Community Windpower, operator of onshore wind farms across Scotland, has announced £255,000 in funding for community responses to the COVID-19 crisis.
The developer said it had set aside £255,000 of financial support across the areas around its seven operational wind farms, and is looking to increase this in the coming weeks.
The funding comes from both money diverted from existing wind farm benefit funds and directly from Community Windpower itself.
The company, whose head office is in Cheshire, England, has announced a series of COVID-19 support initiatives, including two new funds to directly support health and charitable organisations in East Lothian and North Ayrshire.
Funds from Community Windpower are already being used to provide medical services with £6,000 of essential equipment via a community council crisis project, £4,000 worth of food a month to a foodbank and £5,000 of emergency support to individuals, a spokesperson for the company said.
Diane Wood, community benefits director at Community Windpower, said: “We’re living in worrying and unprecedented times for everyone, and now is the time we need to dig deep and help people in communities that are being negatively impacted by this COVID-19 crisis.
“Our support to the local communities began a few weeks ago, but we quickly realised from speaking to organisations that wider help was urgently required.
“The East Lothian fund, through our BeGreen Dunbar centre and the community councils in Abbey St Bathans, Preston and Boynkel, Lammermuirs, East Lammermuir, Dunbar and Cockburnspath and Cove, is now open to applications from registered organisations, and we’re looking at providing decisions on all applications within 48 hours.
“We’ve done this to ensure the money we provide reaches those who need it most.”
Among the organisations that have already benefited from Community Windpower’s assistance are the Dunbar & District Coronavirus Community Helpers, North Ayrshire Foodbank and East Lothian NHS.
Ian Hamilton, a member of the Dunbar Coronavirus Response Team, said: “The support from Community Windpower’s BeGreen Dunbar centre came long before either government money or other charity funding became available.
“This speed of financial support meant we could work with families and local people almost immediately and this was crucial in us being able to have a positive impact.”
“It’s at times like these that we rely on the likes of Community Windpower, and we can’t thank the company enough for the support it’s provided.”
North Ayrshire Foodbank has already quadrupled the number of meals it makes each week, from 300 to 1,200, but this could reach 2,500 in the coming weeks. The developer said it had pledged £1,000 a week to provide meat for all meals for the foreseeable future.