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CRtB Glendaruel Glendaruel Hotel News Opportunities

CGDT is Granted Community Right to Buy on Glendaruel Hotel

The Colintraive and Glendaruel Development Trust is delighted to announce it has been granted a community right to buy on the Glendaruel Hotel under the terms of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. The hotel which stands at the centre of the clachan of Glendaruel has been closed for 18 months depriving the community of an essential social hub and local accommodation providers of a venue for their guests to find food and drink locally.

In June 2009 when it first considered applying for the right to buy on the property the trust undertook to give the present owners of the hotel breathing space to get their business up and running. Twelve months later the Trust recognised that this was becoming more and more unlikely to happen, and that the community needed the opportunity to take charge of the building and provide for its own future. At a public meeting on 3rd August last year a working group was formed to look at the options for running the building as a social enterprise and to work toward the Community Right to Buy.

The right to buy, which gives the community first refusal when and if the hotel comes on to the market, also requires that a ballot be held to ascertain the community’s opinion of such a course of action. As Charles Dixon-Spain, chair of the Development Trust says, “With the help of the working group who have put substantial time into this project, and our HIE-funded consultant Tom Sillar, we have secured the community the opportunity to decide whether it wants the trust to run the building as a social enterprise.”

Full details of the application for the right to buy are available on the Register of Community Interests in Land.

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Forestry News Press & Publicity Stronafian

ForArgyll.com covers the ballot result

We’re delighted the vote has been covered here.

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Broadband Leader News Projects

Application for significant broadband upgrade

Over the last month or so we have been fine-tuning our application to the Leader Broadband Challenge Fund for a significant upgrade to our internet connectivity as a community. The application went in today, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed. What makes this particularly exciting is that alongside being able to offer everyone in Colintraive and Glendaruel a significantly better connection, we’ll be employing a couple of people on a part-time basis to install and help households get their new, faster and more reliable connections working.

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Clachan CRtB Glendaruel Hotel News Projects Working Groups

CRtB Application on the Glendaruel Hotel Sent In

A red letter day for the communities of Colintraive and Glendaruel: the application for the Community Right to Buy on the Glendaruel Hotel has been sent in to the Community Assets Branch in Edinburgh. This should be received on Monday (weather permitting) and the process of informing the owners of the application will begin.

This is the first step in a long process to acquisition, and if all goes well with this stage, the working group’s next task will be to sketch out the basis for the business plan. No small task of course, but if the enthusiasm, good will and expertise which was brought to bear on the application is applied to this document, then there is no doubt that what is presented to the community for its consideration will be thorough-going and compelling.

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Forestry News Projects Stronafian

Executive Summary for Stronafian Forest Released!

Out today is the executive summary for the Stronafian Forest project that the community is currently voting on. Rhona is sending out a paper copy to everyone, with a covering note, but in the meantime, it is available here.

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Forestry News Press & Publicity Projects Stronafian

Our Press Release for the Ballot …

… reads as follows:

Small Community, Very Big Plans
The Community of Colintraive and Glendaruel is about to vote on the purchase of 600ha of Forest in one of the most ambitious community buy-outs Cowal has yet seen.

On the afternoon of 8th October the count will start on one of the most keenly awaited results in the community woodlands sector this year. The Colintraive and Glendaruel Development Trust will find out whether the people it serves agree with it that Stronafian Forest represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the community.

With a valuation of £1.55M finding the funds to make the purchase might seem too big an ask for such a sparsely populated area, “Except,” says Charles Dixon-Spain, chair of the Development Trust, “we have some very ambitious plans for this forest which will secure this asset for the community within the 18 month time-limit Forestry Commission Scotland has set.” He adds, “Our vision is that this forest can be an asset not only for our community but for the rest of Cowal and Bute.”

The Development Trust has published an options appraisal on their website which recommends mixing commercial forest management with low-impact woodland management, offers forest crofts and affordable housing as answers to acute local economic and social needs, and shows that the forest will have manifold amenity uses, from Mountain-biking and archaeology, to a woodland school and astronomy.

Charles continues, “We’ve carried out community surveys, had consultation days and even organised a community visit to Mull, and what we have found is that a forest like this can be profitable, can invest into communities, and can create jobs. We hope the community votes for this opportunity because there is every possibility that greater and more significant projects will develop from the purchase.”

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Forestry News Projects Stronafian

Sandwiched out after a great afternoon!

With an audience of around 50 and two guest speakers our Sunday afternoon was a great success. Not only were there sandwiches and soup, but cakes and shortbread, all of which oiled the hubbub of comment and conversation after we had heard from our two guest speakers, Ian Hepburn from Mull, and Michaela Hunter from Kilfinan. Both speakers pulled no punches, but both were inspirational in their own way. We learned some valuable lessons, and were, in the most part anyway, left feeling very positive about Stronafian Forest.

As chair I outlined where we are in the process, the valuation we had just been given (more of which in a later post), and how we intended to accumulate the funds in the next 18 months to purchase the forest. In fact, given the presentations, and the viability of Stronafian Forest it was felt generally that the major hurdle was the purchase. Once we have the asset, it will provide income, employment and amenity for the community in perpetuity.

The next steps are all associated with the community ballot to find out whether the community would like us to move forward with this (well, that and finalising our application to the NFLS board and publishing our business plan at the beginning of October).

Lastly, if you would like to know more about how we intend to raise the money to purchase the forest and other exciting possiblities associated with the forest, please don’t hesitate to contact us via our form, or ring me on 01369 820 115.

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Forestry News Projects Stronafian

Animateur Reports

Both animateurs handed their reports in today, and very pleasing reading they make too. Lots of interesting and varied points have come back from the community, much of which has helped in directing the information we will have available on Sunday for the Stronafian Sandwich at the Glendaruel Village Hall. We’ll publish the documents shortly for everyone to access (they’ll also be on noticeboards and by request from directors).

Rhona and I also had a short meeting to look at the ballot for the NFLS, more of which on Sunday.

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Forestry News Projects Stronafian

The Forest Business Plan takes its next step

Michael Kaufmann and myself met Munro Gauld the Development Trust’s business consultant for the Stronafian Forest enterprise today to introduce him to the forest and give him a chance to assess the project before meeting with the board in the afternoon. We had a good walk up to one of the highest points and were able to survey much of the timber.

Munro was particular impressed with the amenity value of the deciduous woodland, and could see lots of potential for community use in the areas above the clachan, including a Forest School which was something those on the Mull Visit had been particularly struck by.

After a short lunch at the Colintraive (Patricia’s sandwiches were excellent as ever) I was able to introduce Munro to the board and we had and interesting hour or so looking at both the structure of the plan, and our progress towards the application to the National Forest Land Scheme.

Munro’s input is being funded by the HIE through CAMS, for which we are very grateful.

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Clachan News Projects Working Groups

The Working Groups are off!

Just a quick note to report that two working groups were formed on the 4th in Glendaruel, one to look specifically at the Hotel, and the other at a community hub or Pavilion.

As I write the Hotel group have begun collecting signatures for a petition under the Community Right to Buy legislation in order to acquire the right to buy the property. Members of the working group and the development trust board will be visiting as many folk as they can to offer the opportunity to sign the petition.