Flourishing Forth 2015
Introduction
Forth village is situated near Lanark on
the A706 and stands approximately
1,000 feet above sea level. The village
has a history of heavy industry including
steelworks, deep mining, opencast and
quarrying. Recently it has become a
centre for wind farms including
Blacklaw. This put Forth on the map
since it was for some years the largest
on-shore wind farm in Europe. It has
brought many benefits to the local
community through donations &
support from Scottish Power, and to
the wider community through the
monies from Community Benefits
which are fed into the Renewable
Energy Fund.
Through local groups there has been a
renewed sense of community and the
aims of the various group’s within the
Forth are to benefit the inhabitants and
its environs, without distinction of
political, religious, or other opinions; to
bring together in association the
inhabitants, voluntary organisations,
and local authorities in common effort
to advance education, through
promoting and organising activities,
both social and educational, which will
advance the quality of life of the
community; and to provide, in the
interests of social welfare, facilities for
communal activities and pursuits
including
recreation,
sport,
entertainment, education, hobbies, and
festivities. The willingness to revive
cultural and social life in the village
brings hope that these actions will go a
long way to restoring Forth to its
former prosperity.
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Horticultural achievement
For most of this past year we have been
unable to grow many vegetables or flowers.
However, now that the Eco Site is now
functional it is all steam ahead!
So far we have managed to:
 Fill, plant and tend to barrel street
planters and hanging baskets
 Weed and litter picking raised bed area
and pathways
 Kerry one of our volunteers is now
gearing up to start her organic veg
growing group.
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 Hedge planting around raised bed area
 Seed sowing, pricking out and potting on
various plants
 Prepared soil mound for planting herbs
 Prepared ground and planted potatoes
We have also carried out maintenance work
on community garden areas around the
village.
Border biscuits have been in contact and
have booked another staff volunteering day
for Tuesday 30th of June. They will be
working on the herb mound, getting it
shaped and planted with the plants we have
raised on site, a mixture of herbs, mainly
lavender, and herbaceous perennials.
Flower barrels and baskets planted and ready to go!
Preparing the barrels for the Main Street
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Environmental responsibility
When moving from our previous Eco Site the
Group has endeavoured to recycle as much
as possible. Unfortunately due to the new
location the wind turbine could not be reused
however, a potential new home has been
identified where it will be used to supply
energy to a private home in exchange for
advice and help with gardening design.
Some of the items reused from old site and
new work carried out over the past year
include:
Rebuilding the poly tunnels
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Re-siting the container
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all parts from the poly tunnel, except the
cover which had to be replaced
Purchased a refurbished porta cabin for
use as an office, classroom and meeting
room.
Solar panels re-installed and charging
batteries
Watering system re-installed
Container, this can now be used as a
secure store for equipment
Compost bays made from old pallets
Painted all raised beds
Made a traditional hurdle from hazel.
Thank you Alan, Mitchell and Gene for making the compost
bays at the Forth Eco Site. Looking grand guys!
An environmental conservation "Green
Team" group is also being discussed at the
moment who we hope will be the main stay
for the Wildlife Nature Festival project, whilst
encouraging other local groups to make a
contribution.
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Community engagement
In June last year the Initiative Group applied
for and was successful in becoming part of
the
Coalfields
Community
Futures
Programme this involved other Community
Groups and together we formed a Steering
Group. This resulted in a very successful
Open Day held in January when over 300
people turned up to vote on various themes
and projects. Tea, Coffee and home baking
was provided by members of the community.
Local Groups along with the Forestry
Commission; BB and Girls Association and
Forth Wanderers FC set up displays round the
hall this resulted in some of the Groups
gaining new members and volunteers. The
Gentle Giant Music Festival provided live
music and Lynne Hamilton Dance School
provided entertainment. It was a great day
despite the snow - It just goes to show what a
Community pulling together can achieve!
Voting at the Open Day in January 2015.
This year the group contracted CCI
(Clydesdale Community Initiatives) to
develop the site. This was to support our
successful Big Lottery Community Spaces
application works and the associated
outcomes required from the Eco Site.
Community Groups including the Haven and
Resource Centre are coming on board with
the project.
