The Core Path network in and around Milnathort encourages the local community, visitors and tourists the opportunity to explore the beautiful countryside and enviroment of the area .  This in turn promotes what the area has to offer for businesses and investors.

The Core Path Group, under the umbrella of Milnathort and Orwell Community Council, operates to maintain the core paths encouraging biodiversity by preventing overgrowth of single species and allowing monitoring of invasive/dangerous species such as Knotweed and Giant Hogweed.   By maintaining the core paths it promotes the natural enviroment to the community as a whole and offers learning opportunities for the local primary schools, tying in with the Curriculum for Excellence.

Failing to maintain the core paths means they would quickly become inaccessible, denying users the benefits of being able to engage in physical activity and improved mental well being by spending time in external environment.  

Milnathort Core Paths Group receives many plaudits both when we're out maintaining the Paths and through our Facebook page. Facebook comments include: "Thank you - I love walking the paths around Milnathort", "Thank you to everyone taking the time to help keep everything nice", "Amazing thank you so much", " I have two small children and the impact of the work you do on path clearing is so greatly appreciated!! Makes our walks less stressful 

In order to maintain the core paths the group, has overtime purchased and been donated tools, such as strimmers, hand saws, rakes and other pieces of equipment.   Following a successful application to the Community Investment Fund, the group have purchased a motorised flailing machine.   This flail allows vegation to be safely cut back from the path edges and negates the need for any chemical intervention such as glysophates.

As a result of the purchase of this specific piece of equipment and the collection of  various tools required to maintain the paths, it has necessitated the need to identify and provide secure storage.  To date, volunteers have agreed to store pieces of equipment in their own sheds/garages but it would be advantageous to hold all equipement in "one store" allowing acess at anytime to any of the volunteers to undertake path maintence, and removing the responsibilty of storage from any individual.

A suitable storage facility has been identified within Milnathort and it is for the rental of a storage container within this yard that this application is submitted.

The application is made for an initial 12 month rental of a storage container, which is housed within a secure yard, accessible 24hrs daily.   During this initial 12 month period it is envisaged that the group will seek to identify and secure a permanent storage option.   

Should the application be successful, the Core Paths Group would be open to sharing the storage facility with any othe local community organisation, to allow offset of costs.

The use of Core paths encourages active travel, promotes health and well being, aids resilience by managing biodiversity and engages the community by raising public awareness 

Glenfarg Freewheelers need to upgrade our two foldable e-bikes to top condition and pay for hall hire to run an e bike maintenance course  .  Freewheelers is a group of community members who are keen to promote active travel and promote and support the use of e-bikes in our community of Glenfarg. We have formed a committee and are now a constituted group. We ran a successful trial using 3 borrowed e-bikes. As a result of our linking with other local community organisations, 2 fold-up e-bikes were donated to the project. These now require new batteries and upgrading to a good standard. While we have applied for some new hybrid, non-folding e-bikes through another fund, we are keen to make full use of the donated bikes which have a limited range at present.  E bikes will be loaned out to members of the community for several days or weeks at a very low cost.  These fold up bikes specifically allow people to commute easily and to travel further in combination with public transport at reduced expense which will help with the current cost of living crisis. The maintenance course will be run by Sustrans and enable group members to to continue to keep these bikes at a high and safe standard for the users. The village hall will cost £15 per session.

Glenfarg Freewheelers are confident that the community will make good use of these two e-bikes which are easily transported on buses and trains. During the trial, they were very popular with less confident cyclists but have also been used by commuters and leisure cyclists.  The e-bikes need to be able to cover distances of up to 60 miles and have adequate power to get up the hills surrounding our village. Confidence in the bike batteries has been a major factor in people's willingness to try them out and use on a regular basis.

During the trial, bikes were used for active travel to get work, for leisure and for shopping.  Some families have chosen to only have one car and have made good use of the e-bikes. During the summer months we expect the same uptake and realise we have further work to do to encourage new and regular cyclists and continue the expansion of active travel in Glenfarg.  

This project will encourage well-being and support young families to cycle together and to access local towns and countryside. With long loan periods, general fitness will improve and in the trials some people increased from 3 miles per outing to 15 miles.   By supporting group outings and family outings, we will increase the social aspect of cycling together and family members appreciate being able to cycle together allowing for different levels of strength and fitness.   Because the village is in a hilly area, many people do not use their pedal bikes and promotion of e-bikes increases confidence in cycling from home. Where borrowers indicate that they will struggle to pay the borrowing charge, the committee will consider reducing or wavering it to ensure access for those on lower incomes.  Finally, we are very fortunate to benefit from the community buses and having reliable and effective foldable e-bikes will allow community members to take the loaned e-bike on the buses and travel onward to their place of work/other destinations allowing them affordable and active travel opportunities. 

Greener Glenfarg is an informal organisation, formed in February 2023 with the aim of informing and supporting Glenfarg to become a greener community. Our activities are designed to increase awareness of the climate crisis and provide verified information on the ways an individual can help to tackle climate change.

We looked at what issues were already being addressed in the village, such as the Community Transport initiative, identified gaps, asked the residents what extra could be done and set about putting plans into action.

