Funding worth £600,000 allocated for sustainable island projects

Almost £600,000 is being made available to support green projects on Scottish islands that support sustainability.

The additional funding, being delivered through the Scottish Government’s Island Communities Fund, will provide investment for community-led projects that support employment and community resilience, as well as contributing to Scotland’s transition to net zero.

The organisations receiving support are: Mull and Iona Community Trust, Tiree Community Development Trust, West Harris Trust, Tagsa Uibhist (Uist Support), Arran Eco Savvy Community, the British Red Cross (for projects on Orkney and Shetland) and Foula Wool.

Islands secretary Mairi Gougeon said: “Last summer, we received more than 180 applications for this fund which shows us that our islands are focussed on making Scotland a greener and fairer place. They will play an important role in helping us meet our ambitious climate change targets.

“The additional funding will enable even more projects to help people, businesses and communities on our islands thrive.”

This second payment tranche will see funding provided to six additional projects. A second instalment of funding will also be provided to one of the projects awarded money in the first tranche.

The fund is managed by Inspiring Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government and the 35 successful projects span across 55 islands.

Magnus Holbourn of Foula Wool has received two funding instalments through the fund.

He said: “This is a genuine transformational opportunity for our island business. We have worked extremely hard over a number of years building up a customer base and establishing our Foula Wool product range.

“To now be able to bring all of the physical processing work that goes into creating the product back to the island, retaining its full value in the local economy is simply a dream come true.”