ABSTRACT
Stirling University was built in 1967 on a greenfield campus. It has just under 12,000 students and has generated a range of spin-off businesses in its Innovation Park. The town’s attractive setting and excellent road and rail links mean that it is increasingly seen as a commuter centre for people working in Edinburgh and Glasgow. As a result, it has one of the fastest growing populations in Scotland and this level of growth is one of the major challenges it now faces. Also looking to the future, the recently introduced Going Carbon Neutral Stirling project is working from the grassroots up to bring about a significant reduction in the town’s carbon footprint and has attracted £2 million in government funding. The historic city’s topography creates a linear layout not dissimilar to Edinburgh’s Old Town, with the compact core clustered around the ‘tail’ of the castle’s crag. The ravages of 20th-century planning have arguably done more damage that the previous 2,000 years of conflict. The gem of a train station opens onto an expanse of roads and the shabby rear end of the high street. A dual carriageway severs the town from its river, although plans for the 40-acre former army barracks at Forthside will provide a new civic square and open up the river front with a new footbridge. Stirling’s relatively small size (just 45,000 people) and intimacy ensures that it is a city on a human scale, where local worthies are commemorated in the names of its streets and where the castle no longer dominates the town but hosts events like the Scottish Fashion Awards. As the pressures for growth come to bear on the town perhaps bravery is called for again, as Stirling faces new challenges for a sustainable future and opportunities to reconnect and rediscover itself.
