Green Times Magazine Winter 2025

Spring Clean Aberdeen

Spring is just around the corner and you can be part of Clean Up Aberdeen and Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Spring Clean. This is a great opportunity to get together with friends, colleagues or your community and clean up a local area. The national Spring Clean campaign runs from 21 March to 21 April 2025 and brings people together to tackle litter.

Clean ups are a fun sociable way to spend time outdoors and make a noticeable difference to areas. Why not take advantage of the joys of spring and clean up your local environment?

It’s easy to get involved and Aberdeen City Council’s Environmental Services can help. You can borrow litter picking tongs, high vis vests, and black bags, and the council will uplift the collected rubbish. For more details, or to get help organising an event, email cleanaberdeen@aberdeencity.gov.uk

To be part of the Spring Clean Scotland campaign register your event with Keep Scotland Beautiful.

2025 marks 20 years of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code

For over twenty years, the Code has played an important role in improving public access to Scotland's great outdoors, enabling people to enjoy the land and inland water across Scotland.

We are lucky in Aberdeen to have many opportunities for accessing the outdoors in and around the city. From award winning parks to riverside walks, coastal paths, forest trails, and informal routes through farmland and settlements around the city, there's plenty to see and do outside.

With the weather improving it’s useful to know how to access the outdoors responsibly.

You can enjoy the outdoors on most land and inland water as long as you act responsibly. These are called your access rights, and your rights and responsibilities are explained in the Scottish Outdoor Code. 

The code is based on three key principles:

• Respect the interests of others.
• Care for the environment.
• Take responsibility for your own actions.

Our environment benefits everyone’s health and quality of life so we can all do our bit and treat it with care.

Find out more about 20 years of the Scottish Outdoor Access on the Nature Scot website or listen to the NatureScot Podcast: Our shared outdoors: Ramblers Scotland on 20 years of access rights and responsibilities.

Community comes together to help nature

Seaton Park lies in the north of Aberdeen on the banks of the River Don. It's surrounded by historical architecture and agriculture. In 2016, part of the park was turned into a wetland area to help manage flooding while creating new wildlife habitats.

North East Scotland Biodiversity Partnership (NESBiP) joined Buglife, Aberdeen City Council Countryside Ranger Service and a team of 24 volunteers to help manage the overgrown reeds of this wetland. This work benefits the biodiversity of the wetland by opening areas for mammals, amphibians, aquatic invertebrates, and breeding birds.

This work also benefits people visiting the park as it grants them a better few of the wetland, allowing them to enjoy the remarkable wildlife that the park has to offer.

Find out more about the Seaton Park Wetland by visiting Seaton Wetland Project

Learn more about why these volunteer days are important from Ranger Jack in this short video: Wetland Management, for people & wildlife at Seaton Park

Compass Project: Pioneering Sustainable Living in Aberdeen

In the west of Aberdeen, the Compass Project is transforming a 4.1 acre site on Craigton Road into a vibrant hub for healthy and sustainable living. Launched by the Camphill Wellbeing Trust, this initiative aims to create inclusive spaces that engage both the local and wider community.

Compass is envisaged as a place where the ethos and practices successfully pioneered for those with learning disabilities by the North-East Camphill organisations will be translated to benefit all who want to improve their health, maintain their wellbeing or explore a more sustainable lifestyle.

Community Engagement and Progress

Since its inception, Compass has made significant strides:

• Volunteer involvement: Engaging volunteers in garden development, DIY projects, and various tasks to rejuvenate the site.
• Produce pop-ups: Offering freshly harvested, locally-grown, organic produce on a donation basis.
• Skills for health: Providing social prescribing services to help individuals develop practical skills for health-promoting changes in their lives.
• Space for hire: The newly refurbished North Point building is available for sports, leisure, and cultural activities, featuring sports flooring, changing rooms, a kitchen, meeting room, and storage space.

North Point: Multi-Purpose Building

In November 2024 the sustainable renovation of this former sports building was completed and we are delighted to be able to offer the spaces in this building for let. It offers:

• Large multi-purpose hall with sports flooring.
• Suitable space for sports, children’s parties, and events.
• Changing rooms, toilets and showers.
• Accessible toilet.
• Fully-equipped kitchen – available to hire separately.
• Carpeted meeting / activities room (up to 20).
• Storage spaces.

The hall is heated with four air source heat pumps, we have taken measures to improve the insulation and building’s thermal efficiency with new doors and windows.

Get Involved

Compass welcomes individuals interested in health and sustainability to visit the site, volunteer, or participate in workshops. North Point is also available for hire. For more information, visit Compass Aberdeen or contact the team at compass@cwt.scot.

Through community collaboration and a commitment to sustainable practices, the Compass project is setting a new standard for healthy living in Aberdeen.