Restoring Local Pride: Denny's Community Mural
A vibrant community mural in Denny demonstrates how public art can boost morale and help create safer and more welcoming spaces.
When essential maintenance of the Denny railway underpass damaged a beloved local mural in 2022, the Community Green Initiative, a volunteer environmental group, were able to mobilise a restoration project with support from the Denny & District Community Fund. Public art plays a vital role in community wellbeing, particularly in areas that might otherwise become neglected or feel intimidating. Research consistently demonstrates the 'broken window theory' – that well-maintained, cared-for spaces discourage antisocial behaviour and foster community pride. For communities facing ongoing challenges with vandalism and neglect, strategic investment in environmental improvements creates positive cycles of care and respect that benefit all residents.
The Stirling Street railway underpass serves as an important pedestrian and cycling route connecting Denny and Dunipace. Originally created in 2009, the underpass mural helped to brighten an otherwise dark walkway, creating a colourful, welcoming environment that encouraged use and care of the space.
Over the years, the mural has been kept bright and well-maintained by local Community Green Initiative volunteers, with refreshed painting in 2011 and a redesign in 2020 honouring NHS staff and key workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Sadly in 2022, repointing works on the bridge's stonework inadvertently removed large sections of the mural’s paintwork. While structurally necessary, this left the underpass scarred and uninviting. The loss of the artwork risked undoing years of community effort to maintain the space as a safe, pleasant thoroughfare, potentially allowing it to revert to a neglected area vulnerable to antisocial behaviour.
The restoration project aimed to reinstate the mural with new designs depicting themes of sustainable transport and nature, reflecting the underpass's role as an active travel route and green corridor. Working with public artist Scott Gilbert – the area's only specialist mural artist – Community Green Initiative chose artwork which celebrates walking, cycling, wheeling and the natural environment. Recognising the project's alignment with Fund priorities around creating vibrant, healthy, successful and sustainable communities, the Denny & District Fund was able to offer a grant of £3,000 to cover the complete restoration costs.
The Denny & District Fund combines community benefit income from three windfarms in Falkirk – Todhill Wind Farm owned by Netro Energy and Kingsburn & Earlsburn Wind Farms owned by Nadara. The pooled funding arrangement allows local groups to more easily access grant funding dedicated to enhancing the lives of residents in the Denny & District area, with the funds awarded to Green Community Initiative split equally across the three income streams.
The restored mural successfully transformed the railway underpass back into a welcoming community space, benefiting approximately 13,000 annual users. Many local volunteers contributed to the project's success through site preparation and ongoing maintenance, demonstrating community ownership that extends beyond the artwork itself.
Community Green Initiative’s commitment to promoting the transformation through social media channels amplified the project's impact, celebrating community resilience and the power of collective action, reflecting that:
“This definitely has a positive impact on creating communities which are less intimidating and much more inviting and happier places to live, work and play.”
The restoration has renewed the underpass's role in reducing antisocial behaviour, with the cared-for appearance discouraging vandalism and neglect. Daily users benefit from a safer-feeling environment that encourages active travel and community connection. Community Green Initiative’s ongoing commitment to environmental enhancement, despite facing repeated challenges from antisocial behaviour, demonstrates the patient, persistent work required to build and maintain thriving communities. This philosophy of positive action, refusing to allow setbacks to define community spaces, demonstrates the grassroots resilience that community benefit funding can help to enable.
The organisation's gratitude was heartfelt:
"Without this funding our community would most definitely be a poorer, less attractive and less safe place to live."
The Denny and District Community Fund's support for the restoration demonstrates responsive, community-led grant-making at its best – enabling local organisations to address unexpected challenges quickly and effectively. It shows that with modest funding, strong volunteer commitment, and creative vision, communities can transform problematic spaces into sources of pride in the physical spaces where daily life unfolds.
Read more about the Denny and District Community Fund