SEAchange has been awarded a grant from The Scottish Land Fund,
which enables the purchase of the old Slains Kirk building for community use, together with land on which to plant trees to begin to offset our community carbon footprint.
This funding will be a big step forward in realising a community project which began to take shape in 2018. There has been a lot of community input, with many people sharing ideas, needs, concerns and visions of what could be achieved.
The project highlights taking individual and community action to mitigate the climate emergency by working towards becoming a carbon neutral community. A need was also expressed for somewhere that people could meet each other on an informal drop-in basis.
In Nov-Dec 2019 an independent community ballot was held. Of 187 votes cast 74% supported the centre and café in the kirk building and 75% also supported the woodland area which will provide additional recreational opportunities as well as sequestering carbon emissions.
With this grant award SEAchange will be able to take the first steps in implementing these community aspirations.
Professor Pete Smith, FRS, FRSE, FNA, FEurASc, FRSB, Professor of Soils & Global Change, University of Aberdeen, and also a trustee of SEAchange, said:
“We are delighted with this award from the Scottish Land Fund. It will allow us to develop the old Kirk for use as a low carbon community café and the land for creating community woodland. There is still a lot of work to do, but this award marks the first vital step on our journey to become a carbon neutral community.”
You can read a summary of a talk on the climate crisis by Professor Pete Smith via this link.
SEAchange would like to express our warmest thanks to the Scottish Land Fund for this award, and also to the Formartine Area Committee, The Architectural Heritage Fund, and Just Enterprise for their help in researching and developing the project.
Slains Environmental Action for Change 