The Uig Community Trust would like to refit the Filling Station, cafe and shop at Uig harbour in advance of a new tenant taking over the lease for the businesses in October 2026.
Estimated Price
£35,000
1. What do you want to do?
The Uig Community Trust would like to upgrade the fixtures and fittings at the Filling Station, shop and cafe in Uig. We're looking for funding to buy more modern, energy efficient equipment that will be in line with the future usage of all three businesses.
2. Why is your project important for your community?
The Filling Station, shop and cafe in Uig is an under-utilised resource, with huge potential benefit for the local community. The three businesses represent one of the best current opportunities for the local community to generate revenue from ferry users and visitors and also to provide services to the local community. Increasing revenue from visitors and ferry passengers is one of the key pillars of our local Development plan. The current cafe operates on inconsistent hours and does not provide a welcoming place for the local community to gather, nor does it provide a consistent serice for ferry user. An upgrade of the cafe and shop will allow the Trust to ensure that both businesses are better able to meet the needs of their diverse groups of customers, which will in turn secure more local jobs across the three businesses.
3. What positive impact will your project have?
a. A more welcoming layout of the shop will improve ranging, increase revenues, improve the service for all users and secure and possibly add job opportunities.
b. Improved fittings for the cafe and shop will reduce energy usage and also make both locations more welcoming for locals, visitors and ferry users.
c. Improvements for the cafe will focus first on making the space more welcoming for regular locals users, but also improve the consistency of opening times for ferry users, which will increase revenue and allow the cafe to provide more jobs. (The cafe currently employs three people. A comparable business in Staffin, without ferry traffic to provide customers, employs more than three times as many people)
4. What key milestones have you achieved so far and what will your next steps be?
We're at the start of the project. The new lease for the Filling Station has been awarded, but contracts have not been concluded. The Trust is in negotiations with the previous lease holder and it is anticipated that all fixtures and fittings will be removed when the current lease concludes at the end of September. Our goal is to scope the upgrade with the needs of the community and future lease holder in mind, so that all three businesses can be up and running with minimal disruption to services when the lease changes hands.
Our next step is to secure funding for upgraded fixtures and fittings, in parallel with an audit of energy usage and a transtition so some degree of green energy generation and useage.
5. What is your anticipated start date/end date?
We plan to start the search for funding in May 2026. The goal is to secure funding by August 2026 in order that upgraded equipment is in line with future needs and available for any refit work when the lease of the business changes hands in October 2026.
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