Plans for a long-anticipated Deeside skate park are back in motion after campaigners were forced to press the pause button for eight months due to the pandemic.
Aboyne Wheelers celebrated the “big milestone” for its project in February, when plans for the £140,000 skate park were approved 20 years after they were first dreamed up.
Construction work on the multi-use skate park was initially expected to begin in spring 2021, with around £7,000 already invested in planning, design and other costs.
However, with the coronavirus pandemic and accompanying social distancing measures put in place, the community group struggled to move to the next phase of the project – which is securing £120,000 through a combination of grants and fundraising.
Chairman of Aboyne Wheelers, Steve Gardyne, revealed that the plans are back on track.
He said: “We were very much in a mindset that when we got the planning approved in February, that would be the momentum that we needed to press forward and get the rest of the fundraising.
“But like with many other facets of our lives, Covid-19 came in and it didn’t feel at all appropriate to be even engaging on a topic like a skate park, when people’s livelihoods were coming and going.
“But now we are at the stage where we need to start building some genuine engagement around the project – we’ve got a skate park that’s viable, the community wants it, so we need to work together to get funding in place to make it happen.
“It’s not the right time for big community events just now.
“But one of the things we’re about to do with the help of Aboyne Academy is organise a focus group with kids of different ages to hopefully get more invloved in the project, and also work together on some fundraiser ideas, so they can be ready to go once it’s safe to go ahead with them.”
The “Wheelers” have already taken the first step in putting their plan back on track by organising a tree-planting event at the weekend, where volunteers planted more than 200 trees at Bell Wood Park to support the local community woodland.
Tree-planting is also part of their planning agreement with the council, as the construction of the skate park will require removing some of the mature woodland to the west of Aboyne Academy’s car park, where it will be located.
Alan Emslie, chairman of Mid Deeside Community Trust, which supports several projects in Aboyne, including the skate park, welcomed the progress.
He said: “It’s a great facility, particularly for young people to give them activities that they could do to keep them fit and healthy, and it’s available for all ages and all abilities, including people who are disabled.
“People need to know that the ‘Wheelers’ are still on, they are still going and they are still serious, and we encourage people to help us raise money to build this skate park, as it’s been too long.”
