Beautiful Scotland 2016

2

Introduction

Carnoustie was established as a burgh in 1895 and it is thought the name is Celtic in origin. It orig-

inally formed part of the lands of the church of Barry before being granted to Balmerino Abbey

in 1229. The barony was then gifted to Sir Philip de Valoniis, Lord High Chamberlain and passed

from there to the Maule family through marriage where it remained for over 700 years before be-

ing spilt into separate lots. Carnoustie Estate was purchased from the Panmure family in 1792. The

new owner offered feuing as enticement to settlers with the first feu being granted to Thomas

Louson who is referred to as „the father of Carnoustie‟. The village grew from this point and the

introduction of the railway in 1838 brought new industries. It also subsequently prospered as a

holiday resort and for many years has enjoyed an international reputation for creating one of the

most challenging links golf courses in the world. Colourful Carnoustie is committed to building on

and enhancing the history and character of Carnoustie for all those who live in and visit the

Town.

Thus the portfolio for the Beautiful Scotland competition has been designed to guide the reader

through the key areas of work that have been undertaken and developed. It will document and

show the way links have been established and support received from the local community, busi-

nesses and other partners. It will focus on the three main pillars of sustainability.

- Horticultural Achievement: pages 3 - 5

- Environmental Responsibility: pages 6 - 7

- Community Involvement pages: 8 - 9

- Finance / Future Plans page: 10

Compiled by Colourful Carnoustie

June 2016

(Front cover: Carnoustie Golf Links)

* All photographs in this document are contemporaneous with the articles published

3

Horticultural Achievement

The Colourful Carnoustie journey continues with the publication of our 2016 Portfolio and the im-

pending visit of this year‟s Beautiful Scotland judges sched-

uled for the beginning of August. Throughout 2015, well over

one hundred hanging baskets and numerous street planters

provided a fantastic blaze of colour to Carnoustie‟s Town

Centre. Planters at the Railway Station, designed to give visi-

tors and locals alike a warm welcome to the Town, continued

to flourish under the care of our dedicated squad. Beautiful

Scotland judges and the Scottish summer came and went

and in September, Ed, Kirsty and Alec travelled to Perth for the

Beautiful Scotland awards ceremony. We were over-the-

moon to learn Colourful Carnoustie had won a Gold Award in the Coastal Town category. A

fantastic reward for our Group, Angus Council and all the residents and businesses within the

community who contributed to our work throughout the

year. As Autumn approached we once again decided that

our hanging baskets still had enough life to leave them in

place until after the Dunhill Golf Championships in October

when Jon made short work of removing all baskets and

planter troughs to Kirsty‟s to await preparation for winter stor-

age. Feedback from local residents had been very positive

which was heartening for all of the team. Meanwhile, Kirsty,

Tam and Legion volunteers stripped the beds of corms at the

War Memorial for re-cycling. At the end of October, Tam was

given the unenviable task of emptying all the baskets and

removing the Begonia corms for storing under-cover over the winter. Kirsty decided most of the

corms were in good condition and could be re-cycled for next year‟s display. Alec and Ed enlist-

ed the help of the Panmure Centre pre-school nursery group to plant bulbs at the Golf Links gar-

den for next summer‟s display. Kirsty and Tam tidied-up our feature pavement planters whilst An-

gus Council Parks carried out maintenance on their areas of permanent planting at the feature

banners installed for the Open golf championship in 2007, the Leisure Centre, the Rest

Gardens, McConnell Garden and local park and car park entrances. All was quiet over the

Christmas period as we started to put an action plan for 2016 in place. Once again Angus coun-

cil supplied us with their special peat-free compost mix, free of charge and in early spring, street

planters were planted with fushia, lobelia and geranium. The railway station planters and feature

planters at the Spar shop and McConnell Gardens were planted with daffodil, tulip and primros-

es to give a splash of colour in the spring and early summer.

