WWDN LABS x What We Do Now 'Creative Neighbourhoods' in Stranraer

The answer to a place problem is already in the room...

Our session at WWDN LABS x What We Do Now 'Creative Neighbourhoods' in Stranraer asked people to step into the shoes of a community group trying to save the Corrie Inn, a beloved local pub in the entirely fictional March Hill, Scotland. No real politics, no existing constraints, no baggage from the places people actually work in every day.

And that freedom matters. Not because the people in the room needed liberating from anything, but because when you remove the weight of the real, a room full of experienced practitioners can think without the ceiling. The session drew on knowledge and experience from across Scotland and beyond, and what emerged was sharp, grounded, and genuinely transferable. A blueprint that could be lifted and shaped to fit almost any similar situation, anywhere.

This is what I believe, and what I've seen time and again: the people in the room are always the right people. They carry the knowledge, the instincts, and the imagination. The facilitator's job is simply to design the conditions where that can come forward.

Stranraer was the perfect setting for this kind of thinking. What's happening there in arts, culture and heritage-led placemaking, from the ground up, is quietly extraordinary. Creative confidence rooted in a place, built by the people who actually live and work there. It deserves far and wide attention.

A huge thank you to Martin from Stove Network, who co-facilitated with such generosity - it was a genuine pleasure. And to everyone at Stove for the invitation, the warmth, and the work you do every day. And of course, to everyone who made the journey to Stranraer, brought their whole experience into the room, played along with the fiction, and helped build something genuinely useful.

You were, as always, exactly the right people.

#Placemaking #CreativeNeighbourhoods #CommunityLed #Stranraer #Scotland #WhatWeDoNow #StoveNetwork