Last GCA awards announced

Plans for small scale power generation, a brand new community arts space, and an historic country lodge to be saved for community use are just some of the 17 projects awarded funding in a £6.9 million package announced on 28th May from the Big Lottery Fund Scotland.
A full list of the awards can be seen here  View full details of all awards made today (.xls).

These awards are the last to be made from the current Growing Community Assets programme which aims to empower and strengthen communities by allowing them to take control and ownership of local assets. It means the total invested through this programme in Scotland over the last three years is £47.6 million.
Announcing today’s awards, Big Lottery Fund Scotland Chair Alison Magee, said: “We are investing in all these communities to help strengthen them and support their ongoing survival.
“Each of the 17 projects funded today is very different in scale and theme but they all have a common ambition, to support the small communities that surround them and provide income to be ploughed back into the local area. These are the last grants made from our Growing Community Assets programme before it is relaunched later this summer. Each of them has the long term future of their communities at their heart and I am confident they will all enjoy great success in the years to come.”
Today’s funding supports projects from across Scotland including Dumfries and Galloway, Ayrshire,  the Trossachs, Glasgow, the Western Isles and the East Coast.
In Strichen, Aberdeenshire, the Strichen Community Park Company will save the gateside lodge of the estate, where author Lorna Moon was inspired to write her most famous novel, Dark Star. Their grant of £135,000 will transform it into a community cafe and provide locals with a much needed community run and owned venue.
Strichen Community Park Company Director, Hebbie Fowlie, said, “For a small village like ours this news is a huge thing. This is the final piece of the jigsaw as we will now have a fantastic building and park for both locals and tourists to enjoy.The lodge restoration will be a place for peopleto meet up, have a coffee and a snack and hear about the history of Strichen. On behalf of the Strichen Community Park Committee, our fantastic volunteers and all the residents of the village, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the Big Lottery Fund for their help.”
Plans for a new community arts centre in Greenock were boosted with news of today’s funding. The grant of £378,716 to the Waterfront Community Arts Centre completes the funding jigsaw for the multi million pound project.
Greenock Arts Guild Chairman, Elliott McKelvie, welcomed the funding. He said: “We are delighted that the Big Lottery Fund has recognised our project as delivering real benefit to the community of Inverclyde. This is the culmination of several years’ work with the Big Lottery Fund to help deliver an important aspect of our operational plans for the new arts centre.
“The award will enable us to launch an ambitious programme of engagement with members of the community who may not have had previous involvement in arts activity. We expect the funding to result in real benefit to them and to the wider community.”
The community of Gairloch and Loch Ewe in Wester Ross can now start work on their new community building thanks to today’s award of £439,057. Janet Miles, General Manager of the Gairloch and Loch Ewe Action Forum (GALE), said: “We are delighted to receive this grant. We have been working on this for seven long years and it means we can finally press ahead. This community building will mean that we have a secure future and secure home for community led projects from now on. It will be a tourist information point as well housing many other amenities including, we hope, a local produce market. All the revenue from the project will be recycled back to ensure our lasting viability.”