In the last nine months we have arranged a trip to the V&A plastics exhibition, held two cinema events on the climate crisis, organised clothes swaps and tool shares, carried out litter picking, visited rewilding and flood mitigation projects, and held a Sustainable Transport workshop which led to the creation of the village's e-bike loan scheme "Freewheelers". These free events have been funded through the Community Council's access to windfarm funds.

We are now seeking funding to support our activities in early 2024. These will include an Energy Fair, cinema events, clothes swaps, tool shares and a talk /discussion led by an applied environmentalist with knowledge of the Binn Eco Park. We have just started a Glenfarg Grow Club to share skills, seeds and produce. The first meeting was so successful, with a room full of participants, that we are now seeking funds to support this new club for its first year. All these activities will help us to be part of the work to tackle climate change, but will also assist individuals with the cost of living crisis, as they will -

• increase public awareness and engage our community in tackling climate change
• discourage purchasing and reduce waste by sharing items within the community
• inform residents on how to reduce energy consumption, make use of green energy and save on energy costs
• explore ways in which the community can move forward with the new recycling technologies and community energy projects
• explore possibilities for rewilding and flood mitigation

Broke Not Broken support those living in poverty across Kinross-shire.

Part of this work is support through food parcels, but supporting people with food parcels we find they are often in receipt of food that may not be suitable to them for a number of reasons. This food can then be discarded, or returned to the food bank, meaning there is a waste of resources, food miles and energy spent. It means people don’t get what they need: suitable food. By supplying digital vouchers we will eliminate that waste of food, energy, fuel and time for both clients and volunteers. As we deliver food parcels by car to people’s home, moving to digital vouchers (if that is their preference) means less time spent in cars on the road delivering parcels. Food vouchers give dignity and choice to those who are living in poverty.

We would like to trial using vex an online shopping voucher distribution system to reduce food miles, as well as reducing our plastic waste through our current system of vouchers.

We work closely with referral agents across health and social care as well as a number of community organisations to ensure people access the correct advice and maximise their income where possible.

Foodbank running costs have increased by 37% over the past year. This is partly increase in demand with a 20% increase food supports required than the previous year, and partly rising cost of food.

Whilst we continue to work hard to meet the needs within the community we also look to combat the affects of climate change and work in line with PKC cash first approach this new pilot project for a six week period would significantly reduce our food miles and plastic usage while enabling us to meet our goal of providing dignity and choice; and give us the opportunity to assess the feasibility of this as a model moving forward. As a charity we have already taken a number of steps to work within an environmentally friendly manner, we grow our own produce in our garden, and source locally grown vegetables (where we cannot meet demand) and dairy; we run a school uniform project which encourages re-use and recycling of uniform across Kinross-shire; use local butchers and bakery for our winter warmer parcels all working within an eco-friendly manner.

So If you think that…

-You would like to reduce poverty across Kinross-shire

-We should protect our environment and that small changes can add up to make a big difference by reducing our food miles across Kinross-shire.

-People should have dignity and choice about the food that they eat.

Then please support us by voting for our Reducing Food Poverty and Food Miles across Kinross-shire Project.

Thank you

Broke Not Broken

Kinross-shire Climate Cafe is proposing to set up a Repair Cafe, video link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvIvvJl09dg.

This initiative would be the first of its kind in Kinross-shire, based on the experience of the Repair Cafes in Crieff, Pitlochry and Aberfeldy.

Our aims:

- encourage local people to reduce waste through repair of their broken items with a positive outcome of waste reduction and mitigation of climate change,

- reduce living costs as it is usually more cost effective to repair a good quality old item than to buy a new one,

- develop community links and exchange of expertise in the practical setting of Repair Café,

- strengthen our community in climate change adaptation with a supportive popup climate café,

- provide a swap shop facility to further reduce living costs and promote sustainable fashion.

Kinross-shire Repair Cafe would be a community-led project run by Kinross-shire Climate Café volunteers. The events would take place on four different weekend days in 2024 from 11 – 3pm in the local town halls. The format of the Café would be informal: a walk-in café where people come and bring their broken items to be repaired. Clients would not pay for the repairs but would pay for parts and materials used. There are two possible locations that we envisage for the location to widen the area of provision: Kinross and Milnathort. But the Repair Café would also be providing repairs and working with a wider Kinross-shire community with the total population in excess of 11,000.

The events would be advertised through the local press, leaflet distribution at Kinross Farmers Markets, social media and Loch Leven Community Library. The project will support the local economy by involving small local businesses with repair expertise, links with the future Repairers have been made. It will create opportunities for people with skills currently out of employment or retired who are experts and craftsmen. The repair Café would involve 10 volunteers for each event, which amounts to 200 volunteer hours.

One of the aims of the project is to reduce the living costs as through repair you lower your spendings in the long term especially if items that are broken are of better quality. This helps to reduce the effect of inflation on your household budget.

Finally, as part of Repair Café we would also hold a swap shop to reduce textile waste and a pop-up climate café to have friendly chats on different aspects of climate change adaptation and how to cope with the climate change crisis.