Community groups to share £600,000

MORE than 30 community groups and organisations across Dumfries and Galloway are in line to share just over £600,000 in coastal benefit funding. Projects receiving a much-welcome cash boost range from a community solar farm to a wheelyboat for people with disabilities. Councillors on the education, skills and community wellbeing committee are being asked to approve the awards at a meeting on May 12, following a competitive application process that attracted 64 bids — with four subsequently withdrawn. The remaining 60 applications were assessed by a scoring panel made up of council officers and community planning partners, with demand far outstripping supply. The total funding pot available for community groups stands at just over £600,000, but the applications submitted were requesting combined funding of around £1.5 million. Among the standout awards in the large grants category is a £50,000 allocation to Saints Community Football for a community solar farm, and a further £50,000 to WASP for an accessible wheelyboat on Loch Ryan — opening up water activities to people of all abilities. Building Futures Galloway Ltd received the highest score of any applicant in the large category — 86.7 out of 100 — and will receive £28,483 to deliver coastal skills training in heritage and green construction for schools in Whithorn. Gatehouse Development Initiative has been recommended for £33,066 for a community housing project, while the Fleet Bay Inshore Rescue Service will get £15,000 to help get it back on the water this year. In the smaller grants stream, Dumfries and Galloway LGBT Plus topped the category with a score of 70 and will receive £4342 for its Tide and Talk coastal connections project. Newton Stewart Christmas Lights Group and Better Lives Partnership each picked up the maximum small grant of £5000. This funding will go towards the Newton Stewart Christmas Festival and a coastal history project respectively. Also benefiting is Galloway Fisheries Trust, which secured £3600 for an environmental education project called Our Changing Shores, and Annan the History Town Group, which will receive £3105 for its Past & Present project. A separate ring-fenced pot of £241,453 is being directed toward council-led coastal path and harbour infrastructure improvements, covering locations including Wigtown, Glencaple, the Rhins of Galloway, and the Isle of Whithorn Quay. The report being tabled at next week’s committee meeting states: “Scottish Ministers’ expectation for the fund is for local authorities to ensure value for money and for it to be used for added value/new initiatives/projects that specifically benefit coastal communities, tackling the twin crises of climate and biodiversity and furthering the vision for Scotland’s ‘Blue Economy’.” Despite the strong field of applicants, 22 groups will walk away empty-handed. This is not because their applications were rejected on merit, but simply because the money ran out. Unsuccessful applicants will be “signposted to seek support from Third Sector Dumfries and Galloway and ward officers.” Successful organisations, subject to compliance checks, must have projects underway by August 1 and completed by March 31 next year.