Ed, Kirsty and Alec at the presentation

Members of the team pose with the Gold

War Memorial beds stripped for re-use Tam removes all the corms for re-cyclying Daffys and spring greens

4

We were mindful of the judges comments regarding the Railway Station planters and invited

ScotRail to make some further contribution towards the beautification of their

property. Sue and Alice met with ScotRails‟s Station Team Manager, Simon An-

derson, to discuss the refurbishment of several of the planters including the fea-

ture steam engine planter made out of whisky barrels. The exposed location of

the station had seen the planter timbers degrade over time and Simon agreed

that ScotRail would pay for the necessary upgrades. Alec took a leaf out of the

„Food is Free‟ manual and decided to use the street planters at the Fairway Gar-

age and outside Francos café for something other than flowers. Spring cab-

bage, beetroot were sown along with flax plants. Time would tell how successful

this turned out. Meanwhile at Carnoustie Golf Links, the area of wildflowers sown

by Head Greenkeeper Craig Boath and pupils from Burnside Primary School last

June as part of the Operation Pollinator initiative was starting to take hold. Craig

and his green-keeping staff continued to work on gorse and heather manage-

ment over the winter along with bunker re-building at various holes through-

out the course. At the end of January we met with Angus Council‟s new

Parks supervisor to liaise with him over plans for the forth-coming growing

season. Budget cuts at Angus Council means that parks, public open-

spaces, feature planting and verges etc are still only being dealt with on a

‟care and maintenance‟ basis. The War Memorial however is still given priori-

ty status and once again, in conjunction with the Royal British Legion we

agreed that the summer planting should include a feature similar to that of

last year‟s ‟70‟ logo that commemorated the end of WW2, seventy years

ago. When news of the Beautiful Scotland 50th

anniversary challenge reached us, the obvious

choice for our proposed display was the War

Memorial garden, one of the most prominent

locations in the Town. The Royal British Legion

was more than happy to accommodate our idea and Rob Hill of An-

gus Council Parks Service gave advice on planting that would

achieve the maximum impact. Any design had to be bold but simple

with lettering kept to a minimum, which

explains our choice of „KSB‟ as opposed to „Beautiful Scotland‟. Our

proposal was devised therefore to reflect the Beautiful Scotland cor-

porate motif design and colours by using purple alyssum, sky-blue lo-

belia and the green of miniature begonia, with the lettering in gold

pyrethrum, all set in a bed of yellow begonia. The display features two

logos, one either side of the garden, hopefully providing a fitting visual

recognition of Beautiful Scotland‟s 50th anniversary. In February, the

begonia corms were brought out of winter storage to dry-out and all

looked good for re-planting in due course. In April, Kirsty took advantage of a spell of good

weather to organise a squad of British Legion helpers to lift the bulbs from the raised beds at the

War memorial ahead of Angus Council‟s spring re-vamp of the area. Once again, all the hang-

ing baskets were checked over and new baskets purchased to replace those that had fallen vic-

tim to our Scottish weather. In early spring, our annual appeal for sponsorship was made in the

local press, and our social media outlets. Kirsty and Allison visited all the local shops and business-

es who soon renewed their sponsorship from last year. Donations started to pour in from ordinary

residents anxious to see the Town ‟brightened-up‟ for the summer and Carnoustie Gala Commit-

tee presented us with a cheque towards the hanging baskets.

KSB anniversary logo

at the War Memorial

Lifting bulbs for re-cycling

Donation from the Gala

Sue and Alice

with Simon

5

Meanwhile, Kirsty spent many a long hour in the greenhouse

potting-up corms including nine crates of begonias that were

transported to helper Alex Duncan‟s greenhouse for him to

„bring-on‟. Once again an order was

placed with Ashbrook Nursery in Ar-

broath for the supply of forty lamp-

post hanging baskets. Ed contacted

HM Courts to enquire about organis-

ing a squad on community payback

sentence to give our lampposts and tree-guards a Hammerite face-

lift and before long, this was completed expertly. Things were now

moving apace and Kirsty decided the temperature was now suffi-

cient for planting-up the baskets. As we moved into June, all plants

were shipped to volunteer Sarah Paton‟s greenhouse and Kirsty and

Tam, assisted by Sarah soon filled and planted -up all the shopfront

baskets. Now, all we had to do was wait for the baskets to bed-in

and harden. Soon the day was at hand. Jon picked-up and dropped

off all the baskets before the sun was up. Ashbrook Nursery delivered

the lamppost baskets first thing and now all we had to do was hang

them. Jim, Ed, Tam, a pair of steps and some muscle straining later,

soon saw all hanging baskets in place along Carnoustie High Street.

