Michael Russell visit revives hopes for Plockton music centre

SCOTLAND'S education minister is today expected to announce a funding package which will help keep open a threatened national traditional music centre in the Highlands.

Michael Russell will visit the centre of excellence, based at Plockton High School in Wester Ross, raising hopes it is to be saved. The centre's future was put in doubt last month when Highland Council decided to withdraw its 300,000 annual funding in 2012 to save money.

But the authority's administration insisted it wanted to secure the long-term future of the centre, which opened in 2000.

It has since been involved in talks with others, including the Scottish Government, to find alternative funding and explore how the centre can support the wider potential development of traditional music.

It is believed the Scottish Government is to offer significant funding to extend the centre's operations and link it to West Highland College, part of the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI), which plans to introduce courses in traditional music.

The Plockton centre has also been asked to make efficiency savings of 40,000 in the next year and 105,000 for 2012/13.

It is also hoping to bring in additional income through extended use as well as the possibility of money from scholarships, charitable donations and commercial sponsorship.

Dr Michael Foxley, the council leader, who is also vice-chairman of West Highland College, has been involved in a series of talks aimed at safeguarding the centre. He said: "The additional funding anticipated from the Scottish Government will put in place significant increases in traditional music activity at Plockton. This can only be a good thing.

"We now have a constructive package of efficiency savings, increased income and additional work which will be positive for the centre."

Dougie Pincock, the centre's director, said: "The fact the cabinet secretary is coming here is, I think, an acknowledgment of the huge level of support the centre has received over the last few weeks. It is gratifying to see central government taking an interest in our situation."

The centre is funded for 23 residential students who receive at least ten hours a week of individual instruction, groupwork and practice.

Past students include Ewan Robertson and Daniel Thorpe, both winners of the BBC Radio Scotland Young Scottish Traditional Musician of the Year.Members of the group Bodega all came through Plockton and won the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Musician of the Year Award in 2006 and are now touring on the international circuit.

Other graduates of the centre who are now working professionally include Mairearad Green, Fiona McCaskill, Norrie MacIver, Innes Watson, Gillian Fleetwood and Sean Gray.

Ahead of the council meeting last month past and present pupils of the centre staged a musical demonstration outside the authority's HQ in Inverness. An online petition was also started by a former pupil and has been signed by nearly 9,500 people.

The school has also attracted some high profile supporters including political figures Alastair Campbell, George Galloway, Tessa Jowell, and musicians Barbara Dickson, Phil Cunningham and Edwin Collins.