Venue: Council Chambers, East Ayrshire Council Headquarters, London Road

Date: 14 May 2026

For this session we welcomed Lucy Broadie of Scottish Water to deliver a presentation on Strategic Drainage Partnership working.

Scottish Water highlighted the importance of having a strategic drainage and water management vision as part of a masterplan and early engagement and collaboration ‘to get it right’ at the start.

Kilmarnock has significant flooding challenges and a lack of permeable Blue / Green infrastructure in its town centre as such developing a ‘Water Vision’ for Kilmarnock would be a best practice approach to water mitigation, designing for climate change and increasing biodiversity in the town.

Lucy explained how working with local authorities, regulators and communities leads to better rainwater and flood management. We heard how partnership working supports blue‑green infrastructure, improves water quality and builds climate resilience as she shared practical examples of how place‑based planning delivers better outcomes for communities and makes smarter use of public investment.

All in all, it was an extremely inspiring talk from Lucy and a key Partnership that can help us transform our town centre.

Siobhan McGale

Senior Architect

March 10 2026

Kilmarnock Town Centre Masterplan Be Inspired Talks and Tours:

Built Heritage and Townscape Iceini Projects : Nick Walker

Notes from Siobhan McGale

"We had a fantastic talk from Nick Walker from Iceni Projects on Built Heritage and Townscape as part of our Be inspired programme. We are so grateful to Nick for volunteering his time and knowledge to help us on our master planning journey.

Key take aways from the day:

• changing the negative narratives around our towns and cities

• the importance of analysing built heritage early on, identifying impacts, risk opportunity and then designing out negative impacts.

• assessing your heritage asset categories and relatability with NPF4 & HES.

• Using digital platforms / software to analyse and test ideas and massing impacts. Nick gave a thoughtful acknowledgement in the presentation to the recent fire in Glasgow and to our own fire / heritage loss on King Street. Overall, a fantastic presentation, discussion, and reflection session.

"We are delighted with the turn out today to this talk, so thank you very much to everyone who attended and great to see a mixture of disciplines in the room.

"Thank you to East Ayrshire Leisure for the room hire at the beautiful and fitting heritage venue : The Dick Institute. If you are in Kilmarnock please come and visit the fantastic Malky McCormick exhibition running till May. Worth a visit. https://lnkd.in/ewBd4BMe"

Siobhan McGale

Senior Architect

February 2026

On 3 February 2026, East Ayrshire Council was delighted to welcome ERZ Landscape Architects to present their landscape design and approach on the Maryhill North Glasgow Masterplan. The talk allowed councillors and council officers the chance to see what a landscape led masterplan entails and how this could be applied to Kilmarnock Town Centre.

ERZ Landscape Architects also showcased some other projects which were relatable to the urban fabric of Kilmarnock Town Centre.

Maryhill North Development:

The first landscape-led housing development in Glasgow, Maryhill North, is designed around water courses, greenspace, and active travel.

Erz have partnered with Maryhill Housing Association for several years, developing and refining the plans for a new neighbourhood which recognises the needs of the climate change and biodiversity emergencies. In 2023, ERZ were employed to lead delivery of phase 1, supported by Anderson Bell Christie Architects, and Civic Engineers.

The designs work with the natural topography of the site and the landscape design takes precedence and will inform the future architectural design of the buildings.

The management of Glasgow’s generous rainfall has been resolved via a water-management strategy that also enhances civic and domestic spaces through the creation of channels, ponds, and wetlands.

Key takeaways

The key takeaways from the day was looking at master planning as a landscape led approach and developing layers of the landscape that address key issues like rainwater mitigation, flooding mitigation and increasing green corridors to improve biodiversity.

November 2025

On 27 November our Master Planning and Regeneration Team attended the Scotland's Town Partnership Conference to discuss, learn, and connect with professionals across the industry.

The conference theme was “Investment and Innovation: Delivering for Scotland’s Economy". It explored how towns and cities can build resilient, inclusive, and liveable places that power Scotland’s economy for the next generation.

