Salmon farmer splashes out for slipway

A £5,800 donation from salmon farmer Cooke Aquaculture Scotland has enabled volunteers in a Shetland village to restore a crumbling slipway.

The Aith Marina Users Association and Aith Boating and Rowing Club decided that part of the slipway near the Aith pier needed major repair, and approached Cooke to ask if the company’s Community Benefit Fund could help.

The section needing replaced was around 35 years old and the cost that had been quoted was £5,800 which included breaking and removing the old slip and supplying the concrete required for the new one, Cooke said on its Facebook page. Community volunteers from the marina and boating club volunteered to do the concrete work which saved on labour costs.

With the Cooke Community Benefit Fund support of £5,800, and the low tides on March 21 and 22, progress was made on the slipway sooner than expected and the team running the concrete managed it in record time.

Water sports activity

David Brown, Cooke Scotland Shetland seawater manager, met with John Robertson, coxwain of the Aith Lifeboat and John Anderson, member of the Aith Boating Club to see the volunteers’ handiwork.

Brown said: “We are delighted that the Aith Marina Users Association came to us for funding towards this project. The safety of all slipway users is very important to Cooke and having it repaired will hopefully make a difference to locals taking their boats out this summer.”

Shona Moncrieff from the Aith Marina Users Association said: “This new slip will greatly help water sports activity in the community along with the much-needed extra space for boats to be hauled/launched on. With the improving weather and summer events and activities fast approaching, we look forward to seeing the new slipway put to good use.”

Aith is located at the southern end of Aith Voe, Shetland Mainland, and Aith Lifeboat Station is the most northerly in Britain.