After Renfrewshire Council blocked an application to the UK Levelling Up Fund in June 2021 for their ambitious Digital Community Hub, and Community Cinema project, PCT are now asking Renfrewshire Council to back their plans.

We were delighted when it was agreed the project would be Renfrewshire Council’s Levelling Up project for Paisley and Renfrewshire South Constituency and approved a grant award to PCT for £15,600 to commission a piece of work that would result in a full and compliant application to the Levelling Up Fund. We appointed experts Lambert Smith Hampton, leading experts in this area, and in partnership with them, produced an outstanding detailed Levelling Up Fund application pack, including full financial and business case documentation and the support of key town and national agency stakeholders. PCT also secured the full backing of Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP Mhairi Black, as required by the process.

Regrettably at the 11^th hour on 18^th June, Renfrewshire Council blocked our fully compliant application, progressing with their own application only.

The Council have since then publicly claimed their continued support for PCT and a potential second phase Levelling Up Fund Application – this is on record.

On this substantive point and with a local government election looming on the horizon, we are asking, what are the Council going to do to convince and prove to us, the community, the electorate, that they will actually follow through. When are you going to turn your words into actions? We want to know if the Council really cares.

However, for now, there is really only one question the council needs to answer and we put it to them direct and expect a simple yes or no response.

Does the council want to see, and therefore fully support with whatever it might take to make happen, the creation of a Digital Community Hub in the High Street which includes a Community Cinema, A Digital Skills Academy, safe Community spaces, Food and drink provision and co working community areas called PXLS and delivered in Partnership with Paisley Community Trust for and on behalf of the community with a business model that sees 100% reinvestment of surpluses back into the local community?

That’s it. That’s the only question they need to answer and it requires a simple YES or NO response.

If it is NO – then it is clear the Council do not wish to listen to the needs and wants of the Community nor believe in their own published Vision for Paisley Town Centre 2030. That being the case it would be with regret that we concede that ‘There is NO point’ and the Charitable, community driven Trust, PCT would be subsequently wound up.

However, we remain in hope that the answer is YES, great – you will have our commitment to work tirelessly to make this happen.

However, in the short term, we have decided to individually and collectively, pause for reflection.

We will be taking some time out to get on with our own lives and businesses which for some of us have been sacrificed over many years. Hopefully this leaves some space and time for us all to reflect and fully recharge. During this time, we’ll be contemplating our purpose and our objectives as a charity and considering the future of Paisley Community Trust and to be frank about it, if all this effort is worth it. What would be the point?

In the space that we leave behind, it may be an opportunity and we actively encourage Renfrewshire Council and others to also reflect, for all politicians, leaders and community groups to fill the void with discussion and emerge with a definitive and collective, committed action plan to improve our town, in collaboration and support of our community.

Our fate and future are in the hands of the Council.

Background

Let us start off by reminding everyone of our purpose, why PCT exists and what we’ve been trying to achieve over the last 7 years since our inception in 2014. We are totally focused at putting community at the HEART of economic regeneration in the Town. The Community in Paisley is represented by so many people – The young, the old, families, those with special needs, folks with businesses, people who feel socially isolated and those looking to learn and develop. Our communities, our neighbours need not only to be part of the transformation of the town they need to be central to it.

This is not just Paisley Community Trust’s view – but it is the view held by the current Scottish Government and made clear to Local Authorities across the country.

In apparent alignment with the 2030 vision for Paisley town centre, a document produced by Renfrewshire Council in partnership with the Scottish Government and Scotland’s Towns Partnerships, Paisley Community Trust focused on the regeneration of the High Street, which now more than ever, especially after the loss of Marks and Spencer, needs to reinvent itself and to regenerate both economically and socially.

We wanted to develop something the community could get behind, engage with and importantly, actually own. Its staggering to believe Paisley has not had a functioning Cinema, a proper town centre one, since the Kelburn closed in 1997 – that’s almost 25 years ago.

