Success for community investment programm

Backers of a major community investment programme on the Western Isles are celebrating the success of its first year which saw it support more than 40 projects worth from £200 to £99,000.
 
And now the Community Economic Development Plan is looking for more schemes from community economic and social groups to support in the coming year.
 
A fiddle festival on Taransay; marketing schemes to aid fishermen; and training and display equipment for Co-Chomunn Eirisgeidh were among the projects backed during 2002-3.

Work will be starting soon on another CED-backed scheme to renovate the North Uist Agricultural Society Hall while the Taransay Fiddle Festival, which has attracted worldwide interest, is set to go ahead for another weeklong event from July 21.

CED support could only apply for the first year of the fiddle festival but organiser Donald John Morrison, of Fidhlearan Eilean an Fhraoich, said that it would not have gone ahead at all without the backing of CED. It had been so successful that although around 40 people had taken part, double the number wanted to attend but could not be accommodated on the island. This year’s event will include a range of top musicians, and conclude again with a ceilidh in the Community Centre in Tarbert.

Co-Chomunn Eirisgeidh manager Mary Alex Macinnes said the CED programme had supported the funding of additional displays and freezer equipment, and would be supporting training on a new computer system which will soon replace manual accounting procedures. The support was essential for a project which would bring the community-owned shop up-to-date and enable it to meet increased demand which had developed since the opening of the causeway to South Uist.

Mr John MacMillan, the CED officer for the Western Isles who is based at Western Isles Enterprise¹s offices in Lionacleit, Benbecula, said that since November 2001, a total of 46 projects had been supported. Projects had to be proposed by community-based organisations and they had to relate to areas outside of the Stornoway, Laxdale and Sandwick community council areas.

The level of assistance could be as high as 50 per cent of the cost of a project with the top-limit on schemes being £100,000.  The level of assistance depends on the individual circumstances of the applicant group and the economic fragility of the area, Mr MacMillan said.
 
Among other groups benefitting last year were the Western Isles Fishermen¹s Association and the North Tolsta Historical Society. WIFA has made applications relating to fishery trials, some aimed at developing new fisheries, others at increasing the returns from existing ones. The first of these has already started and achieved increases in income of more than a third from the same catch. The North Tolsta Historical Society is carrying out a scheme to digitise and preserve its archives which will, for instance, enable wider access to them via a web-site for all those interested, at home and away.

Mr Donnie Macaulay, chief executive of Western Isles Enterprise, said that the Community Economic Development programme, which is worth £1 million over the three years from 2001-4, was showing its value in assisting communities and groupings to achieve objectives which were of importance to them. It was important that communities made the most of this opportunity for local investment and development.