A popular Scottish ski centre has launched a fundraiser to help give the business a boost after suffering a tough winter season due to a lack of snow.
The Lecht 2090 has been welcoming snowsport enthusiasts since 1977 and is urging supporters to buy a lift pass as a donation to help secure the future of the resort into 2025 and beyond.
Managing director Iain du Pon, whose father Pieter du Pon founded the centre alongside the late James McIntosh, told Sky News that the latest winter season had “been awful”.
He said had it not been for the centre’s snow factory and cannons keeping the lower slopes covered with man-made snow, there would have been next to no outdoor action at all.
Image: The Lecht in January 2023. Pic: PA
“It was really terrible,” Mr du Pon said. “The issue we’ve had this year is that we’ve had a bit of cold weather which has then yo-yoed with the warmth.
“Anything that we’ve either received naturally or then produced man-made has melted very, very fast.
“So, we’ve ended up in a position where we’ve literally run the whole winter on factory snow and man-made snow, and just been running on our nursery areas.”
Thanks to the resort’s snow-making technology, more than 6,500 children have been able to get out on the slopes in collaboration with local ski clubs.
“Which is brilliant, considering it’s so restricted,” Mr du Pon said.
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Image: The Lecht in December 2022. Pic: PA
‘Power-hungry’ snow-making facilities
However, the snow-making facilities – which are only designed to top up the powder – are “power hungry” and cost about £500 a day to run.
Mr du Pon said: “Ultimately, it’s our cash side of things. We did quite a lot of development work last year, which we were hoping to recover some cost of it this winter, and it left us with quite a hole to fill.”
Image: The Lecht 2090. Pic: PA
The Lecht sits on the A939 between Cock Bridge in Aberdeenshire and Tomintoul in Moray within the Cairngorms National Park.
A JustGiving page and donations made through The Lecht’s website have so far raised more than £24,000 of the £35,000 target.
Mr du Pon said he is over the moon with the support – which mirrors a successful fundraiser a few years ago for the snow-making facilities.
He added: “We’re less concerned about survivability now. We still need to work very, very hard to get to where we want to be.
“It would have been a massively much more uphill struggle had we not been successful with crowdfunding so far.
“We’re the last ski centre in Scotland that’s still run by the original families, and it’s never gone bust thankfully.
“And we’re doing everything we can to make sure that continues.”
The winter season of 2021 was one of the best for snow in recent years, but ski centres across the country were forced to remain closed due to COVID restrictions.
Mr du Pon said: “It probably would have been one of the best winters for the last 20, 25, 30 years.”
Outside of the winter season and as temperatures rise due to the climate crisis, the resort previously boasted a dry ski slope and has hosted go-karting and quad bike sessions in the past in an effort to boost income.
Bosses have advertised the centre as a wedding venue, and currently there are mountain bike trails for adventurers to enjoy.
A race organised by Deeside Thistle Cycling Club last summer was “very successful”, but the snowsport action is the money-maker for the centre.
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Mr du Pon said: “We’ve got mountain bike trails, and it is something that we’re really keen to develop and push.
“We built them several years ago, but what we found in the couple of years gone past is that they frankly didn’t make the money that we needed them to do to justify running the ski lift.
“The real bottom line is that we’ll make more in one weekend during the snowsport season than we would for the whole of the summer.
“So, unless we can really develop something that’s going to take off – and we’ve tested the water and we’ve done a lot of different things over the years – it’s very hard to justify putting a lot of money into it to really develop it.”
An efficiency drive last year included a new magic carpet lift, as well as the upgrade of gearboxes, motors and panels to lower the centre’s power consumption.
Bosses also hope to develop the resort’s staff.
Mr du Pon added: “I feel that we’re in a really, really good position now to really push the business forward. We just need to try and get a bit of reliability with snow.
“So, it’s a bit of a difficult period at the moment, but I think we’ve got a fantastic customer base. The support we’ve been getting from our customers is just phenomenal.”
Donald Trump may be denied the honour of addressing parliament on his state visit to the UK later this year, with no formal request yet submitted for him to be given that privilege.
Sky News has been told the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, hasn’t so far received a request to invite the US president to speak in parliament when he is expected to visit in September.
It was confirmed to MPs who have raised concerns about the US president being allowed to address both houses.
Kate Osborne, Labour MP for Jarrow and Gateshead East, wrote to the speaker in April asking him to stop Mr Trump from addressing parliament, and tabled an early-day motion outlining her concerns.
“I was happy to see Macron here but feel very differently about Trump,” she said.
“Trump has made some very uncomfortable and worrying comments around the UK government, democracy, the Middle East, particularly around equalities and, of course, Ukraine.
