New Year is the best time for a fresh start

WITH the new year now well underway Forres is starting to return to normal. Christmas decorations are coming down, and people who had holidays with friends and families over the festive period have returned home and gone back to work.

Businesses reported a steady festive season. Most said they had experienced worse. After all - times are tough, but taking the optimistic view, things can only get better.

On a positive note a new business is moving into the old Mackenzie and Cruickshank building, which has been standing empty, like an eyesore on the High Street for the past two years, after the owner decided it was no longer viable and moved it out of the centre of town. It appears that this new business will function much like the previous one, as a hardware shop, with long term plans to re-open the cafeteria.This is excellent news and a great boost to the town. Hopefully, this is the start of a trend. After all - this is the second new business to move into Forres in recent weeks. Lets hope that the positive vibe this will create might also tempt somebody into the former Victoria Wines building.

Added to this is the fact that the Tolbooth building, across the road has been passed to Heritage Forres to run as a community asset, on a lease to start with. There is lots of support for this project and much has happened over the past two years. The job now is to get funding and carry out some minor works and then create a community type living buildign that will be a draw into the High Street. it is all good news.

On a less positive note, volunteers from the Forres Christmas Lights committee have been left with a sour taste in their mouth, after weekend vandals struck and damaged some of the new lights.

However, the chairman of the committee is well aware that the group has received much praise for this year’s outstanding lights and Christmas tree display and wants to concentrate, understandably, on the positives and not the negatives.

If you want to retain the festive feeling, then make a diary note for February when the town wil be hostng the Chinese New Year celebrations. This event was such a success last year organised by a group comprising individuals from lots of local organisations including the Shen Foundation and The Falconer Museum, that it has once again won support and funding.

February is a dreary enough month for everyone and the news of the event has been welcomed as adding a bit of colour to the town, and hopefully will also atrract a few visitors.

Elsewhere in the news people have been honoured for their contribution to the local community. Amopng them were former station commander at KinlossGp Capt JJ Johnston receiving an OBE for his work in handing over the airbase for the army, while local cheese maker and organic farmer Pam Rodway has been honoured for her life’s work in promoting the ideals of the Soil Association. Well done all.

And finally lets get 2013 off to a flying start by playing our part this year. Fundraisers, volunteers and development workers often figure in these pages for all the work that they do in the local community. This could be ensuring that youth organisations which rely on adult helpers continue, or running annual events from Forres in Bloom to the Christmas Lights, Bonfire, Highland Games, Theme Day, manning Nelsons Tower, and others. These people ensure that Forres has a full calendar making it more attractive to visitors and local businesses. So if you are making one new year’s resolution this year, why not decide to give up a couple of hours a week to join them and help out at one of the events or organisations. Every little bit helps.