Friday September 4th 2026
West Lothian Council headquarters
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Stuart Sommerville
West Lothian’s Pride in Place board is looking for locals in the three communities to bring hopes for the future on board.
A ten-year £20m fund has been set up with Westminster government money to spend in Blackburn, Whitburn and Fauldhouse.
The chair of the board appointed to administer the £2m a year spending said he wanted to hear from the communities on how the money should be spent.
Eric Lumsden, a Whitburn based lawyer, heads the Pride in Place Board set up earlier this year.
The board has 16 members including the local MPs and MSPs, a local police officer, a GP, the community Development Trusts and representatives of the Xcite charity. There are also two senior high school to give a youth voice,
Eric now wants to hear from people in each of the communities involved. “We’re looking for three representatives from each of the communities,” he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
“We will be going out shortly and looking for three residents from Blackburn, Whitburn and Fauldhouse to come onto the board. We’re not looking for people with their own agendas. We’re looking for people who are there for the benefit of their whole community.”
The board will have wide discretion as to what it uses its annual funding for and spending is split between revenue- that is ongoing costs- and capital one- off expenditure as long term investment.
That could include buying buildings to develop as community spaces.
Revenue costs could be in improving the looks of town centres.
The board has already decided that its meeting will rotate around all three communities “so that members can se what’s there.” New Audio Visual (AV equipment) is being installed at three community hubs in each town to allow for hybrid meetings. Eric added that this AV equipment is for the use of all organisations using the hubs.
Initial discussions have identified that many local charity groups “operate in a silo” with little interaction with others. Eric sees one role for the new board as one of bringing groups together once or twice a year so they can “open up the toolbox”. If one charity cannot provide help they could find that there’s another operating nearby which could.
Eric stressed that the board is not there to take on jobs that the council is obliged to do- such as mending potholes. The £2m a year fund is there to provide the extra, the added benefit.
Eric is adamant that the three areas are very different, and there will be no one solution. He stressed: “Decisions are going to have to come from the communities involved. This has to be community driven. We really want to reach out to people who we never hear from. This is not about making decisions for the community, it is the community making decisions for itself.”
Further information on the Pride in Place Board can be found on West Lothian council’s website at https://www.westlothian.gov.uk/prideinplace.
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