Month: November 2010

Categories
Colintraive CRtB Glendaruel Glendaruel Hotel News Projects Working Groups

Hotel Working Group & CGDT issues info-flyer on CRtB

The following flyer will be distributed to everyone in the community over the next week, so that all have the facts about the Community Right to Buy process and legislation. In addtion to this, the CRtB on the Glendaruel Hotel will be discussed at the next Community Council meeting at Colintraive Village Hall, on 2nd December at 7.30pm. Everyone is welcome to come and ask questions and hear the discussion about this project.

Please click on the image to open a more readable version!

Categories
Kilmodan Primary School News

Parent Council issues Communication Plan: Let’s Get Writing!

The communication plan is a comprehensive guide as to how the community can help save Kilmodan School, primarily by writing letters. If you feel inspired to do so, and we believe everyone should be (especially if you saw the recent “From Here to There” video), please make sure that you copy in the Parent Council to any letter or email you send.

Let’s get writing!

Categories
CRtB Glendaruel Glendaruel Hotel News Working Groups

Community Right to Buy: Some Facts

Here is a summary of the pertinent facts relating to Community Rights to Buy:

  • A community right to buy gives the community the time to decide whether to purchase an asset at market value.
  • The community right to buy does not force the sale, but only comes into play when an owner decides to sell his or her property.
  • A right to buy petition does not commit the community to the purchase: it only seeks to establish the right to buy. 10% of the community must support the application for it to be valid.
  • The property is valued by a government appointed surveyor, who is entirely independent, and values property at market rates. This guarantees the owner gets a fair price.
  • If the community body decides to activate its right to buy it must carry out a ballot of the community to establish whether the majority of the community wish to go ahead with the purchase.
  • Like the Stronafian Forest vote, only those on the electoral roll are eligible to vote, and 50% of the eligible voters must vote to make the ballot valid. Of that 50% over 50% have to vote in favour for the purchase to go ahead.
  • Even if the ministers grant the community a right to buy on a property the community may decide it is not in its interest to activate that right, and can simply allow the sale of the property to go ahead normally with another party.
  • Often, once a right to buy is established the community and the property owner arrange the sale between themselves without resort to the legislation. This can make the process much shorter.
  • The Community Right to Buy itself lasts for 5 years. If after that period the property hasn’t been put on the market, the community can reapply to have the right extended for a further 5 years. The trust might also decide to let the right lapse and not reapply.

At present the Development Trust is awaiting the minister’s determination on our application to acquire the right to buy on the Glendaruel Hotel. If we are granted a right to buy, and if we decide to move onto the next stage, there will be a thorough and transparent consultation process.

If you have any questions, or are unclear on any points, please don’t hesitate to contact us, we’ll be delighted to hear from you.

Categories
Kilmodan Primary School News

Save Kilmodan School: From Here to There

The Parent Council have taken their campaign to the roads with this video of the school journey our children will have to take if Kilmodan Primary School closes. Great Stuff!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GacXqzG_VBQ

And here’s a map of the route the bus took.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=103766161444137524479.0004951e0b0ec5cc4a695&ll=55.954198,-5.158768&spn=0.224886,0.614548&t=h&z=11

Categories
Clachan Glendaruel News Stronafian

St. Modan

One of the privileges of working on some of the projects that the Development Trust have in view, is that sometimes you come across really unexpected slices of information or history. Once such happened today as we examined deed maps pertaining to Stronafian Forest.

We knew there were archaeological remains in the woodland, but what I certainly hadn’t realised was that those remains have a direct correlation to the establishment of our church, and the name given to it and the school.

Here’s a grab of the area:

Categories
Forestry News Stronafian

Wider Consultation on Stronafian Forest has begun!

Our application to acquire the right to buy on Stronafian Forest is presently receiving a wider public consultation via the Forestry Commission website here as a ‘Sponsored Sale of Surplus Land’. To view all the pertinent documents, click on the link above.

The deadline for this consultation is 1st December (or around 28 days from now).

Categories
Clachan Glendaruel Kilmodan Primary School News Press & Publicity

Our Letter in Support of the Save Kilmodan Primary School Campaign

The Development Trust have just sent our letter in support of the campaign to keep Kilmodan Primary School open to Cleland Sneddon, the head of Education for Argyll and Bute Council. The letter provides a detailed critique of the proposals as they relate to Kilmodan Primary School (and Strachur and Tighnabruaich) as well as looking at the process in its entirety.

This letter has been cc’d to our local councillors Alex MacNaughton, Ron Simon and Bruce Marshall, as well as MSP Jim Mather and MP Alan Reid.

Here is an excerpt of the more general points:

The Colintraive and Glendaruel Development Trust wishes to register its opposition to Argyll and Bute Council’s proposals to close Kilmodan School in the Clachan of Glendaruel for the following reasons:

  • The proposals do not improve the educational standards for the pupils of the school in any way.
  • The proposals commit the children to a school journey of over 45 minutes: which by the council’s own standards is unacceptable.
  • The proposals critically undermine the economic, social and cultural viability of the Clachan of Glendaruel and therefore the community.
  • The proposals create a division in our community, and do so without regard for the electoral and physical boundaries between Colintraive and Glendaruel.
  • The proposals have not been made in consultation with the statutory community bodies.The proposals were not preceded with any attempt to engage with the community on alternative arrangements to closure as the act and guidance indicate.
  • The proposals, which have been put forward for discussion on 2nd November by the council, state in point 8.1 the note that the council decided to go ahead with the consultation process on the 2nd November. This contradicts statements made in letters to parents to all three schools. In our view this undermines the credibility of the whole consultation process.

If you require a different format of this document, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Please note: Michael Russell was not party to any discussion of this issue by the board of the Development Trust and takes and supports no view on it.