Dalgety Community Trust is a charity set up by community volunteers in 2019 to make positive changes for everyone in our community by carrying out projects for the common good. We are an independent organisation which is part of a growing network of Development Trusts which exist across Scotland and the UK, enabling residents to take direct action in their local community for the benefit of everyone.
Our ambition is to develop and deliver priority community projects which have a positive social, environmental and ultimately economic impact. Our ‘big idea’ is to deliver a new multi-purpose, multi-generational community hub in Dalgety Bay, owned and managed by the community for the community. Adjacent to this, we also plan to build a new civic square in the town centre. Combined, these projects will be a £6m investment in our town centre that will provide modern, fit for purpose facilities for generations to come.
We want to be a sustainable presence in the community for years to come and as well as our main projects we will be looking to take on many other community-benefit projects as time goes by. To this end, we are also working with a group of local young people to deliver a free to use, open access pump track on land at Dalgety Bay Sports and Leisure Centre. We have already raised over £300k for this project which has strong community support and backing.
Our aim is to ensure the Trust is fully representative of our community, a place where the community’s voice can be heard, so we are keen for as many people in the community to join us and be members of the Trust. It’s simple to join just click here.
Dalgety Community Trust is governed by its Articles of Association and overseen by a board of Trustees.
- The Trust is owned and managed by Trust members from the local community, (in our case, the community covered by Dalgety Bay & Hillend Community Council)
- The Trust is independent but will work in partnership with other public, private and third sector organisations including our Community Council, Fife Council and other Community groups as appropriate.
- We currently rely on grant funding to develop our projects, but as time goes by, we aim to reduce dependency on grant support, ultimately by generating income through sustainable community development, enterprise and the ownership of assets.
- All trading surpluses are reinvested in the organisation or the community.
Before the Trust formed, our group of volunteers was constituted as a community group and before this most of our volunteer Trustees were members of Dalgety Bay and Hillend Community Council. Indeed, it was the Community Council that originally came up with the idea to form a group to take forward some of the projects we are now focussed on.
The Community Council had previously benefitted from a study carried out by Ironside Farrar on behalf of the community. This highlighted the need to reinvest in the town centre and in particular a demand from the community for new community facilities.
The formation of a Trust was a natural progression towards being able to deliver the projects the community is demanding. The Trust is a ‘company’ listed at Companies House and also a registered Scottish Charity. We are able to receive and distribute funds according to our Articles of Association and in particular the ‘Objects’. This gives us more flexibility to operate and complete projects than a Community Council has and is a recognised model for communities across the country to deliver positive change.
