£500,000 to develop Stornoway media village

COMHAIRLE nan Eilean Siar has welcomed the recent announcement by Deputy First Minister John Swinney of a £500,000 investment to MG ALBA from the Gaelic Capital Fund to develop the media village in Stornoway.

This marks the latest chapter in investment and development of the Seaforth Road cluster of creative enterprise which the comhairle has facilitated over the past 25 years.

Since the original lease of are cautious about the plans, however, and have asked for the organisers to contact them.

A spokesperson for the partnership said: ‘Ben Nevis, as Britain’s highest mountain, has an allure for many people and the Nevis Partnership encourages all sustainable and thoughtful access to Ben Nevis Taigh Shìophort to Gaelic Media Services in 1993, the comhairle has been integrally involved with developing this quarter of the town as an internationally recognised creative centre which is critical to the local economy and hosts 80 FTE jobs.

Over the past 10 years the comhairle have directly invested £1.4m and worked alongside partners including Bòrd na Gàidhlig, HIE and ERDF to create a suite of modern, Gaelic and the surrounding landscape. As such, we and our partner organisations work with numerous event organisers every year to help them make their event sustainable, appropriate and considerate of other hill users, the habitat and wildlife and local residents.

‘The best events incorporate speaking workplaces designed to enable collaboration and creative synergies.

The Creative Industries Media Centre (refurbished from a derelict mill building bought by CnES in 2008) is now the headquarters of MG ALBA and home to a number of smaller media businesses; BBC Radio nan Gàidheal is also based on site and the An Tosgan development opened in 2014 co-locating Stòrlann Nàiseanta na Gàidhlig, Acair Ltd, the comhairle’s own multi-media unit and Comunn na Gàidhlig.

Furthermore, the site incorporates community radio station Isles FM and Studio Alba which the comhairle stepped in to safeguard in 2012 and went on to be the production base for the BAFTA award-winning Katie Morag television series.

Councillor Donald Crichton, chairman of the comhairle’s Sustainable Development Committee, said new funding is great news for the local media sector and the wider islands economy, adding: ‘It builds upon the Hub concept the comhairle’s economic development team first envisioned for the location back in 2007 and that we have been working in partnership to deliver ever since,’ he said.

‘We are proud to have enabled the pace of activity at the site both through capital investment and our ongoing involvement with the premises and businesses based there.’

The Scottish screen industry is currently experiencing unprecedented growth and research shows that as a consequence of the Gaelic broadcasting sector, the Outer Hebrides is now the fourth largest production centre in Scotland.

The government funding will not only further develop training and job opportunities but recognises the value of the Gaelic language, culture and heritage and will be critical in generating the next decade of activity at Seaforth Road.