Blainslie Hall

1. How has this funding impacted your organisation overall?

Blainslie Hall struggled with cold temperatures in winter because it’s a building with thin walls and little to no thermal protection, allowing heat to escape quickly and making it expensive and ineffective to keep warm. High ceilings and outdated heating systems further worsened heat loss, leaving the space uncomfortable for community activities during colder months.

The £4,000 grant from BCA enabled up to engage a local firm (Border Insulation) to install insulation in the building’s roof. This has resulted in the building retaining heat far more effectively, reducing drafts, improving overall comfort, and will lower energy costs, helping the hall to be used year‑round and made it a warmer, more welcoming space for the local community.

2. What difference has the funding made for the people you support?

The hall is now a far more welcoming place for the community to come together during the colder months of the year, whereas previously people were more hesitant about using the space due to a lack of comfort.

Classes such as yoga are now able to continue with a more regular schedule rather than shutting down over January, for example. This benefits everyone as the community get more benefit out of their hall, more people are attracted to events, and the hall itself becomes more sustainable due to increased bookings.

3. In what ways has the funding affected your volunteers or their involvement?

Going through the grant application process has benefitted the volunteers involved as it has increased experience levels in dealing with the administrative and procurement side of things, and therefore the volunteers’ confidence in making future bids for funding.

4. What improvements or changes have you made to your programmes or services as a result of the funding?

As noted above, the improvements to the insulation means more classes, meetings and other activities are viable during the winter months.

5. How has the funding influenced your organisation’s sustainability or future plans?

A key longer-term focus for the committee is upgrading the hall’s heating system; it was clear that regardless of what that looks like, poor insulation was an issue that needed dealt with first.

Having completed this task, the committee can now focus on the heating system side of things safe in the knowledge that the insulation factor is no longer hanging over us.

6. What feedback do you have about the funding application and award process?

I found the process to be straightforward and quickly dealt with.

This was frankly a breath of fresh air, as I’d had negative experiences with funding applications in a previous job. These included the National Lottery Heritage Fund, LEADER and various Scottish Government funds.

Dealing with BCA was very easy and I always got quick responses to questions; the application moved through its various stages quickly and there was no concern at any point about how it was progressing or what might happen next.

7. What additional support would help you build on the success of this funding?

This is quite specific to our hall, but it appears that upgrading our heating system may prove quite tricky if we don’t wish to go down the air source heat pump route (which we probably don’t).

It would be helpful to see funding made available for other cleaner heat type systems, such as electric heating or infrared.