The Banchory Men’s Shed has reached a significant milestone on its development road by reaching the necessary total funds for “Phase 1” of our “Shed” premises.

BMS were last week awarded a significant sum by the “Developer Obligations” Team on Aberdeenshire Council.  This sum, together with the sums previously built up, total the target of £9,000 which will allow us to make our Phase 1 plans a reality.

“Phase 1” comprises converting the first-in-a-row of the three garages at the Legion, Banchory (the white-fronted garage in the above photo) into a Workshop area.  There are even some excess funds over and above the basic building costs, plus some use-specific grants for workshop equipment, which together will allow us to fit out the Workshop area  and also start on fund raising for Phase 2.

Phase 2 will be the Social area (conversion of the right hand two spaces to the left of the garage in the above picture) and is more extensive. It will allow us to have social gatherings, meetings, and run courses such as IT Technical Surgeries for our own members and the general public (all ideas welcomed). Owing to its scope, it may take some time to complete so until then, we will fit out the Workshop area in an adaptable way so as to be able to use it as both a temporary social area and workshop.

We have still to finalise Lease arrangements and building scopes etc but are targetting an opening date of this Autumn.

More details on our plans are on our About Banchory Shed page.