A Scout and Guide hall in South Lanarkshire was saved from closure after being awarded £7000 in funding towards essential repairs, from a local wind farm community fund.
The grant was from Banks Renewables’ Kype Muir Wind Farm community fund, which was set up to provide financial assistance to community groups, voluntary organisations and communities local to the areas surrounding the major wind farm.
With the £7000 and other funding the 90-year-old Stonehouse Scout and Guide Committee Hall, an integral and much-loved part of the local community, has now been transformed after the building underwent vital repair work to enable it to be safely reopened after the pandemic.
The hall is used on a weekly basis by over 240 children from local scouting and guiding units, as well as by wider community clubs, such as sports societies and wellbeing groups.
Tracy Neill, treasurer of Stonehouse Scout and Guide Hall Committee, said: “The Stonehouse Scout and Guide Hall plays an important role in our community and is also host to a number of events such as coffee mornings which are very well attended and particularly enjoyed by the elderly members of the community who depend on them for socialising.”
With additional help from a number of other grants and donations from various organisations and members of the community, work on the hall exceeded the essential repair requirements which included a full electrical re-wire, damp wall repairs and replacement fire doors.
Neill added: “As one of the first grants received, the funding from Banks Renewables was pivotal in saving the hall.
“As a committee, we are extremely grateful and overwhelmed by the funding that we were awarded which has allowed for an unbelievable transformation of the building to give us what now feels like a new hall providing a clean, safe, warm space for our local children and communities’ future.”
The fund is part of Banks Renewables’ Connect2Renewables initiative, in which the family firm commits to maximising the economic and social benefits of all its wind farms in South Lanarkshire.
Applications for community funding are determined by the Kype Muir Community Partnership (KMCP), a group that consists of community councils local to the Kype Muir Wind Farm and Banks Renewables.
In addition to the KMCP grant, the group also received £16,397.40 courtesy of the Renewable Energy Fund (REF), distributed by South Lanarkshire Council, which also uses funding from Banks Renewables’ wind farm developments.