Community Ownership Fund ‘chust sublime’

Inveraray’s setting on the banks of Loch Fyne is “chust sublime” – as Para Handy, canny skipper of The Vital Spark puffer, might have put it.

Sadly, the town’s pier has fallen into disrepair, closed to the public for nine years. The good news, though, is that an innovative UK Government scheme is lending a helping hand.

The Community Ownership Fund (COF) awarded £44,332 to Inspire Inveraray, whose vision is for the pier to become a venue for community gatherings, promenading, fishing, diving, boat trips, and business and investment opportunities.

The group wants the pier, built in 1762 and twice extended in 1806 and 1836, to be fully accessible, and open for everyone to enjoy free of charge.

Inspire Inveraray’s target was to raise £100,000 for purchase and refurbishment of the pier, and this has now been exceeded with the COF contribution, £32,000 local community funding and a further £30,000 from the Scottish Government.

I visited the pier, just down the main street from the cottage where journalist and comic genius Neil Munro was born, and saw for myself what a tremendous example of the Government’s Levelling Up agenda the project is.

The idea was conceived by locals who know best what they want for their community, and showcases again what can be achieved when Scotland’s two governments join forces.

The £150m COF is in addition to major funding streams such as the UK Government's Levelling Up Fund (LUF), also designed to empower communities to bring the projects they want to see to fruition.

Earlier this year, Round Two of LUF injected £177m into 10 Scottish projects, and we are committed to a third round of funding awards. And then there’s the Community Renewal Fund (CRF), which – among multiple other projects – invested almost £408,000 in the Scottish Association for Marine Science’s Oban-based Seaweed Academy.

Following a trial of using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to transport medical supplies to selected Argyll islands, the CRF has also provided £173,000 to support the development

Cheryl Ratcliffe-Nye took this photograph of kayaks at Ardrishaig - looking down Loch Fyne - utilising the reopened spot on the kayak trail around the coast of Argyll.

▍ If you have a photograph you would like to share with our readers, please send it with your details and those of the photo, to editor@argyllshireadvertiser.co.uk

of plans for a UAV Innovation Logistics and Training Hub in Oban.

UK Government minister for Scotland John Lamont