26/05/2026
We have had the following email from Crossdykes Community Benefit Fund
If you are interested, please reach out to them directly:
To: All Community Councils in the Crossdykes Windfarm Benefit Area
Crossdykes windfarm has of the order of £400,000 per year available to fund projects in the area bounded by, roughly, Lockerbie, Langholm/Ewes/Westerkirk, Eskdalemuir, North Milk and Middlebie/Waterbeck. To date, this has funded projects large and small across the area, including providing funds for the educational awards and small project funds. For this to happen, there has to be an established decision making structure.
The 5 Community Councils that were active in 2022 at the start of the agreement each agreed to nominate 2 people to be Directors / Trustees of Crossdykes Community Benefits Ltd (CCBL for short). The CCBL Board meets formally twice per year to make decisions on applications and once for an AGM (ideally tacked onto a decision meeting). There may be a business meeting if there are special items. Meetings are currently held in the evening, starting at 7.00 pm. The meeting venues are generally rotated around the communities involved but are hybrid to allow for those unable to attend in person to attend online. There is also varying amounts of correspondence by email throughout the year.
I recognise that the structure of CCBL, where Community Council nominees are Directors, has an administrative burden. However, the admin side is minimised by the sterling efforts of the Southern Uplands Partnership (SUP) team, who provide all grant administration and secretariat support, but they do need names to fill the gaps!
From the start, it has been very difficult to maintain the full quota of 10 Directors. The disestablishment of North Milk CC recently has made the task even harder. For charity governance reasons, it is only possible to make award decisions at quorate Board meetings (i.e. 6 or more Directors present). It is with great regret that I have to warn you that there is a serious risk of being unable to make future awards, or continue instalment payments on existing multi year ones, as there are so few Directors. Holiday absence or sickness of even one Director would make a decision-making meeting impossible.
There are some people we are waiting on paperwork for but we currently have just 5 CC Directors in place, plus one appointed Director, that are able to vote. We urgently need additional nominees: 1 each for Eskdalemuir and from the former North Milk area. Remember that the individual does not have to be a Community Council member, they just need to be nominated as a suitable person by the Community Council.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to get in touch with me directly ([email protected]) or via the SUP team at this address ([email protected]). The role is not onerous and very rewarding - we get to ensure money goes to local groups and services that are much needed and do great work in this area.
Can you please address this with the utmost urgency. The next decision making meeting is on 18th June and, without 6 Directors present, NO awards can be made or extended.
