This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Euro funding for South of Scotland
10/12/2004
European funding worth £1.6 million to help create jobs
and fund new community facilities in the South of Scotland
was announced today.
Deputy Enterprise Minister Allan Wilson announced the
money during a visit to the Upper Nithsdale Arts &
Crafts Community Initiative in Sanquhar.
He said the funding will help tackle unemployment and
create new homes for the arts, new opportunities for
leisure, and new accommodation to help small businesses
grow.
Mr Wilson said:
"This is good news for people across the South of
Scotland. It will help create new facilities for many
communities but will also boost the local economy.
Unemployment blights people's lives. This funding will help
provide training and create jobs that create a way out of
the vicious circle that life without a job can be. In doing
so it will also help us reach our key aim - ensuring the
economy continues to grow.
"Projects such as the Arts and Crafts centre I am
visiting today in Sanquhar provide excellent evidence of
the real difference European funding can make. The £135,263
funding will be used to help to create a multifunctional
centre for arts, crafts and culture. The new building will
provide a kitchen, café and a shop selling local craft
materials. More importantly, it will provide jobs for
local, people who are long-term unemployed.
"I believe many projects approved in this latest round
of funding will have a similarly positive effect. I am
consistently impressed by the innovative and exciting
projects I am able to approve European funding for. And
visiting these projects always provides a striking reminder
of the difference the money makes both to individuals and
whole communities."
Examples of the projects approved in the latest round of
funding include:
- Dumfries and Galloway Leisure Complex
will receive £320,501. The grant will support
construction of conference/exhibition/event facilities
to be located within Dumfries & Galloway Leisure
Complex (DGLC). The complex will be built in Dumfries
town centre and will comprise wet/dry leisure and sport
facilities as well as venue facilities. The optimum
capacity of the venue facilities will be 1200 seated,
and the target market will be sport-related
conferences, events, concerts, exhibitions and
large-scale performances. As the facility will replace
the Loreburn Hall, established events such as a wide
range of dogs shows, flower shows and craft fair etc.
will transfer to the new facility, with the ability to
provide additional accommodation and therefore increase
the capacity of individual events.
- Mansfield Workshops, Hawick will
receive £160,046. The project involves the creation of
4 new workshops in 2 facing blocks on a site close to
the town centre. The units will provide 490 square
metres of new floorspace and are flexibly designed to
allow two units to be linked together. A small, secure
yard will also be provided for letting to one of the
prospective tenants. The site will have a dedicated
access road and parking area. The site is within a key
regeneration area of Hawick, and the workshops will be
able to offer space suitable to attract a range of
business uses.
The South of Scotland Objective 2 programme covers
Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders. The whole
area is fully eligible with the exception of the Tweedale
area around Peebles which is now in transition, reflecting
the greater relative prosperity in this area. The Programme
area has a joint population of just over 246,000 stretching
from the east to the west coasts of the South of
Scotland.
The Programme will deliver some €73 m of support, with
the aim of promoting sustainable economic development which
is founded on key principles of enterprise, learning and
social justice.
The Programme will support the development of:
Innovative, competitive small and medium sized enterprises,
strategic business locations and sectors and, new
opportunities for local communities
The Programme aims to achieve the following main
targets: 5000 new jobs and 1100 jobs safeguarded.
Eight rounds of eligible projects have been completed
totalling £35.04m to date