Local £100k cash boost
TWO Helensburgh and Lomond projects have been earmarked to receive nearly £100,000 of UK Government funding, a report has revealed.
Project 81 Youth and Community Enterprise, in Garelochhead, is in line for a grant of £46,465 from the Shared Prosperity Fund by Argyll and Bute Council officers - just short of the £46,523 requested.
Cove Sailing Club, meanwhile, could receive the full request of £49,998 towards the building of its new clubhouse, with demolition of the existing building pencilled in for later this year.
They are two of nine community projects across Argyll and Bute which will share more than £300,000 of funding if agreed by councillors.
A decision will be made at a full council meeting today (Thursday), the first regular full council meeting since the Strategic Partnership became the council’s administration.
Executive director Kirsty Flanagan said: “Following an open application process, Argyll and Bute Council received 38 applications from community organisations across Argyll and Bute. In total, this amounted to a funding request of £1,328,612.31.
“A robust assessment process took place in line with the UK Government and council guidance issued to applicants.
“For projects which met the minimum scoring requirement, it is proposed that funding is allocated to the highest scoring projects, with nine projects being recommended to be funded.
“The total grant awarded under the proposals set out amounts to £302,974 of grant award and leaves a small surplus of £1,288 which is proposed to be held to enable small uplifts of funding to be awarded to any approved project which may experience price increases or require additional works within the scope of the project.”
Councillors are recommended to agree that all nine listed projects are offered a grant as set out in the report.
The other projects in line for a share of the cash include Benmore Botanic Garden near Dunoon, which is recommended to receive £50,000; the Mull and Iona Heritage Trust, for a ‘gateway heritage interpretation’ project at the Sound of Ulva, which is in line for an award of £25,000; and a project to build a multi-use games area on Gigha, which could also receive £50,000.