Cove Sailing Club is set to receive over £400,000 towards a new clubhouse from the UK Government.
The payout from the Community Ownership Fund was announced yesterday is one of 127 ‘Scottish community treasures’ that will share a total of £8m.
The sailing club on Loch Long will receive over £428,000 to help rebuild its clubhouse, which the government says will ‘secure its long-term future for community events and educational programmes’.
The highest awards – each of £2m – have gone to the King’s Theatre in Edinburgh and the Old Clyne School in Brora, which will be turned into a community museum.
Sailing club commodore Wells Grogan said the club was ‘delighted’ to have been successful.
“This is an huge step forward to allow us to create an open and accessible modern space that will not only provide wider opportunities for water sports training and events, but also broader community activities,” he added.
“This has come about due to the efforts of members, the committee and particularly rear commodore Zoe Robinson Frood and fund raising manager Sarah Robinson Frood of Innovate Rural.
“Earlier this year in February at our AGM, members approved changing the structure of the club to a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation, known as a SCIO.
“In August, we were formally registered as a SCIO by the Scottish Charity Regulator, OSCAR. “This change of status allowed us to apply for this grant.
“We still have work to do internally to fully transfer to the SCIO organisation and we aim to complete this work early in the new year.
“We are also progressing another grant application with Sport Scotland which would provide additional funds to help complete our work programme.
“This award is a wonderful way to end our 2023 season and we are extremely grateful to the Community Ownership Fund for their support.”
Secretary of State for Levelling Up Michael Gove said: “Investing in communities improves lives – whether that’s rebuilding a community centre, rescuing historic pubs and theatres or upgrading sports facilities used by families every day.
“These are unique and cherished places, valued by local people of all ages, and we know how much they mean to communities. The Community Ownership Fund is about restoring pride in the places people call home and I’m delighted to be funding these projects.”
Cove Sailing Club submitted an application in April this year to renew the planning permission for a new clubhouse which was granted in 2017 – details are on Argyll and Bute Council’s website, the reference number is 23/00696/PP.
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