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BAILOUT FUND FOR SCOT TISH FIELDSPORTS

Fieldsports businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic have benefited from a £1million Scottish Country Sports Tourism Restart Fund.

The fund, which was jointly developed by the Scottish government, VisitScotland, BASC and the Scottish Country Sports Tourism Group (SCSTG), was set up to assist country-sports tourism businesses, including sporting agencies, land-based sporting businesses, sporting guides and fishing charter operators, which have been hit hard by Covid restrictions and shutdowns.

ShootingUK spoke to Charlie Brownlow, who specialises in running shooting, fishing and stalking trips to Scotland. He said: “It is a great relief that this fund has been made available to businesses like mine and all credit to BASC, SCSTG, VisitScotland and the Scottish government for putting this together to support rural business.

“It has been frustrating that my business has not qualified for government support in the past year; however, it has only become an urgent situation in the past two to three months as our relatively small overheads have used up any reserves. We have had the dawning realisation that many of our guests from abroad will not be returning in 2021 and we will have another 12 months of disrupted business.”