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Daily Record
a day ago
- Business
- Daily Record
Bothwell Futures earns double funding boost
The charity has received support from both the Scottish Government and South Lanarkshire Council for its community work. A busy Lanarkshire community organisation has received a double funding boost to support its work in the year ahead. Bothwell Futures is receiving more than £43,000 from the Scottish Goverment's Strengthening Communities programme, as well as benefiting from £25,000 from South Lanarkshire Council's Local Action Fund. The group runs the community hub in the town's former library on Main Street, and is currently working towards an asset transfer to take over the running of the community hall on Fallside Road. It was one of 77 organisations across Scotland to be included in this year's £2.5 million funding round from the strengthening communities scheme – along with neighbouring South Lanarkshire group Grow 73, based in Rutherglen. Bothwell Futures will receive £43,472 from the fund, which supports 'organisations delivering regeneration projects, to realise the economic potential of Scotland's communities' and helps fund initiatives ranging from employability and heritage initiatives to food hubs and renovating vacant buildings to provide cultural and community centres. Their funding allocation was announced by Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, who said: 'Local communities are best placed to address their own needs, identify improvements in their areas, and realise their own economic potential. Community-led regeneration is a key priority for the Scottish Government. 'From arts and culture projects, training and employment schemes, to bringing new life to disused buildings, hundreds of places across the country are already seeing positive change." Bothwell Futures was also selected to benefit from half of the local funding available under South Lanarkshire's new £1m local action fund, which allocates £50,000 to each of the authority's 20 wards. Local councillors Maureen Devlin, Cal Johnston-Dempsey and Kenny McCreary agreed a proposal to give half the funding to Bothwell Futures to allow the group to employ a general manager for a year – while the other half of the ward 16 funds will be spent in neighbouring Uddingston, with plans still to be decided. The proposal was unanimously agreed by councillors on South Lanarkshire's executive committee, along with recommendations including restoring the historic bandstand at Bothwell Road Park in the Hamilton North & East area. Council leader Joe Fagan said: 'Bothwell Futures has made a major beneficial impact on the village and the employment of a general manager will enable them to not only continue this work, but also to build upon it.' He added: 'The Local Action Fund was agreed as part of our building back budget and is designed to help each community with projects that can have a lasting and worthwhile impact for everyone who lives there. 'Local councillors were able to gauge from their constituents where the money could be best used, and I am delighted that we already have agreement for how the money should be spent in 13 of the 20 council wards, with the others to follow in due course.' Bothwell Futures is also currently working with the council on plans for a longer-term community asset transfer of the Fallside Road hall, after taking on its management last year to keep the 'valuable asset' available to the village for clubs, meetings and events throughout a typical week. They are currently running a consultation on proposals for future of the hall, which is described as 'in a poor state of repair and in desperate need of modernisation' – with the charity having 'commissioned an architect-led design team to review how the hall could be upgraded to provide improved facilities for the community' and running recent drop-in sessions to showcase the proposals.
Daily Record
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Lanarkshire author leads new book events at Bothwell hub
Elissa Soave, who has recently published her second novel - set in Hamilton - has arranged for a series of authors to take part in the series of monthly events. A host of authors will be opening up and sharing their stories at a new monthly event launching a new chapter for Bothwell's community hub. Local novelist Elissa Soave has arranged a series of 'Authors in Conversation' evenings, which will see two visiting writers interviewed about their work and taking questions from audience members at the town's former library building, now transformed into a community space. Elissa will be one of the first two writers in the hotseat this Friday, May 30, alongside Gillian Shirreffs, while a further eight authors are lined up to visit the town on dates scheduled until the end of September. Uddingston resident Elissa is the author of Ginger and Me, set in her home town and featuring local landmarks including the Tunnock's factory and scenes around Birkenshaw and Viewpark seen by bus driver protagonist Wendy, and new release Graffiti Girls – featuring 40-something friends Amy, Carole, Lenore and Susan who embark on a campaign of feminist grafitti around their hometown of Hamilton. She said: 'Bothwell Futures are doing great work and want to bring more people in to the hub. I'd got in touch to see about doing something together and now we have this series of author events on the last Friday of each month, which is quite fitting as it's the former library. 'I've been in touch with quite a few authors and two per month will be interviewed about their books, motivation, and take part in a question and answer session, and we've also partnered with independent bookshop Daydreams from Milngavie who will sell books. 'Our idea is that books and reading are for everyone and we want to bring authors to the heart of the local community. We hope there will be lots of local support and that it will take off as it's a great venue; and we hope the events will also benefit the community as people might come along and then go for a meal or out for the evening in the surrounding area.' She and fellow author Gillian will be interviewed by South Lanarkshire librarian Scott Montgomery at Friday's event, for which tickets cost £10 and are available at Elissa will then turn interviewer for the following four conversation evenings – featuring Sarah Smith and Karen Campbell on June 27; Tom Brogan and Andy Bollen on July 25; Claire Wilson and Callum McSorley on August 29; and George Paterson and Peter Bennett on September 26. Author Elissa won the inaugural Primadonna Prize six years ago, earned agency representation and months later landed a publishing deal with Harper Collins. She was also a finalist for the Bloody Scotland Pitch Perfect award in the same year and has had work published in various journals and anthologies. Ginger and Me was published in 2022 and was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Scottish first book award, while Hamilton-set Graffiti Girls was published in March and her third, The Allotments, is due to be published next March 2026. She said of Graffiti Girls: 'It's about four women in their late 40s who live in Hamilton and find that life isn't as good as they thought it would be when they were at school together, and they embark on a graffiti campaign around the town to highlight issues. 'There's a lot of local interest – my first novel was set in Uddingston and there was a lot support too, as people like to see themselves represented in literature and Lanarkshire as county has lots of great authors like Julie Kennedy and Graeme Armstrong. 'Graffiti Girls is a fun book and I'm looking forward to being interviewed by Scott, answering questions and having people coming along to the book events at the Bothwell Hub.' * Don't miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here. And did you know Lanarkshire Live is on Facebook? Head on over and give us a like and share!
