Chair of Arbroath Town Board

I was born in Arbroath and raised on a local farm, Dickmontlaw. My father, Ian Stirling was an Arbroath man through and through, captaining Arbroath High School football team and going on to become captain and chairman of Arbroath F.C. He was a local farmer who also created new Arbroath businesses, such as the Meadownbank Inn and its carriage room restaurant.

I spent most of my weekends and school holidays working on my dad’s farm, picking berries and tatties, which taught me to earn my own money and work hard. I still remember buying a new “chopper” bike in the early 70’s with the money I earned from picking berries – I loved that bike!

My first important job was managing Smokies nightclub, at Arbroath’s waterfront, when I was 20 years old. It was a great business education as it had 40 staff and nights with over 1,000 customers.

I became a farmer at Seahills Farm, near Auchmithie, in my 20’s and then established other local strawberry farms around Arbroath and built Seahills packhouse at Kirkton Industrial Estate. We supply M&S with 100% of their UK trimmed brussels sprouts and supply strawberries to M&S, Waitrose, Tesco and Harrods of London. We have 25 acres of climate-controlled, biomass fuelled greenhouses, in which we grow strawberries without using any pesticides.

I started a property development company in Edinburgh in 1997 and my company Stirling Developments is now based at Dunfermline. We have a talented team, with all the in-house skills to take unallocated land through the planning, consultation process, masterplan it and deliver a successful new village, Calderwood, near Edinburgh, which has a current population of around 5,000 residents. Calderwood has an award winning primary and nursery school, with capacity for around 700 pupils. We have another similar project, Kingswood at Dunfermline.

I am at a stage in my life where I want to do some public service and volunteer work and what better way than helping my hometown Arbroath. I am very proud to be Chairman of the new town board. I believe everyone in Arbroath is a stakeholder in this project and I will do my best to serve them and the town as best as I can. I am very fortunate to have a talented and passionate board, who all want to work hard and deliver success for Arbroath.