As we moved towards July, Carnoustie Golf Links wildflower garden just next to the 18th fairway

is literally buzzing with life. The new wildflower area adjacent to the Leisure Centre, prepared by

Angus Council and sown by our own volunteers was beginning to spring into life. The Woodlands

Caravan Park was again a blaze of instant colour that continues, in the words of last year‟s judg-

es, „to rival that of the golden days of caravan park displays‟. Our planting at the Links Office

continued to grow and mature, providing an excellent point of interest. Re-furbished planters at

the railway station gave visitors and locals a warm welcome to the Town. Our alternative street

planter sowing proved successful. Alec and Ed were able to distribute the produce FOC.

Kirsty and Tam busy potting corms

Jim, Tam and Ed hang all

baskets

Woodlands Caravan Park Ed and Alec distribute produce FOC

Carnoustie Golf links garden Sowing wildflower seeds at the seafront

6

Environmental Responsibility

Carnoustie Golf Links’ commitment to ensuring and promoting best environmental man-

agement and conservation practices has taken another step forward with the recent

publication of „Carnoustie Golf Links—

An Environmental Guide‟. The docu-

ment, produced in association with

the Scottish Turf Research Institute

(STRI) sets out in detail the breadth of

flora and fauna that abounds over

the Links. The guide includes a ‟Fun

Section‟ specially designed as an ex-

cellent teaching resource. Craig

Boath, Head of the Championship

Course says “It is vital to teach the fu-

ture generations about the environ-

ment in the hope that they will carry on conserving the wildlife in years to come”. The

guide can be accessed at http://www.carnoustiegolflinks.co.uk/environment/

Craig is about to embark on another wildflower area project at the new access road to

the Links Pro-centre when once again he will enlist the help of local primary schools with

the sowing. Unfortunately, plans we had for planted areas at the Pro-centre were put-on

-hold when it was confirmed that Carnoustie Golf Links were to proceed with a major ex-

pansion project to the building. Later in the summer, works will commence on the multi-

million pound extension that will see the area of the Pro-centre completely cordoned off

for around 18 months. In the meantime, our group will plant-out and maintain four self-

watering barrel planters that will be positioned adjacent to the first tee and 18th green.

Earlier this year, we decided to promote our 2015 Beau-

tiful Scotland Gold Award achievement with special

signage to be located at the two main entrances to the

Town in Carlogie Road and the Upper Victoria link. The

road sign was designed by Jim and made by local

company Prime Signs. All we need now is for Angus

Council Roads Department to come along and fit the

signs for us.

Carnoustie Beach Pavilion, until recently home to the

Yacht Club and the

Rugby Club has now been sold to a private developer

who hopes, it is understood, to turn the building into a

new seafront restaurant. In the meantime Colourful

Carnoustie has transformed an area at the south of

the pavilion into a sheltered seated relaxation area

with planters. The project is detailed in the Community

Engagement section.

Jim with the new signage

The Beach Pavilion for sale

7

In 2011, Carnoustie Canine Capers, launched the Green Dog Walkers initiative in the

Town. Since then the group has continued to raise awareness of dog pollution preven-

tion and promote responsible dog ownership locally. CCC has used the vacant Kinloch

Centre site on a number of occasions recently for dog-related activity such as obedi-

ence classes, dog fun shows and demonstrations. The group is in the process of making

various improvements to the site courtesy of a ‟Stalled Spaces‟ grant. Angus Council

however, as part of their recent budget cut-back programme has recently put the site

up for sale and any plans we had for the site are now in doubt. Colourful Carnoustie is a

key partner of CCC and will continue to assist the group with any future initiatives.

