This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Sustainable Action Fund share out
11/02/2003
The Executive's Sustainable Action Fund has allocated
grants of £920,000 to help communities address the
environmental impact of quarrying.
Environment and Rural Development Ross Finnie said:
"The Scottish Executive is committed to delivering a
cleaner and safer environment for all.
"We recognise the impact that quarrying has had and
continues to have on communities throughout Scotland, and
the funding that we are announcing will help to mitigate
that impact in affected communities.
"The decision last October to use money from the
Aggregates Levy to fund environmental renewal, highlights
the Executive's commitment to environmental justice in
Scotland's communities.
"We are determined that economic benefits and
environmental impacts of development should be equitably
shared in our drive to improve the environment and promote
sustainability across Scotland.
"I am therefore pleased to give this funding to help
local communities enhance the environment in which they
live, bringing both economic and social benefits to the
affected areas."
The 38 successful bidders are:
Central Scotland
Antonine Walkway Trust - £34,000 for a path network and
picnic areas around Croy, Lanarkshire, an amenity for an
area affected by current and former quarries.
Carnwath in Bloom - £4,570 for the purchase of hanging
baskets in the Main Street which experiences heavy quarry
traffic.
Carnwath 2000 - £24,000 for the installation of four
interactive speed limit signs to counteract the effect of
vehicle traffic from quarries through the village.
Central Scotland Forest Trust:
(1) £29,577 to create a community woodland at Avondale,
west of Linlithgow, at a closed extraction site,
transforming the former works area into a recreational
resource.
(2) £5,000 to develop a woodland area and path at the
former Thorneydyke sand and gravel quarry. This will
complete the Denny Access Network for the benefit of local
residents and the wider public.
The Edinburgh Green Belt Trust - £10,532 for an
interpretative nature trail at West Craigie Farm,
overcoming access difficulty caused by Craigiehall
Quarry.
Ratho Environment Group - £26,725 to create a 650m
pathway and viewpoint to provide safe access to a diverse
woodland area at Ratho, where there is limited access
caused by two quarries.
Smarter Salsburgh - £43,000 to create a community garden
on derelict land as the first phase of a community action
plan to improve the environment of a village affected by
traffic from two quarries.
Sandford and Upper Avondale Community Council - £21,000
for the restoration of a footpath between Boghead and
Drumclog, each with a quarry, at Sandford, Lanarkshire.
South Lanarkshire Greenspace - £30,000 for path
upgrading work and woodland development at Whitehill,
Blantyre, where former stone quarries make path access
difficult for disabled users, cycles and prams.
Argyll and Fife
Scottish Native Woods:
(1) £16,945 - woodlands management and access provision
at Corlarach Wood, Kilmartin, Argyll, adjacent to gravel
quarry.
(2) £39,618 - for footpath improvement, waymarking and
interpretative panels at Townhill, Dunfermline, in an
ancient woodland site traversed by quarry traffic.
Argyll
Ardchattan Community Council - £50,000 to create a
469-metre footpath along Bonawe Road, North Connel, for the
benefit of residents of 53 houses and a nursing home,
alongside a single-track road used as quarry access.
The Scottish Slate Islands Heritage Trust - £3,700 for
information boards and a new leaflet about the built
environment and visible remains of the slate industry in
Ellenabeich village.
Fife
Balmullo Community Council - £2,300 to plant a hedge
around Balmullo Primary School, half a mile east of
Balmullo Quarry, to mitigate disturbance from lorry
traffic.
Coaltown of Burnturk Putting Club - £2,500 for path
improvement, fencing and tree planting at an old rock
quarry site between Kettlehill and Coaltown of
Burnturk.
Falkland Heritage Trust - £50,000 for new and restored
public footpaths at a disused quarry in Falkland.
Fife Council Community Services - £30,240 for improved
carpark surface with monitoring of use at the Birnie/Gaddon
Local Nature Reserve, a former gravel extraction site near
Ladybank.
Leslie Community Council - £3,900 on an area affected by
quarrying for community access footpaths.
Highland
Broadford Environmental Development Group - £48,760 to
create the 1.7km first stage of a safe walking route
between Broadford and Kilchrist, Skye, using the trackbed
of a former quarry railway, known as the Marble Line.
