The decision by the Scottish Land Fund last year to not fund stage two of this project has had a knock on effect for further funding opportunities. The stage two was rejected due to the flood risk and SEPA decision and high costs associated with the project. In effect, it was deemed high risk.
The Grapes has and continues to be a challenging project. South of Scotland Enterprise, South of Scotland Community Housing and D&G Council are fully supportive of this project going ahead. NSI are looking into getting the SEPA decision overturned, which would reduce the risk for potential funders going forward. The costs for the next stage of development is £25,000. This would allow Collective Architecture and the building surveyors to do a full survey, full costings for the project and drawings to RIBA stage 4. If we can source funding for the development stage, then we will be able to apply for funding for capital costs to begin.
For now, although we don’t have funding we are looking at getting the SEPA decision overturned and continuing to have discussions with the Scottish Land Fund, Rural Housing Fund and other funders to get this next piece of work done.
We appreciate the community’s support for this project and are confident we can deliver this in the future.