The Old Kilpatrick Community Council wants to engage the services of Community Links Scotland to support the preparation of a Community-led Local Place Plan.  The plan will be developed over the course of 6 months and will seek to identify the community’s aspirations and priorities as well as projects and developments which will form a community action plan.  The action plan will lead to real changes in the locations that the community identify as required and real investment in the area.

Through robust community engagement and activity, everyone in the Village will have an opportunity to contribute their ideas to the Place Plan.  The Community Council already has good relationships with community organisations such as scouts, the churches and the local schools and these relationships and others will be utilised to ensure the plan represents as many views as is possible.    

Milton Village Community Group was formed in July 2022. Our initial activities related to the Village Hall which we are custodians of following the demise of the previous hall group. We now run community activities and events from the Hall and have been able to create a focus for village community life. Our activities have been very well received and well attended. The young people of the community designed and painted a mural within the hall during the October holidays and we feel that a sense of community ownership of the hall and the surrounding area is growing within the community. 

We completed the initial stage application for the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme through Local Energy Scotland. We were successful in this application which then allowed us to make a request for an Energy efficiency assessment. This is now completed and we have the evidence advising of the changes that would enhance the operation of the building and importantly cut the energy costs which are currently curtailing the use of the hall. More importantly it has been agreed in principle that we will receive 75% of the costs from the Government's SME Loan Scheme with the group required to support the remaining 25% of the costs, we will use the grant to cover these costs. 

The Hall which sits within King George V Field which is the only field in trust in West Dunbartonshire and is maintained by the Council on behalf of the Village. Our activities and the offer we make to the community is hampered by the energy inefficiency of the Hall. We cannot open as often as we would like in the winter months due to the cost of energy and heating the Hall. The work we are proposing will reduce the carbon footprint of the hall (in terms of energy) by up to 72% and reduce our energy costs by a similar amount.  

The West Dunbartonshire Amateur Swimming Club (WDASC) has been in existence for over 100 years. It’s a parent led, not-for-profit organisation that develops the skills of West Dunbartonshire’s young people by participating in club swimming. WDASC is all about increasing the opportunities for our young people. Through club swimming, our young people develop life skills that will inherently improve their personal growth. 

We intend to purchase equipment that will upgrade the capabilities of the local swimming pools in West Dunbartonshire.  Thanks to the support of our local Leisure Trust, we operate out of the Clydebank Leisure Centre & ‘Vale of Leven’ pools. This new equipment will allow our pools to host ‘accredited’ swimming competitions in our community for the first time in 40 years. Currently our young athletes can only travel outside of our community to participate in swimming competitions. This comes with a financial cost to parents & carers that can sometimes, sadly, exclude our young people. 

Hosting competitions not only for our own young athletes, but also those from outside of our community, will help generate much needed income that can subsidise the costs charged to parents from the West Dunbartonshire’s Lesure Trust. 

Through community fundraising we are close to achieving our goal. A successful application to the ‘small grants’ fund will allow us to achieve our goal by summer 2024