‘Without the wind turbine, none of this would be possible.’
How life in an Aberdeenshire village has been transformed thanks to a single turbine
“We had a chicken crisis in my first week here, that’s when I knew I’d never be bored in the job.”
There is no such thing as an average day for Ruth Cluness, who swapped a jet-setting role in the corporate world to become manager at Udny Community Trust.
From travelling around the globe to herding escapee chickens out the vegetable patch, she has no regrets about joining the charity, based in the quaint Aberdeenshire village of Pitmedden.
The organisation has led the way on dozens of local projects from its base at The Medan Centre, having transformed a former hotel into a community hub. The building houses a popular café and acts as a meeting place for numerous groups including first responders. It even serves as a warm space where anyone can drop in for a blether and a board game.
To appreciate the impact of Udny Community Trust is to visit the site on a dreich spring day, where you might imagine there to be scant customers. The opposite is true, with the local walking group warming themselves by the fire whilst regular visitors exchange news.
There’s a packed community notice board plus a play area and produce grown in the immaculate garden regularly appears on the menu. Staff wear cheerful orange aprons complete with the logo of a windmill, and impressive pictures of a turbine adorn the walls. Everything that Udny Community Trust has achieved, right down to its stick library for canine visitors, would not have been possible without the power of wind.
To understand how the trust operates is to rewind to 2011, when five volunteers led the way in getting a community owned wind turbine installed at nearby Tillymaud Farm. Brian McDougall, who is now director of the trust, can still recall the challenges in the lead up to the blades finally turning.
“From planning permission to the initial £1.4 million we needed, we’re now into year 15 and I’m proud to say that we will pay off our bank loan in full this coming October,” he said.
“Without the wind turbine, none of this would be possible. There are no two doubts about that.
“The project came about in part because we had like-minded people willing to put in the time and effort; it was the right people in the right place at the right time complete with complementary skills.”
The initial group consisted of Brian who was a manager at BT, alongside an architect, geo scientist, rural economist, and an oil and gas worker. Once the wind turbine was up and running, it was the catalyst for community-led regeneration.
“We needed the community behind us from the very beginning, so we asked people how they wanted to spend the income generated from the turbine in a major consultation called Imagine Udny,” said Brian.
“The findings gave us a reference point, because people told us they wanted a community hall and café.”
The trust got the keys to what is now The Medan Centre in 2020, mere days before lockdown was announced. Undeterred by the stumbling block, work is now underway to make the building even more sustainable via insulation.
“We obviously want to keep our bills down, and we’ve been working room by room,” said Ruth.
“We have a recently renovated space for health and wellbeing activities, and we also run a grant programme.
“To date we have given out £693,000 to local good causes, one of the most recent examples is the work done by Friends of Udny Green Cemetries.”
The voluntary group has transformed a previously neglected cemetery, driven by their own stories of love and loss. Their work has had a ripple effect with local school pupils joining in efforts to clean headstones, whilst a team gathers weekly to share stories of loved ones at rest in a now beautifully kept graveyard.
The trust has also focused its efforts on educating the next generation as to the tangible impact of renewable energy, with school pupils visiting the turbine every year.
“We show schools how we are improving their community, it’s fundamental to us to inspire the next generation,” said Brian.
“I’ve been involved for 20 years now; the power of wind is second nature to me.
“Every now and then it’s nice to look back; we are, after all, the very first wind turbine to be commissioned solely by a community group, in mainland Britain.”
This story was provided by Ellie House at the Local Storytelling Exchange.