Nearly £1million in new investment to help improve places across Aberdeenshire announced
Six local projects aimed at improving communities are to share nearly £1million in new funding to help improve local facilities and services and to create more vibrant places across Aberdeenshire.
This funding is coming from the fifth-year allocation of the Scottish Government’s Place Based Investment Programme (PBIP) which is designed to support coherent investment decisions that respond to local community priorities for their places.
Central to the delivery of the programme is ensuring that investment decisions are shaped by the evidenced needs of local communities, regenerate and revitalise towns and villages, help tackle inequality and disadvantage and accelerate Scotland towards ‘net zero’ emissions goals. Projects are also expected to offer sustainable and impactful benefits to the places in which they are delivered.
Investment in previous years has seen important projects completed or underway across the area including a new skate park in Fraserburgh, improvements to facilities at the Alford Valley Community Railway, the restoration and stabilisation of the Macduff Cross, cycle and pump tracks in Alford, Ellon and Peterhead and improvements to public spaces and buildings in towns such as Aboyne, Ballater, Banff, Huntly, Portsoy, Strichen, Turriff and Westhill.
The successful Aberdeenshire projects for 2025/26 include a new eco-community hub building in Edzell Woods, a community-run allotment site in Ellon, upgraded sports facilities in Banchory and support for restoring the historic Mill of Benholm near Johnshaven. Funding has also been approved to help the refurbishment of a new youth club building in Stonehaven and internal improvements to the Macduff Marine Aquarium to complement the ambitious wider re-development of the visitor attraction.
Cllr Alan Turner, chair of Aberdeenshire Council’s Infrastructure Services Committee, said: “Once again, for a fifth year running, we are seeing how creative and innovative communities across Aberdeenshire can be in shaping the future of their places.
"It is wonderful to see that investment from the Place Based Investment Programme will be put to good use once again this year to help create more inviting, accessible and resilient places across the region. We know how much people value the places in which they live, so to see projects coming forward that will mean that they can enjoy them even more is heartening.
"People make places tick, so this funding will help to make exciting improvements and additions to communities for years to come.”
Details of the six successful projects are as follows:
Edzell Woods Community Hub
Edzell Woods Community Trust - £250,000
The project proposes the construction of a bespoke made eco-friendly modular building at Edzell Woods to provide a hub facility for the community which currently has no facilities or communal spaces and suffered badly during the 2021 storms. The Hub will provide meeting, health and wellness, social and function spaces which are key to community cohesion, resilience, place making and promoting public engagement and participation. Edzell Woods is located on the site of a decommissioned RAF base and is an unadopted estate which means around 400 residents have reduced public services and effectively have to manage much of their open space and infrastructure independently.
Ellon Community Allotments
Ellon Community Allotments SCIO - £147,595
Application from a newly formed charity proposes the provision and management of new allotment site (55 allotments) at Balmacassie, including polytunnels, composting toilet, water capture, car parking and cycle storage, communal composting, aquatic ecology and re-wilding areas, and social spaces. he proposed site has been leased by Aberdeenshire Council on an initial 20-year lease. Allotments are regarded as having numerous place, social, health and wellbeing and environmental benefits and the Aberdeenshire Allotment Strategy suggests that unmet demand and need is higher in Ellon than anywhere else in the region.
Mill of Benholm, Johnshaven
Mill of Benholm Enterprise - £76,000
Phase 2 of project to bring historic landmark back into use as a community hub, visitor attraction and education setting. The site, unused since 2014 is of significant heritage value as it is one of only a handful of old working mills in Scotland that retains complete functionality. This phase includes the creation of an event area – which will help with future income opportunities, restoration of water structures and mechanisms, improving access and new and improved paths. Volunteer efforts at the Mill have been particularly impressive with around 50 volunteers engaged over the last 18 months in clearing and reinstating elements of the site.
Tillybrake Sports Complex Upgrade, Banchory
Banchory Community Football Club - £250,000
A partnership project between Banchory Community FC, Aberdeenshire Council and Banchory Academy. Creation of a community sports hub in the centre of Banchory including extension and upgrade of pavilion to accommodate more uses and users and installation of new full-sized flood-lit 3G pitch. All facilities will be available for non-sport community uses. Banchory is the only main settlement in Aberdeenshire not to have a full-sized artificial pitch and addressing this is a priority in the council’s Pitch Strategy and also for the Scottish FA which is likely to be a major funder. The applicant is keen to provide more affordable health and wellbeing activities to a wider range of participants including a focus on increasing participation amongst girls and those with physical and/or mental health conditions.
Stonehaven Youth Club Building
K&M Youth Clubs SCIO – £130,000
Applicant has acquired the former Sea Cadet building in Stonehaven via community asset transfer to use as a dedicated space for the Stonehaven Youth Club which currently has no fixed home and has to rent space in other venues for their events which is not ideal for young people who want to have spaces that they can make their own. This arrangement is also inflexible in terms of widening the range of activities that can be offered. Internal and external improvements include new kitchen and toilet facilities, a pod lift, improved insulation and potential for solar panels.
Macduff Marine Aquarium
Aberdeenshire Council - £111,000
Complementary project to improve existing internal visitor spaces at the aquarium to add value to the substantial redevelopment project funded by Levelling Up. Most of the internal spaces and exhibitions have not been updated since the building opened in 1997. Whilst well presented, by current visitor economy standards the overall visitor experience is dated which means that the potential for the attraction to maximise its income potential and diversity of offer (including educational) is compromised. This project will involve new interactive exhibits, interpretation, new technologies and better educational facilities. Will ensure that those parts of the building that are not in scope for the LUF project will be raised to same modern standards.
