CEMEX ‘Lend-A-Hand’ once again

Company volunteers spend a day helping locals to lay new footpaths around Doune Woodlands country park

THANKS to the CEMEX ‘Lend-A-Hand’ initiative, a team of volunteers from the company’s central Scotland operations spent a day helping to lay new footpaths around the ponds and woodlands near Doune, in Perthshire.

The Doune ponds were once wet sand and gravel pits, and when they closed many years ago they became part of the Doune Woodlands country park.

Originally, the county park was overseen by Stirling Council, but when it had to step back owing to local authority cutbacks, a new community Woodlands Group took over and, with the help of local volunteers, transformed the site into a leading local amenity.

To date, nearly 700m of new footpaths, all built to allow wheelchair access, have been installed thanks to the dedication of the local volunteers, along with the input provided by CEMEX.

These efforts were rewarded earlier this year when the Woodland Group won the ‘community’ section of Scotland’s Finest Woods Award.

Whilst the help provided by CEMEX is greatly appreciated by the Woodland Group, the team from the company’s local operations also gets a lot of satisfaction from helping out and being able to put something back into the community.

‘Clearly, the ‘Lend-A-Hand’ initiative is a great success and helps to raise the profile of the quarrying industry at large, and counter negative comments that sometimes come our way from uninformed quarters,’ said one local CEMEX manager.