November 2015

Minutes of Board Meeting held at Pier Hotel 3 November 2015

 

Directors in Attendance

 

Dinah McDonald               Chair

David McKenzie                 Secretary     

Gordon Macdonald

Catherine Rae

Victor Sandall

 

Members in Attendance

 

Cllr Bruce Marshall

 

Observer

 

Jim Connor

 

Minutes of Meeting 23 June 2015

 

The draft minutes of the Trust Board meeting of 10 August 2015 were reviewed. The minutes were proposed by Gordon, seconded by Catherine and adopted.

 

Matters Arising

 

None

 

Business of the Trust

 

Secretary’s Report

 

NTR

 

Update on membership

 

NTR

 

Treasurer’s Report

 

Pearl advised by e-mail that our bank balances were as follows:

 

Savings Account..........................£4174.87

 

Business Account........................£2759.87

 

Dinah reported that our grants from the National Park will be audited:

The admin grant of £700 is OK

The project grant for improvements at Graham’s Point is at risk of not being completed within the specified time frame. Netting, bench maintenance, etc. has been completed, but work on the bus shelter had been delayed pending removal of glass windows prior to sand blasting. Jim Connor volunteered to carry this out, and will liaise with Dinah.   

 

Community Action Plan 2013 - 2017 

 

Action Status:

 

Theme 1:

 

Priority 1 – Invasive Species:

 

Annual spraying has been completed by the trained volunteers as follows:

 

Between Cot House and Blairmore Pier
Eachaig
Glen Masson

 

Theme 2:

 

Priority 1 – Blairmore Village Green

 

A soup & sandwich village lunch event will be held on 14 December taking advantage of the marquee that will have been used by the Blairmore Santa event the previous weekend.
A joint project with the Blairmore Hall Committee is being contemplated to make use of an available £4K of unspent funds. This project will probably involve initial surveys that can be used for both the Hall renovation and the Village Green development.

 

Theme 3:

 

Priority 3 – Development of potential sites.

 

At the recent AGM, a new Trust constitution was adopted to allow use of Scottish Government Right-to-Buy funds if needed in the future.

Blairmore Village Trust had agreed to participate in a joint project with the B&K CDT to develop sheltered and affordable housing. Fyne Homes should now be invited to participate – David M to follow up.

 

Theme 4:

 

Priority 1: Sewage facilities upgrade

 

Michael Russell MSP had written to the Chief Executives of both SEPA and Scottish Water to find out what upgrades are planned. The response is that some form of treatment plants will be provided in Strone and Kilmun in 2016 / 17; however, nothing is planned for Blairmore. Michael has responded to both organisations requesting a meeting to see what could be done to include Blairmore in the planned upgrade.

 

Priority 2 – Broadband Provision

 

NTR

 

Priority 3 – Renewable Energy

 

The Board reviewed the proposals received from Kirknewton Development Trust. The site at Loch Eck (Allt Coire an t-Sith) is considered viable but will needed the community to raise in excess of £400K to develop. This can be done via community shares program.  After discussion, the Board agreed that Dinah should take the project forward with Kirknewton to the next stage.

 

Liaison

 

Forestry

 

Due to falling timber prices, funding cut-backs in FCS projects can be expected.

 

Villages in Bloom

 

Bruce is continuing to maintain planters with new bulbs as required.

 

Graham’s Point Community Park

 

See under Treasurer report above for work on bus shelter

 

The future of the willow tunnel was discussed – NP volunteers might be available to restore.

 

Working Groups / Projects

 

Paths and Access

 

The Walking Group has recently cleared the Glen Bahr path

 

Historic Kilmun / Argyll Mausoleum Ltd (AML)

 

Gordon reported:

 

The recent Quiz night had not been successful
A problem had arisen with the Church regarding a proposed Halloween night event, but had been managed
HLF is considering funding a consultant to prepare a long term business plan for Historic Kilmun    

 

AOCB

 

It was noted that the Gallimaufry tea-room is about to re-open under new ownership.

 

Blairmore Village Trust is holding a winter raffle and tickets are available

 

Blairmore Hall Trust had not been successful in finding funds for the complete renovation of the Hall; a smaller project involving new heating, new windows and new tables are therefore planned.

 

Dinah advised that she was considering standing as the Director for Cowal for the NP Community Partnership. She asked if trust would nominate her for the position. This was agreed unanimously.

 

David M advised that OSCR had asked for one further modification to the new Constitution that had been adopted at the AGM on 22 September. It was agreed that an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) would need to be held to achieve this. David M will invite the membership.

 

Date of next meeting

 

The EGM will be held on Wednesday 9 December at 19:30 in the Pier Hotel to be followed by the normal Board meeting.