COASTAL communities around Scotland have been invited to make bids this month to the Big Lottery for grants from the £3.9m being made available from some of the Crown Estate Commission profits generated around the Scottish coastline.

Bids have to prove there will be economic development from a grant.

One lucky group within a community has not had to produce such evidence. Yacht owners around Rhu are already benefiting from the Crown Estate's purchase of Rhu Marina for £4 million in 2008, and its recently announced further investment, now increased to £2.3 million. In total, this will amount to spending of more than £25,000 per boat berth. Meanwhile, Dumbarton, 10 miles up the Clyde, and Greenock, across the water from Rhu, are both suffering amongst the highest levels of unemployment in Scotland. They are both desperately in need of economic development along their Clyde coast.

In the grand scheme of things, this is all about relatively small amounts of money, albeit important to local communities. More broadly, however, it does seem to say something about the balance of priorities still being pursued by the UK Establishment, how some decisions are still being made affecting this country, and what we need to change.

Andrew Reid,

Armadale, Shore Road, Cove.