Green light for £1m Macaulay project

​This follows confirmation of a £500,000 grant from the UK Government’s Community Ownership Fund which provides the necessary confidence to proceed.

Macaulay College, which serves people with additional support needs, was founded in 2010 by Roland Engebretsen and Rebecca Lindsay, utilising Macaulay Farm in which Roland had inherited a family share.

Since then, the College has become an award-winning Community Interest Company but has had to expand on a piecemeal basis in response to demand while relying on the basic infrastructure with which it started.

The current project is intended to put Macaulay College on a secure long-term footing. For its core premises, ancient portakabins will be replaced with a spacious modern building that will double its capacity.

The UK Government grant was announced in principle in March following a visit to Lewis by Michael Gove, then the Levelling Up Secretary in the Conservative government. However, detailed discussions were ongoing when the General Election was called.

This week, however, Macaulay College learned that conditons attaching to the grant have been satisfied and preparations for the project can proceed without delay.

Ms Linsday said: “Modular West had very kindly agreed to split the contract between design and construction, so the design phase has been going ahead while we were waiting for the funding package”.

There are still grant applications outstanding on which the full project will depend including to the major service user – Comhairle nan Eilean Siar via the Pan Island Fund. However, enough has now been secured to underwrite the core project.

It is a substantial contract for Modular West, based at Bentangaval on Barra which, since 2021, has established a flourishing business based out of the first purpose-built modular construction facility on the west coast.

The company’s founding director, Roddy Macinnes, told the Gazette: “It’s a good job for us and very similar in scale to the Barratlantic job we did last year. It is becoming more of the norm for us to take on contracts of this scale. There is a huge demand out there”.

He said that 95 per cent of the work for Macaulay College will be done in the factory on Barra before the modules are transported to Lewis for assembly over a two week period, probably early in the new year. This will ensure minimum disruption for the College.

Roddy said that as well as being a good job for Modular West, it was a great project to be involved in to create “a very necessary facility”.

In addition to the major funding sources, Rebecca Lindsay expressed appreciation to others who have contributed to the funding package including HIE, Galson Estate, Horshader Trust, Stornoway Trust, Muaithebhail Trust, Breedons, Duncan Mackays and SSEN.

Councillors in Stornoway North, Stornoway South, Lochs, Westside and Harris have directed part of their Crown Estate ward funding to the project.

To add to a week of good news for Macaulay College, it received “a wonderful donation from Stramash music festival who have been supporting us for many years”, said Rebecca. “This year their incredible donation will let us purchase our first mini bus to allow our growing team to go out on trips around the island”.

That wasn’t all. Rebecca explained: “We were visited by PolyCrub just before HebCelt to see the two crubs we already have on-site. They were so impressed with work being done by the students that they very generously donated the crub they were using at HebCelt or a new indoor/outdoor quiet space for the students”.