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BRITISH URBAN REGENERATION AWARDSCategory Two WinnersMembers of the Alness Initiative visited The Palace of Westminster on Friday 18th Jan, 2007 to receive their Award. Alness Initiative were winners of the Category 2 awards for communities with no full time paid workers. BURA is a very prestigious award and Alness Initiative were proud to win one. The other winner in our category were Royston Road in Glasgow. There were a number of Highly Commended certificates handed out to teams from all over Britain and Ireland. You can see the full prize list and more info about BURA on their web site www.bura.org.uk
Results
Alness Initiative was formed in 1995 when a collaboration of community and business representatives came together to raise the aspirations, profile and potential of the town. A shopping list of changes and improvements was developed, covering economic, social and environmental issues. The Initiative raised £1.6 million from a range of sources and by 2006 the entire shopping list had been achieved, including a renovated and extended leisure centre, community centre, golf club and the Alness Heritage Centre.
The High Street has been redesigned and new infrastructure has been built, both funded and carried out by Highland Council together with Ross & Cromarty Enterprise. However, the Initiative realised that more needed to be done to improve the town’s bad reputation and attract new businesses. A new voluntary organisation, the Alness Environmental Group, formed with the aim of transforming the town centre even further, installed hanging baskets and plants on the High Street. The town has since won several prestigious awards including: Britain in Bloom, World in Bloom, and the Dynamic Place Award.
The community now benefits from a wide range of services, such as family learning projects, art programmes and a monthly newspaper. Local people take part in environmental renewal and recycling schemes. In addition, a number of voluntary residents associations have been established, taking forward their own projects to improve the environment and developing new facilities such as play parks, holiday play schemes or lunch clubs for the elderly in their areas.
The growing sense of pride and ownership and the town’s improved reputation has undoubtedly helped to attract new businesses and tourism into the town.
The Panel’s View
The Panel saw this project as outstanding in many ways and was particularly impressed by the significant input from local volunteers – apart from one part-time worker all activities are organised on an entirely voluntary basis. The Initiative co-ordinates an excellent range of projects that address every aspect of life in the town. All projects are carefully planned and develop gradually to address the current needs of the community. The passion, enthusiasm and dedication of the local volunteers to deliver high quality services and opportunities for all people in the area has transformed Alness from a no-go area with a poor reputation to a highly desirable place, where people are proud of their achievements.
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