Nicky Wilson: Last News

Lena Dunham, the creator and star of the HBO series Girls, has been announced as a guest of a performance during the Edinburgh Art Festival.

A former bank in Ayrshire has been sold to a group dedicated to supporting the region’s former mining areas.

Click here for more news from the Airdrie and Coatbridge AdvertiserWith its normal range of community activities not taking place due to the coronavirus pandemic, the organisation instead allocated funding to areas which had previously participated in its community futures programme after groups highlighted their produce-growing projects as “a priority helping people facing food insecurity”.Don't miss a thing from your area - sign up for the new Lanarkshire newsletter!From the latest breaking news to the agenda-setting stories, get it all in your email inbox.Put your email at the top of this article or follow the instructions on this link!Its chair, Nicky Wilson, said: “Social and economic issues in mining areas have been exacerbated by

pit closures due to a lack of local job and educational opportunities, a report has found.Almost 20 years since the last deep mine north of the Border shut, coalfield towns and villages remain among the most disadvantaged areas of the country.Analysis by the Coalfields Regeneration Trust (CRT) found that when compared to the national average, many have lower life expectancies and higher rates of 16 to 19-year olds not in education or jobs.The report added there remained "significant and concentrated deprivation" in some parts of Fife, South Lanarkshire, East Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire and Clackmannanshire.But the report also found some ex-mining communities had turned a corner and were now prospering.Nicky Wilson, chair of the CRT trustees