Public vote Alford and District Men’s Shed as the most deserving community project for a ‘green makeover’ in Stewart Milne Group’s Greener Spaces, Better Places campaign
Following a week of intense voting, a project focused on the creation of a sensory garden with a community orchard and allotments has won the hearts of the public. Once completed, the winning project hopes its sensory garden and transformed outdoor areas will encourage community engagement and, in turn, reduce social problems of isolation and depression.
The sensory garden was one of three projects short-listed as a finalist in a campaign aiming to improve communal outdoor spaces in the north-east of Scotland.
The leading independent homebuilder and timber systems manufacturer, Stewart Milne Group, devised the Greener Space, Better Places campaign to transform communal outdoor areas for the benefit of whole communities by making them greener and more attractive.
The community initiative was launched in early August, and received dozens of applications. The north-east Scotland entries were judged by a panel consisting of Carole Baxter from BBC’s Beechgrove Gardens, Fiona Weir, Living Nature Manager of RSPB, and John Low, Managing Director of Stewart Milne Homes North, and resulted in three finalists being selected for public vote.
The campaign called for projects that would encourage greater bio-diversity through the planting of new grass, flowers and trees, as well as projects that promoted community spirit by bringing people together to work on the winning outdoor project.
The Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation, Alford and District Men’s Shed, entered the project to help support the development of an existing building into a Men’s Shed, which will offer services to the whole community with plans for meeting and hobby facilities, in addition to wood working and metalworking accommodation.
The newly created allotments will be available to individuals or families on an annual basis, and the community orchard and accessible sensory garden will be open to all, with accessibility for wheelchair users and those with impaired ambulation.
As part of the project, the outdoor space will benefit from raised beds, a community orchard with forty fruit trees, and nineteen half-size allotments which, according to the charity, will meet one of the aims of the 2010 Donside Community Council Plan.
The other north-east finalists included a project to create a sensory garden in Magnificent 7s Woods in Balmedie for Belhelvie Community Trust, and the creation of a community garden on a currently disused site at Birley Bush for Greener Kemnay.
Mr Low said: “All three finalists would have been worthy winners. Each project included features to promote bio-diversity, as well as outdoor activities and landscaping plans that have the potential to benefit the whole community. The public has now chosen the project that they want to see transformed, and we are very much looking forward to getting started on supporting the proposed project with Alford and District Men’s Shed.”
As part of the Greener Spaces, Better Places campaign, Stewart Milne Group will allocate resources and support to transform the winning project. The project with Alford and District Men’s Shed will get underway as soon as possible, subject to weather and availability of materials and labour.
The winners for the remaining shortlisted projects in the other eligible regions; central Scotland, North-west England, and Oxford, will be announced later this month.