Community development

Stranraer Oyster Festival has revealed its full programme for 2023 alongside a pledge to ‘go greener’ and help safeguard the wild, native oyster bed that the festival celebrates.

A new Local Action Group (LAG) has been created to manage the delivery of the Scottish Government Community Led Local Development (CLLD) funding programme within Dumfries and Galloway.

The Angus Community-Led Vision Fund is now live and open for applications.

The Scottish Rural Network will be supporting Scottish Government Just Transition policy colleagues with a second round of Land Use and Agriculture Just Transition Community Workshops at the end of August.  

The Almond Headwaters Project, led by Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust, and the River Ericht Catchment Restoration Initiative project, led by Bioregioning Tayside have both been awarded funding from Esmée Fairbairn Foundation through the

Rural and island communities will have a chance to have their voices heard in local and national decision-making as a result of Scottish Government funding.

Around £80,000 will help to deliver the next Scottish Rural and Islands Parliament – a grassroots democratic assembly ­– which will take place in the autumn.

The Scottish Government’s £65 million Nature Restoration Fund has already awarded around £17.5 million to 125 projects across the country since it opened in July 2021. Managed by NatureScot, the fund supports projects to take practical steps to tackle the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss and to restore Scotland’s natural environment.

2023 is the 50th anniversary of the legislation which brought Community Councils into existence, the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.

The Act defined the purpose of a Community Council as: