GREENS WELCOME £182K FOR PORTOBELLO, £5.5M FOR SCOTLAND
Today Green MSP Robin Harper and Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead announced £5.5m of funding for community projects across Scotland. The funding, which includes £172,000 for Portobello's Transition Town project and 89 other community groups across Scotland, is the latest round of Climate Challenge Fund money to be awarded.
The Green MSPs secured this funding as part of Budget negotiations with Scottish Ministers in 2008. The £27.4 Climate Challenge Fund is designed to support innovative and locally-led projects to cut carbon emissions and build sustainable communities. For more information, see the Climate Challenge Fund website.
Speaking at the Portobello Transition Town project as the funding was announced, Robin Harper MSP said:
"The Climate Challenge Fund is a chance for communities to innovate and lead, and to find opportunities instead of problems. Portobello, like many other communities across Scotland, has risen to this challenge, and I am proud to be here on the day the Portobello Transition Town project receives this crucial funding. They are pioneers in the true sense, setting an example which will be followed by other communities both across Scotland and beyond.
"The Climate Challenge Fund has been one of the great successes of this session, and we have been delighted to have been able to persuade Scottish Ministers to fund community ideas of this sort. The map of Scotland is covered with 232 extraordinary and diverse projects it has funded, and more than £27m has been invested. This money has laid the groundwork for sustainable jobs across the country, for greener and more fulfilling ways of living, and for the low carbon communities of the future."
The nine other projects funded in and around Edinburgh today are:
- Bits and Bobs (Intowork): £66,248
- Transition Edinburgh South: £79,417
- Grassmarket Community Project: £15,279
- Balerno Village Trust: £53,867
- Edinburgh Hindu Mandir and Cultural Centre: £53,324
- Edinburgh Rudolph Steiner School Trust Ltd: £22,140
- North Edinburgh Trust: £32,523
- Transition Edinburgh South: £49,979
- Greenworks (Scotland ) Limited: £63,293
