COMMUNITY projects in Aberdeenshire's Marr Area will benefit by almost £80,000 in the coming financial year.
Cash will come from the Council's area top up budget and the Area Partnership scheme.
Banchory Town Hall will be one of the projects to benefit from the funding boost.
Details of the funding were revealed at the meeting of the Marr Area C
ommittee in Alford on Tuesday. The Area Budget – which this year stands at £52,500 -offers cash for projects aimed at tackling local service delivery issues and maintaining and enhancing the appearance of towns and villages in the area, while the Marr Area Partnership funding – totalling this year £26,000 – will help to support initiatives being taken by a group set up to carry out community planning and community economic development work.
A report by area manager Leslie Allan recommended that £7,000 of the Area Top Up Budget should go towards core funding for three local groups – Banchory and District Initiative (£2,500), Birse Community Trust (£1,500) and Royal Deeside Partnership (£3,000).
That was agreed by committee members, who also approved a recommendation that £8,000 from the budget should go to the Marr Area Partnership Initiative Grant Scheme, a further £8,000 should be earmarked for Town and Village Enhancement Grants, with the balance of £29,500 being held for distribution throughout the coming financial year, for funding applications the committee considered worth supporting.
In that respect, they gave their approval for two applications that came before the meeting today, with £2,000 being granted to Ballater RD Limited and £500 to the Strachan Village Hall Committee.
Councillors were told in a report that Ballater RD (Royal Deeside) Limited was a community development company and the cash allocated towards the body would go towards an initiative in the area to encourage economic, environmental and social development projects, with the Strachan money going towards upgrading facilities at the village hall. The hall committee had previously been granted up to £500 towards the work but had not claimed the cash because of problems over securing additional funding.
Mr Allan said that, since the application had come in, problems had developed with the hall roof and it might be that the cash would be used instead to deal with that immediate problem.
Mr Allan said that a new kitchen would be one of the improvements to be made at Banchory Town Hall, pointing out that Huntly Town Hall had already benefited from such investment. New waste bins at Ballater were also on the programme of improvements.
Banchory Councillor Linda Clark said that the investment planned for the Town Hall would be welcomed by local people, especially community groups.
However, the committee agreed not to support an application for £500, towards a Lawson Clan reunion, to be held this month at the Grampian Transport Museum at Alford, because entrance would be restricted only to clan members.
