Work to develop a community garden in Cove has been completed thanks to the support of the Stewart Milne Group’s RUBY campaign, which was part of the company’s 40th anniversary celebrations.
In September 2015, Stewart Milne Group launched its RUBY (Regenerating Urban Back Yards) campaign to improve run-down community spaces across Scotland and north-west England. Following a public vote the project at the village’s Loirston Annexe Community Centre was chosen to be supported by the campaign. Work has now been completed to create the garden which will be used by children and adults who use the centre.
A team from Stewart Milne Homes carried out work on the site, including removing large areas of concrete slab, upgrading the drains, laying porous paving, building and planting garden planters and building a shed. Eight members of staff from Stewart Milne Homes took three weeks to complete the project.
John Low, managing director at Stewart Milne Homes said: “The RUBY campaign gave us the opportunity to provide support to deserving local projects and the Loirston Annexe Community Centre is a prime example of this. It has been fantastic to see work take shape on the centre which is so widely used by the local community.
“Working with the community centre has been a great experience for us. The team who worked on the project have really enjoyed being involved in something which will have such a lasting impact on the community and I want to thank them for all their hard work.”
Fleur Tarling, who is on the Loirston annexe management committee, said: “The completion of this project is great news for the centre as it gives us a garden which is fully enclosed and safe. Winning support from the RUBY campaign was fantastic and it meant we could get the work completed and create a space which can be used by all of the children who attend the various clubs at the centre.
“The garden is an excellent play area and will also be used as an educational space. We are currently working with Cove in Bloom to put in a vegetable patch, which will be maintained by the children from the Clicc after school club, and there are plans for a bug house.
“We want to say a big thank-you to everyone at Stewart Milne Group for their hard work and for creating such an amazing garden for us.”
The community garden at Loirston Annexe Community Centre is one of four RUBY projects supported by Stewart Milne Group with projects already completed at a play area in Bridge of Allan, a disability resource centre in Castlemilk. The fourth project involves an area of community woodland in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester.
The Loirston Annexe is a Community Centre in Cove which is used by 500 local children and 150 adults who attend groups and classes at the centre every week. Groups include parent and toddler groups, Guides, Scouts, playgroups and an after school club.
The RUBY campaign was one of a number of community and charity initiatives which were carried out by Stewart Milne Group as part of the company’s 40th anniversary celebrations. Other activities included the bike4forty challenge, which saw staff taking part in a 738 mile cycle raising £60,000 for three charities, and 19 members of staff travelling to Africa to build a 16-bed dormitory and a three-bedroom house for the Gathimba Edwards Foundation.