A CROWD-FUNDING appeal in Langholm has raised its £5,000 target in only eight days.
The Langholm Initiative is delighted that the crowd funder towards the feasibility study for community ownership of Langholm Moor reached its original £5,000 target in such a short time.
The organisation received donations from far and wide, both local and international.
One kind donation came from a wildlife charity based in the USA, with another coming from an individual from France.
The Initiative expressed an interest for a community buy-out of land on Langholm Moor after Buccleuch announced it was to sell 25,000 acres of land.
A working group was set up and a petition of more than 800 signatures, 25 per cent of the population.
This led to an agreement by Buccleuch to give the Initiative eight months to come up with a bid for the purchase.
This gives them until the end of next March to apply to the Scottish Land Fund, set up by the Scottish government to help communities buy land.
Kevin Cumming, project manager of Wild Eskdale, said: “We can’t thank enough those who have donated.
“More than 230 people have pledged amounts ranging from £5 to £250.
“The crowd funder was not something that anyone in the group had tried before so to have received the donations and the messages of support has been overwhelming.
“We expect the overall cost of the feasibility study and business planning to be about £35,000.
“We have now secured more than £10,000 from the crowd funder and from a generous private donation.
“In recognition of the strength of support we are receiving, we have set a revised target of £8,000 on the crowd funding page.
“We will leave the page running for the next couple of weeks so, if you haven’t donated yet but would like to, you can. The total is currently sitting at £5,500.”
The working group are still hard at work preparing the Scottish Land Fund Stage One application.
It is hoped that the Scottish Land Fund will provide the bulk of the funding for the feasibility study. The Stage One application deadline is next week.
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