Electricity Substation team spruces up popular Peterhead beauty spot

• Volunteers help clear litter and weeds from Victoria Park and make donation to Boddam Community Hub

Volunteers from SSEN Transmission’s Peterhead Substation project swapped their usual tools for litter pickers and garden rakes to help spruce up a popular Peterhead beauty spot.

The team of nine volunteers spent the day clearing over nine black bags worth of rubbish from Victoria Park in Peterhead, as well as weeding flower beds and carrying out gardening work to ensure the sensory garden area was back in top condition.

The project teams carried out the volunteering work at Victoria Park after hearing from Peterhead Area Community Trust (PACT) that some much needed people-power was required to help clean-up the park.  The volunteers soon set to work to help provide some assistance.

Alan Fakley, Trustee at Peterhead Area Community Trust (PACT), said:

“PACT were delighted to host a team from SSEN Transmission who spent the day litter picking and tidying up Victoria Community Park. This is a great example of community empowerment and PACT truly appreciate all the team’s efforts.

“The team was in great humour and seemed to enjoy the day. The park was left in a fantastic state, allowing our community to continue to enjoy the park.”

In addition, the team also visited the Boddam Community Hub, a community space which will be used for recreational activities and hosting meetings and talks for the community in Boddam to connect.    The project team made a donation of £500 from SSEN Transmission towards the cost of refurbishing the community hub, which is planned to take place over the coming months. 

SSEN Transmission volunteers helped with weeding, litter picking and gardening

Fiona James, who runs the Boddam Community Hub, said:

“I'd just like to say a big thank you to SSEN Transmission for the donation.  We are a small charity that wants to bring back a community space for the village and do it in a way that has as little footprint as possible to the environment. 

“We have been badly affected by storms and this has resulted in power outages, and the hub will be a warm space that has back up power when needed.  We are hoping to open in December and could not be in this position without the support of local businesses, such as SSEN Transmission.”

The volunteers collected over nine bags of rubbish from Victoria Park

SSEN Transmission Senior Project Manager Russell Maxwell said:

“It’s really important to us that we support the communities in which we operate, and when we heard that PACT were looking for help to spruce up the popular Victoria Park in Peterhead we were delighted to support.

“Many of the team have been involved in the Peterhead Substation project since construction first got underway and were keen to volunteer in an initiative which gave something back to the local community. 

“The Boddam Community Hub is a fantastic community space and we hope our contribution from the project team will help towards their planned upcoming refurbishments.

“Our Peterhead Substation project is in the final stages of completion and we look forward to continuing to work with the local community and stakeholders to keep them updated as the project progresses.”

The new Peterhead 400kV substation is being constructed on the North East coast, and once complete, will form part of SSEN Transmission’s reinforcement of the Eastern network ensuring the continued safe supply of power to the North of Scotland. On completion, the substation will facilitate the connection of new renewable generation to the grid, supporting the country’s transition to net zero emissions.

More information on the Peterhead 400kV substation project is available here: https://www.ssen-transmission.co.uk/projects/peterhead-substation/