Golf event raises £40,000

A golf day in aid of a northeast social care charity has raised almost £40,000.

VSA’s annual Tartan Proam t ournament and fundraising dinner took place on Thursday at Aboyne.

The money will help to fund the charity’s family contact centre, where children from separated families are able to spend time with a parent who no longer lives with them.

Debbie Fotheringham, VSA’s events and fundraising co-ordinator, said: “The family contact centre is a valuable service to hundreds of families and the support from our sponsors, including Brewin Dolphin and Munro’s Travel Group, all of the day’s players and evening’s guests has been fantastic.”

The event attracted 32 teams with one Scottish golf professional playing in each team of four.

The tournament was followed by a prizegiving at Aberdeen’s Marcliffe Hotel and Spa where 150 guests enjoyed a Pimms reception before dinner. Other activities, such as an auction, heads and tails competition and a raffle, helped to raise a total of £ 37,735 throughout the day.

Next year’s tournament willbeheldattheRoyalDeeside Golf Club on May 15. second appeal to the Court of Session this year, the groups have now lodged papers with the UK Supreme Court. It is their last option in Britain, although an appeal to the European Courts is still open.

A spokesman for the Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Groupsaid:“We areconcerned that the CNPA has allocated areas for development without f i r s t determining whether the development would be damaging to the natural heritage interests that the national park was set up to protect.”

Fundraising is ongoing for the new appeal, which will cost thousands of pounds.

No one from Rothiemurchus Estate was available for comment yesterday.

TheCNPAwill discuss the latest development in the long-running saga at a meeting on Friday.

Debbie Fotheringham