CGDTCommunity Council Chair, Cathleen Russell reflects on the community response to COVID-19, how we have been helped by businesses and individuals alike, and what the next months hold for our community as we move into the colder months.
In this Issue:
Update from the Resilience Group Contact list • Prescription Deliveries Food Deliveries • Other help on offer
Issued before Christmas, the newsletter has all the essentials for the communities of Colintraive and Glendaruel. This time the focus was on resilience.
With 500 copies distributed to the community and local businesses, we’ve now generated a downloadable version.
Included in this issue is news from the community council, the development trust, the church, our wildswimmers and the ColGlen chorus, to name but a few.
We are looking to update the map for the Summer issue, including more businesses and useful information, as well as adverts. We have 5 takers for the ad spaces so far and only another 4 are available – get yours by contacting the newsletter group through cgdt@cgdt.org
News, Information, Map and Walks for community and visitors has been published this week. Designed to inform locals, market the community and provide essential information this quarterly publication is already looking for ideas for articles for the next (Summer) issue.
This quarter’s issue includes news from the community council, development trust, ColGlen growers, the Heritage Centre, ColGlen Chorus and much more!
If you haven’t received a copy, or have an idea for an article, please let us know!
The AGM minutes has been approved by the board for publication as draft on the website here. and below is the transcript from the minute of the Chair’s report for the year ending 2018.
CHAIR’S REPORT FOR 2017-18
If I were to characterise this year for the trust I would say we have undergone a massive change, albeit one which has snuck under the radar somewhat.
In 2010 we conceived a plan to create a sustainable income for the trust and the community through the generation of renewable energy in the glen. At every turn this ambition has been thwarted – either by existing installations in the case of microhydro generation, or by the refusal of planning applications, in the case of wind.
Now, while I think we have a moral and ethical duty to do everything we can to mitigate climate change, we understand as the board we are an organisation which has been set a specific community-oriented task – to improve the lot of as many people as we can in the community through the projects we run.
We have had sterling success in this. The Warmer and Greener ColGlen projects are still, if you will pardon the pun, bearing fruit. This year we will run our third Peoples and Communities Fund Training programme in the forest, training young and unemployed folks and making them ready for work.
However, the projects we have struggle to earn income, and therefore do not contribute to our core requirement as an organisation, which is to be sustainable. With the failure of our renewables business plan, we have been working to reconfigure our approach so that we can continue to develop projects.
That’s the local context. Nationally, Brexit and the UK’s departure from the EU has made the funding landscape very difficult, and means that over the next two years we will find it very difficult to access substantial funds.
The question we have been asking is What can the trust do? And in that context What Next for the community.
Cathleen through her role as chair of the Community Council and with the support of her fellow community councillors has been pushing for a reconfigured agenda for the whole of the community, and the board of the trust completely buys into this initiative and wants to help deliver the outcomes the What Next? session identified.
Our role is to enable this. At present we employ a freelance General Manager, Amber, and we have now taken on two further freelance development officers, Sara MacLean and Nikki Brown. Amber will continue with the day-to-day, week-to-week admin, and Sara and Nikki will be tasked with bringing forward projects.
Shortly after Christmas through our development officers we will help a steering group move forward with a community newsletter, we will develop some work around the idea of trails within ColGlen and move forward with the clachan hub.
Which brings me to report on existing projects. The hub has stalled. Capacity and the reconfigurations that are going on at the moment around grant-funding have meant we need to re-examine this project and work out how to move forward. I have asked Sara to investigate how we might best spend the remaining development money to move forward.
The forest will need to be brought back into activity, both in terms of ensuring the path network is functional, but also how we are to use the asset now that we have wrapped up the CARES loan and issues around renewables. Nikki will be looking at this.
The Loch Lomond & Cowal Way, as I am sure Jim will report, has been building on the success of previous years and as we come to the end of the coastal community funding, is continuing to work towards the goal of sustainability. There is an ongoing crowdfunding campaign which will help with this. I urge you to contribute if you haven’t. Why? Well, as an example I will quote one of the outcomes of What Next? That we should market ColGlen more. The Cowal Way does this, was always designed to do this. It raises the profile of our area, but more importantly brings in customers for our accommodation providers and our visitor attractions – it is increasingly supporting our local economy. Numbers are up and that will only continue if we can continue to manage the Way proactively.
As I am sure you are aware Kyles Community Broadband closed the procurement for a community-owned network for this area without awarding a contract. This decision was the culmination of negotiations between KCB, HIE and the government and will result in our community receiving a higher priority part of the new R100 project. But more of that later.
I shall close this report with thanks to our hard-working members of staff, Stewart, Charlie and Amber, who put heart and soul into their roles. we are most thankful for their efforts. As for the board: Jm your continued energy with the Way is extraordinary and we are very grateful for it. Cathleen, many thanks for your input this year – its been invigorating for the board and has led to some really good stuff. Colin, many thanks for your input as treasurer – its been much appreciated. John, without you and Graham Curran, the community would not have the prospect of R100 so many thanks for your dogged determination. Alex your sage advice has as always been very much appreciated.
2019 looks like being a very interesting year – I just hope, for the community, it is one of successes and progress, not confusion and division as it has been south of the border these last months, thank you.
