An Update on The Beach Bothy Aberdeen – A Little Disappointment, But Still Looking Ahead!

Hope you are all keeping well!

We thought it was time to share a little update on our seaside Gifts, Home & Lifestyle project, The Beach Bothy Aberdeen.

Our original hope was to have The Beach Bothy up and running in time for December, allowing us to embrace the Christmas season and offer a wonderful festive shopping experience along Aberdeen Beach Promenade.

We were really excited about bringing something a little different to the beachfront, offering our Handcrafted by the Family range – a collection of unique, handcrafted gifts made by some of the creative members of our family – alongside a carefully curated selection of local products, gifts, homeware, clothing and souvenirs.

Our intended fixed-stance trading site was in the area known locally as The Tunnels, at the South Tunnel end of the promenade, just in front of the driving range.

Unfortunately, things haven't quite gone to plan.

We originally submitted our street trader licence application back in June, but only found out the other day that our application had not been granted. The reason given was that Aberdeen City Council has temporarily paused the granting of all new street trader licences across the entire Aberdeen Beach Esplanade, from the Bridge of Don end right down to the Footdee end.

To say we're disappointed would be an understatement.

We do feel the decision is a little harsh, particularly as the apparent concerns seem to centre around the Footdee end of the beach, where a number of street traders are already operating in quite a concentrated area.

Since submitting our application back in June, we have also seen further street trader licences granted for the Footdee end. Furthermore, the decision to temporarily pause new street trader licences was made some time after our original application had been submitted.

We can't help feeling that our proposed location at The Tunnels is quite different from the area where these concerns appear to have arisen, and we had really hoped our application would be considered on its own merits.

We're naturally feeling quite gutted, especially after all the lovely feedback and encouragement we've received from our customers and members of the public. There's also been a great deal of time, effort and expense involved in bringing our retro caravan back to life and getting everything ready for trading, including insurance, payment terminals and all the other essentials involved in setting up a small business.

However, we're not giving up just yet!

We still very much hope to get The Beach Bothy up and running at our chosen location, and we're keeping our fingers crossed that the council might take another look at our application and reconsider their decision.

A Positive Note – Supporting Clean Up Aberdeen

On a much more positive note, we're absolutely delighted to be involved with the Clean Up Aberdeen programme.

Clean Up Aberdeen is part of Keep Scotland Beautiful's national campaign, Clean Up Scotland, which aims to encourage one million people to take action against littering and help create cleaner, more attractive surroundings for everyone.

Being involved in this fantastic initiative was always an important part of our plans for The Beach Bothy.

We wanted to do more than simply set up a business at Aberdeen Beach. We wanted to play our part in looking after the beautiful surroundings we would be fortunate enough to call our trading location.

Our plans included working alongside other volunteers and local groups to help keep Aberdeen Beach and its surroundings clean and tidy, making sure our own trading area was always well maintained and getting involved in regular beach litter picks.

We believe this is a particularly important responsibility for anyone operating a business along the beachfront. After all, we all have a part to play in keeping our coastline clean and welcoming for everyone to enjoy.

Although we haven't been granted our street trader licence for now, this certainly won't stop us from supporting the Clean Up Aberdeen programme. We're still very excited to get involved and look forward to playing our part alongside the other volunteers and groups who give up their time to help keep our beach looking its best.

So, while things haven't quite worked out as we had hoped at this stage, we're staying positive, keeping our fingers crossed and looking forward to what the future might bring.

The Beach Bothy dream is very much still alive!

Thank you to everyone who has supported, encouraged and shown an interest in what we're trying to achieve. It really does mean a lot to us.

Watch this space! 🌊