Community development

Expressions of Interest are currently being accepted for the Making Local Woods Work project.

Making Local Woods Work is being led by the Plunkett Foundation in partnership with other organisations to help support and grow woodland-based social enterprises across the UK.

West Kilbride has won the Village category in this year's Great British High Street Awards.

Organisers of the awards said the Ayrshire village "showed that big does not mean better. In a tough category West Kilbride shone out for transforming itself as a craft village, for supporting local artists and for turning around the village with creativity and enthusiasm". 

Pub is The Hub - Scottish Borders launch

Pub owners and operators, suppliers and local authority representatives in the Scottish Borders are being invited to attend the launch event on 20 January 2016 at The Lodge Carfraemill in Lauder, Berwickshire.

Pub is The Hub has announced the launch of its rural services initiative in the Scottish Borders at the start of 2016 in partnership with Scottish Borders Council. It is also supported by the Scottish Government, the Prince’s Countryside Fund and Diageo.

Views are being sought on the future direction of the Cairngorm and Glenmore area of the Cairngorms National Park.

A 14-week public consultation has launched with the aim of developing a long-term strategy for the management of the publicly-owned land in this area.

Using visitor studies to inform better visitor experiences

Your time and money are in short supply! Use your resources effectively by understanding what your visitors really want.

This event will look at ways you can use visitor studies to provide better visitor experiences.

The event will address the best use of visitor studies from large to small scale projects.

The Pairc Trust, a community body in South-East Lewis, has recently (4 December) completed the purchase of the Pairc Estate on behalf of the community of some 400 crofters and residents.

The Pairc Trust have been trying to bring the 28,000 acre estate into community ownership since 2003. 

The purchase has now been made on the basis of a voluntary transfer by the landlord, after a long history involving several ballots and applications by Pairc Trust to the Scottish Government under Part 3 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. 

Norman MacAskill, North Regional Development Manager at Lead Scotland and former director of Scottish Rural Action, shares his experiences of the European Rural Parliament held recently in Scharding, Upper Austria. We'll have more from other attendees from Scotland over the next couple of weeks.

What was the event about and why did you attend?

Derek Harper, Chair of the local liaison group for the 2016 Scottish Rural Parliament event was part of the Scottish delegation to the European Rural Parliament (ERP) event held in Schärding, Austria last month. Here, he shares his reflections on the event. We'll have more from other attendees from Scotland over the next couple of weeks.

What was the event about and why did you attend?

A minibus trial funded by Muirhall Energy is investing in the need to provide public transport for its rural community.

The trial, which has been organised by the Woolfords, Auchengray & Tarbrax Improvement Foundation (WAT IF?) and run by Salmonds Coaches, will run until 19 December and    is fully funded by Muirhall Windfarm Extension.

Debbie Bridges, Community Officer for Muirhall Energy said:

The Tesco Local Community Scheme for community greenspace projects is now open for applications until 11 December 2015.

The money raised from the 5p bag charge in Tesco stores will be used to pay for a large number of local projects to improve greenspaces in communities across Scotland, England and Wales. The grant scheme is administered by Groundwork, working with greenspace scotland to deliver the programme in Scotland.

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