EAST DUMFRIESSHIRE REGIONAL COMMUNITY PLAN 2020 mmunity Benef t Group ire East Co friessh Dum Prepared by Creetown Initiative Ltd. Contents 1. Preface 1. Preface 3 Since the Minsca windfarm project was launched by Ventient Energy in 2008, some communities in East 1.1 Covid-19 in 2020/21 Dumfriesshire have been able to receive windfarm community beneft funds amounting to £52,600 annually. The larger Ewe Hill project, owned by ScottishPower Renewables, came on stream in 2017. Through it, up to the end of 2020, about 60 small-to-medium size grants have been offered – Community 2. Area Profile 5 Transport, Sports and Community Facilities, Environmental, Arts and Regeneration Schemes, Youth and Welfare ventures – have been supported. Each of these projects has merit and they have all brought 2.1 Langholm/Lockerbie beneft to communities in the East Dumfriesshire area. 2.2 The smaller Communities The communities in receipt of Ewe Hill funding came together to form the Dumfriesshire East Community Beneft Group (DECBG) on 19th July 2017. A registered SCIO, DECBG draws its members from the 3. Area Challenges 12 communities in receipt of funds. The funds from the Ewe Hill scheme are allocated to a local Ewe Hill 3.1 Employment and Housing 6 group of communities who individually decide how the funds are spent in their communities and a ‘wider’ Ewe Hill 16 fund covering the East Dumfriesshire area and distributed through a grant scheme 3.2 Transport operated by DECBG. At present the two Ewe Hill funds provide a combined total of £253,000 annually. 3.3 Social Isolation Several other windfarms are under construction, in process or planned in the area. The available funds 3.4 Homecare Support will therefore, in all probability, grow very signifcantly. However, how all the funds emanating from 3.5 Internet/Broadband those other windfarm projects will be administered, and whether or not they might be coordinated is at present not clear. 3.6 Tourism The purpose of this Plan is to set out what local community priorities are following consultation to inform how windfarm funds alongside other funding available to communities in the area can be 4. The Consultation Process 15 used. Although windfarm funds will continue to support small-to-medium size projects in the future, 4.1 Ewe Hill 6 Area: One-to-One Interviewing it is hoped that longer-term, longer-lasting projects with a broader, area-wide beneft, can also be 4.2 Wider Community Consultation - the Questionnaire brought forward. The ‘legacy’ project ideas captured through this process have come from an in- depth consultation with local communities. The consultation determined what kind of projects the communities wanted, where the greatest need was, what diffculties there might be, which projects 5. Consultation Findings 17 would provide the biggest beneft, and which would be achievable. The consultation feedback sets out what these key projects might be and how they can be achieved. It covers the whole area but 5.1 One-to-One Interviewing includes details which are specifc to its local communities. 5.2 Responses to the Community Consultation Questionnaire In today’s world, communities in receipt of windfarm funds have an advantage over others. With falling 5.3 Further Analysis of Feedback - The Most Popular Ideas lottery revenues and the loss of EU funding, the competition for funding support will become ever more challenging. Access to community beneft funds is therefore a positive advantage for projects within 6. The Action Plan 23 a windfarm’s area. 6.1 East Dumfries Community Manager (EDCM) It is though, essential that these funds are used to maximum effect. Communities in receipt of 6.2 Next Steps windfarm funds may become too reliant on these funds for smaller projects. Where, in the past, there were fundraising social events, bringing communities together in dances, sales and coffee mornings, 6.3 Project Costs which often raised money for smaller projects, the danger now is that communities cease coming 6.4 Project Match Funding together to support a common cause and rely on the funding available from windfarms. This could lead to a reduction in ownership of projects and community cohesion. This Plan should not stop such groups applying for support and will still need people to work in communities to make things happen. 7. Conclusion 28 Hopefully, it will also encourage people to get behind more strategic approaches to using these funds 7.1 Opportunities and Challenges that go beyond their own communities. 7.2 Comments on the Management of Funds 7.3 A Longer-Term Vision 2 3 1.1 Covid-19 in 2020/21 Much of the work for this Action Plan was carried out before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. 