A major grant from the Scottish Land Fund means that Alyth Development Trust’s project to create a brand new community asset at Millhaugh in Alyth looks like becoming reality.
The grant of £76,744 will be added to funding of nearly £94,000 already secured from the Scottish Government, allowing ADT to acquire the site and begin refurbishing existing buildings where possible, demolishing unsafe structures and tidying up the site generally.
Once this first phase is complete, ADT plans to redevelop Millhaugh for a range of educational, environmental, social, and tourism-related activities. This will be guided by a wide-ranging public consultation and the formation of a community steering group to decide what sort of activities the redeveloped site could best be used for.
Millhaugh, close to the heart of Alyth, currently contains several derelict mill, shed, storage and abandoned residential structures and forms the natural entrance to the Den of Alyth woodland and riverside walk areas, which are a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The Millhaugh regeneration project responds directly to the findings of last year’s Community Action Plan (CAP) for Alyth. The CAP was developed through a very extensive community consultation that engaged hundreds of individuals and groups throughout the community and generated six main themes for action over the next few years.
The CAP consultations identified the Millhaugh site as one where community ownership and re-development would make a massive contribution to all the CAP themes: repurposing derelict sites, developing new community and recreational spaces, promoting new events and activities, enhancing biodiversity and protecting habitats, and supporting tourism in the area.
Once a significant employer in the town since the 19th century with a cornmill and later a sawmill, Millhaugh has been vacant and unused since the 1980s, becoming increasingly derelict and attracting some vandalism and anti-social behaviour. The current owners are enthusiastic about seeing the site move into community ownership and become a public space that will benefit the whole town and create a new natural entrance to the Den of Alyth.
so pleased that Millhaugh is to be rectified. I have many happy memories. of holidays there
Spend money on something else