THE Peebles community is being urged to spend £65,000 raised by car parking charges and fines to improve the town.

Tweeddale East councillor Robin Tatler is inviting groups, organisations and individuals to nominate projects which will be considered to receive a slice of the funding.

Applications are assessed by Scottish Borders Council’s neighbourhood services and circulated to the six Tweeddale councillors for approval.

Mr Tatler said: “I have suggested a couple of projects, one of which was the repairs to the path on the south side to River Tweed from Fotheringham Bridge towards the town, because there are some problems with that path there.”

It is hoped that the voluntary groups Bonnie Peebles and Bonnie Peebles Plus will apply for funding to buy plants for their floral displays.

Community councillor Scott Watson suggested the money is used to keep the School Brae toilets open.

Mr Tatler replied: “You can certainly put it forward. Whether it would fall within the remit, I don’t know. You’d need to reapply every year.”

The current sum of £65,000 has amassed over several years.

“You need to understand that it’s not a huge amount of money, currently £10,000 on an annual basis, and that doesn’t go a long way when you start to look at a variety of projects,” said the independent representative.

The community council heard that in East Lothian, the public toilets are free of charge.

Community councillor Peter Maudsley said using the cash to keep the Peebles toilets open would be a good use of the funding.

The criteria for funding is that projects must be within Peebles to make environmental or maintenance improvements.