Bare Branding C.I.C

Group / Organisation

Bare Branding C.I.C

Contact person

Noel Spencer

Email address

info@barebranding.co.uk

Brief description of your plan (please make clear of this includes the area and the building , or just the building or just the outside area. How will this benefit the local community?

Bare Branding’s Proposal for The Old Leith Links Bowling Club Building and Greens.

Bare Branding is a not for profit community interest company based in Leith. Our proposal is to lease the building and make the grounds available for community use. The site is common ground gifted to the people of Leith ,we want to see that this is retained as a long term legacy for the whole of the Leith community.

How Bare Branding propose to re-purpose this site. Rather than seeing this site being built upon, we propose to refurbish the building into Scotland’s first sustainable print and teaching hub and retain the green-space to cater for all age groups and needs in the broader community.

The reason we are debating the future of this bowling club is that it was a popular a outdoor sport facility, however recreational trends change with time, our intentions are to try to provide a more broad and flexible usage of the site that can adapt to future needs.

This is a unique site and when refurbished with outdoor and indoor facilities including toilets the area will be dramatically transformed, catering for all type of activities including a mixed variety of outdoor sports and leisure activities that could operate all year round.

The building and the greens have the potential for many other uses including; open air markets, exhibitions, shared space for group activities, craft fares and even as a green-space for a gentle walk and picnic.

There is a real need and demand for green-space with indoor facilities, and we are sure that schools, community groups and charities would all benefit from having this site on their doorstep.

What special expertise / skills / person-power can you back up your plan with?

Why Bare Branding are the right fit for this project 

Leith is undergoing a major transformation, but too often our broader community is socially excluded. We can offer the tools and the knowledge that can help to build a better community which can play an important part in shaping Leith’s future and that will protect this important building and greens for generations to come.

Sustainability and education are at the heart of what we do, over the past three years we have worked with a wide range and diversity of people. Local schools, colleges, charities, groups and hundreds of individuals have all benefited from working with us at our open access workshop.

Our focus is on helping our community reduce their carbon footprint in the print and fashion industries. By investing in the latest eco friendly digital printers we have reduced our carbon footprint by 80%. We want to build on this and substantially extend our teaching programme. 

We have outgrown our workshop on Tennant Street, and if given the opportunity, we would bring The Old Leith Links Bowling Club Building and Greens back into full time use as a truly inclusive community asset that would create education and employment opportunities for all.

The future for Scotland in combating climate change will be to have products made locally, using local labour, environmentally friendly materials and equipment. Despite having received no funding we have proven that this is possible. 

Thank you for reading this proposal which we hope will lead to an eco friendly community orientated future for this site.
info@bare-branding 

Have you got / how would you plan to source funding in order to implement this proposal?

We are self funded at present and all profits would be reinvested back into the building. There is a large sum of money already secured by an insurance claim that would initially be utilised to refurbish the building.There are numerous building grants that we can apply for once we take over the lease.