Royal Deeside :
Ballater Centre - The 'old school' project

A 'Planning for Real' exercise carried out over late 2003 - early 2004 identified a desire amongst residents of Ballater to see the old school used for the benefit of the village. The grand Victorian stone-built building stopped being used as a school many years ago but was converted into a popular Environmental Education Centre which closed due to rising costs in 2000. The building, which is good condition has since lain empty.

This project is looking into the viability of converting the building into a community asset based on a mix of commercial and community use. This page describes some of the actions taken, the constraints faced and what has still to be done.

The old school which might be converted into a new centre

The old school at Ballater stands in about 1.5 acres of ground roughly one-half mile from the centre of the village and within the conservation zone.. The main building is a substantial stone-built structure dating from Victorian times but there are numerous (rather tatty) small buildings within the grounds. The main building is in good condition but the other buildings probably require demolition. Aberdeenshire Council has indicated its willingness to consider promising proposals for using the building subject to the constraint that they retain part of the site.

The small steering group quickly established that any proposal would need to be based on a mixtureof commercial and community uses. The income from commercial use would be used to subsidise the community use. A major obstacle on the community side is that Ballater is lucky in having a wonderful set of community halls. These, like the old school, are stone -built Victorian constructions which are very expensive to heat and maintain. It is important therefore that the proposed 'Ballater Centre' should not affect the income of the village halls. It is believed that this balance could be achieved through letting much of the main building for commercial office space and using the remainder for a mix of social work projects, community learning and othe community uses such as an arts centre. Also, because of the nature of the building, it is felt that the building would need to be well-insulated and have an 'eco-friendly' heating system.

Given this starting point a Feasibility study was commisioned. This reported in November 2005 and the report essentially supported the steering groups suggestions. One important change was the architect's proposal to remove a sizable piece of the main-school - which was a post-Victorian insertion to yield a central court-yard. This had the joint effect of substantially reducing the size of the building - and hence maintenance costs - and removing the part of the building most like the village halls.

Extract from Architect's proposed plans for Ballater Centre

The cost the conversion, insulating and 'underground heating' is substantial so the initial costs will be high. However, (December 2006) the steering group considers that there is sufficient promise to move to developing a proper business plan with the eventual aim of raising funds for the conversion and running of the centre. The present proposals are based on

Training centre for benefit of residents and businesses in Royal Deeside and Eastern Cairngorms National Park
Centre for outreach for groups specialing in long-term care (e.g. cancer support, dementia support)
Community activities complementing those in Village halls
Commercial letting providing financial support for the above

The 'Centre' will need to be run by a group representing the community. The steering group is anxious to hear from any member of the community wanting to assist in this project either in the short-term or long-term.

The group responsible for progrssing these plans is the Ballater Centre Development Group (Chairman: Mr E. Bushnell). They have no formal office but they may be contacted through BRD: Tel 013397 55467 e-mail info@royal-deeside.org.uk