Landmark Share Offer to Bring Portpatrick Harbour Into Community Ownership

Scotland, September 7, 2015 (Newswire.com) - ​​​PORTPATRICK HARBOUR is set to be the first of its kind in Scotland, a community-owned harbour, funded through community shares. Launching its community share offer, today 5th September 2015, it will now be possible for people to become owners in the beautifully situated harbour, in the heart of Portpatrick, which has provided a safe haven for sailors for over 400 years.

With a fanfare of activity during the lively Portpatrick Folk Festival - Community Shares Scotland and Portpatrick Harbour Community Benefit Society are launching their community shares offer to boost their campaign and encourage the local community and all interested parties to sign up and invest. With a minimum of £25 per investor and an optimal target of £75,000, the offer opens today, 5th September 2015, and closes in 8 weeks’ time on 31st October 2015 or when the maximum target is reached.

Kelly McIntyre, Programme Manager, Community Shares Scotland said: "This is a real landmark community share offer being a first all-round for Scotland with Portpatrick being the first Scottish charitable Community Benefit Society to launch a community share offer for a harbour."

Kelly McIntyre, Programme Manager, Community Shares Scotland

Instrumental in the Community Shares launch - Kelly McIntyre, Programme Manager, Community Shares Scotland said: “This is a real landmark community share offer being a first all-round for Scotland with Portpatrick being the first Scottish charitable Community Benefit Society to launch a community share offer for a harbour.”

Kelly added: “This takes community ownership to a whole new level and we have already seen amazing amount of interest in potential shares locally and also from across the globe. It is a testament to the enthusiasm of the Portpatrick team which we hope will inspire many other community projects throughout Scotland to move forward apace.”

The village of Portpatrick has the closest harbour to Northern Ireland on the Scottish coast, and perfectly situated for boats travelling across the Irish Sea and up and down the west coast. It is also the only port on this stretch of coastline that is close to open water and not dependent on tides. The village also has an established selection of pubs, restaurants and cafes that make it an attractive stopping point.

In addition, Portpatrick Harbour has a venerable history stretching back to the 1600s. The inner harbour wall was the last major work undertaken in the 1840s, just as the mail trade which has been its bread and butter departed. Since then it has struggled by being too small for the ferry and freight trade.

And welcoming the Portpatrick initiative, Community Empowerment Minister Marco Biagi said: “The Portpatrick community is taking an innovative approach to modernising the local area, and I wish them the best of luck with their community shares scheme.  This shows how a community can take control of its own future by playing a direct role in contributing to local assets, and providing employment and leisure opportunities.

 “Our Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act provides communities with more rights to take over abandoned private land in both urban and rural areas, giving them opportunities to transform areas that have previously been neglected.”

Also commenting on the future potential of the harbour, Calum Currie chair of Portpatrick Community Benefit Society said: “The real opportunity is in leisure sailing. The Royal Yachting Association predicts a 50% increase in the Scottish sailing sector in the next decade, and this is the wave we want Portpatrick to catch. We need to build the kind of facilities modern boats and their crews need – laundry, stocking up, toilets and showers – and these, allied with our superb geographical advantages and a wonderful village can make Portpatrick a place with a great reputation and a bright future.”

Calum added: “This isn’t just about the bricks and mortar of the harbour wall, but the fabric of the local economy. We believe that the best days for our community are ahead of us – but only if we can seize the opportunity and take responsibility. “

“We need to put the harbour on a stable financial footing and we have acted fast, by taking on a bridging loan of £75,000 from Social Investment Scotland, a lender specialising in supporting social and community businesses like Portpatrick Harbour. We are very grateful for the loan from Social Investment Scotland which will be reimbursed as soon as the community share offer monies have been raised.”

Details on how to invest in Portpatrick Harbour can be found here:

www.microgenius.org.uk/project/portpatrick-harbour-35

www.communitysharesscotland.org.uk

www.portpatrickharbour.org 

ends

Kelly McIntyre

Community Shares Scotland

Programme Manager

Tel: 0131 20 3777

Email: kelly@communitysharesscotland.org.uk

For information check out: www.communitysharesscotland.org.uk

Twitter: @CommSharesScot

For further press information contact

Fiona Stewart

Interwoven PR

Tel: 07940560453

Email: fiona@interwovenpr.com

Notes to Editors

Who can buy shares?

Anyone over the age of 16 can buy shares. Companies and other corporate bodies will become legal members of the charity, though they will have to nominate who their nominee will be when they make their application. Clubs and other unincorporated groups (such as a group of friends or a family) can also buy shares, but whoever buys them will be the legal owner, and they need to make their own arrangements for how things like votes will be cast on their behalf, and how interest payments and withdrawal will be repaid to everyone who contributed in the first instance.

What’s the minimum investment? The minimum investment is £25. This is because this is an investment proposal in a community business, not a donation to a good cause. There’s also a cost of processing each investment now and every year that person remains an investor, so we can’t set the bar too low or else it’ll end up costing us more than we receive.

Who will run the harbour? The committee of the charity will run the harbour and be responsible for both the long-term development and the day-today operation. There won’t be any paid staff to ensure that costs are kept as low as possible, and the committee are confident that this is a sustainable position.

Is there a maximum I can invest? The maximum is £10,000.

KEY ORGANISATIONS

Community Shares Scotland is a national organisation based in Edinburgh and was launched in May 2014 with the aim of growing the community business market through practical application and help people progress their own community businesses. It has a pan Scotland focus and is run by Kelly McIntyre, Programme Manager and Morven Campbell, Programme Officer. The three-year programme involves a range of awareness raising and training activities, setting up an information service and providing direct support to communities and groups interested in launching their own Community Share offer.

Examples of local Community Share projects that are running successfully include the Port Appin, community shop in Argyll that has been running since 1983; Uig, Community shop, a vital local resource since 2004 on the Isle of Lewis; FC Unite, football club who play the home league at Gigg Lane in Bury and Green Valley Bakery, Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire. Community Shares Scotland is funded by the Big Lottery Fund Scotland and Carnegie UK Trust. Delivered by DTA Scotland in partnership with the Plunkett Foundation, the Community Shares Unit (a joint project run by Locality and Co-operatives UK) and Rocket Science.

Portpatrick Harbour Community Benefit Society The aim of the Portpatrick Harbour Benefit Society is to become the 1st Scottish Charitable Community Benefit Society to raise a Community Share Offer.  The Committee is currently made up of a team of 8 committee members, three of who have varied professional management credentials, along with four who hold professional marine qualifications to high stands. Four of the committee have close links with the RNLI having also served as Portpatrick Lifeboat crew for many years.

Social Investment Scotland is a charity and social enterprise that provides loans to other charities, social enterprises and community groups across Scotland. We provide funding for social enterprises by borrowing money from banks and investors, and lending it out at affordable interest rates.

Our mission is simple. We aim to make a lasting, sustainable impact on communities, by helping organisations continue doing the great work they do or expand on that work. Since 2001 we’ve invested £43 million in almost 180 organisations around Scotland, and we continue to manage the largest social enterprise fund in the country.