£40k for Woodburn is a boost for all

Tuesday January 26th 2016

More than a dozen local organisations will share in a £40,000 Participatory Budget to ensure that Woodburn/Dalkeith’s Coalfields Community Futures’ Five-Year Action Plan gets off to a flying start.

Among those who will benefit from the funding boost are local youth groups, women’s groups, sports clubs and community organisations.

Midlothian Council and the Coalfields Regeneration Trust – which runs the Coalfields Community Futures programme across Scotland – each put up £20,000 for the Woodburn/Dalkeith Participatory Budget.

The awards include £650 to women’s support group – the Pink Ladies 1st – for new equipment, and £3,600 to Midlothian Amateur Boxing and Fitness Club for equipment, including a treadmill, spin bikes and hand weights to cope with an upsurge in membership levels.

Esk Place Tenants Association received £1,100 for a new greenhouse to grow plants and vegetables and serve as local community hub, while the Woodburn Family Fun Day was awarded £1,000 for equipment to help grow the event.

The Bill Russell Woodburn Youth Project received funding that will benefit local young people, including £7,000 to enable them to make a video of their lives, and £1,000 for the organisation’s Youth Project to run intergenerational knitting classes for Primary 5 to S3 school pupils and their families.

Midlothian Council’s Cabinet Member for Economic Development, Councillor Jim Bryant, said: “We share the Coalfields Regeneration Trust’s commitment to participatory budgeting, which ensures that, in situations like this, it is the local people who will be affected who decide which projects receive funding.

“That is exactly what is happening here in Woodburn/Dalkeith, and that gives us great confidence that the funding is going to organisations serving a real local need.”

Douglas Strachan, of the One Dalkeith Group which received £1,500 for their Get Creative programme, said: “We are really grateful to the Coalfields Regeneration Trust and Midlothian Council for funding all these projects.

“Their participatory budget will get the Community Action Plan off to a flying start, which is great news for the area, as it contains something for everyone.”

Nicky Wilson, Scottish Trustee of the Coalfields Regeneration Trust, said: “I was really impressed by the range and quality of the applications for funding support. I am sure they will all make a huge contribution to ensuring the area develops for the better over the next five years.”

Tweet Share on Facebook  
 

Subscribe to the Midlothian View newsletter




Support Midlothian View from as little as £1. It only takes a minute. Thank you.

Comments are closed.

 

Midlothian View Advertising