Prospects for projects look bright with solar farm support

Four organisations have shared an initial funding pot of £25,000 from the recently launched New Mains of Guynd Solar Park Community Fund.

Angus Carers Association will use its grant to recruit and train carers from the West Arbroath and Letham and district area to become volunteers with the organisation.

Jim Dallas from Angus Carers said: “Volunteers are the golden thread that run through the organisation, providing support to carers young and old in all of our neighbourhoods. This grant is a great boost to our efforts on behalf of the local community.”

Funding for Arbroath’s CAFE project will help it run support programmes for up to 40 vulnerable children before they start secondary school in the autumn.

The other two grants went to Angus Care and Repair, which is planning to extend the group’s home safety service to vulnerable, isolated people in Arbroath and Letham, and the Edinburgh International Science Festival to assist with the delivery of Generation Science workshops to local primary schools in the coming weeks.

Alex Grayson, trustee of Community Empower Foundation, which owns the solar park, said: “We’re delighted to have commenced the 25-year community benefit element of this project by supporting these vital projects in the Arbroath and Letham communities, showing that local clean energy generation projects can produce a real, positive impact in their localities.”

The community fund is expected to distribute a minimum of £25,000 per year during the operating lifetime of the solar farm, likely to be 25 years.