Palma.Life was becoming pretty hard in the sea-side village of Ballygally in County Antrim. The only shop closed and was demolished in May 2008, and then the local post office shut in January the following year, the residents of the Co Antrim village got their thinking caps on.
First, they applied to the local council for planning permission for a new local shop and then they saw an advertisement on BBC Television's One Show highlighting the Big Lottery Fund's Village SOS programme, which aims to help villages across the UK that have lost vital facilities in recent years. They applied and duly won and Majorca holiday home owner Richard Long was appointed as their business mentor and village champion.
Richard Long helped the villagers secure funding to build a new community hall next to the new local shop. The successful businessman, who admits that he did some of the work on the project at his Majorcan home, helped villagers secure an estimated 700'000 pounds for the project from the National Lottery and the European Union and other sources.
Complete
The project is now complete and Richard Long says that he has thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of helping the small community.
I acted as an intermediary between the various parties involved and focused on the legal issues. I also helped to pull together and present the overall business plan. There was a plethora of paperwork with 50 or more policies to be written, he explained. Richard Long has owned a home on the island for many years. Now semi-retired he shares his time between Majorca and his home town of Winchester in Hampshire.