Thanks to grant funding for the National Lottery Awards for All scheme we are looking to engage a part-time (average 9 hours per week) freelancer to help organise a series of Repair Cafes between Nov 2023 and Sept 2024. This will involve booking venues, publicising events, and liasing with fixers and volunteers. The successful applicant will have excellent communication and organisational skills, experience of community engagement and the ability to carry out health and safety risk assessments.

Full details of this opportunity and how to apply are available here. Closing date for application is Friday 6 Oct.

We are delighted to have secured funding from the National Lottery Community Fund to run a series of Repair Cafes in Biggar and the surrounding area over the next few months. These will provide help and advice on making common repairs to household items and clothing to give them a new lease of life and save them from landfill. Help with hot glueing, woodturning, sewing, tool sharpening and more will be available.

We have already found some people with fixing skills that they are willing to share, and are keen to hear from anyone with a particular fixing skill or just from people with a passion for mending things. If you have an item that you would like to get fixed please let us know and we will try to include someone with the skills to fix it at one of the Repair Cafes. 

Watch this space for details of our first Repair Cafe!

A few weeks ago we received funding from the SSE Sustainability Fund for a project to encourage local homes to fit measures to improve their energy efficiency. We are now seeking a contractor to work with us on this project to provide high quality advice to at least 22 homes in Biggar and the surrounding area over the next year. We are aiming to look at a range of house types which are representative of local homes and this work will form the basis of an ongoing project to provide advice on energy efficiency over the next three years.

The closing date for applications for this tender is Friday 25th August. We are very keen to hear from any individuals or organisations who feel that they could assist with this project. Full details on how on requirements to submit a bid are in the document below.

Back in November we commissioned Scene Connect to carry out a feasibility study looking at three potential projects which could reduce emissions in the Biggar area:

• Retrofitting energy efficiency measures to local homes
• An eCar and eBike hire scheme
• A refill hub to reduce packaging waste.

An initial workshop, was followed by an online survey.

The findings of this workshop and survey have now been collated and form the basis of a Climate Action Plan for the Biggar Area which will be launched at an event at the Gillespie Centre at 7pm on Monday 3 Apr. Everyone is welcome to attend this event and find out about future plans and how they can get involved.

We are delighted to have recieved a grant for £63,500 over three years to fund a project to promote retrofit measure to improve the energy efficiency of home in the Biggar area (ML12 + Dolphinton). The grant will fund a thermal imaging camera which will show where homes are losing heat and a part-time energy advisor to provide high quality, impartial advice on retrofit measures such as insulation, double glazing and heat pumps which will be tailored to specific houses.