Dunfermline: first ‘city conference’ a success as it bids to tap into new status

Business groups, city representatives, council officers, and community organisations all gathered at Pittencrieff Park’s Glen Pavilion on Tuesday to discuss the future of Scotland’s eighth city. Over 300 attended.

Councillor David Ross, leader of Fife Council, said: “This city conference will define the next chapters in Dunfermline’s story, and we are looking forward to working with all of our community partners to build a stronger, greener and fairer Dunfermline.”

He said the turnout showed a “real determination from everyone in Dunfermline to build on city status and seize the opportunities that it presents.”

Councillor James Calder, convener of the City of Dunfermline Area Committee, believed the conference was the first important step in a long journey, and he emphasised the importance of collaboration moving forward.

“There’s a lot of excitement about the opportunities for Dunfermline, but the key thing is about how we grasp them,” he said. “Ultimately everyone agrees that we need a partnership approach - rather than the council taking the lead or whoever taking the lead it’s a case of working together.”

The day was full of presentations, workshops and collaboration. Key topics included community wellbeing, economy, green spaces, inclusivity, tourism, sustainability and more.

Cllr Calder explained Dunfermline’s role as a smart city was one of the key themes: “We’re looking at making Dunfermline one of Scotland’s smart cities which means a better use of data and collaboration to improve the city,” he said.

However, the upcoming City Plan document will be one of the most concrete things to emerge from the event.

“It will be using all of the conversations from the conference,” Cllr Calder explained. Scribes took notes of every big conversation we had and they’re going to create a vision document that will be used to make our city plan. That will be used as our basis going forward.”

Councillor Derek Glen (Dunfermline Central, SNP), agreed that the conference was an overall success.

“There was an overwhelming willingness to recognise the value of collaboration and working together,” Cllr Glen described. “I think this conference was a staging post in a journey rather than a once and done event.”

He emphasised the importance of building on previous work rather than starting from scratch, pointing to many consultations and projects started by local community organisations over the last few years.

“What we’re looking for at the moment is funding and leadership to put these projects and plans into action rather than pretending we’re starting from a blank sheet of paper,” he added.

In closing the event, Gordon Mole, head of business and employability at Fife Council said: "We have a huge number of people here from several organisations, and we want to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to capitalise on Dunfermline’s prosperity moving forward."

The event is set to be the first of several discussions to work with community partners and provide opportunities for all stakeholders to voice their opinions and concerns and collaboratively discuss the shape Dunfermline will take as Scotland’s newest city.