Keep your cash says community group as it issues a DIY SOS for local support
Community activists are vowing to build a £3m community centre themselves after having a £1m funding bid knocked back by the Big Lottery Fund.
As exclusively revealed in TFN last month, Linwood Community Development Trust (LCDT) was left seething after spending four years and £200,000 on a funding application only to see it rejected.
Now community stalwarts have issued a DIY SOS calling on local traders and tradespeople to help them build the project themselves.
It follows confirmation from the Scottish Government of £800,000-worth of funding for the project.
This, says the trust, will build the shell of the planned 3G football pitch and community-owned centre in the area’s Mossedge Village.
In a statement posted on Facebook the trust said: “LCDT, with the support of volunteers who have came forward, will build the project from the inside.
People power has kept us going over the years - LCDT
“We will be doing a Linwood DIY SOS and calling on local traders and tradesmen/women to support us. Together we will help build Linwood from the inside out.
“People power has kept us going over the years whilst we have been faced with many disappointments, especially these past few weeks - thank you to everyone for your support.”
Jeanette Anderson, LCDT chair, said they were “absolutely shattered” by the funding serback. She added: “This is so unfair and no one can understand why this decision has been made.
"In the first application the lottery said there were design issues. When we showed the design team the feedback they were adamant there was no fault on their side.
“We went back to the lottery and said someone has got it wrong here. The Lottery response was jaw dropping. It said: ‘we are not prepared to comment.’"
Kirsty Flannigan, LCDT manager, said at the time they would still go ahead with the project.
“This is not the first time the trust and Linwood has been unfairly dealt with,” she said. “The football pitch will be built, the nursery businesses will go ahead, our grocer's roots will grow and we will invest £1.6m in Linwood.”
