Fortrose and Rosemarkie Community Council attacks Highland Council for lack of notice over Scottish Government town centre fund application deadline
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A FURIOUS community council has demanded answers after it only received official word about a near £1 million grant fund just six days before the deadline for applications.
Fortrose and Rosemarkie Community Council (FRCC) claim word about the Scottish Government’s town centre fund came through from Highland Council so late, it was left scrabbling to submit an application for a share of Ross-shire’s £928,513 pot.
That is despite there being a number of community-supported projects which could have benefited from a cash injection.
Chief among them is the refurbishment of the Rosemarkie and Fortrose toilets. Where such facilities have been revamped elsewhere, donations for their upkeep have subsequently increased.
Chairman of the FRCC, Tom Heath, said that investing in the loos would ultimately have saved Highland Council cash.
He said: “It is of no benefit to Highland Council if this Scottish Government cash will not be spent because it will more than likely just be returned to Edinburgh unspent.
“What galls us is that the officials knew about the fund but not where it was going or how it would be shared out and when they did know how much was coming to Ross-shire, we were not told.”
It is understood that a joint bid to improve the toilets – alongside those in nearby North Kessock – was submitted “in a rush” in order to make the deadline.
Fortrose and Rosemarkie Community Council has also written to Highland Council to complain about the short window of time.
A council spokeswoman responded: “The chief executive received a letter from Fortrose and Rosemarkie Community Council on July 15 regarding the town centre fund and will respond in due course to them directly.
“In May 2019, the council promoted the allocation to Highland of the Cosla and Scottish Government partnership to set up the town centre fund for 2019 to 2020.
“The total allocation ring-fenced for Highland is £2,965,000 – the fifth highest allocation in Scotland. The council promoted the fund to Highland media and on its website and social media. A town centre fund information sheet – May 2019 – is available on the council’s website.”
Mr Heath rejected the claim there was enough information available, saying: “I think we have enough to do tidying up after Highland Council to then go trawling around its website for information that should be sent to us.
“If they had just told us, we could have invested the money in the public toilets which would have saved the council from having to send teams out to clean up after people, which is something that happens when there are no toilets open.
“I know that councillor Gordon Adam was working furiously to put a bid together as he was trying to reach the deadline, but I don’t know how far he got.”
Cllr Adam said: “It did appear that there was a delay in informing us about the town centre fund so we had to put together whatever we could in something of a rush.
“What we did was take the toilets in Rosemarkie and Fortrose – because you have to take them together even if Rosemarkie doesn’t qualify for the funding – along with North Kessock and put them together. We have heard that in Kinlochewe they are getting up to £900 a month in donations after improving the look of the facility.
“So what we did, in the time available to us, was use that as our concept by consulting with the group who are going to take over the toilets and create a Black Isle-themed mosaic that makes them look more presentable.”
