Community given cash to buy local pub

The Swan Inn will also serve as a Post Office, shop and cafe

A plan to "revitalise a community" by buying the local pub has been given a grant to make it a reality.

Residents from the tiny North Lanarkshire village of Banton will buy the Swan Inn thanks to £184,490 from the Scottish Land Fund.

It follows the closure of the local Post Office in 2010 and the village store two years later.

The project is one of six across Scotland that will share in nearly £1.4m being awarded by the fund.

Also sharing in the cash will be Minginish Community Hall Association, which will receive £38,500 to expand the car park at Skye's Fairy Pools after problems with congestion caused by high visitor numbers in the summer.

The car park near the Fairy Pools on Skye will be expanded with the money

Among the biggest recipients of cash will be Cockenzie House in East Lothian, which has been awarded £628,800 to update facilities, while Jura Islay Group have been given £289,389 to buy 263 acres of forest on the Oa peninsula, Islay, to create a sustainable forest and volunteering opportunities.

In Banton, the money from the fund will be used to install a Post Office, shop and cafe in the pub as well as a multi purpose meeting space.

'Restored and secured'

Catherine Moneypenny from the People United for Banton group, said that the cash would secure vital and previously lost local services for years to come.

"Our village was hit hard by the closure of the Post Office in 2010, followed two years later by the village shop." She said.

"We are absolutely delighted that we can purchase the Swan Inn, which will revitalise our community and ensure the services we so vitally need are restored and secured."

Also receiving money will be Glenboig Development Trust, who have been given £87,064 to enhance the area's community centre and Tiree Community Development Trust, which received £154,370 to take over the Hynish Centre.

John Watt, Scottish Land Fund committee chair, said: "One of the many strengths of the Scottish Land Fund is its ability to respond flexibly to the individual needs of local communities.

"For example, today, for the first time, we're awarding funding to enable local people to buy their village pub. In doing so, this community will be able to restore important facilities which have disappeared from the village in recent years, thereby creating a brighter future for local people, now, and in the future."