In the coming months, we’d like to showcase a variety of community projects and community organisations, to show just how much can be achieved when a community works together for the common good.

First up is Lanark Community Development Trust. Lanark’s a great example because, like Crieff, it’s a larger town (population ~8000 people).

Here’s how the Lanark CDT got going (via the DTA Scotland website):

How we started

There is no shortage of community groups in Lanark but, for a long time, there seemed to be a gap. Ideas for new events and opportunities for using vacant land or reusing buildings seemed to disappear before anyone took the initiative to turn them into reality. Many people competed to assign blame but some took a more constructive line, asking ‘Why don’t we do it?’

That thinking led to formation of the Steering Group in 2007. [The Lanark CDT website] summarises where we are now as a fully incorporated body with charitable status. The website describes what community development trusts are and shows what a trust could do in Lanark. There is a lot of work still to do but the emergence of Lanark Community Development Trust means that when opportunities or ideas appear, ‘We can do it’.

On their own very professional website, you can learn more about the Lanark Community Development Trust and discover why a Community Development Trust was the right body to meet their aims.