Dalmellington Area Centre
What is it?
Based in Ayrshire’s Doon Valley, the Dalmellington Centre is a one stop shop allowing locals access a wide range of public services under one roof. The first of its kind in Scotland, the £2.3m purpose built building was opened in 2001 and has since won a clutch of regional and national awards.
What was the impetus for it?
East Ayrshire Council was aware that communities outside of the major towns of Kilmarnock and Cumnock were not ideally placed to access council services. Therefore, they established a ‘Decentralisation Scheme’. This focused on devolving decision making power across the local authority and bringing services to the customer. The Council was keen to work in partnership in order to:
• Bring as wide a range of services to local residents as possible.
• Make efficient use of the building space they had available.
• Access additional sources of finance.
Who are the partners?
The organisations involved in the establishment of the centre include East Ayrshire Council, the NHS, the police and private sector organisations. The services provided in the Dalmellington Area Centre include a GP practice, dental practice, community nursing, full range of council departments, police station and a business technology centre which offers IT training and an internet café.
Due to the flexible attitude of the project leadership right from the early stages of the project the number of agencies involved expanded during the course of the project.
How was it funded?
East Ayrshire Council and Strathclyde Police both committed funding from their capital budgets. Additional funding was secured from the local Social Inclusion Partnership, Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire and the European Regional Development Fund. An application was also made to the Scottish Executive’s Primary and Community Care Premises Modernisation Programme, which awarded the project £1.02m in June 2000.
These resources provided the project with funding in excess of £2.3m.
Critical Success Factors
The success of the project can be attributed to:
• The commitment of the partners to make the project succeed, work together and be flexible
• Support for the development at a senior level within each partner organisation together with the support of local politicians throughout the project
• The development’s processes, structures, organisation, project management and reporting arrangements were all well constructed and agreed on by all partners giving the project a sound basis to move forward. Such a structure allowed the project to be completed on time and to a high standard
• Creativity and the ability to exploit opportunities, whether in developing strategic relationships or in identifying sources of funding
Find out more
If you are interested in finding out more about this development please contact James Lally, Best Value and Performance Officer, East Ayrshire Council, Council HQ, London Road, Kilmarnock (Tel 01563 576 148)
