Community Consultation
Should GALE Purchase The Shieling Restaurant?
For some months we’ve been mulling over the idea of buying The Shieling Restaurant and bringing it into community ownership. We’ve been discussing our ideas with Donald since June and he is supportive and keen to sell to us.
Why Do We Want To Buy The Shieling?
We’ve been running The GALE Centre for over 10 years and it has become a hugely successful social and economic hub for the whole Gairloch and Loch Ewe area. It is now bursting at the seams and operating at full capacity. Buying the Shieling would allow us to grow and expand our activity, benefitting more people and developing new community projects and services.
Over the past 12 months GALE has brought the following benefits to local people in the Gairloch and Loch Ewe area. The benefit to the local economy is over £340K per annum.
Owning the Shieling would enable us to do more of this while also developing new ideas.
We are in the very early stages of our planning and need to spend more time investigating the feasibility of our ideas. However early ideas for how we would use The Shieling include:
Office accommodation and meeting space – Our meeting space in the GALE Centre is well used by lots of different community groups as well as individuals needing a hot desk. We also have 25 staff of our own to accommodate.
Kitchen facilities – our community café is in full swing all year round and we could make use of additional kitchen prep and storage space. The Shieling has a lovely walk in freezer and chill that we could use immediately to support our community café.
Growing space – our raised beds at the GALE Centre are productive. They supply our community café and support a range of learning and volunteering opportunities. Owning The Shieling would allow us to create more growing space. We would particularly love to have a poly tunnel to let us extend the growing season and give our volunteers some indoor space to garden.
Housing – we are all aware of the huge housing need in our community and the impact this has had on local businesses being able to get staff. We would like to look at the feasibility of using part of The Shieling to create accommodation for local workers, people who have secured a job in our community but can’t take it up because they have no accommodation.
Jobs – GALE already employs 25 local people and provides income to a further 75. Owning the Shieling would enable us to create more year round jobs.
Community Pub – we’ve had lots of suggestions from people wanting a community pub and even a cocktail bar. It’s something we’re happy to look into if there is enough local interest and demand.
Library of things – this idea has come up as part of our community consultation work over the last 12 months. It’s a place you can come to borrow a range of stuff from tools to tents and anything in between.
Second Hand Shop – another idea that came out of our community consultation work. We used to have a successful second hand shop in Gairloch that helped reduce waste but also raised funds for local good causes. Many folk have said they would love to see a similar shop opened again in the area and the Shieling may be just the place to house it.
Refillery – A place to bring along your empty containers and fill them up with all kinds of everyday essentials from washing liquid to lentils. It’s a great way to reduce packaging and waste while also reducing costs.
Show Your Support
What Do You Think?
Do you think we should continue to investigate these ideas?
Do you have other ideas for how we might use the Shieling to bring long term, lasting benefits to our community? Leave your contact details if you would like to be involved or would like some follow up.