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.

Goal is in sight for threatened community facility

A public meeting was held in the Bennachie leisure centre to give an update on the centre's future.
A public meeting was held in the Bennachie leisure centre to give an update on the centre's future.

A campaign to raise funds for a threatened community centre has almost reached its half-way goal, just weeks after appealing for help.

Bennachie Leisure Centre, in Insch, needs to find £20,000 by the end of September or it will be forced to close its doors.

But thanks to “fantastic” support from local residents, and various fundraising events, just over £8,000 has been raised so far and board members are feeling “cautiously optimistic”.

The board made an urgent call for assistance to help clear the debt they inherited when they took charge in April this year.

The charity-run centre – which has suffered a dwindling membership recently – has £20,000 worth of debt, which is due to be paid in September.

Last night, board member Callum Scott said the support they had received so far was “incredibly generous” and thanked everyone who had offered to help out either with practical or financial help.

The board held a public meeting this week in the leisure centre and welcomed more than 100 people to the event.

Mr Scott said: “It was great to see so many people there. And we were able to give some good positive news about the latest fundraising. We raised a further £4,800 over the weekend – making our total £8,200.

“I’m feeling cautiously optimistic that we can reach our target, but I don’t want to be complacent.”

Adding that the campaign was “all or nothing” he also made assurances that the board did not want to “end up in this situation again”.

“We are a small rural community that cannot afford to lose a facility like this,”

Mr Scott said the centre costs about £150,000 a year to run but without clearing its debts, the newly-elected board cannot apply for grant funding to pull it out of the financial black hole.

More fundraising events are being held before the deadline, this weekend they are holding a ceilidh and will be hosting a ‘Spin-a-thon’ on September 16.

To donate to the campaign’s crowdfunder visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk/keep-blc-open