Eyemouth Town Hall Social Eco Innovation Centre

Eyemouth Town Hall – Social Eco Innovation Centre A centre to increase skills, opportunities and training for people, increase tourism, encourage social enterprise, offer serviced office accommodation for new and developing businesses and develop Eyemouth as an economically sustainable town.

Progress from last newsletter: There has been huge progress, much of which has been in the Berwickshire News or on Social Media, but here is a summary so that everyone has up to date information.  October 2015 - awarded the Development Grant by BIG Lottery – Investing in Communities  January 2016 - after 2 rounds of advertising a Design Team was appointed  Camerons, architects based in Galashiels, who come highly recommended and have experience in working with communities on BIG Lottery projects. Their team, headed by Gavin Yuill and Sam Coe, have already been down to carry out a variety of surveys on the Town Hall, the old Burgh Chambers and the property above, currently in private ownership.  Community Enterprise Limited, led by Douglas Westwater and Heather Gordon will be looking to provide a sustainable business plan, a marketing strategy, funding strategy and carry out community consultation. Douglas has vast experience of working on community projects with BIG Lottery and Heather will be known to some of you, as she carried out the initial feasibility study, which set the ball rolling on this whole project.  Melrose and Porteous will be carrying out the legal work, led by Janette Minter  August 2016 – as this round of funding is closing down, the timescale for the final Stage 2 application must be submitted by the end of August. All the work that is being carried out by the Design Team will support the application. This part of the process would normally take 1 year but has been reduced to 6 months due to the closure of the funding round. 18th April Community Consultation - Come along to find out more information and have your say at the Hippodrome, starting at 10am and lasting no more than 2 hours 20th April Stakeholder/Business Consultation – Stakeholders and businesses invited to a meeting Online survey http://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Eyemouth_Town_Hall

Vision for Eyemouth Vision for Eyemouth is a representation of all the groups working in Eyemouth, who have been working on a strategic plan for Eyemouth over the last 2 years.

 January 2016 – meeting with guest speaker, Phil Prentice of Scotlands Towns Partnership, talking about how STP could support the community in a Town Audit, which would lead to a Town Plan.

 February 2016 – received Quality of Life grant from Scottish Borders Council

 February 2016 – STP carried out the Town Audit

 March 2016 – Final draft Town Audit received and available on STP website

 April 2016 – meeting of Vision for Eyemouth sub-group to plan way forward, with support from BAVS to completing the Town Plan

The Auld Merket (TAM)

 March 2016 – the modular unit delivered to the Auld Merket.

 March 2016 – end of first year of People and Communities funding (Scottish Government) and SSE Sustainable Development Fund., but another year’s funding applied for. The project has been very successful, despite the setbacks and lack of office space. The targets set have been met successfully. EDCT would like to thank Gale Coates for all the work she has done to set this project up and her continuing support of the project by volunteering.

 April 2016 – confirmation of further PCF funding for next phase of project

 April/May 2016 – advertise for and appoint Project Leader and Project Worker

 June 2016 – outcome of BIG Lottery/Community Led grant application known. This is a 3 year grant application, which will fund an Operations Manager for the 1st year and the Project Leader and Project Worker for 2nd and 3rd year, if we are successful. The purpose being to build up the training and services offered at the Auld Merket, to dovetail with the Social Innovation Centre.

For more information, please see [email protected] Contact EDCT [email protected]