A campaign to “save” a former parish church in Leith after the building was put up for sale is entering the final stages.
Leith St Andrew’s Church was put up for sale in 2024, and a local campaign was immediately launched to purchase the B-listed building in a community buyout.
The trust set up to handle the buyout hopes to reimagine the church as a “dynamic community wellbeing, activity, and performance space”.
While fundraising has raised vital supporting funds, the group now needs local members to strengthen their application for the main piece of acquisition capital: a grant from the Scottish Land Fund.
To strengthen their application, they have begun an ambitious recruitment drive to sign up 800 people in Leith as members.
Only Leithers residents within a small boundary drawn by campaigners can become official ordinary members.
The area includes the foot of Leith Walk, Duke Street, the bottom of Easter Road, parts of Lochend Road, Leith Rugby Club, and parts of Restalrig.
Some have pointed out that the “community area” of around 4,000 people is actually smaller than the old parish area.
While the trust is currently negotiating a voluntary sale as the “preferred bidder” and does not need to trigger statutory Community Right to Buy rights immediately, they have structured their community area to align with these guidelines.
Under Scottish Community Right to Buy legislation, a community must secure petition signatures from 10% of people in their defined area to register interest, and any eventual statutory ballot requires at least a 50% voter turnout.
By defining their community boundary as a smaller area of 4,000 people, the trust has made these potential legal thresholds far more manageable.
More immediately, it also makes the target of recruiting 20% of the local community as members (around 800 people) to satisfy the Scottish Land Fund’s funding criteria highly achievable.
If the Leith St Andrew’s Trust had defined their area as the entirety of Leith, with a population of more than 50,000, they would have faced the mammoth task of securing 10,000 local members to satisfy funders.
The campaign is currently focused on securing the primary piece of the puzzle – vital capital funding from the Scottish Land Fund to purchase the building.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “We’ve had feedback that our application would be strengthened by increasing our membership numbers, and the last chance for updating our application is next week.
“We had always planned to launch a bit of a recruitment drive, but changes to the funding landscape and decisions made at the Church of Scotland forced us to prioritise other pieces of work prior to this.
“However, having finally started with the membership drive, we’ve made great progress, having gone from just 47 members last weekend to almost 300.”
“We’re feeling optimistic but want to keep pushing in the time left, as without the Scottish Land Fund grant, the journey to community ownership of the building is a lot more difficult.”
Leith St Andrew’s Church was home to a range of wellbeing services for years, but these were thrown into jeopardy when the Church of Scotland announced their intention to sell the building in 2024.
A campaign was launched to safeguard the services, and the newly-formed trust was installed as the church’s “preferred bidder” after “generous” support from the congregation.
In a statement online, the group said: “Our vision extends beyond preserving a building; we’re reimagining it as a dynamic community wellbeing, activity, and performance space.
“This transformation will create a vibrant hub where local residents can come together, engage in diverse activities, and celebrate our cultural heritage.”
Groups already using the building include Access Parkour, Think Circus and the Capital Concert Band, while the Architectural Heritage Fund, National Lottery Heritage Fund and Firstport (via the Just Enterprise programme) have all supported the project.
Leith St Andrew’s Trust has until 22 September to sign as many people within their area up as “ordinary members” as possible to boost their application.
More information on the membership area and how to sign up can be found on the campaign’s website and Instagram page. Memberships start at just £1.
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