Joy as groups share in £ 100k council windfall

With £ 100,000 on offer, Maybole Town Hall was a busy place for local groups, recently.

On the day, the event was split into two sessions.

In the morning, groups looking for under £ 5,000 set up stalls and voters could speak to every group before voting. Twelve groups had projects totaling £ 37,000 with £ 27,000 available.

A total of 235 voters decided that Maybole Memorial Park Bowling Club, SAC Community Learning, Maybole and North Carrick Youth Forum, Kirkmichael Village Renaissance, Maybole Juniors, Straiton Primary, Kirkmichael Primary, St Cuthbert’s Primary and McCandlish Hall Straiton should be fully funded.

Crosshill Primary was part- funded at £ 791.93 and Kirkmichael Gardening Club and TKS Martial Arts were unsuccessful.

The afternoon session was for groups asking for £ 5,000 and £ 10,000 and there were 10 applications totaling £ 99,000 with £ 73,000 available.

Successful groups were Ayr Gaiety Partnership, Ayr United Football Academy, Ayrshire Cancer Support, The Carrick Centre, Dunure Community Council, Maidens Primary Parent Council and Recovery Ayr.

South Ayrshire Community Transport was part- funded to £ 6070.15; unsuccessful were Cairn Primary and Lodge St John No. 11.

Mark Fletcher, chair of North Carrick Community Benefit Company ( NCCBC) said: “The NCCBC was very pleased with the attendance and, although the money is the ultimate draw to these type of events, it is always good to see the effects of the networking when you bring so many different groups and people often completely unconnected together.

“The effort put in by the applicants should never be underestimated as the capacity building and the experience we hope people have gained from this process will help them going forward, even though some end up disappointed.”