Opinion: Falkirk MP Euan Stainbank welcomes positive developments across district,

Thanks to a £300,000 investment from the UK Labour Government Impact Fund, the long-awaited Scottish Canals Skills Centre can now move ahead.

When I was elected as Falkirk’s MP, I promised to fight for investment in our community. Within weeks we secured an additional £10 million for the Falkirk Growth Deal, bringing total Growth Deal investment across our district to £100 million.

Now, through the £1.5 million Pride in Place Impact Fund, £300,000 has been secured to close the funding gap on the project reported to councillors late last year. That means work can now start to transform the long-closed old AG Barr’s factory into a new Canals and Traditional Skills Centre.

This centre will bring new apprenticeships in stonemasonry and traditional skills, giving our bairns accredited qualifications and enabling them to take up skilled jobs. It will also see staff from Scottish Canals and Historic Environment Scotland located here and will support tens of millions in greater economic activity across the district in the next decade.

That kind of long-term investment matters, and it is simply a flavour of the type of project which could be supported through the Labour UK Government’s Pride in Place programme, which has secured £20 million in new funding for the Braes Villages and Hallglen.

The next step in that process is creating a Neighbourhood Board that will decide how that funding is invested over the next decade. This board will be led not by politicians but by residents with a direct stake in your community.

Recruitment for an independent chair of the board has begun, with a closing date of March 26. I would strongly encourage anyone who cares about the future of the Braes Villages and Hallglen to consider applying. This is a generational opportunity for a local leader to direct this investment to the benefit of their community (see this link for more).

While the UK Labour Government is bringing new investment into communities left behind for too long, we must also be careful at every level of governance not to take decisions that leave people further behind.

Last week I raised concerns about proposals initially made by Falkirk Council to cut several school bus services used by pupils travelling to school from Hallglen, Shieldhill and Maddiston.

Hundreds of people responded to the consultation with a clear message for the council: this cut must not go ahead when there are serious concerns about long walking routes, safety on busy roads and the impact on pupil attendance that remain unaddressed.

Our Falkirk Labour councillors, led by Councillor Siobhan Paterson, took the voices of hundreds of parents and young people to the council chamber and struck a deal to take this cut out of the initial SNP budget proposal and maintain these vital bus services.