Much has changed for the better in the Garnock Valley over the last decade - the rejuvenation of Geilsland in Beith, the Garnock Community Campus and Lochshore, and Dalry's community garden and Community Sports Club, to name but a few things.
There's always more action needed to tackle the challenges our communities face. But what?
In 2024-25, community groups across the Garnock Valley are coming together to produce a plan for community action and public services & facilities, supported by North Ayrshire Council and a specialist team.
The plan will map out future priorities for community action and public investment in our main towns of Beith, Dalry and Kilbirnie, plus the villages of Barrmill, Burnhouse, Gateside, Glengarnock, Longbar and surrounding countryside.
It will be the community’s agenda for future action and investment, as well as being a Local Place Plan to guide future development.
The Plan will be our plan, for our Garnock Valley, based on our priorities. Read on to find out how you can shape it.
HOW YOU CAN SHAPE THE PLAN
Although the new plan for the Garnock Valley has to learn from what’s come before, it should not simply be a rehash of old ideas. Circumstances change, things progress, and people move on. Any plan for the future needs to reflect that.
The plan needs to understand people’s current aspirations for life in the Garnock Valley: what do we as a community want for the future?
So, during the second half of 2024 and early 2025, three stages of activity are taking place to give everyone plenty of opportunities to answer that question, and make sure that the new plan is rooted in what you - the community - wants.
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First of all, we’re not starting from scatch. As you can see if you scroll down this page, there’s a wealth of information from the last decade’s work across the Garnock Valley. That’s our starting point.
To complement that, in summer 2024 everyone in the Garnock Valley was given the opportunity to say what they want for the Garnock Valley, by answering a few simple questions on a survey delivered to every household and business.
You can see an analysis of the 750 responses further down this webpage.
We’re also engaging directly with young people (through the Garnock Valley Youth Forum and local schools), a small selection of local businesses to understand their future aspirations, and the Garnock Valley Local Disability Forum.
All this information creates a strong foundation to move onto the second stage.
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Attention shifts to community events across the Garnock Valley to share and explore the aspirations revealed in the first stage, compare them to previous work, reflect on other information that’s available, and agree priorities for the Plan. The main focus is day-long community events in Kilbirnie, Beith and Dalry in mid November, plus shorter village events in Barrmill/Burnhouse, Gateside and Glengarnock in January.
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This will kick off with production of a first draft of the Plan for everyone to check and improve. It won’t be a done deal at this stage: the whole point is to test it and make it better.
The Plan will then be updated before going to North Ayrshire Council for registration as a “Local Place Plan”. You can find out more about what that means on this page.
Then we all get on with the hard work of making the Plan happen!
For more information on each stage, expand the sections below:
WE’RE NOT STARTING FROM SCRATCH
The first foundation of a good plan is work that’s already been done. And the Garnock Valley has had plenty of surveys, consultations and plans over the last decade.
We’ve brought all that information together in one place, as it contains vital pointers for the future - together with this recent information profile about the Garnock Valley.
Check out previous work to access the online library of over 20 plans and reports from the last 10 years, together with a summary of what they say.
COMMUNITY SURVEY 2024
You can get a sense of community priorities across the Garnock Valley from the infographic below. The survey identified nine persistent challenges which have come up again and again over the last 10 years, and asked people which should be priorities for action by scoring each one from 1 (least important) to 5 (most important). 742 people scored the priorities:
To give an up-to-date picture of community priorities for the new Plan, almost 750 people across the Garnock Valley completed a survey in summer 2024.
The survey then asked what actions should be taken to tackle those persistent challenges - across the Garnock Valley as a whole, and within individual towns and villages.
As well as pinpointing clear priorities for the new Plan to focus on, the results give a fascinating insight into community aspirations, as these infographics show:
The community priorities that emerged can be summarised as follows:
To see the survey results in full, including transcriptions of all responses, take a look at the detailed report below or download it here. It’s full of great ideas and gems of information!
Quite apart from forming the foundation of the new Plan, the survey results are valuable evidence in their own right for anybody who is making decisions about the Garnock Valley… the Council, Scottish Government, Transport Scotland, NHS and other public, private and voluntary bodies.
YOU’VE TOLD US WHAT YOU THINK.
NOW LET’S DECIDE WHAT TO DO.
The priorities emerging from the community survey and previous work shouldn’t come as a surprise. These challenges have persisted for many years. The question is: what are we going to do about them?
TOWN EVENTS
Each of the event days in Beith, Dalry and Kilbirnie comprised a drop-in with display materials, different ways of interacting and commenting, town centre walkabout, and evening chitchat event for community groups and others to share information and discuss future action.
As well as previous work and the community survey results (see above), facts and figures relating to the challenges facing the Garnock Valley were on display; you can see them in the gallery below or download a PDF of them all.
At each town event, people were encouraged to make suggestions of concrete actions focussed around the main priorities emerging from the community survey and previous work summarised in the previous section.
Check out everyone's suggestions in maps, words and images by scrolling through the document below or download it:
VILLAGE EVENTS
To work out priorities for the main villages, events were held in Gateside, Barrmill and Glengarnock in January. There were busy turnouts in Gateside and Barrmill, with over 30 folk at each event - including a strong showing from Burnhouse residents. The Glengarnock event was quieter with ten people.
All three village events produced lots of valuable information and ideas. To find out more, scroll through the report below or download it:
LATEST NEWS
All the latest news...
TRAVEL SURVEY RESULTS PUBLISHED
Were you one of over 550 people who responded to the survey in autumn 2024 about how you travel around and beyond the Garnock Valley?
The results are now live for everyone to see. Check out chapter 5 of the report - there are some fascinating titbits there about how travel affects all our lives.
With so many people responding, the results are solid evidence that give the community, the Council, public transport operators and others a really strong case to improve public transport and infrastructure.
YOUNG PEOPLE
Young people are our future: they must have their say!
So, with support from the Garnock Valley Youth Forum, activities took place with hundreds of young people from Garnock Valley primary and secondary schools in February 2025. Young people from a number of schools came together for workshop events in Garnock Campus.
What are their priorities? Click the button below to find out!
DRAFT PLAN
Based on all the community input and previous work described on this page, the draft Plan covering the whole of the Garnock Valley is now bring prepared. It will be ready for everyone to check and review in Spring 2025.
We’ll be organising community events to share and talk through the draft Plan, as well as publishing the draft online and in hard copy.
The draft Plan won’t be perfect first time, so we’ll be looking for your feedback to get it just right.
Sign up to the e-bulletin below to hear when the consultation starts!
KEEP UP-TO-DATE
This webpage will be updated regularly during 2024 and 2025 as the Plan takes shape. Don’t forget to check back on progress.
If you want to be the first to find out about website updates, events and other news, sign up for email updates by leaving your email address below.