Community / Optimism in the air as refurbished Brae youth centre prepares to reopen
Work on the building has been ongoing as part of the government funded Rural Energy Hub project
“IN A LOT of ways it’s been a bit of a godsend. It really could not have come at a better time.”
That is the message from Brae Youth and Community Centre committee member Dawn Spall as she speaks about the rural energy hub project which is in the process of revamping the community facility.
The UK Government funded project has essentially refurbished the entire building – making it more energy efficient, accessible and future-proofed – at no cost to the committee.
It is little wonder Spall is pleased to see the project progress – given that she says the youth centre had faced electricity bills of around £12,000 a year, leaving the voluntary committee facing some tough decisions.
The Brae rural energy hub is a multifaceted project; at its heart is the revamped youth centre, which will offer a base for energy-related advice in addition to the usual activities which have always taken place there.
There will also be a co-working space and a new cafe, in addition to e-bikes and an electric vehicle charger.
It has all been fully funded by the government’s Innovate UK programme, with work also going on in Orkney too.
Senior engagement and development officer Jade Wilson says the plan is to hold an opening event, once everything is ready to go, in late January or early February.
She is giving Shetland News a look at the building – although, only externally, given that work is still ongoing.
As we stand outside it is somewhat ironic that there is a biting chill in the cold air, given the future focus on advice around keeping warm.
But even externally you can tell the now blue-clad building – which has hosted youth clubs and other group activities for decades – is set for a new lease of life.
“The youth centre is going to be used in such a different way,” Wilson says after we seek warmth with coffee in the Brae Hotel. “It’s always been a space that you book, but now it’s going to be open through the day every day, and it’s a public space.”
So what the will centre look like day to day? The building’s usual activities will still be on the go, but there will be energy hub staff on hand to offer advice and information.
This could be from helping folk struggling with their heating to answering questions about energy efficiency funding funding or electric vehicles.
Cari’s cafe will also offer up food – items like sandwiches, soups, paninis and homebakes might be on the menu – to add another layer of community activity.
Rewind back a couple of years, and it was in December 2023 when funding worth nearly £5 million was announced for both the Shetland and Orkney strands of the rural energy hub project.
It is essentially a pilot project, and a key aim was to show how the “non-technical barriers to implementing carbon-cutting measures can be overcome”.
There are some other elements to the project too, including a feasibility study of district heating in Brae.
With the Brae youth centre identified as the hub location in Shetland, a community effort was undertaken to clear out the building – uncovering some items not seen for many decades, including books and documents relating to the Brownies.
Activity at the youth centre was decanted largely to the nearby Brae Hall as work got underway on retrofitting the building.
“It’s obviously been disruptive to some degree,” Spall reflects, “but the hall’s been really good.
“It’s been a lot of work for the committee over the last couple of years. Obviously we’re volunteers – it’s been a lot of meetings and things we’ve had to get to grips with that we maybe widna normally be dealing with.”
The message is clear that the project is not something forced upon the youth centre, and that the committee could have said no.
But with high energy bills causing concern, Spall believes it would have been “silly” not to go along with it.
“The centre has been running for a lot of years, and bits have been done to it, but we as a committee had been feeling that there were a few areas that could do with an upgrade,” she says. “But obviously it’s expensive to do any of these kind of things.
“We were approached by the project, and had a bit of time to think about it. We really would have been quite silly to say no, I suppose.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity for us, and for the community, because at the end of the day our committee are focused on the building being for wir community.”
Spall said the youth centre had plenty of bookings but the “electricity was just eating up everything”.
“We were kind of at the point of thinking ‘what can we do here?’,” she adds.
“Because although we had some money in the bank, we weren’t going to be able to continue like that. As I say, it really couldn’t have come at a better time.”
At the moment, it is the new electricity connection which is the final piece of the refurbishment jigsaw – and as we stood outside the building, there were trenches in the ground dug up and blocked off by fencing.
The electrical equipment now has a delivery date of early December, which will then need installed, connected and tested.
During the refurbishment, a board was also set up to oversee the Brae rural energy hub community interest company, which features a number of local directors.
The rural energy hub staff – including Wilson – will be employed through this, and funding has been secured from the Coastal Communities Fund and the Viking wind farm benefit fund to support running costs for at least the next three years.
“We had so much interest in joining our board,” Wilson adds. “It’s hard to fill boards at the moment, but we got nine local people and they were so interested.
“I think Brae has maybe needed something like this, because there is the people there with ideas.”
Wilson admits, though, she was a bit anxious at the beginning of the project that people may not buy into the idea.
However, engagement from the community has been “really positive”.
“There’s a lot of frustration in Shetland around energy costs and things, but I think the fact that the project has come in and not tried to build a new centre…it’s refurbishing a centre that really is going to benefit from that,” she adds.
“It’s already used, and used in the community. I think folk can really grasp onto that.
“People have been really positive about it and looking forward to it, and I think hopefully that will just grow once we’re in, and we can ask the community more about what they want to see.”
As things wrap up and we prepare to head back out into the cold, Spall says the youth centre committee has reassured people in the community that the process will benefit everyone.
“Sometimes people can be a bit anxious about change, but we have set out from the beginning that all our groups would be retained, and when they need the centre,” she explains.
“The building itself is going to be so much more useable, it’s going to be a much more inclusive building.
“For instance, the space is bigger and airier but we also now have a fully accessible toilet, and we’ll also have a manual hoist that can be used anywhere through the building.
“We’re hoping to buy some sensory kits. These kind of things, that the building couldn’t be used for previously. It’s just going to be such a warm inviting space. It can only be positive really.”
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