Carluke Development Trust was incorporated in May 1999, as the result of a community consultation, with a remit to take forward the regeneration of the town.

The Trust is a company limited by guarantee and registered at Companies House, and a charity registered with the Inland Revenue in Scotland.

It sees itself as a community developer, interested in projects that will generate capital and revenue funds to sustain its work.

The Trust's objectives are:

• the management and development of the town with a focus on the precinct at the heart of the community;
• the marketing of the town to both the people who live there and these who may wish to invest in or visit Carluke;
• the improvement of the environment through specific projects and campaigns to raise awareness;
• the promotion of town events which add to the promotion, health and life of the community;
• the development of town facilities which will improve the employment prospects, leisure opportunities and commercial potential of the town.

Its regeneration strategy has a vision of Carluke as:

"A complete community, investing in its people and place, creating a quality of life through a real sense of involvement in the future. Carluke Development Trust will make things happen by harnessing resources and working together to achieve a sustainable and vibrant community."

The Trust is managed by a board of up to 13 volunteer directors, including office-bearers, and has a membership of just over 200, of which almost all are local residents and business people. At the time of writing, the board is aided by a full-time project manager, employed, through funding from Communities Scotland, for one year.

What the Trust is attempting to do is overturn the decline in the town, tackle the regeneration of the whole area and instil a sense of belonging and pride in the population.

One of its main areas of concentration is the enhancement of business development, principally in the town centre. This is particularly so as a number of the board members are former members of Carluke Business Group, which was subsumed into the Trust when it was established.

Background

In September 1997, Laurie Thompson Marketing produced a Marketing Study for the Carluke Business Group, "A Better Future for Carluke". That Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire (formerly LDA) funded report identified the key recommendation as the establishment of a Development Trust for Carluke. This was seen as the crucial foundation to the regeneration of the whole town. CDT currently has 220 members (there were 116 in June 2000).

The criteria for a development trust clarifies CDT's role and are that an organisation should be:

• engaged in the economic, environmental and social regeneration of a defined area or community;
• independent and aiming for self-sufficiency;
• not for private profit;
• community-based and community owned;
• actively involved in partnerships between the community, voluntary, private and public sectors.

The Carluke Business Group was the driving force behind the move and in May 1999 the Carluke Development Trust was formed with the Business Group being subsumed within it. It has since then worked through a National Lottery funded consultation and training programme for members and directors.

The CDT is also attempting to see its work and way of working in a Clyde Valley perspective, where this could become a model for the regeneration of other medium sized rural settlements such as Lanark, Biggar and so on.