A PLANNED One Stop Shop for Mull has been plunged into crisis after failing to come up with the funding it needs.
Mull and Iona Community Trust has fallen short of fundraising targets by £132,000 -which it needs to get £500,000 from Europe to build a community resource centre.
The group has been offered a lifeline to collect the money it needs to secure European funding – but it only has 10 days to secure the cash for the community and business centre .
The trust has written to its 300 members asking them to pledge money, that they may never have to hand over to the group, to prove to European bosses that they have the money to start the project.
James Hilder, development manager of the trust, said: ‘We are confident that we can get the cash so that the project will go ahead. We have so far received 20 pledges totalling £2,000 in less than a fortnight, with some people sending us £50 cheques as donations. It doesn’t cost anything to make a pledge – we just need evidence for Europe that we can get the cash. For every £1 pledge we can secure £10 of funding.
‘We are applying for a loan from our bank and still have funding applications in the pipeline, I have no doubt that this project will go ahead – the community have already raised almost £1.5 million.
‘People will not want this building to fail before it even gets off the ground.’