After proving the demand and need, we wanted to bring back Cinema to the town. But NOT a soulless box you might see elsewhere but a state-of-the-art Digital Community Hub with cinema screening functionality.

With grant funding from Regional Screen Scotland and Renfrewshire Council we identified the Bargain Buys building at 7-11 High Street as being preferred and suitable. Building on the Outline Business Case for Cinema that was already in place which confirmed the viability, we commissioned an architectural feasibility study with the very same Architects Renfrewshire Council used in the creation of the 2030 Vison who confirmed the building was fit for purpose to create 5 screening rooms plus 1 auditorium, a Digital Community Hub, Co-working Space, Digital Skills Academy with 1^st floor and developed roof space with complimentary café’s and bar – something a bit like Everyman, Princess Square or the Grosvenor in Ashton Lane, Glasgow’s West End, but suitable for Paisley based on expert analysis of the demand.

Our flagship project evolved, it evolved from a simple cinema idea into a proposition for the creation of a Digital Community Hub, Digital Skills Academy and Digital Screening Rooms / A Community Cinema. It is to be named in memory of the La Scala which stood on the exact proposed site at Paisley Cross. Paisley Cross La Scala would become P… X… L… S … ‘PXLS’.

PXLS is about reconnecting socially isolated individuals, providing support to families with children with special needs, skilling up our young people for employment, delivering much needed footfall for traders in the town, and providing leisure led entertainment focal point in our town that meets the Low Carbon requirements of the ’20-minute neighbourhood.’

That’s where we got to just before COVID, early 2020 – we were preparing to present all this publicly and then the world came to a halt, everything changed.

Levelling Up Fund…

With our vision and ambition for the Town, it had always been inferred, if not directly communicated that finding the necessary Capital funding for the project would be the key to unlocking realisation of the project.

Our challenge was to identify the source of the funding for the capital costs. That’s where the Levelling Up Fund comes in. A UK Government fund of up to £50 million per project towards capital cost intended to help cultural, regeneration and transport infrastructure projects in and around town centres throughout the UK. In the Fund criteria, Paisley and Renfrewshire were specifically identified as being in the 1^st priority group for funding. It was an ideal match and on an initial assessment we were ideally suited to benefit.

Paisley Community Trust had known about the Levelling Up Fund for some time. In early 2021, being conscious of the potential political complications and after a period of considerable political lobbying, Paisley Community Trust approached to introduce and present the Levelling Up Fund to Renfrewshire Council at a Leadership, political and officer level who were unaware of the fund at the time.

In that meeting with The Council, Paisley Community Trust presented an opportunity for a complete and full solution to fund the full construction costs of PXLS and the opportunity to apply for a capital grant bid to the UK Government, through the Levelling Up Fund, for up to £20 million.

Our judgement was; although timing was tight, the timing was also right too – especially to be in the first round as we understood there was only a handful of applications to come in from Scotland with the expectation of award being VERY high. With endorsement from the Chief Executive and Leadership of the Council it was agreed PXLS would be Renfrewshire Council’s Levelling Up project for Paisley and Renfrewshire South Constituency. The Council stated it had no spare resource to assist with the completion of the application bid forms and that it would fund PCT to appoint and work with a specialist consultant to produce a compliant bid – deadline for submission being 12pm on 18^th June.

Announcement: We were delighted when The Council approved a grant award to PCT for £15,600 to commission a piece of work that would result in a full and compliant application to the Levelling Up Fund.

The Levelling Up Fund would be the key to enabling PXLS to happen. PCT secured the full backing of Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP Mhairi Black, as required by the process. Out of courtesy we even engaged with MP Gavin Newlands of Paisley and Renfrewshire North who gave us his verbal support.

We appointed experts Lambert Smith Hampton, leading experts in this area, and in partnership with them, we produced an outstanding detailed Levelling Up Fund application pack, including full financial and business case documentation and the support of key town and national agency stakeholders. Project spend had been scheduled to start this financial year as required, enabling a project plan demonstrating completion of the construction works in 2024.

