Community appeal to save Perthshire institute leads to £10k donation

A community appeal to save a historic Perthshire hall has led to a £10,000 donation.

Locals rallied last month to raise much needed funds for the Bridge of Earn Institute, which needs to undergo a swathe of repairs to safeguard its future.

The building, which is more than a century old, took a double hit due to the effects of flood damage in August and Covid-19.

The £10,000 donation came from local businessman, Geoff Brown of GS Construction.

Community rally to save Perthshire institute after Covid-19 and flood ‘double-whammy’

The institute’s secretary, Anne McNaughton said the community is “extremely grateful” for the financial boost.

“Following publicity last week regarding the future of the Bridge of Earn Institute a local businessman has come forward with a very generous donation of £10000.

“The Institute committee and all the local community are extremely grateful as this will go a long way to repairing recent damage to the building.

“The committee can’t thank Mr Brown enough for taking the time to discuss our situation and provide financial assistance. It is a wonderful gesture and so good to have support from local business.”

She added: “We rely on fundraising and income from groups using the Institute to maintain and upgrade the building.”

Storm damage from earlier this year caused a wall to collapse and flooding in the cellar.

Ms McNaughton said: “[It was] very worrying but we will not be able to address this.”

The Institute currently does not have any income due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It receives money from its nursery but does not make any profit from it.

Coronavirus restrictions have also meant events and classes have been unable to rent out the building, leaving the institute further in need of funds to complete the works.

Last week, Councillor Henry Anderson – who chairs the Bridge of Earn Institute – said monetary reserves are running low.

“It’s quite a challenging situation. Our reserves are a couple of thousand below what they should be and we need money to restart up the Institute.

“We’re not making any profits whatsoever. We’ve got a playgroup back but we don’t make any profit out of that.

“We’ve got bills to pay and there’s not any funds coming from the community events that we just can’t have at the moment.”