CEMEX support for Doune Ponds and Woodlands Group

Longstanding local connections result in £500 donation to worthwhile public amenity project

CEMEX have donated £500 in support of the Doune Ponds and Woodlands Group, in Doune, Perthshire. Doune Ponds were originally a sand and gravel pit operated by the old Springbank Sand and Gravel Company, who were ultimately integrated into the CEMEX group.

As well as this, CEMEX have had a long connection with Doune; not only was their main workshop for Scotland located in the village, but also the company’s busy Cambusmore Quarry is located just up the road, making Doune the through way for quarry products being transported to the markets of Central Scotland.

For many years the site known as Doune Ponds was supposed to be under the management of Stirling Council as a so called public amenity, however, owing to financial cutbacks the site was neglected and finally given up some two years ago.

This allowed a new management team composed jointly of the local community and Moray Estates to take over and transform the old sand and gravel pit and surrounding woodlands into one of the best privately formed amenity sites in the country.

Over the last two years, thanks to the hard work of local volunteers, new footways have been built using local aggregate, and picnic sites and new wooden steps have been installed on the undulating terrain. The latest project is the construction a new footbridge over one of the waterways flowing into and out of the ponds.

Funding for the materials used, along with purchase of tools and equipment, has come from financial donations and grants by local businesses and organizations.

CEMEX were approached by the local Kilmadock Community Council to see if they would like to contribute, bearing in mind the company’s long-standing connection with the village. An immediate and positive response came back in the form of the £500 gift, along with the company intimating that it would like to continue to be involved in such a worthwhile local project.

Tony Farrant, chair of the Doune Community Woodland Group, expressed his gratitude, on behalf of all involved with the Group, to the company for helping in the way it has. ‘We look forward to continuing our new-found relationship with CEMEX,’ he said.

At a recent ribbon-cutting ceremony where The Earl of Moray officially opened one of the new sections of footway around the ponds, Richard Bird of the British Aggregates Association and the Kilmadock Community Council presented the £500 cheque to Mr Farrant (right of photo), on behalf of CEMEX.