Project case study - Stanley Development Trust

The A9 Dualling: Luncarty to Pass of Birnam project Team worked closely with the Stanley Development Trust (SDT) to deliver several initiatives as part of the Project’s engagement with local communities.

The SDT was formed in 2008, to improve the quality of life and environment in the village of Stanley and its surrounding area. The project team developed important links with various groups through SDT including the Stanley Men’s Shed, the Stanley Lunch Club and a voluntary group whose aim was to provide a new non-motorised user link between Luncarty and Stanley.

Lunch club

A monthly lunch club was started in 2015 by the SDT’s Care and Wellbeing Project. The lunch club aims to help increase the social wellbeing of older and socially isolated people in the village of Stanley and the surrounding rural communities.

Christmas 2019 came early for the Stanley Lunch Club as the A9 Dualling: Luncarty to Pass of Birnam project team treated approximately 60 lunch club members to a traditional Christmas dinner with all the trimmings at the local hotel as part of its delivery of Community Benefits package.

Volunteers handing out gifts to ‘lunch clubbers’

Entertainment was provided by a local band playing an assortment of Christmas carols and songs and Balfour Beatty kindly gifted a Stanley Lunch Club calendar to everyone who attended.

As a result of the lunch being fully funded by the project team, the SDT were able to extend a wider invitation to the community, allowing new members to join the lunch club.

Following the Christmas lunch, several senior citizens who had never attended the club prior to the Christmas event, began to attend regularly, helping to provide companionship and reduce social isolation.

Laura Baird, Care and Wellbeing Co-ordinator at SDT said:

This was such a special treat for everyone. We had a great afternoon celebrating Christmas together and providing the opportunity to meet new friends. It was also a lovely way to say thank you to our volunteers who organise the monthly lunch club throughout the year. We can’t thank Balfour Beatty enough for its support.”

Community Hub - Topographic Survey

A sub-group within the Stanley Development Trust had been working to develop plans for a community hub within Stanley with the intention of bringing clubs and organisations together to create improved facilities in Stanley. This purpose-built hub was intended to accommodate the current and future community and sports needs of a growing village.

As part of the early stages, the group were obliged to conduct several surveys to inform the design process and the planning application process. Balfour Beatty volunteered to undertake the required topographical survey of the proposed site using cutting-edge surveying equipment and expert engineers.

A still from the topographic survey - shows white and red marks on a black background — A still from the topographic survey

SDT were extremely grateful for the support with Laura commenting, “I don’t think we would have been able to afford to do that. It would have cost us many thousands of pounds, so it was an enormous help as we worked towards putting in our planning application for the project.”

Christmas Lunch Boxes 2020

A lady from the lunch club outside her house, receiving a lunch delivery — A lunch clubber receives a delivery

Faced with the challenges of 2020, the traditional sit-down Christmas meal was not an option as we endeavored to keep one another safe. Always eager to come up with something different, the project team worked with Laura Baird to support the delivery of Christmas Afternoon Tea boxes for the lunch clubbers – each one containing a hearty soup, festive themed filled rolls and a selection of cakes and sweet treats. The boxes were delivered by the Trust’s lunch club volunteers.

Laura said:

We are extremely grateful to Balfour Beatty and the Projects for its continued support. Together we found a way to make sure that the lunch club didn’t miss out on a festive treat. It was a real joy to see the pleasure that the Christmas Afternoon Tea boxes brought to people. And the doorstep deliveries gave our volunteers an opportunity to check that everyone was keeping well.”

The project team funded another two rounds of afternoon tea boxes for the local community during periods of Covid19 restrictions which allowed lunch club volunteers to provide a treat to the lunch clubbers, as well as creating an opportunity to pop in and check on their wellbeing.

Stanley to Luncarty Active Travel Route

Another of the projects which SDT have been working on is the construction of an active travel route between Stanley and Luncarty. In 2016, SDT commissioned a report by P4 Projects to investigate the options and opportunities in the area, which then led to the development of a new working partnership with Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust and Cycling Scotland’s Transport Planning and Engineering (TP&E) in 2020.

Shows two cycle path routes, one via A9 and the other via a B road to Stanley — Proposed route options for the cycle path

Balfour Beatty worked with sub-group leader, Mark McDonald to provide professional volunteering support from our Project Management and Environment and Sustainability teams with design support provided by our partners at Atkins.

Return of the lunch club

It was with great joy that, in August 2021, we were able to sponsor the triumphant return of the lunch club to the Tayside Hotel in Stanley.

Three ladies standing near a table with a cake about to be cut — Celebrating the return of the lunch club in style!

More than 45 lunch club members attended the event to reconnect with old friends, enjoy live music and catch up over a delicious meal.