Fourteen Musselburgh area projects win share of funding

This follows a public vote online and at a series of drop-in roadshows as part of the initiative organised by Musselburgh Area Partnership.

The results of the poll were announced at an event in The Brunton on Saturday afternoon.

The area partnership received £50,000 as part of the Scottish Government’s Community Choices Funding for 2018/19 to give people a direct voice in how funds should be invested on priorities in their local areas as part of participatory budgeting (PB).

This was supplemented by funding from the area partnership, which allocates a budget from East Lothian Council to a variety of local priorities and initiatives.

A total of 21 projects were shortlisted – 37 applications were received and an independent panel considered them to ensure they met the guidelines and aims.

The successful projects which will receive funding are:

• Summer Holiday Playscheme Provision for Wallyford & Whitecraig – a free programme of extracurricular summer activities including lunch for primary school aged children. To engage families through stimulating activities, directly addressing the importance of play and attachment. Run in local community centres – £10,000.
• The Heavy Sound Community Music Project – changing lives through music by bringing young people together who have faced significant challenges, helping them to re-engage through a range of electronic music and alternative creative arts-related activities in the community – £9,850.
• Putting Money in Your Pocket – to help people to maximise their household income through benefit uptake, accessing affordable credit and switching to cheaper contracts – £9,787.
• Musselburgh, Wallyford, Whitecraig Tool Library – reducing the need to purchase costly new tools and helping to build a Musselburgh tool library to save on costs and storage – £8,050.
• Eat Better Live Better – helping young people who are care experienced to eat in a healthy way on a challenging budget by offering cooking sessions and encouraging fun and flair in the kitchen. Ingredient bags to replicate at home will be provided – £5,000.
• Campie Cares – to help families reduce the cost of the school day and learn without worrying about money. To give children financial help towards attending one school trip and P7 camp. Help run free family events to offer help to protect against poverty – £4,500.
• Summer Community Cafe at First Step – providing a community cafe for all to enjoy that is free. The cafe will provide a breakfast and warm lunch to people through the summer holidays and will be a chance for people of all ages to socialise and eat healthily – £4,500.
• The Big Family Food Garden – bringing family and friends together to have fun growing healthy, fresh food free in a welcoming local community allotment – £4,335.
• Mobile Fruit in Musselburgh area – to put a mobile van on the road one day per week to go around Wallyford, Whitecraig and Musselburgh East, including Pinkie, selling fresh produce – £4,300.
• Musselburgh Community Kitchen – to provide a sociable environment to learn new cooking skills which are affordable and healthy, for all ages and abilities – £4,000.
• Play on Pedals & Big Read Project – highlighting that reading to young children sets them up to succeed and riding a bike improves physical fitness, a child’s learning development and mental health – £3,392.24.
• Musical Memories – to provide a regular weekly group for people suffering from memory loss/strokes and mental health issues to enjoy listening to music – £3,000.
• Silver Surfers – the Hollies Day Centre is looking to help older people stay safe online and make the most of the internet – £2,970.
• Musselburgh Kindness Fund – to provide social workers, family workers, health workers and community staff with access to small amounts of funds to support families in crisis with items like power cards, telephone credits, essential items such as nappies and vouchers for public transport – £1,750.

Iain Clark, area partnership chairman, said: “Your Voice Your Choice 2 has been our second participatory budgeting initiative in our community. This has now seen 14 fantastic projects receive funding to help tackle poverty and reduce inequalities.

“I am extremely grateful to the community for voting and their support in deciding what projects they felt would make a difference. I am also extremely grateful to the many volunteers who worked tirelessly to make it all happen.

“Musselburgh Area Partnership will be excited to see the successful projects come to fruition and these projects will be monitored and evaluated over the next 12 months.”

Stuart Baxter, area partnership manager, said: “I would also like to say a huge thank you to the community empowerment team at the Scottish Government, the Democratic Society Scotland and PB Scotland who offered help and advice throughout.

“A special thanks to all the groups who put forward bids and took part in the event and to all the community who took time to vote and help Musselburgh Area Partnership achieve its priority of helping to tackle poverty and inequalities.

“I would also like to acknowledge the financial support from East Lothian Council that underpins the work of the area partnership. This helped them secure the £50,000 external funding from the Scottish Government’s Community Choices Fund.”