2. Area Profle Even now, many months in, it is diffcult to predict what the full impacts will be. Impacts there will be - The area which centres on the Ewe Hill windfarm project, is bounded by river valleys. To the east across all aspects of life – and for a long time to come. and south-east are Eskdale and Ewes Water, with the Border hills around them and the main town of Langholm. To the west is Annandale and its surrounding, lower lying agricultural land with the main Funding towns of Lockerbie and Gretna. Between these is an area of higher hills, including Ewe Hill, which form Securing funding in the immediate future from other sources will be challenging. At present most an area of undulating hill ground, which is proving to be an attractive ‘land form’ on which to position funders are directing their resources at existing projects to ensure they do not fail and that their windfarms. This is characterised by hill farming and extensive plantation forestry with small, often quite previous investments are secured. As a result, some standard funding streams have been, or may be, isolated, communities. suspended, or have less funds available. Match funding may be hard to obtain. Windfarm beneft funds may effectively be the main available source of funding in the East Dumfriesshire area. The wider area covers thirteen community council areas: Eskdalemuir; Lockerbie and District; North Milk; Langholm, Ewes and Westerkirk; Hoddom and Ecclefechan; Middlebie and Waterbeck; Canonbie and District; Kirtle and Eaglesfeld; Springfeld and Gretna Green; Brydekirk and District; Eastriggs, Dornock Project Delivery and Creca; Gretna and Rigg, Springfeld and Gretna Green. It is diffcult to predict what levels of social distancing will remain over a prolonged period. Some degree is likely to remain, and this will affect the ability of organisations to deliver projects. As such, An inner cluster (closer round the windfarm itself) of fve of the ‘district groups’ forms the Ewe Hill 6 area: it might be prudent to schedule projects in order of what, in this context, can be progressed most Boreland in Hutton; Corrie; Tundergarth (all in North Milk); Middlebie and Waterbeck; Langholm, Ewes effectively. and Westerkirk. In this cluster, Langholm is by far the biggest settlement, with a population of 2,227. The smallest is Corrie with a population of 68. Support Specific to Covid-19 In this consultation Ewe Hill 6 was used as a core consultation and discussion group, while a postal This Action Plan does not include projects that are specifcally designed to support people through questionnaire consultation was used to gauge attitudes across most of the wider Ewe Hill 16 area. the Covid-19 crisis. Some spend has taken place to support community volunteer initiatives and some of these may continue to need support. There are also other funds available at present which are The main industries in the area are farming, forestry, and quarrying. Most of the land from west to designed to support Covid-19 related projects. These avenues should be investigated and borne in east is given over to activity in these industries. The area also includes several estates and much of mind. the housing stock is owned by these estates. The two larger towns in the area, towards which the scattered rural populations gravitate for services provision, are Langholm in the east of the area and Lockerbie in the west. Tourism plays a small role, especially in Langholm, and to a lesser degree in Positive Impacts of Covid-19 and Potential Lessons Lockerbie, and it is recognised that there is scope for improvement in this sector. Other employment is The reduction in CO2 emissions, much of it because of substantial reduction in travel, has been a in education, retail, land management and civic administration. positive impact of Covid-19, but it has come at a painful cost. Over the past months many people have adapted to working from home, in some cases where it might previously have been deemed The smaller communities across the landscape between Lockerbie and Langholm tend to relate inappropriate. Employers have realised unforeseen benefts - from reduced travel and offce more to either one town or to the other, depending on closeness and convenience. Recognising overheads, to possibly happier and more productive staff. ‘Home-working’ can be done wherever opportunities for whole-area projects will be a challenge. Nevertheless, smaller communities do you live, but infrastructure must be available. That more people might work from home adds weight recognise the usefulness to them of projects outside their immediate settlement, either in larger towns to the argument that improving internet connectivity in the East Dumfriesshire area is essential. There or in the wider countryside. Moreover, although major projects might not be based within the smaller is also a prediction that more people may move out of cities into what they perceive as safer, easier settlements, the beneft to them could be delivered through outreach activities.