A community mini-market, nature trail and pathway projects are among the Clydesdale initiatives which are to receive grants from South Lanarkshire’s renewable energy fund.
Projects in Douglas, Coalburn and Lesmahagow are getting underway, along with more in Stonehouse and Strathaven, thanks to distribution of a combined £726,000 from the community benefit funds contributed by windfarm operators across the area.
Lesmahagow Development Trust has been awarded £200,000 to convert the Abbeygreen shop known to local residents as Billy’s into a mini-market with four rentable stalls for traders and entrepreneurs.
The application noted that it will “provide a pathway and pipeline for locally focused social enterprises, increase local employment and benefit other local businesses”, and added: “Not-for-profit organisations will be able to use the space as a shopfront for their activities.”
It forms part of the trust and local community action plans following consultation and surveys. Work is beginning this month on the central local site and is scheduled to take until June, using funds from the nearby Kype Muir windfarm.
Rural Clydesdale organisation Healthy Valleys has been awarded more than £177,000 by council officials – funded from Douglas West Windfarm – to bring in a trio of new staff members for three years from April to continue its Gear Up pilot programme.
The initiative “aims to empower communities through cycling, walking and wheeling” and the new staff will work on “ideas around adventure tourism and cycling schemes in the area” to ensure the scheme is a lead partner for any related future projects in Douglas Valley.
Healthy Valleys is described as an “anchor organisation for rural Clydesdale, committed to reducing health inequalities through provision of outstanding local services that help preserve and protect the mental and physical health of individuals, families and communities”.
A two-kilometre section of footpath from Poneil to Main Street and Kirkgate in Douglas will be upgraded thanks to nearly £190,000 from contributions from the same windfarm being awarded to the Rural Development Trust.
Work will include installing waymarkers, five self-closing gates, a picnic bench and information boards, as well as clearing trees and vegetation and repairing and improving bridges, ditches and drainage, and will take place from February to July.
The project has also been granted £100,000 from the Ian Findlay path fund, and councillors were told: “Funding would facilitate the completion of a 10km active travel route extending from National Cycle Route near Lesmahagow through Coalburn to Douglas, enabling safe connections across and through these rural communities.
“The project has been established in response to community demand [and] is a collaborative effort with Douglas and Glespin community council, Douglasdale recreation environment access and leisure group, the council and landowners.
“Paths connectivity and travel are identified within local action plans as priorities and opportunities; the project has been developed to reflect the views of the community it represents; this route largely follows existing forestry paths and rights of way [and] all landowners have been identified, consulted and support the project.”
Coalburn community action group will be upgrading a local nature trail walkway “used by everyone in the area” after receiving £28,000 as a South Lanarkshire REF grant, again from the Douglas West funds and meeting half the cost of the overall project.
They are planning earthworks to improve the underfoot conditions and the installation of pipework to minimise flooding on the path, used as a walking route to school and which will make it usable all year round; as well as connecting with paths from Lesmahagow to Douglas.
Now four months of work are set to begin in January, with a report noting that “the project has been established in response to community demand [and] outdoor activities have been a recurring theme within the community action plan for the area”.
Further REF grants will see £56,000 awarded for frontage stonework and roof repairs including lead works at Strathaven’s C-listed town mill, which is one of the town’s oldest buildings and is used as an arts and heritage centre.
Work on the “focal point” building will begin in May; while wind farm funding has also been awarded to the historic Alexander Hamilton memorial fountain in Stonehouse, which will be restored in time for the park’s centenary in 2025.
Councillors agreed that supporting the five projects would also support increased active travel and reduced carbon emissions, health and recreation options and the sustainable restoration of heritage buildings.
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