West Kilbride Village Gala is seeking funding for storage cages, storage boxes and ground mats.

Large storage cage on wheels with shelving x 1 - £369.59

Tall storage cage on wheels x 2 @ £210.72  -      £421.44

Storage boxes with lids  Pk of 10                  -       £  56.40

Ground Mats (Pk of 4) @£17.99 x 8             -       £143.92

                                              TOTAL             -       £991.35

We would like to put on lunches, coffee afternoons, arts and crafts and live entertainment for the residents at Watt Gardens in Dalry. We have broke down the costs below.

• Musical Entertainment £250
• Tea, coffee, milk provision £100
• Easter Eggs £96
• Catering £304
• Crafting Materials £250

Musical instruments - £630.  Scanner / printer - £370  Total - £1000

Project supports health and well-being

Irvine and Dreghorn Brass has been in existence for c. 45 years and is a registered charity. We have 3 brass bands in our organisation and we provide opportunities for community members to learn music, play in a group and be entertained by music which has major health and well-being benefits for participants and audiences alike.

We perform at over 30 concerts and gala days each year and are seen by thousands of people. We also provide free music lessons and access to brass and percussion instruments for young people and adults. 

Part of the funding would be spent on instruments that enable more people to play. While we will require to spend more than £630 on buying new / nearly new instruments, we will look to fund this additioal spend via other sources. 

We would also like to buy a good quality printer / scanner. We often need to copy sheet music for our musicians to play and practice. Also we have a large library of sheet music, around 900 arrangements collected over our 40+ year existence, that we would like to digitise (scan). Parts of the sheet music often get lost or damaged and creating on-line copies would protect the music and enable us to print parts as required for our band rehearsals and classes.

Demand for our services is growing and our membership has grown 50% in the last year. Many people want to play in bands and community groups have us play at events.

Support us to build an inventory of tools, materials and resources to deliver workshops on traditional and heritage skills around the Isle of Arran. This will be with the aim of helping our communities to learn the skills to manage the land around Arran using sustainable methods.

Through the network of community gardens we have helped to establish in different villages around the Isle of Arran, we are planning to help local people to manage the green spaces in our communities through learning traditional methods such as Scything, hedgelaying, natural construction, woodcarving, carpentry, craft skills and more. This budget will go towards purchase of equipment to deliver workshops and develop educational materials that can be applied to a variety of different contexts around the Isle of Arran, buillding on our track record of prototyping sustainable methods of land use over the last three years. 

Breakdown of Costs:

• Scythes and scything equipment: £400
• Handtools: £400
• Budget for printing educational materials (handbooks, training materials): £200

The project is in two parts. 

A. Recabling of internal power sources from the consumer unit in each of 6 premises (4 studios, 1 commercial business and the Village Hall) with armoured cabling to an external waterproof junction box. All work to be carried out by certified electrician including testing.

B. Replacement of external wall cabling, installation of weatherproof sockets and connection to newly installed weatherproof junction boxes for 34 motif positions in Ritchie Street and Main Street. All work to be carried out by NAC Buliding Services.

Breakdown of costs (including VAT) 

A. £2400

B. £2000

Total £4400

Note: This application is for £1000 which is a proportion of the total above, we are trying to find the remainder from other sources.

Dementia Wellbeing Cafe has recently opened on the 21st July and runs every Friday in the Argyll Community Centre from 1-3pm.  It is for people living with demenita and the unpaid carer, friend or family member to come along to have a chat and a cuppa and meet other likeminded people to provide support.  There is also releveant support organisations that come along to answer any questions. 

The money will be used to reemburse volunteer expenses, replensih cafe stock e.g. tea/coffee biscuits etc to enable us to continue to provide the cafe free to people to, ensuring that cost is not a barrier to people attending. 

Access to the toilet compartment at the rear of the Groundhog involves stepping up/down a distance of approx 25cm and closing the metal door behind you.

 This is further complicated by the Groundhog welfare unit lying on a slightly downward facing slope.

Our museum visitors and walkers/cyclists passing by on stage 12 of the Ayrshire coastal path have free access to our Groundhog toilet compartment during our opening times from April to September and this covers all age ranges and from individuals to families.

We have attempted to reduce any access difficulty to the toilet compartment by the temporary positioning of two wooden pallets to act as an intermediate step, however due to the exposed nature of the site and wooden material these now require replacement.

We have approached a long established blacksmith based in Largs and they can design, manufacture and install a steel frame covered by an aluminium durbar sheet which has a raised pattern feature to form a non-slip surface in any direction and which will form a platform with the same dimensions as the existing pallet area for £960 including vat..

This will act as a permanent solution making access/egress easier, while spending the money within the North Coast to the benefit of the business and its employees.

We are hoping to develop in the coming year an approach to those individuals or groups looking to improve their physical fitness and mental health by providing a free resource rest and/or turn round stop at our site which is 3 miles north of Largs on what was previously known as the red road from Routenburn Golf course to the Meigle.

Our free admission museum is available for visits from those with mobility issues and both our museum and welfare unit are powered using  PV solar panels for lighting and communications equipmen as part of our drive to minimise the use of fossil fuels due to not having a mains connection to our museum site..

Our project will be to purchase a new defibrillator which our community volunteers will use to provide lifesaving treatment to anyone who needs it on Irvine beach and as part of our community outreach projects. Volunteers will be trained how to use the defibrillator, increasing their existing skillset around first aid, increasing resilience and building their confidence to use the lifesaving piece of equipment.

Our volunteers benefit from reduced social isolation by volunteering at Coastwatch through the day and at weekends, benefiting their health and wellbeing. Having equipment such as the defibrillator is essential to providing that service for volunteers and the public. All our volunteers learn from each other’s varying experience and Coastwatch has a sense of community spirit among the volunteers, building positive relationships within the community.

Breakdown of costs:

Mindray C1A Semi-Automatic defibrillator - £1100

Coastwatch will subsidise the additional £100 from our own funds.

Following COVID, there has been population movement away from Arran resulting in Think About Plastic losing some of their volunteers and supporters and an influx of new people who may not be fully aware of the work of TAP. Think About Plastic-Arran (Charity No. SCO48987) is a steering group, set up in response to community concern, which works by involving community groups, businesses and individuals to think about their plastic use at source, in use and in disposal (reduce, re-use, re-purpose, recycle),  This project seeks to engage or re-engage people to work together (thus reducing social isolation and loneliness) to reduce the amount of plastic in use on Arran and subsequently reduce plastic litter in our environment (benefitting our seas and marine life and our countryside) and promoting the health and well-being  by maintaining and improving our beautiful island. Every single person can truly make a difference.

1. The project aims to raise awareness of the services of TAP and encourage people to become actively involved in reducing the amount of plastic entering the seas around Arran through the launch of a new @friends' scheme. To support this we would like to purchase materials to engage/ re-engage individuals and groups including a supply of metal pin badges for members and friends and generally raise awareness of issues with the general population and visitors to Arran.  500 badges @31p each  £155    Total £195 and to produce and stckers to raise awareness about the disadvantages of wet wipes being flushed down the toilet. (the incidence of plastic-containing wet-wipes has increased on Arran's beaches and constitues a health hazard. as well as being unpleasant). These two actions will form the basis of a 'Don't Flush' campaign in Spring/Summer '24. Initial set-up costs for badges £40, 500 badges'@31p each £155  Design fee for 'don't flush' stickers £150  80x 75x110mm vinyl stickers £89.76  Postage £3.90   Total   £438.66