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Creating a Wave of Change!

In 2011, the carbuncle award and deprivation statistics was the catalyst for a group of tenacious women who got together to reclaim their community. Their determination was instrumental to the regeneration of our town following years of neglect and negativity.

Making a reluctant Tesco regenerate Linwood’s town centre, was the first act of the group and after a community wide consultation, which identified five projects, the Linwood Community Action Plan was drawn up and the Linwood Community Development Trust was born!

The Trust has raised funds for the Linwood area which has increased opportunities. Our Kit & Caboodle project provides a recycling and kit wash facility, helping local sporting families and coaches save time, energy and money whilst supporting the reduction of CO2 emissions.

It has also organised and set up an environmental improvement group which has developed Linwood in Bloom, a fledgling project that has not only made Linwood a more attractive place to live by providing railing baskets and planters throughout Linwood but it has also restored a sense of civic pride to the area whilst improving the local environment.

The Trust also started a community choir with over 30 members of all ages. This has been of particular benefit as it has also encouraged wider participation in other activities. Members state: “The choir is very special to me. There is a great sense of community spirit within the group and everyone takes care of one another. The choir has supported me greatly and I have met lots of new friends.” The choir meets every Tuesday at Baptist Church, Erskinefauld Road from 6.30pm to 8pm.

Throughout our community consultation process, local residents highlighted the need to improve health and wellbeing, employability and local services. This encouraged the Trust to develop a project known locally as ‘Roots of Linwood’.

Roots is not only providing access to high quality, low cost fresh fruit and vegetables, it is also providing volunteering opportunities which is benefitting the wellbeing of individuals, whether they are retired, unemployed or have additional support needs.

The Trust has now acquired land at 'Mossedge Linwood' to develop much need community facilities. We have submitted our £1m funding application to Big Lottery and we are through to stage 2 of the Scottish Government's Regeneration Capital Grant Fund for £800k. Funding permitting, this will enable us to build an all-weather football pitch with changing facilities, a community growing area and a community facility which will generate future income and provide an invaluable resource to our 9,000 residents. With development funding support from Renfrewshire Council and the Big Lottery's Growing Community Assets Fund, the Trust has been working with its own Architectural Design Team to get the 'Mossedge Village' underway!

Do you want to support the Trust indirectly? It’s really easy! Roots of Linwood has been offering a free delivery service of fresh fruit & vegetables direct to local residents and businesses. We also have our very own community fruit/veg shop!

All you need to do is support this service knowing that a proportion of what you spend is being reinvested to support building much needed community facilities in Linwood. Local businesses can get involved too. To place an order just click here

Through the determination, tenacity and passion of local residents, the Trust has developed projects run ‘for the community, by the community’. This approach has brought about a renewed sense of pride to the area and created a wave of change that is helping to build our community from the inside out. Our journey has not been an easy one and has been described at times as ‘rolling jelly up a hill’ but we persevered and success is now ahead! We are now at a crucial stage to develop our projects further to ensure they become more sustainable and less grant dependant.

We hope our resilience will inspire local people and businesses to support us and we are determined to involve as many people and local businesses as possible to make sure the developments in Linwood remain embedded in the community.

Please support us by visiting our shop at Unit 19, Mossedge Industrial Estate, Linwood or give us a call on 01505 337002 to find out more about our free delivery service of fruit/veg direct to your home or offices.

We look forward to seeing and hearing from you soon.