PRESS RELEASE : Kinross wins £300,000 for new aerospace centre [September 2023]

The press release issued by the Secretary of State for Scotland on 26 September 2023.

Project is one of four major bids in Scotland receiving total of £1m from UK Government’s Community Ownership Fund.

A new aerospace discovery centre is one of four Scottish projects set to receive thousands in government funding following a successful bidding round.

Almost £1m will be granted to the four projects – including £300,000 for the aerospace centre – to help level up local opportunities for generations to come.

Through interactive learning and exhibitions, the new centre will inspire young people to pursue aerospace-related jobs in science, tech, engineering and maths. It will be based at the Aero Space Scientific Education Trust’s Station House in Kinross, which was officially opened by Princess Anne in 1985.

Other new projects awarded in Scotland include:

• £256,793 to create a Community Net-Zero hub in Glasgow, boosting low-carbon learning and training in the city and urban nature-based wellbeing activities for residents.
• £253,032 to bring an existing shop building in Stirling into community ownership, creating a commercially sustainable village shop which supports the diversity of its community and visitors.
• £183,000 for Aberdeenshire to redevelop Laurencekirk Community Centre into a larger community hub. This will help host more local events and advisory services, lunch and chat clubs for elderly and lonely people and clubs for school holidays, youths, mums and toddlers.

UK Government Minister for Scotland Malcolm Offord said:

It’s great news that a further four Scottish projects are sharing almost £1 million (£992,825) from the UK Government Community Ownership Fund.

Through the fund we are now supporting 28 community groups across Scotland to breathe new life into the places where they live, work and play to the tune of almost £6.2 million (£6,161,420).

In total we are directly investing more than £2.4 billion in hundreds of projects across Scotland as we help grow our economy and level up the country.

The Community Ownership Fund helps towns and cities across the UK to create and restore treasured institutions like museums, pubs and sports clubs, so that they can be run by the community, for the community.

The fund has now given £6.2 million for 28 projects in Scotland – part of 195 projects now being supported across the UK.

UK Government minister for Levelling Up Jacob Young said:

Our priority is to support communities and deliver opportunities right across the country, which is why we’re investing £12.3m to secure the future of cherished c community institutions.

These places – from pubs to historic railway lines – are the golden thread which run through our social fabric, and keeping them going is vital for supporting communities.

Changes which came into effect for this round of bids also meant that all projects could bid for up to £1 million in funding, not just sports clubs, and the amount organisations needed to match fund decreased to 20%.

This also marks the first time that applicants applying to support projects such as the Community Net-Zero hub, have been able to benefit from support with the development of their application and business case through the Community Ownership Fund development support provider, led by Locality.

The Community Ownership Fund is currently open again for bids and will close on 11 October 2023 and groups are being urged to apply for up to £2m in funding for the very first time.