors In addition to the above, demographics are changing (for example, the and businesses with a quality of experience that encourages them to come population is getting older) and new lifestyle patterns are apparent (such as back, and stay longer. The businesses in those town centres provide the use of social media, increased leisure time) and these will impact in a something that residents and visitors value and, in turn, local communities variety of different ways on retail, services and leisure sectors. Trends support the business and commercial life of the town. affecting towns such as Ellon include: ❖ A shift in the balance from retail goods towards retail services. Ellon does not exist in isolation and there are a number of wider contextual ❖ The continuation of a trend for concentration of retail activities into issues which are having, or will have, an impact on the town centre in larger centres. particular. ❖ Smaller traditional town centres (such as Ellon) are likely to face continued pressures and will need to identify a clear role for their For example, the internet (including the use of mobile devices) and other future viability. technologies is having a significant impact on retail operations and shopping habits. To be successful, smaller centres (such as Ellon) need to provide an appropriate mix of: The extent of future economic growth and, thus, the available consumer expenditure for retail, services and leisure activities will have a major impact ❖ Unusual or specialist products or services that are not easily accessed on town centres. There are significant uncertainties over this (particularly in elsewhere. the context of Brexit) but most forecasts are for economic forecast to be ❖ A high level of personal customer service to generate customer loyalty. lower than the long term trend. ❖ An attractive shopping and leisure environment that makes people want to visit, hang around and spend their money. ❖ A strong brand image. There are also a number of specific background issues that are of particular In particular, the relocation of the Academy has left significant gap sites on relevance to Ellon, which may be important to understand in relation to the fringes of the town centre. There are outline plans for the establishment developing deliverable improvements for the future. Key points of note of integrated Council facilities as well as health and care and potentially include: other uses on these sites. This, in turn, would free up existing town centre sites for new commercial or community usage. The outcomes of Ellon Now, Ellon New will be fed into these plans. The opening of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route improves road connectivity for Ellon significantly; this will be of benefit to commuters and National and local strategies are seeking to encourage significant changes in presents opportunities to attract more people to the town but, of course, it transport modes. Aberdeenshire Council aims to have 40% of all journeys of also makes it easier for people to travel elsewhere for their leisure, services less than 5km made by bike or foot and various projects have been delivered and retail needs. in support of this and others could be considered for the future. In the Ellon community Survey, 83% of people said that they drive to Ellon Town Centre. There is evidence of considerable “leakage” from Ellon – local people spending their money elsewhere (for example, in the 2015 Ellon Community survey, 27% of people said that they did their main food shopping in Aberdeen and 11% in Inverurie). Ellon Castle Gardens, previously in private ownership, were handed over to the people of Ellon in 2014 and Ellon Castle Gardens Board is working hard to revitalise and conserve the gardens for the people of Ellon and as a potentially significant visitor attraction within the town. Brewdog has become an internationally recognised brand, located on the fringes of the town, featuring brewery and visitor facilities. Its connection and engagement with the Town Centre could present real opportunities. The relocation of Ellon Academy to the “campus” site on the edge of town provides a top quality asset for the town as a whole but potentially takes business away from the Town Centre and certainly changes its character. 2.1 Leakage diagram The vision for the town centre must be more than a generic statement of Ratings for Ellon Town Centre across almost all of these issues are fairly aspirations but should be anchored in the unique personality of the town neutral – neither very good nor very bad. For 11 of the 14 dimensions, the centre and its assets as a location. average score is 4. There were, however, three elements where the scores are slightly better, with an average of 5.
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