04 December 2020

Ten projects funded by Coastal Communities Challenge Fund

Ten projects have benefitted from the Aberdeenshire Council 2020-21 Coastal Communities Challenge Fund (CCCF) programme.

Announced today (Fri, Dec 4, 2020), grants worth a total of more than £194,000 have been awarded to organisations across Aberdeenshire by the North East Scotland Fisheries Local Action Group (NESFLAG).

CCCF distributes the revenues generated by Crown Estate Scotland, and applications were assessed and approved by NESFLAG, a cross-sector partnership comprised of representatives from Aberdeenshire’s coastal and fishing sectors.

The application round was highly competitive, and the successful projects were selected for their positive economic, social or environmental impact on coastal communities. 

Projects approved include:

Further distribution of Crown Estate Scotland revenues in Aberdeenshire has been made in 2020 through the Council’s Business Resilience and Sustainability Scheme (BRASS), the Council’s COVID-19 response Phoenix Fund, and small grants through the four coastal Area Committees. 

Cllr Peter Argyle, chair of Aberdeenshire Council’s Infrastructure Services Committee, said: “These are all deserving projects and will have a very positive impact within the north-east. Funding such as this has provided a very welcome opportunity to support and develop Aberdeenshire’s coastal communities and businesses which continue to face challenging circumstances.”

Vice-chair Cllr John Cox added: “I am hugely-impressed by the diversity of the projects which have received funding – from fish processing to tourism. Given the considerable competition for funding, I would again encourage all community projects and businesses which have not been successful in this round of funding to continue developing your ideas as when grants like this do become available they often come with very tight timescales.”

Jamie Wilkinson, NESFLAG Co-ordinator, said: “NESFLAG was delighted to approve funding for these applications in the new Coastal Communities Challenge Fund in Aberdeenshire. There was a huge amount of interest in the programme and it was subsequently a very competitive application process. The successful projects demonstrate the fantastic range of community groups, businesses and tourism attractions along our coastline, and I expect the grants to have a really positive impact.”   

Further details about NESFLAG can be found at www.nesflag.org.uk