Tonight 16 local groups received awards from the Meikle Carewe wind farm community fund. The presentations by the energy company RES (who operate the wind farm) were made in the Bettridge Centre in Newtonhill.
There had been 35 applications totalling £87,000, and these were whittled down by a panel of judges from community councils to the 16 projects who shared some £34,000.
The winners included:
The Bettridge Centre – £3289.47 for soft play equipment and lift maintenance;
Newtonhill Pipe Band – £1800 for drums;
Maryculter Woodland Trust – £4050 for a community orchard and tree nursery;
Portlethen Scouts – £2454 towards tents and camping equipment for a spring camp for 10½ to 14-year-olds;
Portlethen Moss Conservation Group – £4700 for a woodland musical trail to be installed at the end of January;
Maryculter Driving for the Disabled – £1300 towards taking severely disabled people out in coach-and-horses on Wednesdays for 18 weeks in the summer;
Portlethen Men’s Shed – £2500 for the purchase of a lathe. The shed should be opening soon, after a four-year campaign.
Details of all the winners will be available shortly on the Kincardineshire Development Partnership website (http://www.kincardineshiredp.org/). They administer the scheme.
Other causes from elsewhere included a playgroup, schools football, community radio, a gymnastics club, Christmas lights, and Stonehaven folk festival.
