Seasons greetings! A lot has been happening since the Picnic at Polly’s Coffee Stop in August.
We had our first AGM on November 7th when we elected our Board for the next twelve months and had the first showing of our film We are Cairnbaan. Details about another showing of the Film are below. Details of the AGM can be found in the Minutes of the AGM.
FORESTRY BUILDINGS
On December 12th, we received notification from Forestry and Land Scotland that our application for a Community Asset Transfer for the buildings at Lock 8 has been successful! This is really exciting news and is the outcome of months of hard work by the Trust on behalf of our community. After the Feasibility Study by Community Enterprise was completed, architects’ plans, surveys and a five year Business Plan were drawn up, allowing application for the asset transfer to be submitted. The buildings will pass into community ownership if we are successful in our bid to the Scottish Land Fund for funding to buy them.
What’s the deal?
The two buildings were jointly and independently valued by FLS and the Trust at £150,000. We made a bid of £60,000 for the asset transfer sale if we got funding from the Scottish Land Fund. Forestry and Land have agreed a discounted price of £90,000. This represents the maximum discount of 40% they can award. The discount takes account of the value to our community in having the buildings and the land transferred to us. Forestry and Land have been very supportive and positive about our application.
What happens next?
In November we made another application, this time to the Scottish Land Fund, for a grant to buy the buildings and land, pending a successful application for the asset transfer. We have now instructed that application to go ahead. We expect to hear early in the new year if it has been successful. Our application has a business plan and fundraising strategy which will be posted on our website soon. This will enable everyone to know what has come out of the Feasibility Study and what we have been working towards to make our proposal credible and financially viable. If all goes well we could be in a position to own the buildings and land by March 2025.
How can we all help and support the work?
We are starting the year with a second showing of We are Cairnbaan in the Ardrishaig Egg Shed on Friday 10 January from 5-6 pm (Film showing at 5:20pm). Refreshments will be provided. If you didn’t see the film the first time it was shown and even if you did, this will provide an opportunity to start working towards a future for Cairnbaan that has our own village hub. We can discuss the ideas people have already put forward and, most importantly at this stage, begin to plan our next phase of work.
The Business Plan will be available on the website soon and we will need to start planning for community fundraising, and also a community skills directory identifying sources of help to get the building safe and ready to use in the first year.
Other local community councils have asked to show the film in their communities so that will help us to build good links with neighbours in the Achnamara, Tayvallich, Crinan, Bellanoch and Dunadd areas.
We will invite supporters and organisations that have expressed interest in working in partnership with the Trust to the film screening in January, so that they are included in our plans.
You can also help, just by becoming a member of the Trust which is free and doesn’t commit you to anything. The Trust is always looking for more residents to join so if you have not yet done so, please join up by completing the online form on the website at – https://cairnbaancommunitytrust.org/become-a-member
DO COME ALONG AND SHARE YOUR INTEREST, YOUR IDEAS, YOUR SKILLS AND YOUR ENERGY!
OTHER NEWS
On 19th November we wrote to Councillor Dougie Philand asking for his assistance to find out why the Traffic Lights on the A816 at the Cairnbaan junction had been in place for over a week with no repair work taking place to the slightly sunken Telecoms manhole cover on the road. We understood that Openreach were responsible for the repair but were in no hurry to carry out the work and happy to leave the lights in situ for some time as they had done near Kilmartin recently.
Councillor Philand made some enquiries with the Council Roads Department and confirmed our suspicions and was about to obtain the contact details for Openreach when the work was completed on Monday 2nd December and the Lights were removed the next day. We thanked Councillor Philand for his efforts and believe that his enquiries probably sped up the repair works and removal of the Lights.
Regards
Jim Maitland
Chair
