SCOTLAND’S Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning, Kevin Stewart, said ambitious community-led plans to revitalise Dumfries town centre could become a template for other parts of the country.

He was in Dumfries, where The National held its latest second anniversary roadshow on Wednesday, to launch a national competition for designers to develop a new architectural vision.

The Midsteeple Quarter is an innovative plan to breathe new life into Dumfries town centre by repopulating a section of the High Street as a mixed live/work area, following a community buy-out of empty shops.

Stewart said there were “interesting things” going on across the country and ideas such as those being used in Dumfries could be extended elsewhere. The competition has been organised by the community-led Stove Network.

Stewart said: “I have been really impressed with their vision, and what they are doing is a really good example of community-led regeneration which I am very keen to encourage. I would urge all of the agencies in Dumfries and Galloway – including the council here – to get behind this community-led regeneration to make their vision a reality.”

Stewart said the scheme is an example of different approaches being tried across Scotland and highlighted the fact town centres are changing with more and more people shopping online.

“We need to think differently in town centres, and that is why it is important that we have organisations such as the Stove Network, who are thinking differently,” Stewart went on. “They have a great vision which hopefully will see major differences in Dumfries town centre – and it may become a template for other places.”

Prizes will be awarded for the top three designs in the competition, which will be exhibited in Dumfries and Glasgow during the summer.

The Stove Network wants to see more buildings brought under local control and create new housing and services on the High Street.

Stewart was joined by the Midsteeple Quarter project community partnership, which includes representatives from the University of the West of Scotland, the president of the Glasgow Institute of Architects, and Matt Baker from the Stove Network.

Martin O’Neill, is a curatorial member of the Stove Network, which was launched in 2012 by a group of local artists who got together after the visual arts department of the council folded.

The network runs a cafe and community arts hub where locals are currently stitching a mosaic map of Dumfries town centre.

O’Neill said: “We took over an empty shop unit in the Midsteeple Quarter last year to engage people in discussions about how to re-imagine the High Street and how can we do things differently to breathe new life back into the town centre.

“Now we are in partnership with the UWS and various others to actually do this and that is why Kevin Stewart was here to launch our architecture competition.”

South of Scotland MSP Joan McAlpine supports the Stove Network and last week she wrote to Next to urge it to rethink its possible move from the town centre.

She wrote: “There has been a lot of hard work going into regenerating the town centre in recent years, with organisations such as The Stove putting forward bold plans for housing, recent rebranding of the Loreburne Centre and measures in place from the Scottish Government to encourage investment.”