A £500,000 fund is being launched in a bid to help the Borders recover from the impact of coronavirus.  

On Thursday (May 13), elected members of Scottish Borders Council (SBC) approved the model for the 'Build Back a Better Borders Recovery Fund'.

The cash will be made available to initiatives, projects or events which will "re-boot" or "kick start" activities relating to sport, culture, volunteering or environmental issues.

The money will be allocated using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation system – meaning the communities most in need will receive the highest financial support.

Under the scheme, Berwickshire will receive £87,783; Cheviot will get £79,926; Eildon will be given £153,633; Teviot and Liddesdale will take £98,003 and Tweeddale will benefit from £80,655.

The project was voted through at last week’s meeting of the full council, despite concerns being aired.

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Selkirkshire councillor Elaine Thornton-Nicol, of the SNP, said she had "real concerns regarding the plan".

She added: "The concept of building indicates to me a foundation being the basis of a process.

"This fund, half a million pounds, is for new initiatives. Initiatives that must be accessible to all in the community and free of charge.

"If the funding is to be used only for one-off new initiatives, what will be the long-term impact of that spend?

"If the funding is used for new initiatives, that are going to create ongoing groups that cannot charge for attendance, what happens when the funding runs out?

"Will those groups have the capacity to, as they set up a new initiative and run it, apply for funding to cover ongoing costs or start to charge attendees? Or does that new initiative just stop and put those who have been attending in a position of loss?

"I have real concerns that this is £500,000 of unsustainable works by communities that are keen to recover."

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Leaderdale and Melrose councillor Tom Miers, of the Conservatives, was also among several councillors who voiced concerns.

He said: "I don't really see the point of taking away this money from Borderers and just giving it back again to them, by a lot of costs incurred at the council.

"Wouldn't it have helped the recovery more just to have left the money with the public, instead of recycling it in this way?"

However, the executive member for community development and localities, Robin Tatler, described the Build Back a Better Borders Recovery Fund as an "innovative project".

The independent member for Tweeddale East added: "I have seldom been so depressed by a response to giving money to our local communities to decide how they want to spend it on recovery.

"To be honest, words virtually fail me. We are giving this money as a one-off opportunity to restart people's involvement in their local communities and I really think, once we approve this report, members should get behind this and get their communities to apply for this funding to get the Borders restarted."

The council says the fund will be open from June 1, 2021 to May 1, 2022 and will be available to both constituted groups (maximum £15k) and non-constituted groups (maximum £5k, with payment through an umbrella body).