Fort Town Team AGM hails very busy year of success
Fort William Town Team has had an extremely busy year, the organisation’s AGM heard last month.
In her annual chairperson’s report, Moira Robinson outlined many of the highlights that had team volunteers busy over the course of the preceding 12 months.
‘We’ve seen cruise ships come and go, DV8 disappear and the new cinema emerge, as well as hanging baskets go up and down. More spring bulbs have been planted by keen volunteers, we’ve watched the Adopt a Plot come to life, organised litter picks, weeding days and the Christmas Gathering is creeping up on us and is keeping us all very busy,’ she said.
Ms Robinson said the town team committee had worked really hard to keep the group working for the community and had managed to deliver all the projects which had been planned.
‘The hanging baskets in 2018 went on until well into October and this year has been the same. It’s been a mixed year for the weather in 2019 and we went from having a reasonably dry first half of the year to an extremely wet August and September,’ she continued.
‘The baskets coped very well, helped along by our new guardian of them, Jamie Hail. In total, we had 98 hanging baskets sponsored this year, and we would like to extend our thanks to the many businesses and individuals who have supported us again.’
Ms Robinson said the The Sundial Garden had continued to be looked after by the Rotary Club, which sourced the plants and funded its own plot this year, which is the way the scheme was originally envisaged to work.
‘Town team planted up the Cameron Monument garden, War Memorial garden, and James and Sarah continued looking after the Old Police Station bed. Mary-Catherine and Gunther became guardians of Sore Feet and they also sourced and donated the plants to the town,’ said Ms Robinson.
‘Sue, Alan and Victoria have done a fabulous job of managing the Adopt a Plot scheme and have some great ideas for how we can evolve the scheme, so watch out for that in 2020.
‘The Royal British Legion War Memorial competition was a success this year with Fort William being placed in the regional competition. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it through to the nationals but it was a good result anyway for everyone involved.
‘The RBLS is proposing to make changes to the War Memorial for next year, so we hope that goes well for them and look forward to continuing to support them.’
Ms Robinson went on to outline the team’s cleaning days since the last AGM, saying: ‘We’ve worked on so many areas around the town and we’ve had some fantastic feedback from people who have noticed all the hard work that it takes to keep Fort William tidy.
‘Some of the volunteers have also received some lovely feedback from guests visiting the area and also cruise ship visitors. Everyone is very complimentary about what we have all achieved, so well done everyone.’