The Highland Council:
(1) £46,000 (Lochaber) - with Ballachulish and Glencoe
Community Council, waymarking of access to a disused quarry
which has already been landscaped.
(2) £30,000 (Caithness) - with Castletown Heritage
Society, improved interpretation of the site of first
commercial flagstone production in Caithness, recognising
the site's richness of plants and wildlife.
Seaboard Initiative - £25,000 for a community-led scheme
at Balintore, Tain, Ross-shire, providing pathways and a
sculpture park on a site close to a former quarry.
Shillinghill Residents Association - £35,015 at
Shillinghill, Alness, for the creation of raised plant beds
to mitigate the view of a quarry.
Strathnairn Community Woodland Project - £5,000 for the
purchase of two woods in Strathnairn, Farr, Inverness,
where traffic from two working quarries passes through the
community.
North East
Braemar Community Council - £24,248 to restore ground
and tree cover at a disused quarry site at the entrance to
the Morrone Birkwood nature reserve and incorporation into
footpath and interpretative system which the group is
extending as part of the local sustainability strategy.
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
Scotland:
(1) £12,763 - for the clearance of shrub at a former
quarry at Loch of Kinnordy, near Kirriemuir, to improve the
habitat.
(2) £5,755 - to build a gravel island at Loch of
Strathbeg, Aberdeenshire, counteracting loss of nearby
gravel-based bird breeding areas from coastal gravel and
sand extraction.
Scottish Sculptor Workshop - £50,000 at Kenmay,
Aberdeenshire, site of a granite quarry. Contribution to
'Place of Origin' project, including artwork and a
viewpoint, to renew the link between the village and its
industrial heritage, with an imaginative reshaping of the
land between the village and the quarry.
South West
Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue Trust - £5,000 towards the
purchase of the disused Hessilhead Quarry by the Trust at
Gateside, Ayrshire, to provide a quarry pond as a halfway
house for rehabilitated wildfowl.
West Kilbride Environmental Group - £43,000 for a
renewable energy project and state-of-the-art recycling
plant at the environmental centre located in a disused
quarry.
Aldouran Glen Village - £43, 395 for the creation of a
wetland and nature area, with sensory gardens, and habitat
for species displaced by the nearby quarry site at Leswalt,
Stranraer
Dalbeattie Community Initiative - £25,000 to establish a
granite garden using local granite as a reminder of the
town's quarrying history.
Solway Heritage - £16,000 for a geological
interpretation project to reveal the role of rock and
aggregate quarries in the heritage of Dumfries and
Galloway, at five settlements with close associations with
nearby quarries - Creetown, Dalbeattie, Annan, Dumfries and
Rowanburn.
Shetland
Shetland Amenity Trust:
(1) £1,798 - for the clearance and fencing of the
abandoned quarry at Skaw, Whalsay.
(2) £968 - on Bressay, closure to illegal dumping at a
disused stone quarry and recognition of the existing
habitat for breeding frogs and nesting birds.
(3) £11,555 - at Aywick, Yell, for the closure of a
quarry adjacent to a playpark, to illegal dumping, and for
landscaping work.
Western Isles
Western Isles New Development Opportunities Ltd -
£65,000 for landscaping of quarry areas at Habost, Ness,
and South Dell Quarry, Isle of Lewis.
The UK government introduced the levy in April 2002, in
order to reduce aggregates use, encourage the use of
alternative materials and address environmental costs
associated with quarrying.
Most of the levy (90 per cent) is returned to the
economy via reductions in employers' National Insurance
Contributions.
The Scottish share of the remaining 10 per cent is £3
million in both 2002-03 and 2003-04. Scottish Ministers
decided that the Scottish share of the aggregates levy
would be allocated to the environment budget.
The remainder of the funding is being used for a broad
range of projects supporting sustainable development, some
of which have already been announced.
137 applications were received. Distribution of the
grant was overseen by a Grants Panel combining
representatives from the Executive, Forward Scotland, local
authorities, two representatives of the aggregate industry,
Scottish Natural Heritage, The Scottish Environment
Protection Agency (SEPA) and the Association of Scottish
Community Councils.