Paisley town centre businesses asked for feedback on venue investment impact

Renfrewshire Council is looking for the views of Paisley town centre businesses on how it can best work with them during the ongoing £100m investment in town centre venues and infrastructure.

The council is leading an overhaul of the town’s cultural venues as part of wider push to use the Paisley’s unique cultural, heritage and events offer to drive new footfall and help transform the whole area.

That includes a £42m transformation of Paisley Museum into an international-class destination based around the town’s unique heritage and collections, and a £22m revamp of Paisley Town Hall into a landmark performance venue to stay at the heart of local life for future generations.

But that work means the museum is planned to close in September until 2022 and the town hall at the end of the year until 2021 – so the council is keen to talk to businesses now about how best to work with them during that period.

An online survey has been created which is available now which aims to inform Paisley town centre businesses about the upcoming work and invites their views on its impact, and asks how they would like to be kept up to date, and their views on ongoing town centre regeneration work.

Staff from the council and Renfrewshire Leisure will also be contacting some of the businesses closest to the museum in coming weeks to talk to them in person about how the building’s closure and future construction work might affect them.

Anyone interested in keeping up to date with news relating to Paisley town centre can now sign up for Paisley town centre email news updates via the council’s new gov.delivery news service – available via Renfrewshire.gov.uk.

Other projects coming over the next few years include a new learning and cultural hub housing library services on the High Street, a £2.5m upgrade to Paisley Arts Centre, and major investment in key outdoor public spaces and transport junctions.

Renfrewshire Council leader Iain Nicolson launched the survey this week while meeting local business at a question-and-answer event organised by Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce.

He said: “The upcoming investment in cultural venues is the next stage of a journey aimed at transforming the whole area by promoting culture, heritage and events.

“Changes to the way people shop and live have changed the role of town centres everywhere – but we believe investing in our unique assets is the way we have to go to bring new life to Paisley.

“We are already seeing the benefits of that through our successful major events programme and in the boost to our reputation and profile which came through Paisley’s bid to be UK City of Culture 2021.

“We predict the revamped museum will quadruple current visitor numbers to 125,000 a year and the town hall will see visitors double to around 100,000. That will create new footfall, jobs and opportunities for the long-term – which will create benefits across Renfrewshire.

“But there will be a period of disruption while we get there and we are determined to work hand in hand with businesses to understand how we can help them during that period.

“Our starting point for doing that is this survey – I would encourage as many Paisley town centre businesses as possible to fill it out as your feedback will help us work with you better.”

The survey is at www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/haveyoursay