RESIDENTS of a Galloway village are being asked to buy a stake in the local harbour as part of a new community ownership scheme.
Organisers hope the “community benefit share offer” will raise £75,000 to secure the future of Portpatrick harbour.
The facility is owned by a Channel Islands investment company but locals behind the buy-out say it needs urgent maintenance and modernisation. Attempts have been made before to bring the harbour into community ownership through a failed local trust.
However, the Portpatrick Harbour Community Benefit Society has now been formed in a last-ditch bid to buy the site and give it a new lease of life.
It hopes to buy the harbour from the current absentee owner because it has been allowed to decay and is in urgent need of maintenance and development.
Community Empowerment Minister Marco Biagi, the driving force behind a law brought in earlier this year to enable groups to take charge of their communities: “The community ownership project in Portpatrick highlights why this legislation was needed and shows how a community can take control of its own future by playing a direct role in contributing to local assets, and providing employment and leisure opportunities.
“Our Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act provides communities with more rights to take over abandoned private land in both urban and rural areas, giving them opportunities to transform areas that have previously been neglected.”
The society, which has been working closely with the Community Shares Scotland team, is confident that local residents and businesses – and others with links to Portpatrick – will help raise the cash to ensure that the share offer is fully subscribed.
A business plan projects enough profit in four years to repay investors should they want it and the community share offer will open early in September with the minimum investment £25 – the maximum £20,000. The society said the harbour and pier was at the heart of the community with the project forecast to make a considerable impact on the village of Portpatrick boosting sailing, tourism, heritage and employment in the future.
Community Benefit Society chairman Calum Currie said: “We are reaching a real landmark stage and the excitement is really building locally.
“We have worked very hard to explore different ways of approaching the community harbour project and it will mean a lot to gain recognition as the first Scottish Community Benefit Society with charitable status seeking to raise a community share offer.
“In the meantime, we are working in close collaboration with Community Shares Scotland in developing our community share offer.”
“The main aim of the project is to secure the integrity and appearance of the historic harbour of Portpatrick for the benefit of the community and all who love and visit it.
“The harbour lies at the heart of the village and is as important to Portpatrick as the village green is to many other communities throughout Britain. It is a very exciting time for the village and will really put Portpatrick on the tourism map, especially with keen sailors and yachting enthusiasts from around the west of Scotland and nearby Irish coastlines.”
Community Shares Scotland programme manager Kelly McIntyre, said the Portpatrick scheme was the first of its kind.
She said: “The Portpatrick Harbour team has worked tirelessly to get the project under way and we are now on the brink of launching the Community Benefit Society in combination with Community Shares Scotland.
“This will be a real first for Scotland for this type of project.
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