Findhorn Village Conservation Company to introduce £1-per-day parking charge for west beach car park for visitors
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A GROUP of volunteers responsible for the upkeep of facilities at a local beach has revealed plans to raise vital funds for the task.
The Findhorn Village Conservation Company (FVCC) - residents tasked with maintaining and improving community assets - is introducing a new contactless card payment barrier at the west beach car park for visitors from outside the village.
Residents of the FVCC area will be provided with details for the barrier to enable free access.
In recent years, FVCC has raised funds for refurbishment of two toilet blocks at the car park, resurfacing of the dunes track leading to the east beach and both car parks, installation of a motorhome stopover and a rebuild of all of the beach steps, including new accessibility ramps.
A spokesperson said: “During 2024, we will pilot a fee for parking of £1 per car per day. Annual passes will be available at the cost of £30 per year from our website, or, if cash is preferred, by arrangement at the Findhorn Village Centre.
“Parking at Findhorn Beach East car park will remain free of charge.”
Findhorn’s popularity has increased in recent years and more people than ever are visiting, particularly during the summer - parking is often contentious as a result.
FVCC has been attempting to raise funds for the upkeep of the east and west beach car parks via optional donation boxes.
“Uptake has been disappointing,” said the spokesperson, “not enough to cover the costs of ongoing maintenance. We received £3218 during 2023. Now the toilet block refurbishments are complete, their ongoing maintenance will cost approximately £6500 per year. Waste collection from the bins costs another £1150 annually.”
Improvements such as the refurbishment, beach steps repairs and no-step ramps were enabled by grant funding but these do not cover ongoing maintenance. Most recent surface maintenance on the dunes track and east car park at a cost of £20,000 were funded by FVCC.
The spokesperson said: “We looked into the option to tarmac the track, but it would have cost upwards of £400,000 and would have been much less sympathetic to the natural landscape of that area. The non-sealed surface will require ongoing annual maintenance.”
Last year, the revenue generated by the motorhome stopover was £51,922.
“That has been used to repay loans and undertake general maintenance,” said the spokesperson, “as well as invest in the other improvement works.
“Ongoing annual maintenance of the stopover and car parks cost just under £15,000 in 2023, without accounting for any of the volunteer management time required to operate it.”
FVCC now hopes to generate more income to build up unrestricted funds to make its volunteer commitment more sustainable while employing paid development officer and administrator roles. It will also continue to prioritise working with local contractors.
FVCC’s area boundaries are available at https://scotlis.ros.gov.uk/property-summary/MOR16171/1.
The spokesperson finished: “We are currently having a map designed for us to include on our website so that more people can be aware and informed of the area of community-land ownership in Findhorn.”
