Tower St Pocket Park

Tower Street Pocket Park in Cumnock was born out of the Cumnock Action plan. This was a group that was established in 2015 by local people to make the town a better place to live, work and visit for everyone.

After a consultation and questionnaire that was widely distributed to residents and local businesses, it was clear that one of the priorities was to improve derelict areas of the town.

John Senior has been involved with the Cumnock Action plan from the very beginning. The first phase launched in 2016 and ran until 2021. Making better use of this site was a high priority in the eyes of the local community.

"We obtained a licence to occupy the site and Central Scotland Green Network that later became the Green Action Trust, led on the project. They brought in CCLP to help fund it. This is a great place for folk to buy food in the Square and come here to enjoy it. The park is very well used, there were a couple of lads here when I arrived enjoying the view and the peace."

The CAP group supports other groups as well as making sure the opinions of the people of Cumnock are heard. John and his fellow volunteers attend public meetings to hear from government and police etc while making clear the wishes and objectives laid out in the action plan. They then report back maintaining a proper partnership approach.

The NEST group was part of CAP until they formed a SCIO and became a charity group in their own right. The Woodrow park group is on track to do the same thing.

"There is lots of networking through CCLP, Carolann McPhilemy comes to most of the meetings, the Community Council Partnership Board, the Coalfields Regeneration Trust with Taylor, the Community Council. My position is to try and give a voice to the people of Cumnock and report back to them what is going on. It is getting harder and harder to get people to volunteer. With the help of the CCLP we have got some younger people involved with this action plan and we hope to carry them forward to the next one."

The second phase of the action plan is just about to launch into consultation with questionnaires going out now. This plan will look forward to the next five years. There may be development ideas now that the park has been established. There is more work to do on the piece of land between this park and the bus station beyond. This was in the original plan but Covid, rising costs and other factors prevented that happening this time around.

"We would very much like to have groups using the park for activities that would engage the public. We had hoped to get groups in for musical and artistic events. Muirkirk Creatives planned to come here recently but the weather was too inclement so they used the church hall."

The park provides a much more pleasant and safer route between the town center and the bus station than before. It is well used as a rest area, a spot to enjoy a takeaway or just a place to take a little time out in nature.