Year 2, Week 3
Comfort schemes and capital grant funding
Comfort schemes
I’ve talked before about Comfort Schemes as a way of expanding public toilet provision in Nairn. This is where premises which already have toilets for customers or staff are invited to let the public use their toilets in return for a payment of £50 to £300 per month. Sadly no Nairn business wants to take this up.
The news elsewhere in the Highland Council area is rather different and this press release reveals that 86% of existing providers found the scheme beneficial after the first three year scheme and 94% wishing to become providers again and the number of Comfort Scheme providers will increase by more than 30% from 42 to 55 with new 3-year agreements in place.
Apparently 35% of comfort schemes were in Lochaber, 24% in Ross and Cromarty, 15% in Skye and Lochalsh and in Inverness, 8% in Caithness, and 5% in Badenoch and Strathspey … but sadly none in Nairnshire.
Capital Grant funding
I do try to keep local organisations informed of potential funding opportunities for your projects and this week the Council is accepting expressions of interest for the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund for 2024-2025.
The Fund supports locally developed place-based regeneration projects that involve local communities, helping to tackle inequalities and deliver inclusive growth in deprived, disadvantaged, and fragile remote communities across Scotland and hands out substantial amounts of money. Among the most recent projects that have secured grant funding are Garve Community Hub (£210,000), Knoydart Bunkhouse (£560,000) and John O’Groats Mill (£1,500,000).