November 2011

Minutes of Board Meeting held at Highgate Hall 1 November 2011

Directors:  Dinah McDonald  Chair 
               David McKenzie   Secretary
               Pearl Brown    Treasurer
               David Eaglesham

Minutes of last meeting

 The minutes of the last Trust meeting held on 4 October 2011 were not available.

Business of the Trust

Secretary’s Report

 Nothing to report

Update on membership

 Nothing to report

Treasurer’s Report

 Pearl advised that the balances on hand were:

o Ordinary Account: £1981.47
o Bonus Account:  £4163.75 

 Dinah advised that applications for an admin grant of £800 had been made to the National Park. A further application for £1500 for a ‘Seen, soon, successful’ project had also been made – this was for a supervised archaeology project involving local schools focussing on the 15th century tower at Kilmun Church.  

Community Development Plan - 2012 

 The launch meeting for the new Benmore & Kilmun Community Development Plan 2012 – 2014 is being held at Kilmun Hall on Wednesday 9 November. Most local community organisations have indicated their intention to attend. It was agreed to ask Sandbank CDT if they would also like to participate – David will contact Finlay Currie.

 The draft agenda was agreed as follows:

o Introductions
o Action Plan 2012 / 2014 – National Park funding status
o Assessment of successes from last plan
o Potential new ideas for next plan
o Next steps including possible public meeting

 Possible new projects to be considered included:

o Major campaign on sewage with possible additional focus on mains gas, broadband and cable services.
o Footpath / road improvements between Kilmun Church and Cot House
o Slipway access to Loch Long
o Public toilets in Blairmore
o Cycleway from Sandbank to Kilmun
o ‘Viking Trail’ path from Kilmun Church to Puck’s Glen / Uig
o Invasive species / knotweed removal

Working Groups / Projects

Loch’n’Glen Magazine

 A new edition had been published - £250 of the admin grant was targeted to the magazine

Paths and Access

 A Forestry Commission grant of £1,000 had been received to cover the costs of leading guided walks on the Paths Network as part of Cowal Fest. Pearl would be leading the last walk in November.

 A work party had cleared the Glen Massan walk.

Graham’s Point

 It was agreed to put forward Graham’s Point for the QEII Fields Challenge project. The application had to be completed by the field owner, which is the Council. David agreed to pursue with Bruce Marshall.

 Kilmun CC plans to hold a regular annual Gala Day at Graham’s Point; the next event was planned for June 2012 to coincide with the Diamond Jubilee. David E / David McK would check to see if this could be a joint effort with the CDT.

AOCB

 The suggested donation to new Police equipment is not required, as individual donations and the KCC contribution have met the target.

Future Meetings

 The annual Community Partnership / AGM were being held at Winnock Hotel, Drymen on Saturday 5 November. David would be attending.

Date of next meeting

 A short meeting of the Trust Board will be held immediately after the Community Partnership meeting on 9 November at Kilmun Hall.