Everything was perfectly aligned. The funding that had been our challenge was in touching distance, an application away. We were nervously excited. PXLS, a project completely aligned to the Councils 2030 Vision for the future of Paisley High Street was going to happen. We have MP backing and stated confirmation from the Leader of the Council that our bid was to be submitted no matter what.

Announcement: At the 11^th hour and regrettably, Renfrewshire Council blocked our fully compliant application, refusing to sign the declaration in the application form, stating they were not prepared to take on the assumed risk or responsibility for the bid.

Addressing the specific points of undertaking and the declaration directly, it is Paisley Community Trust’s strong belief, and that of other professional organisations, there was no good reason for the APPLICATION DECLARATION to NOT be signed and submitted for assessment to the UK Government whose responsibility it actually was, to make judgement on our application.

It was an application that would have been a ‘a chance’ for a free shot at an open goal for £20m of critical capital funding. Our own funds, tax payer’s cash. Desperately needed funding that had the potential to deliver real and meaningful change for our town centre and our communities. The worst that could have happened would have been a polite, NO, with feedback on where to make the application better. Renfrewshire Council sadly denied this opportunity.

It has been alleged and stated as a matter of public record, that our application was incomplete. This is incorrect. Paisley Community Trust in partnership with Lambert Smith Hampton produced and issued a detailed and compliant Levelling Up Fund 206 page application early on the 16^th June for onward submission. As sometimes happens with something so complex and detailed it all comes together and falls in to place as submission date nears.

We remain confident that any concerns that the Council claimed to have had, we had either already made suggestions to cover or were all addressable in delivery of the project.

Despite our last-minute pleas and numerous representations to the Council Leadership Board and Leadership Team, to submit the bid, the Council refused to listen or respond and blocked the application.

It came as a surprise to us and is COMPLETELY relevant to note at this point that Renfrewshire Council submitted their own bid, for an out-of-town road infrastructure project in Renfrewshire North Constituency.

It has since been alleged and the suggestion made to us by several sources, that if TWO Council applications to the Levelling Up Fund were submitted at this stage, despite both being eligible, based on Renfrewshire having two MPs, that it was considered unlikely that both bids, the Community Bid and the Council Bid, would be awarded funding. Therefore, the suggestion and allegation is that to narrow the field of competition, the non-council, Community led project was taken out of contention and blocked.

It is a now matter of public record that the UK Government awarded Renfrewshire Council close on £38m (10% of which will come from council borrowing) from the Levelling Up Fund to the Renfrewshire North project for transportation infrastructure. We congratulate Renfrewshire Council for securing this funding for the area, inward investment is much needed.

Notably there were only a small number of Levelling Up Fund awards in Scotland with secondary priority areas and propositions understood to be under developed being awarded. Given the profile and quality of the other recipients, we are even more confident that had our bid been submitted, we would have stood a very strong chance of securing £20m of funding, but that was denied.

Of course, the Council are likely to refute these suggestions and might even seek to undermine the quality proposal of Paisley Community Trust. That would be unfortunate, you would need to ask why they would do that, as the substance of the proposition for Cinema on the High Street actually features heavily in their own apparent strategy for the redevelopment of the Town Centre.

However, we place great trust in the towns communities to see exactly what has taken place here.

The Future of PCT and PXLS

There is ONE simple question we ask ourselves now: What is the point?

Sadly, we seem to face the harsh reality that no matter the years of hard voluntary work, jumping through every hoop and barrier put in front of us, no matter what effort we make, no matter what community engagement we undertake, no matter what support we garner, no matter what experts endorse our plans, no matter what partnerships we secure, no matter what compelling business case we may have and no matter what funding solutions we identify; it will never, ever be enough. for Renfrewshire Council.

Are we left to conclude that Renfrewshire Council simply do not care for the communities of Paisley, or actually taking a leading part in the regeneration of the High Street beyond mere tokenism? Is it fair to also conclude they will always prioritise “their own” projects over the needs and wants of those who both employ and elect them?