For the 3rd year in a row, the Carnoustie Community Council bunting adorning the High

Street fell victim to the ravages of the Scottish weather at

the end of last year. Funding for new bunting normally pro-

vided by Angus Council wasn‟t forthcoming this year but

the Community Council managed to secure alternative

funding. Last week, Colourful Carnoustie joined our Com-

munity Council colleagues to erect the bunting from Sta-

tion Road to Ferrier Street. Once again, Lex provided the

cherry-picker and David provided the „head for heights‟.

In April, in another round of budget cuts, Angus Council proposed closing the Carnoustie

re-cycling centre at Balmachie Road and extending the ex-

isting centre at Arbroath. Understandably local residents were

„up-in-arms‟ with the prospect of having to travel to Arbroath

to re-cycle anything. The proposed removal of a facility that

has for years, contributed to Carnoustie having the highest re

-cycling figures for any burgh in Angus was surely a retro-

grade step. Local social media outlet ‟Our Carnoustie‟

launched an online petition and Colourful Carnoustie mem-

bers joined an on-site protest at Carnoustie Burgh yard. In the event, Angus Council

chiefs eventually bowed to public opinion and Carnoustie was given a reprieve.

Colourful Carnoustie has been involved with the ‘Food is Free’ group since their inception

last year. Their model of taking-over vacant plots of land and

helping residents prepare the ground and plant vegetables

which are then made available free of charge to anyone, is go-

ing from strength to strength. FIF take their environmental re-

sponsibility very seriously and recently the group organised a visit

to their latest project at Panda Lane (more detail to follow in

Community Engagement) for Burnside Primary 4 pupils. They also

visited the 1st Carnoustie Rainbows with some hands-on herb

planting for the young girls to experience.

Following on from our project at Carlogie Primary School last

year, Jon has again been hard at work organising the construc-

tion of a raised herb garden suitable for all pupils (more details

to follow in our judges presentation).

David makes short work of bunting

Protesters at the Burgh Yard

The Rainbows try some herb

planting

8

Community Engagement

Carnoustie Community Council are responsible for organ-

ising a number of beach-cleans throughout the year. Vol-

unteers of all ages from various youth organisations to resi-

dents who are „not so young‟, come along to help collect

and bag-up unwanted rubbish from the seafront, whether

it be flotsam and jetsam from the sea or litter just left lying

around by visitors to the beach. The first clean this year

took place in April, when several bags of rubbish were col-

lected. The next clean took place in May and there are

two other cleans planned including the Marine Conservation Society ‟Big Weekend Clean‟ in

September.

Early in the year we made plans for a new rest facility at the now unused Beach Pavilion at the

seafront. Carnoustie Beach Pavilion was constructed in the early 20th Century, further extended in

the 1930s with a Bathing Station incorporating changing facilities

for swimmers brave enough to take a dip in the North Sea and

sheltered seated areas for those residents and visitors just taking

the sea air. The building was latterly home to Carnoustie Yacht

Club and Carnoustie Rugby Club before being put-up for sale in

2015 by Angus Council. Following comments from the Beautiful

Scotland judges last year, Colourful Carnoustie put forward pro-

posals to Angus Council for the conversion of an unused recess

at the south of the building into a sheltered, planted seating ar-

ea in an attempt to recreate a snap-shot of one of its former uses in „times gone by‟. Colourful

Carnoustie submitted detailed proposals to Angus Council and sought advice, from Angus

Council landscape architects before approaching local community charity shop, the Carnoustie

Haven, for funding. The Haven and its patrons were impressed with our idea and agreed to fund

new planters and timber bench seats in the sum of some £3000. Colourful Carnoustie contacted

Carnoustie High School with a view to asking senior art students to create themed murals repre-

senting the character of the Town on the wall of the recess. The themes chosen were „the sea‟,

„the golf course‟ and „agriculture‟. In the interim, the building has been sold and the new owner

was more than happy to offer his full support for our project. The seats and planters are now in

place and the murals are nearing completion. This project would not have been possible without

the involvement of a large section of the Carnoustie community.

