Bike Park Lift

Aboyne Bike park held a maintenance day in May. A number of volunteers worked together to sort some the erosion to the jumps and trails. See the group’s Facebook page for details of how to enjoy this facility.

Pics: Anna Blair

FOOT CARE IN YOUR HOME

All relevant C-19 precauti ons taken

WE’RE ON YOUR DOORSTEP

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Project will fail without community support, writes Claire Fraser

The Huntly Arms Regeneration Project

(HARP) was initiated by the Mid Deeside Community Council (MDCC) and the Mid Deeside Community Trust (MDCT) in late 2019. The idea being to come up with a rescue plan for the hotel which at that time was facing closure following years of increasing dereliction.

It was agreed the HARP would come under the umbrella of MDCT. The group succeeded in raising funds to complete a Viability Study to conduct an evaluation of options for reconfiguration of the hotel into a profitable hospitality-focused business.

This was carried out by Community Enterprise, a team of expert consultants with experience in similar community projects across Scotland.

The Public Consultation showed an overwhelming local community interest, demand for a hotel in the village and its value as an iconic centrally located facility. In the meantime, the hotel was sold on. We have since met and spoken with the new owner. Somewhat overwhelmed by the scale of the task he is keen for us to purchase the hotel for the community. This could be an exciting and extremely rewarding venture but will require a great deal of careful detailed assessment and will, no doubt, be a considerable challenge.

To keep this project moving forward we are going to need your help. Do you have useful skills? • Knowledge of fundraising, filling out grant forms and setting up crowdfunding schemes. • Are you a whizz at social media, Facebook pages, Twitter, Instagram and such? • Are you qualified to carry out valuations and building surveys? • Are you an accountant who could help with the financial machinations? • Do you have legal or marketing expertise? • Are you in the know regarding architectural and historic building construction issues? • Do you have experience in running a hotel and could advise on the practicalities?

We are assessing local interest to see if there are any skilled professional volunteers out there who are keen to see the Huntly’s doors open again as a community-owned enterprise.

Please be aware that we need a degree of commitment to put in a wee bit of time and effort. It is critical at this juncture to get a good working team together. If HARP cannot show the funding bodies and the local authority that we have a strong local interest to proceed then, sadly, taking this project any further will be difficult, if not impossible. Please contact Claire Fraser at coullclaire@gmail.com and tell me about yourself and how you could help out.