Four projects earmarked for more than £130,000 of funding

Four projects from Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands, and Cowal have been earmarked to receive nearly £130,000 of UK Government funding, a report has revealed.

The Tayvallich Initiative Ltd is set to be boosted by £10,045 for its Tayvallich Grows scheme from the Shared Prosperity Fund.

The Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust is earmarked for a grant of £50,000 from the same fund for its Gigha Mugha project by Argyll and Bute Council officers.

Added to this, Dunoon Community Development Trust is set to be allocated £17,120 for Grow Food, Grow Dunoon at Struan Lodge from the same initiative. And a £50,000 grant has been recommended for phase one of Benmore Botanic Garden’s redevelopment.

They are four of nine community projects across Argyll and Bute which will share over £300,000 of funding if agreed by councillors.

A decision was due to be made at a full council meeting yesterday, Thursday April 25.

It is the first scheduled 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.

“Following closure of the fund, 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 as outlined in this report. 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.