From Aberdeenshire Council communications team
STONEHAVEN’S youth club is one of six projects sharing nearly £1 million in funding helping to improve local facilities and services and to create more vibrant places across Aberdeenshire.
Kincardine and Mearns Youth Club acquired the former Sea Cadet building in Stonehaven via community asset transfer. They will use it as a dedicated space for the Stonehaven Youth Club which currently has no fixed home and has to rent space in other venues for their events which is not ideal for young people who want to have spaces that they can make their own. This arrangement is also inflexible in terms of widening the range of activities that can be offered.
With the help of the £130,000 funding provided, they can make a start on internal and external improvements including new kitchen and toilet facilities, a pod lift, improved insulation and potential for solar panels.
This funding is coming from the fifth-year allocation of the Scottish Government’s Place Based Investment Programme (PBIP) which is designed to support coherent investment decisions that respond to local community priorities for their places.
Central to the delivery of the programme is ensuring that investment decisions are shaped by the evidenced needs of local communities, regenerate and revitalise towns and villages, help tackle inequality and disadvantage and accelerate Scotland towards ‘net zero’ emissions goals. Projects are also expected to offer sustainable and impactful benefits to the places in which they are delivered.
Investment in previous years has seen important projects completed or underway across the area including a new skate park in Fraserburgh, improvements to facilities at the Alford Valley Community Railway, the restoration and stabilisation of the Macduff Cross, cycle and pump tracks in Alford, Ellon and Peterhead and improvements to public spaces and buildings in towns such as Aboyne, Ballater, Banff, Huntly, Portsoy, Strichen, Turriff and Westhill.
The successful Aberdeenshire projects for 2025/26 include a new eco-community hub building in Edzell Woods, a community-run allotment site in Ellon, upgraded sports facilities in Banchory and support for restoring the historic Mill of Benholm near Johnshaven. Funding has also been approved to help the refurbishment of a new youth club building in Stonehaven and internal improvements to the Macduff Marine Aquarium to complement the ambitious wider re-development of the visitor attraction.
Cllr Alan Turner, chair of Aberdeenshire Council’s Infrastructure Services Committee, said: “Once again, for a fifth year running, we are seeing how creative and innovative communities across Aberdeenshire can be in shaping the future of their places. It is wonderful to see that investment from the Place Based Investment Programme will be put to good use once again this year to help create more inviting, accessible and resilient places across the region.
”We know how much people value the places in which they live, so to see projects coming forward that will mean that they can enjoy them even more is heartening. People make places tick, so this funding will help to make exciting improvements and additions to communities for years to come.”