Projects completed in 2013 | Blackhill Windfarm Community Fund

Duns Players

Year Completed:

2013

The Duns Players applied to you for funding last year to finance some sound and lighting equipment and you kindly gave us. We listed a number of items we wanted and agreed we would be contributing some of the money ourselves. We also promised to share this equipment with other local groups.

To date we have spent £2,938 on much better lighting, carrying cases for all the equipment and a range of smaller items like the microphones.

Your grant has enabled us to improve the quality of our own shows. We have put on Glen Garry Glen Ross an serious American Drama in September last year, Dads Army for armistice day. An Alan Bennett evening toured the village halls this spring and they will be used for our annual comedy shows this spring.

We have also lent them to the Duns and District Opera for the annual pantomime and for Me and My Girl and Gavinton pantomime in January. Berwickshire Housing Association borrowed them for their star awards event and they were also put to use a large childrens party.

We are thrilled with what we are now able to do with a much higher specification of equipment and not having to hire it on a regular basis so we want to thank the Fund for enabling this .

Yours Sincerely
Helen Forsyth Secretary Duns Players

www.dunsplayers.org

Duns Senior Citizens Club

Year Completed:

2013

Duns Senior Citizens Club holds its social meetings fortnightly in Turnbull Court. There is a syllabus for the session and we have talks, demonstrations etc., also outings and special lunches, all of which are very well attended.

We applied to the Blackhill Windfarm Community Fund for a Grant to help towards funding two of our events, and fortunately we were successful. Needless to say we were delighted. The Grant was very much appreciated, and it enabled members to have ‘that wee bit extra’ something on both these occasions.

The Club’s Christmas Lunch -
This was held on 13 December 2013, when delicious traditional fayre was provided by a local caterer and served by the Committee (volunteers). The Committee had made up some beautiful Christmas hampers from donations from our members, which were raffled. Then this was followed by entertainment from some Duns Primary School pupils and their teachers. As always the whole afternoon was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone, it brought both young and old together in fun and laughter.
The Club’s Outing –
This was held on 16 May 2014. Members were taken out for the day on a bus (local operator used), usually it’s to somewhere they can’t easily get to (as some of our members are not so mobile now). This year we went to Dobbie’s, Straiton and then back to Eyemouth Golf Club for our tea, delicious. There was ‘a right buzz throughout’, a change of scenery had given everyone a good lift, so we all went home feeling rather weary, but we all had had a lovely day.

On behalf of the Club, I would again convey our thanks to your Board of Directors, for their positive decision and generosity.

Madge Cran
Secretary
On behalf of May Kinghorn
Chairman

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Duns Football Club

Year Completed:

2013

Duns Football Club

The generous grant Duns Football Club received from the Blackhill Windfarm Community Fund made up part of the overall funding package the club required for the ground works on our new playing surface at New Hawthorn Park in Duns.

It also helped erect our new perimeter fence which at that point completed stage one of our overall long term project.

Without this funding we would have been unable to complete on time. We opened our new ground last July on a sunny summers evening against a team from the reigning English champions Manchester City with the whole site looking splendid and over 500 people in the new ground.

So many people have, and will, benefit from what has been achieved with this generous grant and Duns Football Club would again like to thank Blackhill for their generous grant.

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Duns Amateur Swimming Club

Year Completed:

2013

Duns Amateur Swimming Club

Despite its size Duns Amateur Swimming Club has a history of producing fabulous swimmers with famous names such as Dan Wallace starting their careers with us. Membership had dipped over the years and funds from the Wind Farm were vital in securing our survival in 2012/13 and allowing Berwickshire swimmers at all levels to continue to train and compete.

Since our application our membership has doubled and we have a strong coaching structure in place. Duns has become one of the top clubs in the Borders once again. In 2014 five swimmers competed at the Scottish National Age Groups, 4 swimmers competed in the Scottish Open Junior Championships at Tollcross in Glasgow, with Toby Douglas winning silver.

The Borders BEST team was one of the top 10 teams in Scotland this year qualifying for the Scottish National Team Championships. Successful seniors give our junior swimmers aspiration and our coaches are giving senior swimmers a path to reach their potential.

As a result our club is much stronger and we can offer more and more children in the Berwickshire area access to swimming and coaching of a great standard. New members always welcome!

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Duns Christmas Lights

Year Completed:

2013

DUNS CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

Report to Blackhill Windfarm Community Fund

Following receipt of the very generous donation of £10,000 from Blackhill Windfarm Community Fund we spent quite a bit of time looking at the lights on offer. The money arrived just in time for us to instruct the Council and order lights for Christmas 2013.

We elected to renovate the cross-street features at the Post Office (Nativity Scene) and the Banks in the entrance to the Square. We also traded-in four features at North Street (outside Plough Inn), South Street (outside Duns News Plus), Murray Street (outside Fortes) and Black Bull Street (outside Black Bull Inn) for new features. We also bought spare bulbs and additional motifs which were fixed to the Toll House (JD Clark and Allan and Duns Dental Practice).

The replacement lights are all LEDs and use a fraction of the electricity that we used previously.

We were able to instruct Scottish Borders Council to proceed with the installation of the new power supplies to replace the original supplies that they had cut off (vandalised). We were obliged to pay 50% of the cost of this. The terminals installed by the Council are very sensitive, however, and trip at the least little thing. Consequently our team are regularly seen up ladders at all hours resetting MCBs. We are talking to the Council about this.

Finally we instructed our honorary electrician, Bob Markby, to build and install 6 No junction boxes for the display which allowed us to plug in the features and the garlands.

In the year 1 Oct 2013 to 30 Sep 2014 we paid the following:

Blachere (lights) £ 6,130.73

Delivery Charges £ 140.00

Bob Markby £ 586.48

Scottish Borders Council £ 4,176.65

TOTAL EXPENDITURE £11,033.86

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Our income included donations from private individuals and donations through the Cracker in the Square and this allowed us to run a switch-on evening, purchase additional lights and pay for the collection and delivery of the features. We still have a small reserve for next years spares.

Without the generous donation from the Blackhill Windfarm Community Fund we would not have been able to erect the cross street features, string garlands around the Square and run the very popular switching on of the lights by the Wynsome Mayde. The display would have been restricted to the lights on the tree and Duns town centre would have been the poorer for it.

On behalf of the Erection Section and all who have enjoyed the display of Christmas Lights in Duns we would like to thank the Blackhill Windfarm Community Fund Trustees for their generous award.

J Andrew Lester

(Meant to be retired Chairman)