What is Tayport Community Trust (TCT) and what does it do?
TCT was established in 2008 with the aim of promoting and supporting our town as a vibrant and sustainable community. In pursuit of this aim, TCT has nurtured a variety of projects, and is currently working on an ambitious plan to develop a Community Hub. The Trust is a voluntary organisation with charitable status and has over 300 members. Membership is free and open to anyone who lives in Tayport (for joining details see overleaf).
What has TCT done so far?
The Harbour Café
Website: http://www.tayportct.org.uk/harbourcafe.html
The first significant achievement of TCT was the launch of a much-needed community café in Tayport. The Harbour Café opened in March 2011 and now has an annual turnover in excess of £100,000. The café employs four staff who (ably assisted by volunteers), have not only managed to win awards for the food they serve but have also achieved a certificate of excellence from TripAdviser UK! In addition to being a friendly and comfortable place to enjoy a cup of coffee with your friends, the Harbour Café exhibits the work of local artists, has second hand books for sale (book donations gratefully accepted!), and can be hired as a venue for community events.
PLANT (People Learning About Nature in Tayport)
Website: http://www.tayportct.org.uk/plant.html
Since 2011, TCT’s PLANT group has been working on projects bringing people together to grow food and flowers, while reducing carbon emissions and enhancing Tayport’s natural environment. With invaluable input from funders, local donors, and enthusiastic volunteers, PLANT has created several exciting spaces and activities for our community:
- Fruit Tree Walk. A linear public orchard of fruit trees and bushes, with a wildflower border and native hedge, growing along Scotscraig Drive since 2012 (funded by Fife Council, Foundation Scotland, Scotmid, Action Earth).
- Festivals. An annual FruitFest, and an occasional SpringFest, co-organised with TCT since 2012, celebrating food growing and making a good use of Tayport’s apple harvest.
- Café Garden. Supplying the Harbour Café with fresh produce from the Broad Street tenement garden since 2014 (funded by Fife Council and with space kindly made available by the other tenement residents).
- Tayport Community Garden. Our most recent project. Currently being set up at the South end of Pond Lane, thanks to grants of £78,000 in 2015 and £42,000 in 2016 from the Scottish Government Climate Challenge Fund. The project is helping Tayport residents reduce carbon emissions by growing more food locally. Since the launch of the project, a Community Gardener has been helping us to make the garden into a productive space and showing us how to grow plants through hands-on workshops, drop-in sessions, and Grow@Home support. A new Volunteer Coordinator will be getting more people and community groups involved, irrespective of age, skills and ability and a new Blog Coordinator will help Tayport food growers tell their stories on the project’s community blog (https://tayportplantgardens.wordpress.com/). Get up-to-date information by signing up to the PLANT email newsletter at http://eepurl.com/bs2RXP.
The Community Hub
Website: http://www.tayportct.org.uk/communityhub.html
Since its inception in 2008, TCT has been working on an ambitious project to develop a Community Hub on the site of the old Abertay Steel Fabrication Works to the west of Shanwell Road. The Hub project aims to provide much needed space for a wide variety of community activities in Tayport. Over the last three years, TCT has steered the Hub project through a number of key stages:
- 2014 TCT submitted its Community Hub business plan to the Big Lottery Fund
- 2015 Success! TCT were awarded a Lottery Grant of £119k to develop the planning application for the next stage. Collective Architects were appointed to develop the plans for the Community Hub and, after extensive consultation, the building budget was set at £2.2 million.
- 2016 More success! The planning application has been accepted, ownership of the Abertay site has been transferred from Fife Council to TCT, a revised business plan has been completed and the full bid to Big Lottery Scotland will be submitted later this year.
What can you do to help?
- Become a TCT Member! Membership is free, and ensures that you get first-hand information on all of the activities, developments, plans and proposals for Tayport. Download a membership form from http://www.tayportct.org.uk/aboutus.html or get one from the Harbour Café.
- Volunteer! We are actively seeking volunteers to assist on all of our various projects. You can help in lots of different ways according to your interests and experience, so please pick and choose from the tasting menu below!
- The Community Hub project needs volunteers with experience in areas such as marketing and media, information technology, accountancy, event organisation, tourism, and the law. Any of these skills (and many others) would be useful, but enthusiasm is the most important factor! Contact enquiries@tayportct.org.uk if you would like to get involved.
- PLANT would welcome anyone with an interest in gardening (expert or novice) who wants to participate in our gardening projects or help others to do so. Experienced gardeners can share their skills with novices and everyone can learn more through hands-on workshops, drop-in sessions, and Grow@Home support. Alternatively, we need volunteers to help with our administration or, if you like to exercise your communication skills, why not join the PLANT blogging team? See http://bit.ly/1NOkrvQ for further information about volunteering, and contact plant@tayportct.org.uk if you would like to get involved.
- The Harbour Café needs volunteers to help in the café and to provide home baking. All volunteers receive training and support and can gain an accredited Food Hygiene Certificate whilst doing so! If you want to get involved, pop in to the café and let us know. Alternatively, drop us an email at harbourcafetayport1@gmail.com or call us on 01382 553757.
- Help us with fundraising! To convince Big Lottery Scotland to support the final stage of the Hub development, Tayport has to show that it can raise funds locally to help itself. The community has already generated £53k towards the Hub, but the more we raise, the better are our chances of winning the award. Likewise, PLANT and The Harbour Café would also benefit from extra funding, so if you have a good fundraising idea or would like to help with fundraising for any of these projects, please contact us via one of the routes given above.