We are disappointed, angry and frustrated that is clear, it’s also an understatement!

The Council’s actions and utter disregard for our work, had left us at the time, individually and as a group, totally demoralised and drained of the passion, energy, belief and determination that was driving us to try to make a difference in the town. A difference that is so needed. 

It is fair to say, our charitable community group have been ground down by the Local Authority, close to the point of surrender and resignation, it would be understandable if we stopped now and just gave up. Paisley Community Trust are a resilient and determined group though, we are not giving up and we are not going away, we owe it to the communities of Paisley that we care about.

However, in the short term, we have decided to individually and collectively, pause for reflection.

We will be taking some time out to get on with our own lives and businesses which for some of us have been sacrificed over many years. Hopefully this leaves some space and time for us all to reflect and fully recharge. During this time, we’ll be contemplating our purpose and our objectives as a charity and considering the future of Paisley Community Trust and to be frank about it, if all this effort is worth it. What would be the point?

In the space that we leave behind, it may be an opportunity and we actively encourage Renfrewshire Council and others to also reflect, for all politicians, leaders and community groups to fill the void with discussion and emerge with a definitive and collective, committed action plan to improve our town, in collaboration and support of our community.

Is There Hope?

The Council have publicly claimed their continued support for PCT and a potential second phase Levelling Up Fund Application – this is on record.

On this substantive point and with a local government election looming on the horizon, we are asking, what are the Council going to do to convince and prove to us, the community, the electorate, that they will actually follow through. Sadly we are all too used to, in our opinion, what has been empty promises and meaningless words of support and the underlying belief that the Community will always take second place to the Councils own self-serving plans. 

When are you going to turn your words into actions? We want to know if the Council really cares.

We want to know if the council cares enough to see socially isolated older people reunited with friends and given purpose.

We want to know if the council cares enough to see our young people skilled up for the next generation of digital employment opportunities.

We want to know if the council cares enough about providing a safe space for families with autistic children to go and have fun and enjoyment in their lives.

We want to know if the council cares about allowing a platform for cultural creatives to tell their stories and broadcast their messages to a global audience.

We want to know if the council cares enough to see the creation of a place that will provide leisure, entertainment and escape for the residents of the town and surrounding areas.

We want to know if the council cares enough for the struggling shop owners and traders in the town by supporting a project that will deliver much needed footfall to the town.

We want to know if the council cares enough to encourage a charity who are prepared to reinvest every penny of surplus back into community projects creating an additional £42 million of economic boost to the area over 10 years

However, for now, there is really only one question the council needs to answer and we put it to them direct and expect a simple yes or no response.

Does the council want to see, and therefore fully support with whatever it might take to make happen, the creation of a Digital Community Hub in the High Street which includes a Community Cinema, A Digital Skills Academy, safe Community spaces, Food and drink provision and co working community areas called PXLS and delivered in Partnership with Paisley Community Trust for and on behalf of the community with a business model that sees 100% reinvestment of surpluses back into the local community?

That’s it. That’s the only question they need to answer and it requires a simple YES or NO response.

If it is NO – then it is clear the Council do not wish to listen to the needs and wants of the Community nor believe in their own published Vision for Paisley Town Centre 2030. That being the case it would be with regret that we concede that ‘There is NO point’ and the Charitable, community driven Trust, PCT would be subsequently wound up.

However, we remain in hope that the answer is YES, great – you will have our commitment to work tirelessly to make this happen.

We remain in hope that the story of PXLS is that one story you read about, that one opportunity that isn’t just dismissed but instead nurtured, supported, and held up as an example to all, of communities feeling and being empowered to take their future into their own hands to deliver massive social and economic change and regeneration.

Our fate and future are in the hands of the Council. Whether they will commit to making this happen and enable the implementation of PXLS which form part of their own strategy is what is under scrutiny.

On behalf of all the trustees we want to place on record our sincere thanks to everyone in the community of Paisley and further afield for your warm encouragement and support.

Thank you.

END