Orkney Towns Fund - Priorities and Projects Workshop

The newly appointed Orkney Towns Board will be running its first public engagement workshop on the 18th of July, as part of the Orkney Towns Fund programme. 

The Orkney Towns Fund is backed by £20 million of grant funding from the UK Government. It is designed to support new project ideas and proposals as well as supporting existing project proposals which are already identified but need an extra boost.  The funding can be spent over the next 10 years but can also be accelerated into shorter time periods if required.

During the first year of the programme, the UK Government has determined that the focus of the funding will fall under three broad theme areas.   For Orkney these are described as:

•    Heritage and regeneration – enhancing and building resilience into activities, facilities and townships to ensure they remain the beating heart of our communities and offer increased opportunities to all local people, local enterprises and visitors alike.

•    Transport and connectivity – focuses on improving transport and digital connectivity so that residents, enterprises, civic bodies and visitors can share easier and affordable access to and between key places, activities and services.

•    Citizenship and sociability – aimed at encouraging positive behaviours, lifestyles and use of places as well as preventing anti-social behaviour and crime to ensure local communities can continue to thrive openly, safely and securely.

However, later funding rounds will be able to expand upon these initial theme areas.

Stephen Hagan, Chair of the Orkney Towns Board said:

“We are pleased to be holding our first consultation workshop and would strongly encourage people from all walks of life in Orkney to come along. £20 million can make a big difference to our community and the process to develop ideas and decide how to spend it will be community-led and independent from Orkney Islands Council, with a clear objective of improving people’s lives in Orkney. The workshop will be an opportunity for Orcadians to discuss ideas with the Orkney Towns Board and put forward the needs and priorities of our communities. Even if you have an idea for a project that does not exactly fit into the three priority themes for the first year of funding, please still come forward as there will be a future opportunity for these to be considered.”

The aim of the public workshop is to consider possible priorities for the fund to be invested in and to collect a range of potential project ideas and proposals.  This public input will sit alongside inputs from the public sector, business, community groups and academia to provide a community wide perspective.  The resulting priorities and project ideas will be used to help establish a prospective list of candidate projects and to help inform decisions on how the £20m UK Government funding for Orkney should be allocated.

The workshop will run as follows:

● 13:00 – 16:00 - Business & organisations workshop

● 16:30 – 17:30 – Drop-in session specifically for younger people (under 25)

● 18:00 – 21:00 - General public workshop

● Online participation available for all three events - see registration email below.

Although there will be no requirement for pre-registration, it will be helpful for possible attendees to register in advance so that layout and resources can be better planned. Please email Jennifer Fox to register your interest in attending at jennifer.fox@aquatera.co.uk.

The Orkney Towns Project’s key aim through these activities is to ensure open, inclusive, and impactful discussions and engagement with the community, which will in turn inform and shape decisions on how the £20m in UK Government funding will be spent. These first events will be followed by others during the summer months, offering varied opportunities for the Orkney community to become involved.

Orkney Towns Board has appointed the local sustainability consultancy Aquatera Ltd to help facilitate this consultation process.