BVT Minutes June '15

BLAIRMORE VILLAGE TRUST

Minutes of the Board Meeting held on 24th June 2015

PRESENT:          Agnes Harvey (Chair); Pat Lynn (Minute Secretary); Lorraine Whitton, Carolyn Stewart, David McKenzie, Catherine Rae, Bill MacKinnon.

1. CONFLICT OF INTEREST:

 There was no conflict of interest declared.

2. MINUTES:      The Minutes of the meeting held on 13th April 2015, which had been circulated, were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

3. APPOINTMENT OF OFFICE BEARERS:

Chair: Agnes was willing to serve for a further year – this was unanimously welcomed by the Board and there were no other nominations.

Treasurer: Ian Reid was willing to carry on looking after our Accounts for a further year – this was welcomed by the Board.

Admin: At our AGM we mentioned that we were looking for someone to look after administration duties in order to relieve Pat. We were fortunate in that a young woman from Blairmore volunteered to do this work for us and Agnes will now send her a job description. The rate of pay was agreed and it was estimated roughly 10 hours per month with a maximum of 120 hours per year. ACTION: Agnes to produce a job description to circulate to the Board.

4.  SUMMER EVENT:

It was agreed that the summer event planned for Saturday, 25th July would run from 11am to 4pm.

The Summer Event will include the following:

                             Face Painting

                             Red Squirrel group

                             Bill Williamson, Potter

                             Moira Ferguson, Garden Crafts

                             Highland Hen crafts

                             Art in Glass

                             Summer Raffle

                             Burger Van

                             Pier Celebration

                             Butterfly ReleaseHHH

                             Tombola

6. LAND PLOT UPDATE

David reported that he was going to identify the various plots to ensure that these agreed with the Land Registry Document.  

7. CORRESPONDENCE:

a)  National Park – a notification had been received from LIVEPARK: Notification of publication of proposed local development plan. The report covered the Location: Blairmore Green, Blairmore as “site has been allocated for visitor experience (tourism)” in line with the public consultations of last year.

b) Letter from Janice Hampson – regarding the willow tree on the triangular plot owned by BVT in close proximity to the telegraph pole. It was agreed that a quote be sourced for the removal of this tree and also the pruning of a tree (earlier agreed) on the village green. ACTION: Bill and David.

c) Email from Ron Fraser requesting BVT to speak to homeowners on White’s Brae re overhanging branches which he feared may begin to cause problems and also requesting that trees and shrubbery on the triangle of land above White’s Brae be tidied. An email would be sent to Mr Fraser informing him of our intent to take down the willow tree on the triangle and pointing out to him once again that it is not the responsibility of BVT to be directly involved in neighbour responsibilities and suggesting that he may wish to speak directly to the people involved to share his concerns.

ACTION: Agnes

8. KNOTWEED ON BVT LAND

It had been reported that Hamilton’s Brae was heavily infected with Japanese Knotweed and that the knotweed was also on other pieces of land now owned by the Trust. It was agreed that speedy attention be given to this matter.   David was asked to get quotes for the overall clearance of Hamilton’s Brae, including the knotweed and bringing the Brae back into use.  Members were asked to let Bill know of other areas of land which were affected by knotweed. ACTION: David and Bill.

9. GALLIMAUFRY FEEDBACK

Following on from earlier discussions with Sylvia and Steve an expression of interest for Gallimaufry was submitted to the Agent handling the sale. Further information was still awaited from the Agent.

It was still hoped that a suitable buyer would come forward but if not, the risk of the retail outlet becoming holiday accommodation was of great concern to BVT and it was therefore agreed that we submit an official note of interest via our solicitors for the premises. ACTION: Agnes to draft letter for circulation and send to solicitor.

10. SANTA SURVEY

Agnes had surveyed a number of past visitors to Santa to try to gauge what the most important elements of the event were in an attempt to see if the event could still go ahead in a way that would relieve a lot of the hard work and stress of past years. After much discussion, and with some regret, it was recognised that the majority of the Board were not in favour of holding the Santa event this year in any format and felt that if we stopped now we would do so in the knowledge that it will be sorely missed for its excellence rather than run a risk of not meeting people’s high expectations due to elf fatigue. It was agreed that an article should be published in the summer to inform people of the situation.

11. THE VILLAGE HALL

Unfortunately Bruce was not able to attend this meeting on behalf of the Village Hall and sent his apologies. Lorraine had attended the last meeting of the Hall Committee on behalf of BVT. Catherine reported that the grant application for £250,000 had been submitted and the Board hoped that there would be a successful outcome for the hall committee.

There being no further business, the meeting was brought to a close.