Month: June 2014

3 posts …..

Exciting opportunities to work on this Climate Challenge Funded project.   Suit either self-employed or PAYE candidates for immediate start.

 To support the development and delivery of the activities and outcomes of the Project….

• PROJECT SUPPORT OFFICER – Part-time, 16 hours p/w – £756 pcm (gross salary), until 31^st March 2015.  Download Job Description here…Greener ColGlen Support Officer 

And to help set up the Community Growing and Composting at the Polytunnels….

• SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKER – 35 hours p/w – £10hr, for 6 weeks.  Download Job description here… Site Development Worker
• SITE ASSISTANT (ideal student summer holiday job) 30 hours p/w – £6.50hr, for 4 weeks.  Download Job Description here… Site Assistant

Alternatively, for job descriptions please email info@cgdt.org or phone 01700 841 358 during office hours.

Then please send your up-to-date CV and covering letter to Greener ColGlen JOBS @ CGDT, The Village Hall, Colintraive PA22 3AS.  Or by email to info@cgdt.org

Applications close Friday, 4^th July 2014 at 5pm.

This year we celebrate our 5th AGM.   We would like to update the Community on all our Projects – past, present and future, extend a warm invite to our AGM and also welcome new Directors to join us on the Board   If you are interested in becoming a director, nomination forms are here…. AGM 2014 Nomination Form for anyone who has the interests of the Community at heart and is willing to contribute at least a couple of hours every week.

What do we do?  Here’s just a few of the recent contributions CGDT’s directors have made:  Policies: Sandra Wilson has been working on business employment legislation, which is now being put in place.  Renewables: Bill Carlow has been working on the wind turbine project and liaising with our renewables consultants. The Cowal Way: Jim McLuckie has been working on a combined brief of the Forest and the Cowal Way.  Finance: Colin Boyd has taken on the role of Treasurer.  Along with Charles Dixon-Spain and Alex McNaughton the CGDT team clocked up more than 200 volunteer hours last month!   

Achievements to Date

Employment – Since inauguration in 2008, 7 people have been employed by CGDT in various ways; part-time; free-lance; full-time; contracted, and PAYE.   Development Officer Rhona Sutherland retired at Christmas after 4 years of sterling work for CGDT.

Income – CGDT has attracted £2.2M of funding into the area, and in addition, local contractors have been employed to carry out specific tasks, and local facilities and businesses have benefited from the extra business brought by CGDT’s activities.

CGDT is pleased to announce that the trust has recruited Eamon King and Margaret Shields to the post of Community Forest Project Officer for the remainder of the initial phase of the Stronafian Forest project funded by the Scottish Land Fund and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Eamon and Margaret started in their new posts on Monday and will be taking forward the huge variety of projects for the Forests together in a jobshare arrangement which provides the trust and the community with the best of both worlds.

Both project officers will be available at the CGDT office during the week, please drop by to find out who is in and when.

For more information contact: cgdt@cgdt.org

Last night at the presentation by CGDT’s consultants Locogen Ltd. in the Colintraive Village Hall, those assembled moved that we progress to the next stage of the process which will hopefully result in the construction of three wind turbines for the community on Stronafian Forest.

Over the next couple of weeks Locogen will finalise and submit a planning application for a Meteorological Mast on site in the forest to test the wind speeds available. The mast will provide the community a clear indication as to whether the development will be economically worthwhile. Alongside this the environmental and landscape impact surveys will continue, and the Development Trust board will report progress on the project in full at the AGM on the 20th July which of course the entire commuinty is invited to.

In the meantime, the trust will be publishing the presentation on the CGDT website shortly, along with an opportunity to ask questions both of the board and the consultants. We’re also happy to make presentations to any group in the community who want to know more.

As readers may remember, the development of a wind turbine was a key element of the Stronafian Forest Plan developed by the CGDT consultant Munro Gauld, and will provide for the longterm sustainability of our community. In his research for this project, CGDT director Bill Carlow has calculated that a single turbine will offset all electricity use in ColGlen entirely – that is reduce our carbon footprint to 0 tonnes for all household electricity.

Bill went further, and to offset all our energy use, including transport, business use and construction, we only require three turbines (our ideal solution for this project). In other words, for this community we can, in one fell swoop, cancel out all the carbon we emit as well as provide for an income which will ensure we are sustainable longterm.

So this is not for everyone, but for those of us who have been engaged in Community Development work over the years, this report is highly significant. Not only does it recommend a right to buy for communities, but the ability for Community Councils to recommend compulsory purchase orders (see below). There’re also recommendations on State Aids and de minimis which are very welcome. The Community Land Scotland conference is well-timed to discuss and debate the recommendations, and I am looking forward to it!

Here’s the detail on Right to Buy

At present, local communities have the option of one statutory land right. This is the right of local communities acting through an ‘appropriate community body’ to exercise a right of pre-emption over land under Part 2 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.

The Land Reform Review Group considers that local communities should have other statutory options to fit different circumstances and issues. The Group recommends in this Report that local communities should have four additional land rights. These are described in the text of the Report and summarised below.

With each right, the criteria for the appropriate local community body remain the same and based on those in Part 2 of the 2003 Act. The thresholds of requirements to be met for each right would progressively increase from numbers 1 to 5, with the increasingly significant nature of the rights involved.

1. Right to Register an Interest over Land
Process that enables an appropriate local community body in defined circumstances to register an interest over land where that is judged to be in the public interest, and then to be notified of the sale and any change of ownership of the land.

2. Right of Pre-emption to Buy Land
Process that enables an appropriate local community body in defined circumstances to register a right of pre-emption over land and to exercise that right if the land is to be sold, where that is judged by Scottish Ministers to be in the public interest.

3. Right to Request to Buy Public Land
Process that enables an appropriate local community body in defined circumstances to buy public land, whether or not it is for sale, where that is judged to be in the public interest by the public body responsible for the land or by Scottish Ministers.

4. Right to Buy Land
Process that enables an appropriate local community body in defined circumstances to buy land which is not for sale, where that is judged by Scottish Ministers to be in the public interest.

5. Right to Request a Compulsory Purchase Order over Land
Process that enables an appropriate local community body in defined circumstances to request Scottish Ministers to exercise a CPO over land for re-sale to the community body, where that is judged by Ministers to be in the public interest.

The lo-res report is available on Scottish Government website here and the high resolution version here.

The picture shows communities which own land in our area, including Colintraive and Glendaruel’s own Stronafian Forest.