Kyle of Sutherland Development Trust to proceed with community garden project after £325k funding award
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
The Kyle of Sutherland Development Trust (KoSDT) is celebrating after securing £325,000 funding from the second round of the Scottish Government’s Investing in Communities Fund.
The funds will be used to deliver a new project – Kyle FEEDS (Food, Environment & Exercise: Delivering Sustainability), which builds on the organisation’s existing healthy eating and activity projects KALM (Kyle – All Lives Matter).
Development manager David Watson said that the new three-year project would enable KoSDT’s Community Food Larder and Community Food Stop Cafe to continue as well as the Keep Active Together exercise programme.
In addition the funding will be used towards developing a community kitchen garden on land next to Bonar Bridge Post Office.
Mr Watson continued: “The funding will secure our KALM project manager Beverley Hill for the next three years as well as creating some new posts as we will be employing some community gardeners to develop future local food security and to help with the transition to Net Zero. These community gardeners will be employed not just to develop the KoSDT project but also to increase home growing capacity and to help other community organisations with their food growing project.”
More than 800 applications were made to the second round of the Investing in Communities Fund from organisations across Scotland and only 100 received funding. KoSDT was one of only six successful applicants in the Highland Council area and the only one in Sutherland.
“The maximum amount that could be applied for was £350,000 over three years so for KoSDT to secure the entire £325,000 that we applied for shows the national standing that we have for delivery and good governance,” said Mr Watson.
“This is a huge achievement and our the team did a great job pulling such a strong application together.”
Mr Watson revealed that between January 2019 and March 2023 KoSDT had approvals for a total of £2,581,142 funding.
“The bulk of these investments would not have come to our area if it weren’t for having an anchor organisation such as KoSDT working with and for our community,” he said.
“It’s not too bad for a wee development trust based in Ardgay.”
From a fundraising perspective, 2022 was the trust’s busiest year to date with 35 applications to various funders for an overall total of £844,860.
Thirty of these applications were successful, securing funding of £661,807.
“In recent times the projects that we deliver have become focused on community support rather than large and expensive capital projects,” said Mr Watson.
