Project: Cupar Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (CARS), Fife
Theme: Joint Delivery Agreements: Local Authority/Trust Partnership
The Project
| Grantee organisation | Fife Council |
| Total HES funding | £1,019,000 |
| Total Scheme Cost | £7,078,296 |
| Scheme Delivery Period | 2014-2019 |
Cupar CARS was delivered in conjunction with a Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLFH). A range of building repair projects, training, engagement, and heritage activities were delivered as part of the scheme.
These all helped to achieve the scheme vision for the Conservation Area which included the repair of deteriorating buildings and finding new uses for key historic buildings to bring about greater social and economic activity for the town.
One of these key historic buildings was the vacant Burgh Chambers, repaired and brought back into use as short-term holiday let accommodation.
Cupar Town Centre. Image @ FHBT
Theme: Joint Delivery Agreements
Since the Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (CARS) funding programme was introduced by HES in 2007, Fife Council have been awarded funding to deliver a number of schemes throughout the Fife region, with Cupar being just one example of these.
In all cases, Fife Council was the applicant and grantee, but the schemes have jointly delivered with Fife Historic Buildings Trust (FHBT). Whilst the Trust have co-ordinated the delivery of projects on behalf of Fife Council and led on some project elements (e.g. priority buildings and small third-party grant projects), Fife Council has led on others (e.g. public realm).
This active and productive joint delivery arrangement has been in place for over 20 years and is facilitated by a collaboration agreement where Fife Council provides partnership funding to the Trust. This funding helps to support the Trust’s costs associated with delivering these schemes and other historic building repair projects.
Key Findings/Conclusions
The Fife Council and FHBT delivery model is successful as both organisations have an extensive range of conservation and project implementation skills and have developed a long-standing working partnership with shared objectives for the conservation and regeneration of Fife’s historic environment.
Partnership working can be advantageous when delivering these types of projects as different partners can offer different skills, experience, and types of support to complement one another. For example, with Cupar CARS, Fife Council could offer support from a financial and legal perspective, and the Trust could provide support through their knowledge and expertise in delivering historic building repair projects. The Trust also occasionally take on the ownership or long-term lease of buildings to help find new uses for them as was the case with Burgh Chambers in Cupar. Read more about Cupar Burgh Chambers and other FHBT projects on their website.