Community Development Company of Nesting CDCN
Newsletter No 4, March 2018 [DOWNLOAD HERE]
We held off issuing another newsletter last year as we were waiting for various things to happen. “Various things” have indeed now happened and you can read about them below.
Asset transfer:
The process we are currently moving through to acquire the Aald Skül property is known as ‘community asset transfer’. This is largely new legislation which empowers community groups, such as ourselves, to take over the management and/or ownership of land and properties from landowners such as the Council.
Through the various surveys and public meetings that we and our consultants organised, we were able to assess the interest in each of the ideas put forward and to calculate their financial and logistical viability. This information was collated and presented as a robust business plan showing our ability to develop and run the project in a self-sufficient and community orientated manner.
This business plan was submitted to the council, along with our constitution and other required information to be considered by the asset transfer panel. We hope that the panel will meet to consider our application over the next few week after which a recommendation will be made to the Council’s new Chief Executive who will make the final decision. Fingers crossed…
Land Fund, stage two grant:
Our business plan was also required for applying to the Scottish Land Fund for their stage two grant. We were delighted to find out in February that our application had been successful, and we were awarded £47,109. This grant will allow us to purchase the property as well as providing the funds necessary to employ architects who can get plans in place to move us on to the next phase of our project. The grant will cover some initial running costs and, most importantly, partially fund a development worker.
Other news:
Community Development Company of Nesting is now registered with Companies House as a private ‘Company, Limited by Guarantee’, company number: 589570
We have also been given charitable status by the Scottish charities regulator OSCR. Our charity number is SC048164.
We have paid Community Enterprise for all the good work they’ve done, thereby completing allocation of our Scottish Land Fund stage one grant.
We are currently interviewing architects to lead our design team.
The Scrap Store is still doing very well, raising an average of £118 a week last year (not including £146.68 of donations). Our balance is now over £8000! Many thanks to all who have supported us over the last 18 months. Your donations are essential to the continued success of the group and we hope to see all you bargain hunters again soon.
We are currently approaching other funding bodies, such as “Leader”, with a view to applying for further grants this year.
We will issue another newsletter in three months’ time if all goes well.
