North Ayrshire Council is launching its Communities’ Project Fund as part of its ongoing attempts to revitalise and rejuvenate local areas.

The £75,000 fund is available to local constituted groups and organisations and each bid will be assessed on its own merit. Each organisation can bid for anything between £5,000 and £25,000.

All projects should be ‘place-based’ which means they should have a focus on a particular area to meet the needs and aspirations of that community. Projects should deliver on the council’s place-based regeneration ambitions of town centre revitalisation, community-led regeneration and the principle of 20-minute neighbourhoods - where residents have easy, convenient access to many of the places and services they use daily including grocery stores, restaurants, schools and parks, without relying heavily on a car.

It is another strand of the council’s Community Wealth Building philosophy and drive to invest locally to enhance and enrich that area.

Councillor Joe Cullinane, leader of North Ayrshire Council, said: “This is a fantastic new fund and enhances what we are doing across our communities. We are empowering and supporting local groups – who care for their communities – to deliver projects that deliver and meet the aspirations of that area.

“We are building from the bottom up and by working with groups finding ways to deliver projects that benefit not only them but the whole community.”

Successful projects will either need to be delivered or financially committed by 30th March 2022. Expressions of interest should be emailed to regeneration@north-ayrshire.gov.uk by 5pm on 20 January 2022.