Urban areas of Scotland are being urged to take advantage of up to ?60m of lottery funds through a similar scheme to the one which helped transform the island of Gigha. Gigha was bought by islanders nine years ago after the lottery funded Scottish Land Fund gave them ?3.5m made up of a grant of ?2.5m and a loan of ?1m which was subsequently repaid. The Big Lottery Fund in Scotland is now launching the second phase of its Growing Community assets (GCa) fund, which is designed to have the same transformative effect in Scotland s towns and cities. an event in Glasgow on Friday will bring key figures in the area of community asset development together with existing GCa grant holders. The first phase of the programme saw more than ?48 million spent between October 2006 and april 2010, funding 127 projects, and Big expects to hand out another ?60m by 2015 after applications for GCa reopen in June 2011. Existing successes include Glasgow s Whiteinch Centre, which was taken over by members of the local community after they received a grant of ?116,092 in 2009 to help the centre support 80 local organisations and offer learning, health and employability services to 850 people each year. Jackie Killeen, director of Big in Scotland, said: These projects work because local people themselves are best placed to identify what their own community needs to develop. Our job is to support them in doing this, not just through awarding funds, but also by using our experience of supporting communities through the Scottish Land Fund and Growing Community assets programme. However she urged public bodies to see the bigger picture and su