With a great street pattern and a number of notable historic buildings, Paisley has inherited an excellent base on which to develop public realm improvements designed to achieve a better living environment and enhanced economic prosperity.
Just six miles from Glasgow, Paisley faced strong competition from its neighbouring city and other places and so had to develop a strong offering. The first step to achieving this, and Gillespies initial involvement, was the preparation of a public realm strategy and traffic management plan in conjunction with Renfrew District Council and Strathclyde Regional Council.
The strategy lays out a vision for improving the spaces around key buildings and the main shopping street, the High Street. Proposals for new road construction were developed to enable the removal of traffic from the High Street and its reduction in other important streets and places. As a consequence, a programme of new streetscape projects was established and this has been systematically implemented over seven years at a total cost of seven million pounds.