Some of the rubbish collected in April

The Haven funding presentation

High School pupils work on themed murals The Haven proprietors, Babs and Dave with new bench

9

The ethos of Food is Free is to encourage people to eat fresh produce, grow their own

vegetables and improve mental well-being through gardening. Since the inception of

this innovative project last year, Colourful Carnoustie has worked closely with the group,

sharing ideas and resources where possible. In October last year, FIF held an open

meeting for the public and local community groups where they explained the concept

and unveiled details of a new garden project at Panda Lane in Carnoustie. Following

approaches to local factory owner Ross Smyth of Smyth Plastics, a large area of unused

land was set aside by Ross for the use of FIF. Local Civil Engineering contractor, DJ Laing

cleared the area free of charge before the FIF „Big Dig Day‟ in February where people

were asked to turn-up with a spade if possible, to lend a hand. Amazingly, over 40 men,

women and children turned up to set the project in motion. In March, a willow fedge

was created with willow rods harvested from Angus Council sites. In April, local soft fruit

producer Angus Growers, donated and helped erect a large poly-tunnel for the group.

In May the first box of FIF produce was deposited in conjunction with Colourful

Carnoustie‟s spring greens etc at Madison‟s Café on the seafront for anyone to help

themselves. The Panda Lane site currently attracts around 20 volunteers every weekend.

In the spring, Colourful Carnoustie volunteers Meg

Woomble and Nancy Don answered a call for help from

Brookfield Residential Home. Residents were finding it

increasingly difficult to tend to the small planted areas at

the home themselves. Now with Meg and Nancy to help

out with small projects, they still feel included and

experience the therapeutic affect that gardening offers.

Gala Week will soon be upon us and for the second year in

succession Kirsty will be re-living her childhood on the farm by driving a vintage tractor in

the Gala Day Parade. This year however, the entry will be

under the Colourful Carnoustie banner with a decorated

trailer in tow. Our group will also have a stall at the event on

July 2nd at Carnoustie House Grounds where we will be

selling potted plants, donated garden ornaments and other

bits and pieces—all to raise money for our funds.

The impressive FIF Panda Lane project

Meg and Nancy at Brookfield

Kirsty decorates our Gala float

10

Finance

Colourful Carnoustie started life as a sub-committee of Carnoustie Community Council some six

years ago. Following the growth of the group over the past few years and it‟s involvement with

the Beautiful Scotland competition, the Community Council felt that the direction of the group

may be best served if it could concentrate on the Town‟s environmental aspects as a dedicated

autonomous organisation. Last year, arrangements were put in place to set-up Colourful Car-

noustie as a stand-alone community group with our own constitution and financial arrange-

ments. In October 2015, Colourful Carnoustie made the formal split from the Community Council.

For the past three years our fund-raising dance has realised over £500 each time for our group

funds. This year we will be holding another Floral Dance in September at the Royal British Legion

when we expect to make another substantial sum for our funds.

In the wake of major continued budget cut-backs implemented by Angus Council over the past

number of years, Colourful Carnoustie has increasingly relied on local businesses and ordinary

residents for sponsorship and other financial input through various fund-raising initiatives. The re-

sponse continues to exceed our expectations year on year although we are very wary not to be-

come complacent.

Although the nucleus of Colourful Carnoustie helpers remains constant we have more and more

volunteers coming forward to help in various ways. Colourful Carnoustie now has access to more

funding opportunities than were previously available through the community council which is ef-

fectively an arm of Local Government. Although our Group is currently working within the capac-

ity of it‟s volunteers, the opportunity for expansion and tackling larger projects in the future is now

more realistic.

This notwithstanding, we have every reason to believe that community sponsorship will continue

into the future and that our sustainable approach will prevail despite the current challenges of

austerity.

Future Plans

Colourful Carnoustie will continue to work closely with Angus Council and other interested bodies

to identify areas for improvement within the Town. We plan to maintain the Town‟s floral displays

at least at the current level which sits well with our budget predictions. We will endeavour to en-

gage fully with the local community and actively encourage increased participation in events

such as beach cleans and other projects that are identified as necessary in the future.

11

Group has colourful plan for Carnoustie 08:34Friday 08 April 2016

Would you like to help Carnoustie be just that bit more colourful? Then sign up to sponsor one of the hanging baskets on the High Street!