The conference featured:

• Exhibition and BIDs Pavilion showcasing solutions and opportunities for towns and city centres.
• The launch and live demonstration of the next Understanding Scottish Places (USP.scot), Scotland’s pioneering place-based data tool.
• Walking tours of Glasgow to see culture, heritage, and regeneration in action
• Panel discussions and workshops on reimagining regeneration, creative collaboration, resilient neighbourhoods, sustainable finance models, and future-proofing places.
• Plenaries and international perspectives on placemaking, real investment in practice, and delivering for future generation

Feedback

“We had a fantastic day at the #STP25 conference representing East Ayrshire Council. As we begin our Master Plan journey for Kilmarnock, it was the perfect timing to meet industry professionals leading the way in Town Centre Regeneration.

Key take aways:

• partnership working is essential
• grit, determination and humility
• the vision is essential
• change “risk adverse” culture
• national structural changes
• towns moving from Recovery to “Recovered”
• Importance of creative business and finance models
  speculate to accumulate
• what is the story to be told?
• Focus on USP (unique selling proposition)
• All stakeholders in the same direction

"Fantastic opening speech about Glasgow from Susan Aitken and inspirational closing presentation on Copenhagen's Urban regeneration strategy presented by Monica Magnussen. Great to see Local and Global representation at the event.”

Siobhan McGale

Senior Architect Master Planning Team

November 2025

On 10 November 2025 the Kilmarnock Strategic Group visited Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire Councils to learn about their master planning journey to date and seek inspiration from their various recently delivered projects and projects currently onsite.

The tour of Paisley involved visiting the following buildings:

• Paisley Town Hall with Presentation of Master planning Strategy
• Paisley Town Centre Library - Collective Architecture
• Paisley Art Museum a world-class museum for the people

The tour also included:

• Presentation in Council Offices
• Tour of the Artizan Market Site
• Tour of Glencairn Museum /Library
• Housing Waterfront Developments Waterfront Path | West Dunbartonshire Council
• Clydebank Masterplan/ Housing Clydebank Town Centre | West Dunbartonshire Council

Feedback

“ We had a fantastic visit on Monday to both Paisley Town Centre and West Dunbartonshire Council to learn about their master planning journey.

"The day was full of a lot of take aways, the main points that resonated with me:

• Invest time in your Brief and Vision - get it right and plan it right
• Use it as your sounding board as you move through the process.
• Celebrate your wins and have strategic reviews on progress each year
• Master planning is a long journey and it’s easy to lose sight of progress
• Keep a united core team that are working together
• Have a simple and unified vision

Siobhan McGale,

Senior Architect Master Planning Team

Be Inspired Event - Mid-Steeple Quarter Dumfries

September 2025

On 5 September 2025 the master planning team attended the Glasgow Institute of Architects Midsteeple Quarter Talk and Tour to gain further insight into the project and the community led model implemented in Dumfries High Street.

Midsteeple Quarter is a community benefit society; a community-led organisation aiming to regenerate Dumfries High Street. The Standard Building is the first completed building project by Midsteeple Quarter and comprises enterprise and commercial spaces together with residential units. ARPL Architects designed the Standard Building to be highly efficient, flexible and adaptable to the needs of the tenants and the wider community.

Key takeaways

• Understanding different funding and delivery models of Community led and socially sustainable projects
• Success of a project which combines community space and town centre living
• Various sustainability models utilising geothermal mass, ASHP and MVHR

Be Inspired Event : Aberdeen Inspired

August 2025

On 8 August members of the Kilmarnock Taskforce Group and council officers travelled to Aberdeen to meet with the Aberdeen Inspired(External link) team.

The day started with an overview presentation in Aberdeen Inspired(External link) central offices, followed by a tour around the city to observe the key transformation projects delivered to date. The tour visited:

• Ship Row Village(External link)
• Nuart Aberdeen(External link) routes
• Union Terrace(External link) Award Winner of Andrew Doolan Prize: Doolan Prize 2025: Scotland’s best building
• Aberdeen Art Gallery(External link) Art Gallery | Aberdeen City Council

Feedback

“An inspiring and worthwhile day to Aberdeen to learn how they are addressing the issues of town centre regeneration through a strong masterplan approach, Upper Floor Vacancies Initiative, Union Street public realm, new street marketplace and Street Art. It was good to walk through the amazing Union Terrace Gardens and it was so busy with families and people enjoying the summer weather. Thank you, Adrian Watson and Ross Grant of Aberdeen Inspired for making us so welcome and being so helpful. It is so important to learn from others and the changing role of town centres and how we are addressing it. Looking forward to remaining in contact and using what we learned in Kilmarnock Town Centre.”

Pamela Clifford

EAC Chief Planning Officer