A fund worth more than £23.7m for the UK’s coastal communities has been announced by Chancellor George Osborne.

The fund represents half of the gross revenues from the Crown Estate’s marine activities.

The Scottish government has said the announcement does not go nearly far enough in returning money to the areas where it is raised.

The Highlands will receive £1.85m from the fund, with £2.05m for the rest of Scotland.

The UK government has said the announcement underlines its commitment to coastal communities.

Charities, businesses and social enterprises have been encouraged to submit “innovative” bids for a share of the resources being directed to what is being called the Coastal Communities Fund.

It will open in April 2012.

Mr Osborne said: “I know that coastal communities play a vital role in the wellbeing of the whole country and I am glad that we can provide support for them through this new fund.”

The share of funding has been linked to the revenues raised in each country of the UK.Richard Lochhead, Scotland’s Rural Affairs and the Environment minister, said it was good that the UK government had finally woken up to the SNP’s demands but the measure did not go “nearly far enough”.

He added: “Scotland should benefit from 100% of Crown Estate revenues, not 50%.

“Full devolution of Crown Estate would give the people of Scotland a say in how public assets are used, rather than leaving decisions to the unelected commissioners who manage the Crown Estate.

“In recent months we have provided the secretary of state for Scotland with two detailed papers setting out the clear and rational case for change.

“However, despite this, Scottish ministers were not consulted on these latest, timid proposals. If UK ministers had had the courtesy to do so they would have been informed that these proposals are clearly inadequate.

“Under these plans Crown Estate revenues would still go south to Her Majesty’s Treasury, with Scotland only getting half of our entitlement.”

‘Pot of cash’

The Crown Estate manages about half of the UK’s foreshore and all of the seabed within 12 nautical miles of shore.

Offshore wind turbines have been a growing source of revenue in recent years.

The Crown Estate has granted permission to 10 developers planning to establish offshore renewal projects in Scottish waters.

Scottish Labour’s Tom Greatrex MP welcomed the scheme, saying he hoped to see “this pot of cash grow and grow and help more and more coastal communities”.

He added: “The last thing communities want is money going to Holyrood without any guarantee of it going to affected communities.

“As well as charities, businesses and social enterprises it is important that local councils are eligible to apply to the fund too.”

Story on the BBC News website

An internet campaign to raise awareness of erosion problems at an Angus beach was launched yesterday.

Campaign group SOS (Save Our Sands) Montrose is calling for those concerned about the erosion of the town’s beach to put pressure on local politicians to demand urgent action.

The group believes sand dredged from the local harbour and its navigation channel has had a devastating effect on the beach.

It claims more than 1million tonnes of sand, swept by the tide into the harbour, has been removed from the local area over the past 25 years.

It has mainly been dumped out at sea, but in 2006 150,000 tonnes was shipped to Aberdeen beach as part of a £3.5million scheme to top up the city’s own dwindling sands.

A new film, posted yesterday on YouTube, has also been produced showing the effects of the erosion to date.

SOS Montrose spokesman Anthony Baxter, who made the film, said the only way to halt the process is to return the lost sand.

“Sand stripped from the local ecosystem has been dumped miles away, shipped up to save Aberdeen’s beach or simply dumped a few miles off Lunan Bay,” he said.

“It’s perhaps little wonder then that scientists blame this fact for the decimation of our own beach, and say the golf course and ultimately the town is at risk.”

Montrose Links Trust, which runs the golf course, installed its own rock armour three years ago to protect weak points on its coastal boundary and moved two tees inland.

The group’s view has been backed by Andrew Cooper, professor of coastal studies at Ulster University. “It would seem to me very unlikely it would have no impact,” he said. “That’s a very big volume of sand. In a situation like Montrose where we have this closed system, keeping the sand in the system is the best possible way to prevent long-term effects from taking place.”

The Scottish Government has already told Angus Council the beach does not qualify for government funding for heavy engineering work because it is not considered cost-effective.

The council said yesterday that a study of the erosion by Dundee University is due to begin over the next few weeks, following the recent appointment of a research officer. The results will be studied to decide the best way to manage the erosion.

Infrastructure services convener Councillor David May said: “The council and Montrose Port Authority are working to establish the best ways of managing the coastal erosion at Montrose. We hope that the Dundee University study, once completed, will help us in that goal.”

Story by Mark Dowie in the Press & Journal