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.

Unspent expenses to pay for north-east community projects

The Banff Bridge, Banff.
The Banff Bridge, Banff.

Community projects across Banff and Buchan were given a boost yesterday when councillors backed a move to use unspent administration expenses to pay for local initiatives.

Councillors from the local area committee held a special meeting in Banff yesterday to discuss the future of community councils, and to back a scheme which will disperse a pot of more than £3,000 to fund projects in the area.

Community councils can now apply for money worth 80% of a project’s cost – to a maximum of £1,000 – to improve their towns and villages.

The move – which was spearheaded by Aberdeenshire’s education director Maria Walker – was unanimously backed by the committee.

In her report, Mrs Walker stressed that the area committee would retain ultimate responsibility for deciding which projects receive funding.

She added: “This enables the budget to be used responsively to address the needs of communities and maximises the use of scarce resources.”

The discussion sparked a debate about how community councillors are trained, and whether or not they are up to the task of objecting to planning applications.

Fraserburgh and District councillor Brian Topping called for anyone who serves of a community council to undergo training.

Mr Topping said: “If they’re going to be making comments on planning matters they should have training. Community councils are statutory consultees.”

Area manger Margaret-Jane Cardno said the authority “recognised” this is an issue but that community councils have now power to reject planning applications, only to comment.