Tag: community buyout

Village Trust launches appeal to complete Pub purchase

Port Bannatyne residents will launch a community share offer next week, in what will be the last piece of the jigsaw that allows the village to complete the purchase of the Anchor Tavern and the former off-licence at 34 Marine Road which will become a flexible community hub space.

An information drop-in was held in the Port Hall last night.

Residents and supporters will be invited to buy shares in Port Bannatyne Development Trust, the Community Benefit Society (CBS) that will own the Anchor.

The Scottish Land Fund announced last month that they would provide the funds to purchase the building, subject to a successful community share offer to raise funds to cover renovations and working capital.

The shareholders will then control the CBS, on a one member one vote basis. The CBS’s rules have been designed to comply with Scottish Land Fund requirements, which include a majority of shareholders being resident in the village and a £25 minimum shareholding.

The majority of the funds raised will be spent on refurbishment. In particular the parts of the building which customers don’t normally see are in urgent need of attention, with vegetation now growing inside the building. The share offer aims to raise between £50K and £105K, with the extent of the renovations carried out dependent on the total raised, and priorities to be decided by the new CBS.

Jon Sear, Vice-chair of Port Bannatyne Development Trust said “We know £105,000 is a lot of money to try to raise for a small village like Port Bannatyne, but we are encouraged by the success of other communities, in particular Knoydart, whose pub Share Offer just raised twice this amount and had to be closed early, despite their smaller population.

“Our biggest challenge is that we can’t accept more shareholders from outside the Port Bannatyne area than live locally, so unless the number of applications from Port residents exceeds our expectations, we have no choice but to prioritise higher value applications from non-residents”.

After shares have been allocated to village residents, the Trust has committed to prioritising applications for £200 or more of shares from other island residents and second home owners, and applications for £1000 or more of shares from supporters wherever they are.

The society aims to pay investors 2% interest after year three and is applying to register for HMRC’s Social Investment Tax Relief scheme which offers attractive tax incentives for larger investors.

Our Leith Walk: Ministers approve Stead’s Place community buyout company

Scottish Ministers have approved a bid by residents in Leith to set up a company that can take a threatened building into community ownership.

Campaigners have successfully established a Company Limited by Guarantee called ‘Our Leith Walk’ to buy the sandstone building at Stead’s Place, if it is put up for sale.

An application by current owner Drum Property Group to replace the building with student flats was rejected by City of Edinburgh Council in January 2019, and the developer’s follow-up appeal was thrown out by the Scottish Government in December.

Our Leith Walk, which was born from the grassroots campaign Save Leith Walk, has now registered an interest in a Community’s Right to Buy the land at 106-154 Leith Walk.

The group has produced what Scottish Ministers regard as a viable and creditable use for the building which is compliant to the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 and to which Ministers have considered and approved their application to register an interest in its purchase.

The Act requires Scottish Ministers to be satisfied that the acquisition of the land by the community body is compatible with “furthering the achievement of sustainable development”. Ministers believe that, if successfully delivered, Our Leith Walk’s proposals should contribute positively to the sustainable development of the land and the local community through, for example:

·       Re-opening the 22 small retail units and 1350 sq m office space in the sandstone building.

·       Retaining, reusing and improving the existing buildings, developing them through sustainable means and providing curb appeal

·       Providing better accessibility for those with reduced mobility and increasing capacity to provide wider economic and social benefits for all the community.

·       Developing the environmental potential of the building by implementing exemplary structural programs including; roof greening, urban growing, renewable energy provision.

·       Focusing on training and enterprise, in partnership with local anchor organisation, supporting disadvantaged young people and target groups into high quality employment.

Anne Atkinson, a spokesperson for the campaigners, said: “It feels fantastic to have finally got this over the line because it’s taken a lot of time and effort from local people giving up their spare time to get us here.

“We believe passionately that the best future for this much-loved building is for it to be owned and governed by the community it serves and used to benefit that community. We have a long-term, sustainable plan for this site and securing Scottish Ministers’ approval for our company is a huge step on that journey.”

The newly-formed business is confident it would be able to raise funds to buy the building once the current owner decides to sell.

To get involved or find out more please contact ourleithwalk@gmail.com