Stromness Townscape Heritage Initiative (STHI)

 

What is the Stromness Townscape Heritage Initiative?

The Stromness Townscape Heritage Initiative project aims to provide assistance of up to £3.56 million of funding including £1.44 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £872,580 from Historic Scotland.

Most of the money will be used to revitalise the Stromness Conservation Area, through a mixture of building repair, reinstatement of architectural detail, and bringing vacant space back into use - the emphasis being always on the conservation led economic regeneration of the area. Funding will also be available for improvements to the public realm, a term used to describe the streets and open spaces and there will be help with training.

The THI and the THI project team, who are based in the Old Academy buildings in Stromness, have been set up to operate until June 2014. Major projects, have already been targeted and include the redevelopment of the former Commercial Hotel which has lain semi empty and underused for many years. Grants will also be made available to a number of privately owned properties to assist the owners with the appropriate conservation repairs, details of which can be found on the Property Grants pages.

Funding for all the projects requires to be secured and approved by summer of 2012. Building works on approved projects may continue throughout 2013.