Coastal Paths (Whitehills to Banff and Macduff to Tarlair)

We Asked

Getting active outdoors is good for us all; coastal paths help visitors enjoy our amazing coastline, and that supports our local businesses, too. Working with Community Councils and various clubs, groups and businesses, Aberdeenshire Council has begun work to look at path improvements between Whitehills and Banff, and Macduff to Tarlair, and we needed the ideas and suggestions from the public to help shape the plans for the project and to then apply for external funding.

For both sections of path, a local stakeholder group was established to oversee this work. We are grateful to the members of these groups for their helpful contributions to the ongoing discussions and preparations. The Consultation was hosted on EngageHQ and supported with hard copy fliers and posters. Participation was driven by a 15-point marketing action plan.

You Said

The results highlight that there were 481 participants, 188 of which provided their contact information in order to receive updates on the project. Both these numbers are encouraging and clearly reflect the strong level of interest in the subject matter.

• The top three uses of the coastal paths are leisure walking (85%), walking dogs (46%) and cycling (24%).
• The top three interests of coastal path users are dolphin spotting (44%), photography (39%) and bird watching (26%).
• 39% of respondents walk daily, 22% walk several times a week and 17% walk once a week.
• 58% walk with one other person, 49% walk with friends and family group and 47% walk with their dog.
• 7% use a walking aid, 7% use a stroller and 3% use a wheelchair.
• 23.5% of respondents use the Whitehills to Banff coast path 1 or 2 times a month, 22.5% use it several times per week and 21% use it approximately weekly.
• 45% of respondents never use the Macduff to Tarlair route and 25% only use it in a good weather, and 14% use it 1 or 2 times per month.
• There was unanimous support for the proposal to create a “spur” path from the marina area, up the hill adjacent to the Castle, through the Town, turning left by St Marys Church and re-connecting to the main path via Low Street and Carmelite Street.
• When looking at preference for refreshments, 76% look for coffee and cake, 30% look for some form of take away refreshments and 17% look for a place for a meal.
• When asked to rank what facilities do you feel coast path users would most benefit from, respondents ranked in order high to low, Information boards (heritage, wildlife etc), signposting to local places of interest and more benches.
• 32% of respondents live in Banff, 22% live in Macduff and 19% live in Whitehills.
• 27% of respondents are in the 55-64 years of age bracket, 26% are in the 45-54 years of age bracket and 18% are in the 35-44 age bracket.
• Favourite walks are between Whitehills – Links – Banff (21%), Duff House & Wrack Woods (5%) and Bridge of Alvah (4%).
• Lastly, the subjects the respondents shared on topics we did not specifically address in the main questions were provision of publicly accessible toilets (4%), provision of dog poo bins and litter bins (4%), coastal erosion (4%) and signposting, waymarking and interpretation (information boards) (3%).

We Will

Work is now underway on a detailed specification and a route map for both sections of coast path. Once this available and costed, the stakeholder groups will review this in conjunction with the full consultation results. Following this, funding applications would be prepared to fund the coast path development in a phased approach. This will be based on the work which can be enabled as a result of the decisions/permissions secured from external bodies.

During the intervening period we will provide project updates to keep all stakeholders and interested parties up to date.