“So, I think there are many reasons why, when we’re looking at a state visit, we should be looking at why they’re being afforded that privilege. Because, of course, it is a privilege for somebody to come and address both of the houses.”
But the timing of the visit may mean that any diplomatic sensitivities, or perceptions of a snub, could be avoided.
Image: France’s President Emmanuel Macron addressed parliament during his state visit this month
Lord Ricketts, a former UK ambassador to France, pointed out that parliament isn’t sitting for much of September, and that could help resolve the issue.
In 2017, he wrote a public letter questioning the decision to give Donald Trump his first state visit, saying it put Queen Elizabeth II in a “very difficult position”.
Parliament rises from 16 September until 13 October due to party conferences.
The dates for the state visit haven’t yet been confirmed by Buckingham Palace or the government.
However, they have not denied that it will take place in September, after Mr Trump appeared to confirm they were planning to hold the state visit that month. The palace confirmed this week that the formal planning for his arrival had begun.
Image: Mr Trump has said he believes the trip to the UK will take place in September. Pic: Reuters
When asked about parliamentary recess potentially solving the issue, Ms Osborne said: “It may be a way of dealing with it in a very diplomatic way… I don’t know how much control we have over Trump’s diary.
“But if we can manoeuvre it in a way that means that the House isn’t sitting, then that seems like a good solution, maybe not perfect, because I’d actually like him to know that he’s not welcome.”
A message from the speaker’s office, seen by Sky News, says: “Formal addresses to both Houses of Parliament are not automatically included in the itinerary of such a state visit.
“Whether a foreign head of state addresses parliament, during a state visit or otherwise, is part of the planning decisions.”
Image: Mr Trump made his first state visit to the UK in June 2019 during his first presidency. File pic: Reuters
It’s understood that if the government agrees to a joint address to parliament, the Lord Chamberlain’s office writes to the two speakers, on behalf of the King, to ask them to host this.
It will be Mr Trump’s second state visit.
During his first, in 2019, he didn’t address parliament, despite the fact that his predecessor, Barack Obama, was asked to do so.
It was unclear if this was due to the fact John Bercow, the speaker at the time, made it clear he wasn’t welcome to do so.
However, it didn’t appear to dampen Mr Trump’s excitement about his time with the Royal Family.
Speaking earlier this year, he described his state visit as “a fest” adding “it’s an honour… I’m a friend of Charles, I have great respect for King Charles and the family, William; we have really just a great respect for the family. And I think they’re setting a date for September.”
It is expected that, like Mr Macron, the pageantry for his trip this time will revolve around Windsor, with refurbishment taking place at Buckingham Palace.
Fuel to the engines of the Air India plane that crashed last month appears to have cut off shortly after take-off, a preliminary report has found.
According to the report switches in the cockpit that controlled fuel moved to a “CUTOFF” position.
It said: “Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of one second.
“The Engine N1 and N2 began to decrease from their take-off values as the fuel supply to the engines was cut off.”
Image: The crash site. Pic: AAIB
There was then confusion in the cockpit. In the voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he “cut off”. The other pilot responds that he did not do so.
There were no conclusions as to how the switches were moved.
One of the engines was able to be restarted, but could not reverse the plane’s deceleration, the report found.
“At this stage of investigation, there are no recommended actions to Boeing 787-8 and/or GE GEnx-1B engine operators and manufacturers,” India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said in the report.
Image: A diagram in the report shows how the plane crashed into a building. Pic: AAIB
No significant bird activity was observed in the vicinity of the plane’s flight path, the report said. The aircraft started to lose altitude before crossing the airport perimeter wall, it added.
The plane plummeted into a busy area, killing 241 passengers and 19 others on the ground while incinerating everything around it.
The AAIB’s report is based on the initial findings of the probe, marking 30 days since the crash.
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Liverpool have retired the number 20 shirt in honour of Diogo Jota – the first time it has made such a gesture.
The club said it was a “unique tribute to a uniquely wonderful person” and the decision was made in consultation with his wife and family.
The number 20 will be retired at all levels, including the men’s and women’s first teams and academy squads.
A statement said: “It was the number he wore with pride and distinction, leading us to countless victories in the process – and Diogo Jota will forever be Liverpool Football Club’s number 20.”
The club called it a “recognition of not only the immeasurable contribution our lad from Portugal made to the Reds’ on-pitch successes over the last five years, but also the profound personal impact he had on his teammates, colleagues and supporters and the everlasting connections he built with them”.
Image: Jota’s wife joined Liverpool players to view tributes at Anfield on Friday. Pic: Liverpool FC
Image: Pic: Liverpool FC
Newly-married Jota died alongside his brother when his Lamborghini crashed in northern Spain on 3 July.