Peterhead - Aberdeenshire Towns Partnership

PETERHEAD EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Background
With 19,000 inhabitants, Peterhead is the largest town in Aberdeenshire and developed around the safe haven of the harbour at Keith Insch in 1587. By 1680 Peterhead had become one of the largest fishing ports on the north coast; the economy of the town has evolved through sealing, whaling and herring fishing and Peterhead is now Europe’s premier white fish port.

The 1970s also saw new development to service the North Sea offshore industry. The development of the fishing and offshore sectors has resulted in a period of economic growth and stability for Peterhead, although the town’s economic base is relatively narrow and highly dependent on both sectors.

Peterhead has a rich, if under-valued heritage, most apparent in its urban form and in its associations with individuals such as Field Marshall Keith. The area between the harbour and Broad Street, laid out in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, is described by Charles McKean as ‘some of the most picturesque urban streets in Scotland’. Broad Street formed the heart of the town in the 19th century, when Peterhead enjoyed a reputation as a spa town.

Nonetheless, the town does not enjoy a positive image either internally or externally. Peterhead is portrayed as cold and grey and somewhat uninspiring and these images do not reflect the aspirations of the community or the public agencies that serve them.

The study brief
Aberdeenshire Council, Scottish Enterprise Grampian and Communities Scotland launched the Peterhead 2001 (now the Peterhead Project) initiative in April 1998 as part of the Aberdeenshire Towns Partnership Programme. As part of process they commissioned a multi-disciplinary consultant team, led by EDAW, to develop a regeneration strategy for the town. The study brief required:

A researched analysis of the town
The development of a strategy and action plan
The definition of physical, economic, cultural and management proposals with related costs and programmes of implementation
An assessment of the likely economic benefits arising from the implementation of the strategy
An engagement process with the client, local people and businesses to secure wider ownership of the proposals

The regeneration strategy for Peterhead presented in this report identifies short-term opportunities, but also considers the longer-term issues facing the town. Factors such as the long-term future of the fishing and oil and gas sectors may only begin to impact over a five to ten year period, or beyond, although these issues need to begin to be tackled now. The brief identified the town centre and the approaches as priority areas for investment.

The study process
The consultants adopted a three stage approach to the study:

Stage 1 - included site surveys and visual analysis; property market research and interviews with a range of relevant public, private and community interests.

Stage 2 - Initial project workshops held with both the public sector and business/community organisations in mid-June 1998.
The aim of the project workshops was to review the research findings and build consensus on the regeneration opportunities for the town.

Stage 3 - involved finalising the regeneration strategy for and the identification and costing of a range of environmental improvement, management, marketing and development projects. These were tested at further project workshops held in July 1998.

Summary of key findings
Economy

The town has enjoyed a period of comparative boom since the early 1970s, during which time it has reinforced its role within the European fishing industry and successfully exploited offshore opportunities. Unemployment has been relatively low; there has been scope for housing choice and affordability and the town’s social problems have remained manageable. In some locations, environmental quality has been compromised for the purposes of functionality.

This picture is changing and the rate of change will accelerate rapidly over the next ten years. The most optimistic forecasts available to the Council and its partners suggest that reduced quotas and decommissioning will have a more significant impact. Smaller vessels will go out of business with a move to less labour intensive larger boats. There will be significant knock-on effects in terms of fish processing. Substantial further investment in port facilities will be required for Peterhead to remain competitive in European markets.

The changes affecting oil and gas may have a more immediate impact, with fluctuations in the price of oil likely to result in increased competitiveness within the supply chain sectors present in Peterhead. ASCo is already exploring diversification opportunities within and outwith the sector. Other Peterhead firms will require assistance of this type. The recent closure of Crosse and Blackwell and Cleveland reinforces the need to strengthen other sectors and reduce the inherent vulnerability of the Peterhead economy.

There is nothing unprecedented about the transitional period that the town is entering; the key issue is how to manage change in the economy in a realistic and pragmatic way. There is scope to develop the service sector - focused on enhancing the role and performance of Peterhead town centre as a retail, leisure and commercial location. There are also opportunities to increase the contribution of the fledgling tourism sector.

Environment

Some sections of the town approaches are of a very high quality, but in general they do not provide a cohesive suggestion of the character and identity of the town. The approaches should seek to provide a more logical progression in character from rural through urban. There is scope to utilise gateways to project the character and identity more strongly and to provide greater orientation.

The underlying fabric of Marischal Street is excellent, but has been compromised by more recent streetscape improvements and shopfront modifications. Drummers Corner is tired and in need of transformation; it fails as a civic space because of its clutter of street furniture and lack of shelter/ amenity, but most notably because of a lack of pedestrian activity.

