East Dunbartonshire Council have been awarded £361,000 for Kirkintilloch town centre from the second round of the Scottish government's Town Centre Regeneration Fund.

The council applied to the fund and the award will used to complete preliminary works to the site at Glasgow Road in preparation for future development.

They will demolish the annexe building at the Town Hall and make public realm improvements around the Auld Kirk Museum to provide a better access and information point for visitors and tourists to the Antonine Wall World Heritage Site.

Councillor Billy Hendry, Convener of the Council’s development and Infrastructure Committee, said: "This is great news for Kirkintilloch town centre. It will allow us to continue making improvements which are important developments in our on-going strategy to improve the town centres in East Dunbartonshire.

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"Not only do projects such as these make the town centres more attractive to the existing users of the town centres, they also help attract new visitors and that can only be good for increasing trade and provide economic stimulus to these towns and their traders.

"It is important that people can have pride in their local town centre and this money will help us make changes local people can be proud of."

Recently £100,000 upgrading works were completed in Regent Gardens in Kirkintilloch.

Bushes were cleared, the ground levelled, high quality steps installed along with new paving, plants and trees. New lighting and power points were installed to allow wider range of uses for the area throughout the year.

Funding for this project came through City Growth Fund, which only allows the money to be spent on capital projects such as this and the works were completed ahead of schedule.

East Dunbartonshire Council will now work alongside local partners in Kirkintilloch to deliver the Regeneration Fund projects before the end of the financial year.

(GK/KMcA)