Grant Funding For Highland Community Transport Providers Confirmed
17th November 2023

Twenty eight community transport initiatives across the Highlands have been awarded a share of £358,850 by The Highland Council to support them with the important role they play in delivering lifeline services to their local communities.
Chair of the Economy and Infrastructure Committee, Councillor Ken Gowans highlights the valuable work undertaken by providers. He said: "The role of Community Transport providers is vital, and we welcome the diversity of projects and activities spread across the Highlands which address local unique circumstances and opportunities.
"Although all projects have their individual characteristics, they all bring important social benefits to communities where any option of public transport either does not exist or is very limited. It's about proactively finding solutions which most closely address and meet local transport needs, with the added benefit of empowering individuals and the broader community."
The report presented to the Economy and Infrastructure Committee on Thursday 16 November 2023 highlighted that the Council has supported some community transport groups in expanding their activities to include home to school transport, where they have been able to provide more cost-effective services for small numbers of pupils than previous private sector contracts.
Four new initiatives are included in the successful applications. Stratherrick and Foyers Community Trust have been awarded £7,500, Applecross Community Company will receive £7,500, Garve Development Trust have been awarded £15,000 and Creich Croick and Kincardine District Day Care Association will receive £15,000 . An additional new applicant, Ferintosh Community Council, are not eligible to receive a community transport grant based on existing criteria, but alternative funding is being sought to support their valuable work.
A list of the twenty eight groups along with their annual awards can be found in the committee report - (agenda item 9) https://www.highland.gov.uk/meetings/meeting/4880/economy_and_infrastructure_committee
Read the report to see the full pressure on the budgets to see some groups having funding reductions and increases for a few.
As well as confirming annual funding for the community transport groups, the committee approved that the £7,000 annual budget to support driver training and emergency repairs for Community Transport organisations continues and that a proportion of the funding made available by Transport Scotland's Community Bus Fund (CBF) is used to ensure vehicle provision to a number of groups, as capital funding is not accommodated by the Community Transport grant budget.
With the level of applications exceeding the available budget, it has been necessary to scale back the awards to fit within available budget. That lower level of funding would impact heavily on new applicant organisations, as priority has necessarily been given to
existing projects to support their continuation.
Risk - Future demand for Community Transport services will undoubtedly increase and expand, extending beyond the sector's capacity to cope without funding from other sources.
The ability of Community Transport providers to continue delivering services as intended and as outlined in their applications is heavily dependent upon maintaining the commitment of volunteers. This can be particularly difficult in highly rural areas, which are often most profoundly in need of Community Transport solutions that minimise isolation. This can be mitigated by effective training and activities which engage Community Transport providers to share in best practices.
Beyond the three-year period of these grant award recommendations, funding provision from the Highland Council for these groups is unknown. The need for the sector to continually seek alternative funding sources is persistent; this may inhibit significant growth of individual groups' endeavours and the sector more broadly.
Related Businesses
Related Articles
Wick Business Park has welcomed wind energy technology company ENERCON as the first occupant of one of four new units completed last year. ENERCON specialises in designing, producing, installing and servicing onshore wind turbines and has been operating in the Caithness area since 2013.
Additional empty homes officers are being recruited to bring more privately owned houses back into use. The new posts are being supported as part of a £2 million investment through the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership in 2025-26 which will see staff take a more proactive and targeted approach to tackling local housing issues.
The Highland Strategic Local Action Group (LAG) met in June 2025 and considered and agreed funding for 28 projects submitted to the Community-Led Local Development fund (CLLD), which makes up part of The Highland Council Community Regeneration Fund (CRF) programme. CRF is an umbrella term used to cover multiple external funding programmes administered by The Highland Council.
Highland Council has provided 12 ‘Talking Tub' resources for use in primary schools across the Highlands, in partnership with Union Technical who deliver community benefits as part of the Energy Efficient Scotland: Area Based Scheme programme. Chair of Highland Council's Education Committee, Councillor John Finlayson, said: "This is a fantastic initiative being rolled out across Highland primary schools which brings innovation and inspiration to early years children.
Visitors will find it easier to dispose of their litter at several popular spots across Highland after the rollout of additional bins. The rollout has been planned to support the tourism season as part of the Council's ongoing commitment to improve and support sustainable tourism in the area.
Members of the meeting of The Highland Council (26 June 2025) have considered and agreed the Accounts Commission's Best Value report, which was published in April 2025 and highlights organisational improvements across leadership, performance management and community engagement. In April’s report, the Accounts Commission recognised and welcomed significant progress within the organisation since the 2020 Best Value Assurance Report (BVAR) and commended the embedded culture of transformation.
A new generation of community facilities is being planned for the Highlands. At a meeting of The Highland Council (Thursday 26 June), elected members approved the work to date in progressing the Highland Investment Plan workstreams - masterplan for Thurso and agreed to nominate the current Thurso High School site as the preferred location for the new Thurso Community Point of Delivery (POD).
At a meeting of The Highland Council (Thursday 26 June 2025), Members received a progress report on the partnership approach and important successes since declaring a Highland Housing Challenge in November 2023. Since establishing the ambitious Highland Housing Challenge, important successes included: A call for sites delivered 250 sites, with a potential 25,000 housing units which will support delivery against the target of an additional 12,000 houses over the next 10 years.
The Highland Council will deliver a transformative programme of energy efficiency upgrades across Council housing supported by a £9.2 million Energy Company Obligation (ECO) funding proposal secured by Union Technical. The funding proposal will deliver approximately 1,000 individual energy efficiency measures to Council owned properties across the Highlands.
As part of the Highland Council's celebration of Refugee Week - 16 to 22 June - we are delighted to announce that a sharing of photographs, taken by separated young people seeking asylum living within the Highlands, is to be shown at Eden Court Arts Centre, Inverness. Look to See, which ties in with the theme for this year’s Refugee Week - Community as a Superpower - emerges out of a collaboration between multiple agencies working alongside separated young people seeking asylum, embodying the importance of community and connection, when looking to support all young people in the Highlands.