There is scope to enhance the role and quality of Broad Street the former (19th century) civic heart of the town. Broad Street remains the only genuine ‘civic space’ within the town, although it does not currently fulfil that role. The aim must be to improve the balance of space devoted to the pedestrian and to the private car and to reduce or remove the level of car parking in the street.

This will require investment in improving the quality, appearance and functionality of the town centre to make more of its assets and encourage further investment by the private sector. Scottish Enterprise, in its Competitive Locations report, recognises that quality environments in urban areas are essential to the maintenance of a competitive place, leading to the creation and attraction of internationally competitive companies and industry clusters. There are numerous UK examples of the successful enhancement of the retail environment in smaller town centres, where an appropriate balance between accessibility and quality of environment has been achieved.

Housing

The ATP partners should adopt a more proactive role in the Peterhead housing market. There is some evidence of affordability problems in respect of family housing and unmet housing needs in respect of single person households and the homeless. Some areas of low demand Council housing also require reinvestment. Communities Scotland investment is targeting some of these problems, and the Council - with New Housing Partnerships support - is tackling others.
Such housing investment can make a more substantive contribution to the wider objectives of The Peterhead Project initiative, particularly in transforming the town centre environment. Encouraging new housing in the town centre will increase levels of activity throughout the day; improve perceptions of security and generate demand for local goods and services.

Social inclusion

Peterhead is a community of contrasts, with affluence and prosperity alongside a few areas of genuine deprivation. Within these there are particular problems relating to unemployment; debt; health; drug and alchohol abuse; educational attainment and overcrowding. The aim must be to build on Peterhead’s New Community School status to develop new projects tackling welfare; health; childcare and educational attainment. The Peterhead Project can play an important role in raising awareness of the importance of these matters and their contribution to realisation of the overall strategy for the town; reinforcing the requirement for partnership working and targeting new sources of funding.

Peterhead 2008
The consultation process has sought to identify a shared ‘vision’ for the town as an important starting point. A vision statement can be used to develop and articulate the aspirations of the public and private sectors and the community, to identify a desired ‘end state’ which sets the direction for regeneration efforts. Our vision for Peterhead 2008 is one of:

Continued competitiveness as Europe’s premier fishing port and greater added value from the fish processing sector
A diversified economic base, with new opportunities in oil and gas and a reduced dependency on the offshore sector for local engineering and manufacturing firms
A developing tourism sector, with visitors drawn to existing attractions, the port and a revitalised town centre
Radical improvements to the physical form and appearance of the town centre and the key gateways to the town
A clear and consistent imaging/branding strategy for the town to optimise the marketing and promotional effort in target markets.

Changing both internal and external perceptions of the town will be a vital part of this process. The town’s current associations reflect its fishing heritage, negative perceptions of climate and the received view that the town functional, rather than memorable or distinctive.

Regeneration targets
A vision statement can only be effective if it is accompanied by tangible and measurable objectives, programmes and projects which collectively translate aspiration into reality. The regeneration strategy will generate physical outputs and other, more indeterminate changes in perception, behaviour and attitude. These are reflected in the overall targets for the regeneration process over a ten year period:

Indicator	2008 Target
Population structure	Single parent households for Peterhead to reflect Aberdeenshire average Proportion of elderly residents to reflect Peterhead average
Economic structure	Reflect Aberdeenshire average in terms of manufacturing and service sectors Create 500 new jobs in manufacturing, retail and tourism
Unemployment	Overall/youth unemployment levels to reflect Aberdeenshire average (3.1% in March 1998), compare 3.5% for Peterhead Disadvantaged areas to be no more than 1.5% above Peterhead average
Crime	Reflect Aberdeenshire average per capita
Housing tenure	Reflect Aberdeenshire average for owner-occupation and Council owned by 2008 (56.2% and 29.9% respectively in 1991)
Town centre	100% increase in Zone A retail rents 50% reduction in retail vacancies
Visitor attractions	Achieve 100% increase in visits to all Peterhead attractions

Action Plan
The Action Plan prioritises the strategic direction and key actions for the Aberdeenshire Towns Partnership over the first five years of the programme:

A competitive fishing industry
Diversifying the business base
Developing the tourism sector
Improving the town centre
Investment in housing
Improvements in social inclusion
Enhanced marketing and promotion

The Action Plan sets out an investment programme for the partnership totalling £6.85 million over five years. Key projects include:

Proposals for the environmental enhancement of Broad Street and other key aspects
Bringing vacant upper floor properties back into use
Housing refurbishment projects at Longate and St Peter
Environmental improvements to the southern approaches
A diversification programme for Peterhead’s leading companies

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