A funding application for an ambitious playpark project will be considered by Castle Douglas common good fund councillors next
Thursday.
A report before the sub-committee recommends that Castle Douglas Development Forum be awarded £3,500 for its Lochside Park development – short of the £5,000 requested to complete the £241,200 funding package.
The council, which will manage the tendering and building process, has already pledged £125,000 towards the overall cost.
Other cash pledges include The Holywood Trust (£89,700), the Winnifred Kennedy Trust (£5,000), the Barfil Trust (£5,000) and the Co-op Community Fund (£500). In its project summary CDDF state: “Working with [community asset manager] Nicola Simpson and after extensive consultation with the community over the past two years, we have agreed a plan for the playpark equipment.
“The council will be managing it on our behalf having invested £125,000 in the project, commencing in autumn 2022.
“Our community consultation indicated that, in addition to the playpark equipment, adequate pathways and safety fencing, there is the need to create an all-weather sheltered, safe, well-lit inviting seating area for people in wheelchairs, parents with buggies and carers.
“The £5,000 will enable the purchase and installation of two accessible bench tables and a gazebo-style shelter.”
Other bidders to the fund, which has £6,107 available for 2022-23, include Archaeology Scotland for an archaeology fair in the town on September 4.
Councillors are being recommended to grant of £490 of the £700
requested.
In addition, Castle Douglas Forward Group, part of the town’s Rotary club, is seeking £2,500 towards a £4,900 project to install fully accessible picnic tables and benches on Market Hill. A grant of £1,750 is on the table. Councillors have discretion to meet all funding bids in full – but that would mean drawing down cash from elsewhere.
The report states: “Should the sub-committee make full awards to all three applicants, then the projected free income available would not be sufficient to meet this requirement.
“The deficit of £2,193 would then be met from the overall common good cash resource – £223,530 as at 31 March, 2022.
“However, in respect of the aims of the fund being to keep the fund healthy and to be sustainable for future applications, it is the lead officer’s recommendation that the sub-committee remains within the available free income available and make 75 per cent awards to each applicant, leaving a remaining balance of £367 free income.