The green-fingered folk from Colourful Carnoustie are looking for sponsors for this year’s crop of hanging baskets which will shortly be going up in the town centre.

The volunteers have been doing their best to make the town look its best ahead of the busy summer months and the hang-ing baskets are part of their popular floral displays. Last year Carnoustie won a coveted gold award in the Coastal Town category of the Keep Scotland Beautiful competition.

Originally formed as a sub-group of Carnoustie Community Council, the Colourful Carnoustie group last year gained sepa-rate status in order to devote all of its time to building on their success enhancing the town centre.

The group is currently chaired by Kirsty McDonald. She ex-plained: “These sponsorships really help us to create a vibrant series of displays for residents and visitors alike to enjoy.”

Sponsoring a hanging basket for the summer costs £25 per basket, for details contact Kirsty MacDonald on 01241 853584 or Sue McMahon on 01241 852549.

Bright future planned

10:01Friday 22 April 2016

Local environmental group Colourful Carnoustie are looking to add new life to a once popular area at the Beach Pavilion.

In the 50s and 60s, the recess between the ladies and gents bathing stations was a sheltered, seated area with large draught boards on the ground, where locals and visitors took in the sea air and whiled away the summer hours with a relaxing game or two.

Now, with the aid of a financial pledge from Carnoustie Haven, the group intend to recreate the relaxing character of the area by installing new seating, planters and some special decoration. Colourful Carnoustie Chair, Kirsty MacDonald explained: “We identified the area adjacent to the Sandy Sensation paddling pool for a makeover some time ago but funds just weren’t avail-able. When the Haven pledged support for our proposal, we set the wheels in motion. New wooden benches have been ordered and planters are currently being made. We have been in touch with Carnoustie High School and hopefully, after their exams, senior art students will help us add a touch of colour with themed murals. Angus Council has given the go-ahead and we are grateful to the new owners of the Pavilion for their permis-sion. We can’t thank Babs and the customers at the Haven enough for their generosity and support.”

Recognition on the menu

10:21Tuesday 03 May 2016

The efforts of some of Carnoustie’s green-fingered volunteers at the town’s railway station were recognised by ScotRail last week. Members of environmental improvement group Colourful Car-noustie were last week invited to lunch at the Station Hotel by John Yellowlees, ScotRail’s external relations manager.The small group of volunteers led by Sue McMahon, plant-up and care for all the floral planters at Carnoustie Railway Station throughout the year.

John said: “The Colourful Carnoustie volunteers do a fantastic job keeping the floral displays in great condition all year round for the benefit of not only local commuters but also passing Scotrail customers. We wanted to treat the group to lunch as a small thank-you for all their hard work and expertise.”

New timber planters have recently been made by the group to replace those ravaged by the weather and the feature platform steam train planter has been refurbished.

Sue said: “Colourful Carnoustie is involved in many projects throughout the town and the railway station is an important loca-tion for us.

“It’s good to have your efforts recognised now and again and we would like to thank John and Scotrail for their nice gesture.”

Colourful Carnoustie is responsible for a number of enhacenemt projects around the town, including the High Street hanging basket scheme.

Gorgeous Gazette Country

10:32Friday 18 September 2015

Gazette country has hit it big at this year’s Keep Scotland Beautiful Awards with high honours taken by Carnoustie, Broughty Ferry, Monifieth and Easthaven.

Huge praise was heaped by the judges on the efforts of the various community groups behind each cam-paign at the awards ceremony last Thursday (September 10) in Perth Concert Hall.

The judges commented: “This group exudes communi-ty involvement in all its activities and is a true example of what a Beautiful Scotland entrant should be. Only one mark off the Rosebowl winner this year, the judg-es were extremely impressed by how this group had taken on board comments from last year, evident in the exceptional developments in horticultural achieve-ment, environmental responsibility and community par-ticipation.”

Ed Oswald from Colourful Carnoustie said: “We are over the moon with these results. It was achieved with a small band of volunteers who have worked hard to continue to improve year upon year”.

APPENDIX—Newspaper Cuttings