Strathaven CARS

In 1976, Strathaven was designated an ‘outstanding’ area of conservation due to having a large number of listed buildings. This led to the designation of the Strathaven Conservation Area regeneration Scheme (CARS) and the Strathaven CARS Partnership.

At the start of 2017, John Gilbert Architects were appointed by South Lanarkshire Council to act as Conservation Architects for the Strathaven CARS scheme. This entailed carrying out an overall inspection of the buildings in the CARS area and preparing a detailed repair and maintenance guide for owners within the CARS area. This will be followed up by a number of seminars on conservation for interested owners and the public. I addition we were appointed to inspect and survey in detail two properties which would be treated as pilot projects in order to signal to others the availability of grant support for repairs.

Although there is limited funding in the CARS scheme, we believe it can make an impact when focussed on key buildings. We have also carried out another survey and report for a building owner and hope to eventually be taking all the schemes forward to tender stage.