Aberdeenshire Council officers have been exploring the creation of a football pitch next to the new Hillside School all-weather pitch, primarily using developer obligation funds allocated for that purpose (approximately £130,000).

Tenders for the work were put out, and linked with other pitch development work to ensure that prices were as competitive as possible and benefited from economies of scale.

However the best price for the new pitch was nearly £300,000, far higher than was originally estimated to be the case. The cost is as a result of difficult ground conditions.