Divided Coll to get its Lottery funding for new community centre

The Big Lottery has confirmed that it is to carry on with the funding of around one third of the proposed £2.5 million cost of an ambitious project to build a new community centre cum visitor support centre – An Cridhe – for Argyll’s Isle of Coll.

Following the public airing of a bitter split – centred on:

• the apparently exorbitant  cost of the land for the new hall (£250,000)
• some other financial anomalies in the project budget (reported in the story linked above)
• the sale of the existing village hall – necessary to fund raising for its replacement and costed into the budget
• the possibility that the overall project cost of £2.5 million might leave a heavy debt burden for future generations of this small 220 strong island population.

The good news is that, after further investigation which demonstrated a strong supportive majority among islanders, the Lottery too will continue to support the project.

The reality is that the project team must now deliver a business and marketing plan that will reassure the antis – whose concerns were not unreasonable, whatever other local issues may have accelerated the dispute.

Argyll needs ambition and people who do not shrink from it. That is the heart of future proofing. But it is equally important not to equate realism with opposition and to count those who do not agree with you – either way – as enemy.