Douglas Wheeler Associates and Austin-Smith:Lord have been appointed by Midlothian Council to work with the people of Penicuik to draw up proposals for the heritage regeneration of the town.

The work, which has been made possible through a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, will include developing repair proposals to restore buildings, improve streets and potentially develop new community activities in the town centre.

The consultation will focus on creating a community-led vision for the historic core of the town centre and work will also be conducted to gather the technical information needed to submit a further funding application to the Heritage Lottery Fund to carry out the proposed plan.

If the second funding application is successful, it will mean an award of up to £1.69 million over 5 years to implement the project from April 2018.  It will also release £725,000 of funding from Historic Environment Scotland.

In coming weeks, the consultation team will be launching an online questionnaire for local people, businesses and visitors as the first step in engaging with the community.

David Millar, Director and Head of Conservation at Austin-Smith:Lord commented: It’s great to be working alongside Douglas Wheeler on this project, getting to know the community in Penicuik and also the Council team who have successfully steered the project through the first stage of the Lottery funding process. The HLF funded Townscape Heritage Initiative has the real potential to improve the quality of the building stock but to also make town centres more vibrant and active and can encourage people in the community to learn about their heritage and even develop new skills. We are looking forward to starting the work immediately.”