Caithness & North Sutherland Fund October 2012 Grant Awards

30th November 2012

The Caithness & North Sutherland Fund recently awarded its 4th round of grants for 2012. Six community groups were awarded funding totalling over £114k for community projects that help to improve the attractiveness of their area as a place to live, work and invest.

Chairman John Henderson stated “The Directors of the Fund are very pleased that the demand for funding assistance for good community projects continues to be high which clearly demonstrates that the community is playing a significant role in creating a sustainable future through achieving social, cultural, environmental and infrastructure improvements to their area”.

The Caithness & North Sutherland Fund launched in October 2011 and recently held its first Annual General Meeting where the Fund’s Chairman and Board members reported on the Fund’s first year of activity to the Caithness & North Sutherland Community. In its first year, the Fund has awarded funding assistance totalling £273k to community projects with a total value of over £1.2m.

At the AGM, Chairman John Henderson concluded “In its first year I think the Fund has quickly found its feet and has made a substantial impact on community projects in Caithness and North Sutherland. I am confident that we can build on this, be a key player in helping to develop the area and meeting our objective of making Caithness and North Sutherland an attractive place to live and work”.

The awarded projects for the Caithness & North Sutherland Fund’s October 2012 assessment round are:

Bower Community Centre – BCC Energy Efficiency Improvements Project
£25,180.00 awarded towards the costs of fitting new PVC double glazed windows and PVC doors throughout Bower Community Centre including replacement of flat roof.

Reiss Killimster & Sibster Hall Committee – Reiss Hall Refurbishment Project
£29,220.00 awarded towards the costs of renovating Reiss halls existing toilets providing new toilet facilities including disabled toilet provision.

Ormlie Community Association – Young & New Mothers Support Groups Project
£21,938.36 awarded towards 1 year operating costs for the existing Young & New Mothers Support Groups project activities in Thurso & Wick and to expand the project to include additional monthly sessions in Tongue, Bettyhill and Melvich.

Tongue & Farr Sports Association – Clear Water Project
£24,800.00 awarded towards the costs of updating the North Coast Leisure Centre’s pool facilities in order to enable physical therapy provision and expand its programme to bring health and wellbeing to the wider community.

Melvich Gaelic Choir – Caithness Cultural Representation – International Pan Celtic Festival – Co. Carlow 2013

£5,000 awarded towards the travel and accommodation costs for the Caithness & North Sutherland participating organisations and artists to attend the International Pan Celtic Festival 2013 in Co. Carlow in April 2013.

Wick Coastal Rowing Club – Wick Coastal Rowing Club Project
£8,000.00 awarded towards Wick Coastal Rowing Club start-up costs and costs for the construction of three craft to enable WCRC, a community rowing initiative, to organise rowing tuition, races and events.

The closing date for applications for the next Caithness & North Sutherland Fund assessment round is the 25th of January 2013.

For further information on Caithness & North Sutherland Fund, please see www.cnsf.org.uk or contact the Fund Coordinator on enquiries[AT]cnsf.org.uk Tel: 07841 204 982