Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Long-running north-east raft race called off to protect flood defences

Post Thumbnail

A long-running charity contest on the River Don has been called off in order to protect newly-established flood defences built in the wake of Storm Frank.

The annual Garioch Lions raft race will not take place this summer following work to protect properties along the riverbank in Port Elphinstone and Kiethhall, in Inverurie.

The fun event, which raises money for local kidney and cancer research causes, takes place annually between Kemnay Academy’s playing fields and Davidson Park in Port Elphinstone.

The rivers Don and Ythan both reached record highs on January 7, 2016, with the deluge flooding 130 homes and 16 businesses in Inverurie, Port Elphinstone and Kintore; and a further 64 homes and three businesses in Ellon.

More than 600 homes and 100 businesses are estimated to have flooded across Aberdeenshire as a whole during Storm Frank.

Aberdeenshire Council has now rebuilt the Davidson Park bund in Port Elphinstone, which gave way when the Don burst its banks during the floods.

A similar defence has been put in place further down the river at Keithhall by Scottish Water.

And last night the organisers of the raft race said the event would be put on hold until 2018 to allow for the newly-built bund in place at Davidson Park to settle.

They had feared that rafts being dragged on top of the defence may have wrecked it, given it had only recently been completed.

Jim Souter, president of the Garioch Lions, said: “It is off for a year because the flooding at Port Elphinstone they put up new flood defence barriers, a new bund. There is new meshing just underneath the surface.

“We were worried we were going to damage something there. Rather than doing any damage we decided to cancel. We had a site visit ourselves.

“We were 99% sure ourselves but contacted the council and Scottish Water who agreed. Us being a community group, we thought what is more important – the raft race or people’s properties and homes?

“We’d have felt very bad if we’d done any damage. We used to pull them out over the bund. Next year it should be settled.”

The Garioch Lions began running the raft race 26 years ago, before which it was held by local man Donald Ingram.

Mr Souter also asked that the winners of last year’s raft race hand back the trophy to the Kintore Trophy Centre in Inverurie in May, as had been agreed last year.