News
From Galson Estate Trust
News
18th November 2008
Urras calendar now on sale
The Galson Trust calendar is now on sale priced £6.99. The calendar contains images of nature and the environment throughout the estate and all the images have been contributed by local residents. The calendar can be purchased from Buth Lisa or local outlets throughout the estate and in Stornoway.
16th October 2008
Urras Calendar available soon
The ranger sub have been working on the production of a calendar for 2009, the theme of which is 'nature and the environment'. The images were selected from those contributed to the Flickr site as well as some contributed from members of the local community. The calendar is currently at the printers and will be available soon for the price of £6.99 from the Urras office and local oulets.
29th September 2008
Ness teenager wins national award
Johnny Soutar, 15, from Lionel, is this years national winner in the 2008 BT Internet Rangerof the year awards. The awards recognise the efforts of young people who share their interent skills with others. Johnny was secretly nominated by his mum, Elspeth, after she recieved information about the award from Urras rangerJulie Sievewright. He wasn't aware of his nomination until he was contacted by the judges to conduct a telephone interview.
Johnny won his award for helping his mum start a new life on Lewis after she became a single parent. He designed and built a website for the family business two holiday cottages, from which the entire family income had to be earned. As well as teaching his mum how to manage the website, bookings, advertising etc, he has also helped a local IT project by teaching adults and children about the internet.
Johnny was presented with his prize of a laptop plus £250 in IT vouchers from Angus McNeil MP, at a special event at the BT tower in London.
23rd September 2008
UOG responds to Halcrow report
The Board of UOG met on Tuesday September 16th to discuss the presentation of the interim findings of the Halcrow Western Isles Economic and Community Benefit Study, commissioned by the Scottish Government
17th June 2008
UOG secures funding from Growing Community Assest scheme
Further to the funding recieved by the Big Lottery Fundearlier in the year, the Urras are delighted that they have been successful in securing funding of £85,608 under the lottery's growing Community Assests programme. This money will allow the trust to further its proposal to build a community business centre in the community owned estate located at the north of the Isle of Lewis, Western Isles. The overall aim is to provide a central facility to enable the group to better support social and economic regeneration throughout the area of the 55,000 acre Galson Estate. Current plans are to include offices for the estate trust, a renewable energy office for developing renewables schemes, outlet for local crofters produce, centre for the ranger service, space for the croft archive and library, small conference room and meeting place for local groups and township committees. This one year technical assistance award will enable the trust to take the project to tendering stage.
20th April 2008
UOG secures grant funding from BLF
The Urras are delighted to announce that they have been successful in recieving a grant of £10,000 from the Big Lottery Fund under the auspices of their Investing in Ideas initiative. Having successfully submitted an outline proposal for funding for capital and revenue, this grant will enable us to hire assistance to undertake the detailed research to support a full application to Growing Community Assests.
With this funding package the Urras will be able to meet the Lottery requirements to undertake an options appraisal for an estate office either new or for the refurbishment of an existing building, provide a design brief, carry out site investigations, produce outline drawings and obtain outline Planning Permission. In addition estimated project costs will be established along with the economic viability of the project. Furthermore the Urras have made a further application to Growing Community Assests for revenue funding to engage a Project Manager responsible for progressing the full application to GCA and particularly the Wind Energy Project to be located at Ballantrushal. A planning application will be submitted shortly for the Ballantrushal project. The Urras expects the GCA application to be considerd either mid May or mid July.
Urras chairman Norman Thomson commented,"This is an important step forward for the Urras. A lot of hard work has been done over the last year to improve the management of estate business, but we will not be able to achieve the full potential until we have our own staff".
9th April 2008
Launch of Trust Leaflet
Friday 4th April saw the official handover of the new Galson Estate Trust leaflet at the tourist information centre in Stornoway.
The full colour bilingual leaflet includes a map, points of interestin the locale with background information on the estate and the recent community buyout. The leaflet was produced by the Urras' ranger, Julie Sievewright in conjunction with Mick Blunt of the John Muir Trust.
Norman Thomson, Urras chair, commented, "we are delighted to have the new leaflet ready for the new tourist season and hope it will provide a useful introduction to the estate for visitors. We are also very grateful for the practical support of Mick Blunt, the Lewis based officer with the John Muir Trust who has provided invaluable support in preparing the leaflet. The JMT have supported the Urras to purchase the Galson Estate for the community.
The leaflet is available for the start of the easter season in Western Isles Tourist Information offices and is to be distributed to sites around Lewis.
The leaflet was produced with financial help from John Muir Trust, Scottish Natural Heritage, The Macaulay Institute and Crofting Communities Development Scheme.
Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn helps secure the future of local services
Galson Estate Trust have helped to decure the furute of two local projects after the collapse of local development agency Iomairt Nis. With the help of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, the trust were able to purchase the equipment to keep the community newspaper Fios in circulation, the production of the paper with be managed by Sporsnis with a view to employing an editor in the future.
Habost Amenity site is also back up and running thanks to the Urras. The civic amenity licence has now been transferred and two operatives have been employed to man the site. Due to a restriction in funding the site is open at reduced hours and the door to door collection for over 60's can't be re-established at the moment but the community are delighted that the site is operational again.
Newsletter
Since the land buyout in 2007 the trust have produced a newsletter every few months which gives the community updates on the work of the trust, these can be viewed by clicking on the links below.
