COPY of a letter dated June 27th 2007 to group members, partners,
various external organisations:

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF DBCG PROPOSAL
In recent weeks a series of extremely fruitful conversations have taken place involving Big Lottery Fund Scotland Director Dharmendra Kanani, his officials, and our group members. MSP Iain Smith has also kindly been involved on the group's behalf. As you will know, we have for two years been developing a master plan with our specialists for the project in partnership with a wide variety of groups and organisations. The estimated cost of the overall proposal was projected at over £5 million. Following encouraging discussions with Big Lottery Fund, the voting members of the DBCG unanimously agreed to restructure our approach. We are now looking at a phased approach to the development, with the first phase costing no more than £2m. This was the figure agreed as a realistic first phase "ballpark" figure with Big Lottery Fund representatives.

The current situation is that we are currently revising our proposals and this work should be completed by August this year. Before applying to Big Lottery Fund, hopefully in September, we have agreed to sit down with a BLF senior official to go over our proposals in detail to ensure our application has the best opportunity of succeeding. Our initial application would be to cover development costs to the point where work could, finances permitting, begin. Obviously the development funding costs will be significantly reduced by the fact we are reducing the bottom line costs, and as we already have £20,000 guaranteed from elsewhere, I believe we will have a fighting chance of being successful with our Big Lottery Fund bid.

Due to the phasing of the project, we have had to go back to the group's core aims and those of our closest partners. There is no doubt the outlined phase one will significantly reduce the scale of the community asset in comparison to the overall master plan. We are currently working with our chosen specialists to produce a new set of sketches and detailed costs for the proposed building and garden. Our business plan will also be updated in due course to take account of our change in strategy.
Personally, I feel confident that the group is taking a responsible, sensible approach to the development process. We all knew that our business plan was a flexible document, which would be altered accordingly dependent on the advice given to us by our specialists, partners, and funders.
Should you have any further enquiries regarding this matter please do not hesitate to contact me.

Andrew Gold, Project Manager

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