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It’s an ‘aye’ all round: Inverness councillors approve all 11 bids for community funding

The Whin Park regeneration project received a smaller grant award, allowing all the community bids to receive funding.

Inverness chairman Ian Brown proposed a motion to grant funding for all 11 bids to the community regeneration fund. Image: Jason Hedges/DC Thomson
Inverness chairman Ian Brown proposed a motion to grant funding for all 11 bids to the community regeneration fund. Image: Jason Hedges/DC Thomson

Eleven different community projects will benefit from more than half a million pounds of funding, following a meeting of the Inverness committee.

The city committee met this afternoon to agree £574,181 community regeneration funding.

The community regeneration fund combines the coastal community fund and place-based investment fund. Inverness has £11,861 left to spend in its coastal fund and £562,360 in its place-based funding pot.

The committee had faced a shortfall, because the total application amount came in at £663,000. However, in a rare show of unity, Inverness councillors agreed to fund all 11.

They are making up the £89,000 difference by granting slightly less to Highland Council’s own project, Whin Park. The project will not suffer as a result, because they can come back to the committee for the remaining amount at a later date.

Mums on wheels

Councillors first agreed to grant Velocity Cafe and Bicycle Workshop £7,610 for its ‘Mums on wheels’ cycling support group in Hilton.

This money would come from the coastal communities fund. The remaining £4,251 will go to Crown Connects, which wants to hold ceilidhs welcoming Ukrainian families to the area.

Whin Park boating pond in Inverness. Image: Sandy McCook/DC Thomson

Moving on to the larger place-based fund, chairman Ian Brown moved a motion. He proposed that since Whin Park is a long term investment, the committee should award Highland Council £68,162 from this funding round. The council had requested £150,000 towards the play park refurbishment.

But since the refurbishment will take three or four years, Inverness councillors felt they could safely award part of the funding now, and the rest in the months ahead.

Whin Park ‘won’t lose out’, and everyone else wins

Mr Brown confirmed the project is “too important to lose out” but said this initial money would fund the improvements to the public toilet.

This decision freed up enough cash for the committee to give all the remaining community applicants the full amount they requested.

This includes:

  • The Ledge indoor climbing facility – £100,000 towards the total £1.4 million project cost
  • South Kessock residents association – £55,000 towards a new play park
  • Inverness YMCA – £17,000 towards a wheelchair lift
  • Elsie Normington Foundation – £80,669 towards a £4.6 million facility for young people with severe learning difficulties
  • Community Action Raigmore Estate (CARE) – £20,000 towards the purchase of the ‘shack’ to run as an office base
  • Dalneigh play park – £55,228 towards the redevelopment of the local play park
  • Stratherrick and Foyers community trust – £20,000 towards improving local pathways

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