SELKIRK Community Council has received a funding boost thanks to a local business.

Last week Alistair Pattullo and Reece McNaughton, from the group, received a cheque for £2,500 from Oregon Timber Frame commercial co-ordinator Philip Mactaggart and print room operative Ryan Brady on behalf of the company.

In 2022 Oregon, a major local employer based in Dunsdale Road, reached out to the community council to offer its assistance with any projects in the town.

This offer of support was taken up by Brighter Selkirk – a sub-group of the community council – which oversees the public planting and maintaining flower boxes.

A Selkirk community council spokesperson said: “For many years the northern entrance to Selkirk at the Toll Brig has been graced by wooden planters brightening up the entrance to the town with floral displays.

“Recently the planters have been showing the effects of standing beside the busy A7 for so long and it was clear that they were past their best.

“They were no longer being planted up by SBC and volunteers hadn’t got round to taking on yet another area of public planting, so they were looking fairly neglected.”

In a bid to brighten up the northern entrance to the town it was decided that the support from Oregon would go towards re-energising the Toll and replacing the wooden planters.

The spokesperson added: “This made a lot of sense especially with Oregon workshops and offices being located in this area.”

Oregon suggested that Brighter Selkirk look into using planters made from recycled plastic from specialist firm Plaswood, rather than using wooden planters again.

“It seemed implausible that a firm concentrating on timber products should recommend using plastic but it quickly became clear that there were a lot of advantages: the new boxes would be maintenance free, incredibly long lasting, weatherproof and fully recyclable,” the spokesperson said.

The three planters from Plaswood were made to order and were built by volunteers, including those from Young Souters, in time for Common Riding day in June.

The planters have since had flowers added to them bringing colour to the A7 leading up to the town.