Jackpot joy

NINE community groups have shared in a second £20,000 windfall in Buckie. The Bucks4Buckie event saw local people decide who received the cash. It is the second year that the Buckie Regeneration Group and Buckie Area Forum have allocated a £20k pot through what is known as participatory budgeting. The groups to share in the handout this year are: n Moray Reach Out – £3500 n Royal British Legion – £2204.02 n Radio Buckie – £1910 n Buckpool Harbour Community Group – £1600 n Buckie Ladies Football Club – £1518.98 n Buckie Arts and Crafts Group – £2000 n Buckie Community Theatre – £2500 n Buckies Roots – £3500 n Fishermen’s Hall Trust – £1267 Most of the cash came from a Tesco developer contribution paid when the store was built in the town, with additional funding from the regeneration group, which runs the Town House in Buckie. The event took place on May 10 at Buckie Community High School and Gordon McDonald, chairman of the regeneration group, said it went very well. “It has been a tremendous success and we have had a lot of emails from groups thanking us for the grants,” he said. Everybody in the audience is
allowed to vote for up to five different groups. Mr McDonald said the Scottish Government was very supportive of this funding model for local communities. Last year the £20,000 came from a Moray Towns Partnership scheme implemented by Moray Council. Mr McDonald, whose wife Linda is chairwoman of the area forum, admitted the main challenge now is to find a way to try and maintain Bucks4Buckie. “It is a question of where we can access the funding to keep it going,”he said. He explained that the Scottish Government has a number of community funds which they hope to tap into.