Let your imagination run riot.

In the past two days I've spoken to two different weel-kent Penicuikers who, I honestly believe, have both very actively tried their damnest to help Penicuik. (Nae names, nae pack-drill - but one of them is paid to work for us while the other is "just" a public minded resident.)

I got the feeling that both are beginning to dispair.

So here's a wee idea.

Instead of us all (me included) simply reporting shop closures, doom and gloom etc, how's about we try coming up with ideas.

The rules are that you can imagine that money is no object (which it obviously is), but you can't turn the clock back. (Dinnae start bleating aboot how the place was back in your childhood in nineteen hunner an' frozen stiff etc.)

How do we enliven the (so called) Town Centre (which isnae in the centre at a'; it's on the south end of a sprawling mess of a town, thanks to idiot planners)?

I personally huvnae a scoobie how to sort it. Have any of you?

Ideal opportunity tomorrow morning. Tesco Car Park 9.30am. Make a difference to the way Penicuik looks. Too much talking goes on. Not enough action. Plenty folk are oan here moaning their T*** off about this that and the other. Show me the money!

The problem is that for evey person that does want to make a difference there are many more who could not care less. The litter clean ups, every year these are organised and all sorts of rubbish is cleared, within months these same areas are full of crap again. The council put in displays along John Street, what happened the bushes got nicked. Todays culture is one of I'm alright, bugger the rest of you. I know there are many, many people who DO care but they must at times feel like they are fighting a loosing battle...

And the apathy continues. 20 volunteers out of a population of over 20000. Everyone seems to have an "excuse"

Did my bit for cleaning rubbish, all the crap that gets thrown in my garden by the mindless few that think bins are only for others to use.

I do that as well. I stay right next to a primary school, so you can imagine how bad it gets. You have just accentuated what
the fundamental problem with Penicuik residents is. I'll see to my own! That's why there in no community in the Community of Penicuik

Hello,
I am new to this forum and just found it by chance, lost over an hour reading old threads, funny to read things about an area that affects you! I have lived here for over 6 years. Despite initial reservations, will now defend penicuik to the hilt.

I dont normally voice my opinion re the state of Penicuik town centre, outwith my group of friends but thought I might add my bit in here.

If I was to have my way and I am sure it wouldn't be that popular, i would open up the precinct to cars one way and have parking on both sides, we are a lazy bunch and need to see the shops from our cars. Also introduces Penicuik to the Peebles commuters who pass here every day.

As a council I would force all landlords of shops left empty for more than 6 months, to have tenants in shops or raise the rates to the same level as the rents they are asking for plus a monthly penalty for each month empty, hopefully this would allow them to think twice about asking rents similar to what you can pay in Morningside or Stockbridge. - be realistic.

The council have to get tough on landlords leaving property empty.

Also have rates for businesses but a token one which wont put businesses off.

We need a big idea, investment in a commercial popular culture place which will bring people to Penicuik from Edinburgh etc. Not a museum or paper gallery, there is room for that and I love it but its not for everyone. A long time ago, I lived in Edinburgh and we all came to the Happy castle as it was the nearest, so people will travel here. Personally, I wouldnt have spent the money on a competition style swimming pool with no viewing area but a fun type pool like the one in Perth that the council has, it would have brought people to Penicuik. It was roughly the same price. God, we drive to Perth to go to it!

Maybe the council have to think big, the biggest and best playpark / outdoor adventure area in the Lothians, better than vogries somewhere where people would travel to. A go ape area, kids parks etc etc but think big, like biggest in Scotland big. (I know you said money no problem) Add on a museum re the paper history etc extensive walking / biking maps of the area and bingo - all ages catered for.

I know, I know, we all love walking round the estate when its quiet and you cant believe we have this gem to ourselves but at the end of the day, for penicuik centre to survive we need to create a buss and attract more people, we are not a tourist spot like peebles but we are 15 mins from 500,000 people and if we can get them here, we can try and get them to our cafes and small boutique type shops.

We will never have a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker survive with Penicuik folk alone, Straiton sorted that one out but maybe again we might have an artisan baker, local bookshop or small antique shop who can pitch to the Edinburgh masses, Peebles commuter or to the more discerning Penicuik crowd (dont take that the wrong way) and survive to make Penicuik a really cool place to live.

Hi anoutsider and welcome to the forum. You have some interesting ideas although I'm not sure how viable they would be. In particular the idea of opening up the precinct to traffic again has been suggested in the past. I wonder though, with the decline in the number and variety of shops over the years, whether the amount needing to be spent converting it back to a road would be justified.

Chris, it's not unique to Penicuik and you know it's not! It's cultural across most of the UK.
I live about 200 metres from a primary school and I never see the sort of mess I used to see in Britain. The children who don't have lunch in the school canteen go home; there is a shop but it has never occurred to the owner to provide "grazing" material for 8-year-olds nor has it occurred to the 8-year-olds to go looking for it, nor has it occurred to their mothers to shove money in their hands and leave them to fend for themselves food-wise.
But then I live in rural France not urban Scotland.
Penicuik has some near-unique problems as I discovered in 40 years there, but litter is a common problem from John o'Groats to Lands End and the politician/social reformer/benevolent dictator/hypnotist who solves that problem will get a statue in every public square in Britain!
I can't answer for Paris or Lyon but everywhere else I've been — including Marseille on market day — people just do not drop litter. I suspect that is at least partly because most litter is food wrapping (includes drink containers) and people simply don't eat and drink while walking round the street.
(Of course within five minutes of the market packing up in Marseille, there was a squad out with brushes, hoses, and some very neat motorised vacuum cleaners getting rid of what detritus there was. As opposed to one wee man with a handcart!)

Mike, I always appreciate your contributions from a place I love to visit, and yes at times wished I lived there. Scotland or England..... Scotland. Midlothian or Strathclyde....... Midlothian. Dalkeith or Penicuik......Penicuik? All you have said merely adds to a view held by many in Penicuik that there is no Community now. Plenty out for themselves in one way or another. I acknowledge the fact that you have been involved amlot longer than I have in local matters (Penicuik that is) but in my short time, I have found that there is more hot air than would fill Richard Branson's balloon. Plenty talking. Plenty ideas,but no action. Perhaps the French have less hot air due to their diets. And Big It Up for the wee man with the cart

Hello, anoutsider!

This thread seems to have gone off in another direction, I'm afraid.

anoutsider wrote:

As a council I would force all landlords of shops left empty for more than 6 months, to have tenants in shops or raise the rates to the same level as the rents they are asking for plus a monthly penalty for each month empty, hopefully this would allow them to think twice about asking rents similar to what you can pay in Morningside or Stockbridge. - be realistic.

The council have to get tough on landlords leaving property empty.

Also have rates for businesses but a token one which wont put businesses off.

That seems a bit rough on landlords. I'm sure they don't actually want to have their properties empty while, quite probably, the bank is breathing down their necks for repayment of the loans they used to buy the properties with back in the "good times" before the crash.
It seems to be generally assumed that high rents and rates put new small businesses off in Penicuik. In fact, a business occupying premises with a rateble value of less than £100,000 can get substantial discounts on it's rates and may even having nothing to pay at all as far as rates are concerned.
Local rents aren't as bad as some think....... Shop around a bit and negotiate.

The real problem is the length of lease some landlords are insisting on (although I know that at least one has woken up to this point.) Any new small business is a risk. Most only survive two years at best....... And that's flaming awkward if you're locked into a five or ten year lease. It could be the difference between merely losing your business and losing everything.