Grants & Funding

Wind Farm Grants

The Upper Tweed community benefits from grants from the Community Funds of two wind farms, SSE Clyde Borders and Ventient Energy Glenkerie. Grants can be paid to local organisations or individuals and Youth Bursaries can be paid to individual families to enable young people to participate in activities.

Micro Grants

Micro Grants of up to £250 are available for local organisations or individuals wishing to undertake specific projects and are administered by the Community Council.

Completed application forms for microgrants can be sent to secretary.utcc@gmail.com

In the case of an organisation this will need to be accompanied by an explanation of why the project will not be financed from the organisation's own resources.

Grants of £250-£25k

These applications for larger grants will not be administered by the Community Council but if you wish a Council member may be able to give you some helpful advice before you apply. You can find an application form and guidance on the website of the Wind Farm Community Fund to which you propose to apply:

Who Can Apply

To be eligible to apply for funding from the Clyde Wind Farm Community Fund including the small Grant Scheme your project must be within a 15km radius of the Clyde Wind Farm and meet one or more of the priorities Applications will be accepted from:

public organisations and agencies
partnerships, trusts, co-operatives and other non-government organisations
community groups, associations or organisations
any social enterprise or not for profit organisation located, or offering a service benefiting communities, within a 10km radius of participating developments

Applications will be considered from outside the 15km radius but within the Council Area if it can be clearly demonstrated that the communities and people within the area will benefit and there is community support locally. Funding will only be awarded to these projects on the agreement of both the Council and Developer.

The Glenkerie fund will benefit charities and community groups within 15km of the wind farm, including those in the Upper Tweed Community Council area and parts of Biggar, Symington, Stobo, Skirling, Roberton and Lamington.

The overall aims of the fund are to support activity which will sustain and develop the life of the community and ensure that the area is an attractive and vibrant place to live, work and visit.

Applications that address one or more of the following outcomes are particularly welcome:

Adequate access to services for all community members
Improved local transport
Opportunities to grow the local economy
Developed or maintained community assets

Youth Bursaries

Youth bursaries are administered by the Community Council on behalf of the Wind Farms. A bursary can be paid to enable a young person to participate in an educational, sporting or artistic activity which they could not otherwise attend - the Community Council has decided that it may award a bursary of up to £200 but no part of it may be used for travel expenses and applications are more likely to be successful if part of the total cost of the activity is being borne by the applicant.

The completed application form should be sent to secretary.utcc@gmail.com. The form requires information such as the name of the young person, their age, an explanation of the activity and its total cost (excluding transport), specifying the sum of money which would be necessary to enable the young person to attend. Please check out the Youth Bursary Guidelines for eligibility information and more guidance.

If you need a youth bursary for more than £200, you should apply to one of the above wind farm grants.