Westhill Asylum Hotel

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Below is link to a formal briefing note from the Aberdeenshire Council’s Area Manager on the current situation at the Hampton by Hilton Hotel in Elrick which has recently been contracted in its entirety by the Home Office (HO) as an “Asylum hotel”. The note covers the background of asylum seeker situation and management of their accommodation, the roles of the HO’s managing agent Mears and Aberdeenshire Council, along with some key FAQs.Members of WECC have no formal insights to the situation other than the detail contained here and the fact that the first intake of 20 residents was planned for Tuesday 28th March but has been delayed to next week. We do though fully support the aim of the Shire Council, working in partnership with the Home Office and their agents Mears, to mitigate any negative impacts on the Westhill community and maximise the strengths, goodwill and resilience in our community. To that end WECC has offered its support to the responsible authorities and remains on standby should support be requested.

An email address is included at the end of the briefing. If you have any serious concerns about the Westhill situation that need a response from the Council please use this contact email. Alternatively if you require clarification on existing or evolving policy and its implementation, you may wish to contact your local Westminster MP.

Asylum Hotel Briefing 20.03.23Download

Trees Planted at Kinmundy Hill

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On 23rd March a team from the Community Council and the Rotary Club planted some 50 trees at Mains of Kinmundy Hill (above Gullymoss area). The trees were provided by Aberdeenshire Council as part of the Growing Green Spaces project. See short video of two guys from the team hard at work

Westhill Orbital Trail – Funding approved for upgrades to the path linking Broadshade Avenue to Westhill Golf Course

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The community will soon experience a much improved path surface on this sector of the Westhill Orbital Trail thanks to recent grant awards from Paths For All Ian Findlay Path Fund and the FCC Communities Foundation totalling £42,785. The money raised will be used to improve drainage and widen the existing 475m path over challenging terrain and restore the original line of the path through the trees in the north west corner of the golf course. The aim is to have a path that can be used all year round by all members of the community.

Thanks are also due to Stewart Milne Homes and Westhill Golf Club, the respective landowners, for agreeing to the work being carried out.

We hope that our contractors will be on site in April so that improvements to getting around the north of town more comfortably will be possible in a matter of a few weeks