Some of the community improvements so far
have been:
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Recruitment of 16 local volunteers
12 Raised Beds now allocated
Regular Haven volunteering group
established
Talk given to Bank Hall Games club about
the Eco-site project and the various
opportunities available
The Resource Centre wish to hold willow
craft session at Eco Site
Contact made with other similar sites,
Some of our amazing volunteers!
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Castlebank Park, Lesmahagow, and
Larkhall Community Projects
Contact with Council representative to
have our project listed on Council webpage
Network at HTA reception at Holyrood
celebrating Horticulture & Health & WellBeing
Volunteers Week celebration at Resource
Centre attended
Hazel Hurdle making workshop (CAVLP
funded)
Some of the wonderful produce made at the 'Stepping Out'
sessions, for vulnerable women, held at Forth Eco Site. They
made some calendula salves and sugar scrubs, and
experimented with different colours making nice tea-lights
and some felt covered soap bars before finishing the day
with a soothing hand massage. Well done ladies!
A Gala Day entry is being considered for next
year. The possible theme of Mr Blooms
Nursery which is on cbeebies is being
considered. From this we have agreed that a
kid's club should be established at the site,
and a trial period will be held over the
summer holidays.
A men's group is also beginning to come
together as the men are getting to know each
other and a couple of them are quite good
with their hands. Suggestions that they
organise themselves to take on larger scale
projects such as building raised beds inside
the poly-tunnel meaning it would only be
material costs to get this job done. However,
it is early days yet.
Great work Robert! Thank you for volunteering to help paint
the raised beds
There is a plan to do a one-off session at the
community flat with their existing craft group
with a view to encourage them down to the
Eco Site to do regular garden crafts in the
hope that we will find a community member
who may wish to establish a group. Not just
willow weaving but all sorts of crafts, we
understand that the resource centres craft
group are good at card making so things like
flower pressing thank-you cards for our
contributors etc.
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Boarder Biscuits staff held one of their volunteering days helping at the Eco Site in April. Hope the weather is
th
better for them on 30 June!
Making the hazel hurdle
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Finance
Breakdown of Financial Contributions Contribution Funds
(£)
claimed
Funded
£17,000.00
SLRCT
£17,000.00
Leavenseat trust
£17,000.00
REF
£20,401.32
£10,200.00
Awards for All
£9,992.00
£9,992.00
Coalfield
Regeneration
Community Spaces
Total Contributions
£5,869.33
£5,869.33
£37,862.00
£108,124.65
£4,360.00
£47,421.33
Breakdown of Payments Funds Paid
Recipient
Out
£9,586.20
£11,556.00
£1,415.00
£177.60
£720.00
£6,994.00
£890.40
£880.00
£387.42
£4,152.00
£939.00
£470.00
£270.00
£675.00
CCI
Forbes
fees legal and planning
Fraser Dunlop
Polanski
Highland Poly Tunnels
Solar Wind Structures
Dollan Skips
craft materials
cloburn hard core
cloburn hard core
SLC - planeings for foundations
drainage
Forbes additional
£39,112.62
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Eco Site Activity:
March
Foot-fall
Volunteers
Volunteering Hours
No of CCI group sessions
No of Forth group sessions
No of Other group sessions
47
35
140
7
0
1
April
Foot-fall
Volunteers
Volunteering Hours
No of CCI group sessions
No of Forth group sessions
No of Other group sessions
115
57
382
11
3
2
May
Foot-fall
Volunteers
Volunteering hours
No of CCI group sessions
No of Forth group sessions
No of Other group sessions
75
41
237
8
2
2
Plans for the future
After the very successful Open Day there were many ideas on how to improve the village of Forth which
included:
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Action to reduce dog fouling, litter and fly tipping throughout the area
Improve the Main Street
Make the entrance and exit routes to the villages even more attractive
Improve Path Networks
Enhance Natural Environment
Establish a local Community Development Trust
Make the most of our community facilities
Improve skills development for local people to assist them back to work
Activities and facilities for people of all ages
Annual Community Events
Poor Condition of the roads and Pavements
Traffic calming.
Forth & District Initiative Group is also investigating the possibility of constructing a Skateboard Park for
the younger members of the community. A Men’s Shed, this may be given a trial run at the Resource
Centre by South Lanarkshire Council to see if there is any interest, before we proceed further. And new
railing’s with a mining theme for the garden area at the village cross
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