Four community organisations share £63,000 thanks to Clashindarroch Wind Farm Community Fund

In this latest round of funding, The Cabrach Trust has been awarded £40,432 from the fund established by wind farm owner Vattenfall. 

The grant will be used towards the early stages of turning the Old School buildings at The Cabrach into a new community facility providing for events and educational activities, alongside a bunkhouse for visitors. It will enable The Cabrach Trust’s design team to develop costed designs and seek planning consent for the renovation. Contractors will also be employed to demolish or make weathertight elements of the existing building that are damaged or considered unsafe, and to strip out the interiors to prevent any further damage and provide a blank canvas for the project.

Sam Dowdall, Development Manager at The Cabrach Trust, commented: 
“As part of the Trust’s mission to drive rural regeneration in the area, the plans to restore the Cabrach School Hall and House will complement the outdoors experience we will soon be offering, also providing the local and wider community with a restored piece of The Cabrach’s heritage that generates social, environmental and economic benefit. The site will serve as the focal point for local community activity, as a cultural hub, and as a stepping off point from which our farm, pathway network and wider environment can be enjoyed. It will attract visitors to the area for a myriad of reasons, who in turn will depart The Cabrach as ambassadors for the region, with a shared affinity for what we are striving to achieve. The events and activities that we can host will bring benefits for young and old in terms of learning, health, wellbeing, and a sense of community connectedness. The project could also provide a modern space to host corporate away days with immediate access to our unique natural environment.”

Another grant, of £19,250 to Full Colour Coaching, will enable the delivery of group and one-to-one coaching, workshops and activity days at the Gordon Schools and Gordon, Mortlach and Rhynie Primary schools throughout 2023, building on similar activities being delivered this year. 

Meanwhile, a grant of £1,100 to Glass Community Association will support the production of this year’s Christmas Pantomime at Glass Hall by local group See Thru Productions. Pantomonium – Will You Get Your Happily Ever After is showing on 17th, 18th and 19th of November.  

Fiona Hill of Glass Community Association, said:
“This grant has really given our group a boost enabling us to press on with rehearsals and plans for our show in mid-November. Putting on a pantomime comes with considerable costs for sound, lighting, music and costumes. Without this generous offer we are in no doubt that we would have struggled."

Glass community is small but the enthusiasm and energy that See Thru Productions brings spreads far and wide.”

A fourth grant of £2,140 was awarded to Huntly Football Club to help with the costs of running the Under 18 Development Squad this season, as the Club continues to recover from a dearth in sponsorship following the covid-19 pandemic.  The grant will help with the costs of referee fees and hire of training and playing facilities.

The Clashindarroch Wind Farm Community Fund was launched in 2015. It benefits the areas served by the Huntly, Strathbogie and Tap o’ Noth Community Councils and the Cabrach Community Association. In 2022, Vattenfall’s annual donation into the fund was over £240,000. 

Following consultations with the four communities in 2014, around 45% of the annual donation from Vattenfall has been ringfenced for improvements to community facilities as a long-term commitment to these valued assets.  The recent award to re-develop the Cabrach Old School building brings the total amount of funding provided from the Fund for this purpose to £766,000. Altogether the Fund has provided grants totalling over £1.4 million for a wide range of projects benefitting the four communities. 

Pete Kunz, Vattenfall’s Service Leader for Clashindarroch Wind Farm said: “I am delighted that the Clashindarroch Wind Farm Community Fund panel have made these awards generating social, educational and economic benefits to the local area. Vattenfall believes that renewable energy can provide more than important environmental benefits.  It is great to see the community fund at Clashindarroch playing such a major role is supporting local projects.”   

The fund is managed on behalf of Vattenfall by Foundation Scotland, Scotland’s Community Foundation. Decisions on grant awards are made by a panel of local people, drawn from the four communities the fund benefits.

The next deadline for grant applications to the Clashindarroch Fund is 23rd January 2023, with decisions being made towards the end of March. For more information and to apply for a grant visit https://www.foundationscotland.org.uk/clashindarroch