Villages compete for revival cash

The five Scottish sites are among 28 on the shortlist across the UK

Five Scottish villages are among the final contenders for a £400,000 revival in a BBC television series.

They are on a shortlist of 28 UK sites which could emerge victorious in the Village SOS competition - run by the Big Lottery Fund.

Communities in Sutherland, East Ayrshire, Fife, Argyll & Bute and Dumfriesshire have made the list.

A total of six winning projects will be selected to receive funding and be part of the television programmes.

The winners, to be revealed in May next year, will be aided by village "champions" who will live and work in the villages for a year.

The progress of the projects will be documented in a BBC One six-part series.

All the sites on the shortlist will be offered a grant of up to £10,000 to develop their business proposals.

'Untapped opportunities'

The proposed projects include social enterprises, community food co-operatives, cultural heritage centres and green energy schemes.

The project will also include a campaign to help inspire other villages to start new businesses to regenerate their own communities.

Sir Clive Booth, chairman of the Big Lottery Fund, said that while rural traditional village life was "facing difficulties" there were also "untapped opportunities".

He said the shortlisted villages were "one step closer" to realising that potential.

Five of the final contenders are located in Scotland.

They are the Assynt Community Association in Sutherland, the Catrine Community Trust in East Ayrshire, West Wemyss Eco Energy Development in Fife, Eskdalemuir Community Energy Supply in Dumfriesshire and the Isle of Kerrera Development Trust in Argyll & Bute.