Charles Dixon-Spain, Chair
The report for this highly successful project has now been published on CGDT’s Warmer ColGlen page here. There is much else besides including a photographic record of all the things we achieved. Well done to our Project Officer for this Climate Challenge Fund project, Sara Maclean!
The Development Trust is delighted to announce that it has been successful in its application to the Climate Challenge Fund for the “Greener ColGlen” project. The project which is worth £172,357, will run from October 2013 until the end of March 2015, employ a project officer and an administrator, and follows on from the trust’s highly successful ‘Warmer ColGlen’ project which has just finished.
Project Description
“What will our Community look like in 2050?” This is a considered first step on the journey by Colintraive and Glendaruel Community towards greater resilience in the face of extreme weather events, climate change and the increasing centralisation of goods and services.
FOOD
This project aims to establish a food growing group within the Community, to include all growers, past, present and future. 2 polytunnels in central points of the two villages will provide focus for activity – growing food, sharing tools, plants and tips and engaging socially. Participants will be able to take advantage of the extended season, trial and research different varieties, and learn how to make the most of local conditions to improve the range of fresh fruit and veg available. A website and blog, food waste workshops and a harvest festival event to celebrate the first growing season will be held.
COMPOSTING
Composting facilities will be adjacent to the polytunnels and will demonstrate good practise with garden waste, which is not uplifted by the Local Authority. Re-usable bags will be supplied to households to fill and leave out for volunteers to collect when passing to drop off at either site. A composting and food waste event and chipper training will give growers and volunteers the opportunity to learn new skills and a Community wood-chipper will render garden waste that would otherwise have been burnt, fly-tipped or rotted, into compost for the growers.
WOODFUEL
Stronafian Community Forest will provide a sustainable source of woodfuel for the Community in 2 or 3 years time. Meanwhile, as Rhododendron Ponticum has been identified as a particular threat locally, harvesting mature plants will help to interrupt the spread for one season, and also provide burning wood, kindling and charcoal, amongst other benefits. Currently 4 out of 10 households, from a snapshot, ‘import’ woodfuel from other areas and this initial local supply will help to increase choice and localise buying habits. Private and Community spaces will receive a free initial service of cutting back mature specimens. Community members will be trained in techniques to continue the eradication work.
ENERGY
So far in the UK only 306 households have proceeded with a Green Deal Plan. New support for 5% of householders providing local Green Deal Assessments will improve uptake of the funding available locally. Availability and cost of assessments – due to the remote geography – and understanding of the various schemes are barriers to uptake. Local knowledge is key to identifying eligible properties, and the Assessor will compile a portfolio of dwellings to attract funding with support from Home Energy Scotland to link up with local contractors, minimising travel. Heat mapping will also help to identify where a ‘mini warm zone’ can be created for a cluster of local buildings. This will build on the raised awareness and engagement achieved by the Warmer ColGlen Project.
A full-time Project Development Officer will oversee the project, coordinate the Community, volunteers and contractors to install the infrastructure and deliver the other outcomes, also providing or organising the Green Deal Assessments, and a part-time Project Admin and Communications Officer will provide support with payroll, purchasing, marketing and communications.
LEGACY
The polytunnels and composting will be valuable community facilities. The Growing Group will continue to take forward the improved health and social benefits and on going carbon savings by growing more food. They will have the capacity to expand not just in numbers, but also to other possible sites within the Community that have been offered, for example to set up a Community orchard. Other projects would include expansion into the Community Forest – allotment, croft or farm – and other types of food production – meat, seafood and bee-keeping – can all be explored.
Gardeners will be able to continue contributing their garden waste to the compost project and also benefit from the produced soil improver. The skills and training will enable the volunteers to continue the operation of the site.
By beginning a project of eradication of ponticum in the local area, and raising awareness of uses for the wood and eradication methods, the Community will have the skills and capacity to continue the work, also benefitting from increased supply / demand of local woodfuel until timber begins to be made available from the Community Forest. This will ensure continued carbon savings, opportunities for local employment for the trained people, and increased biodiversity in the cleared sites. This activity is also in line with the aims of the Development Trust and will be a core activity in the Community Forest Management Plan.
Eventually this supply chain will lead into a robust woodfuel sales enterprise, due to increased demand and year round activity, it will provide employment and sales income.
Households who have received Green Deal or Green Homes cashback vouchers and/or ECO measures will continue to benefit from reduced energy use. Even if their energy bills do not decrease, they will be able to live in increased comfort. Households and buildings that have been identified as suitable for conversion to a district heating scheme can look forward to leading the way with new technology and enjoy considerably reduced fuel bills. ColGlen’s built heritage will be brought up to standard for the next generation to enjoy.
The legacy of this project will be that ColGlen will be working towards adaptation to climate change and will be considerably closer to the vision of “What will our Community look like in 2050?”
… with a new roof. It’s looking very smart from the outside, and from the inside its all the same which was exactly what the committee had asked for. Congratulations to Elizabeth Fairbairn, who has led the effort to acquire the funding, procure the work and wrap up the claims. Sterling work. With the support of the committee, Sara our Warmer ColGlen Project Officer, Rhona our Local Development Officer, Elizabeth has secured this important community building’s future!
Thanks go to all the funders, including the Climate Challenge Fund, Awards for All and Argyll and the Islands LEADER, as well as the contractor, Archd Fergusson Ltd. who have delivered a great job on time.
Adaptation Scotland have just uploaded videos taken from their pilot “Are You Ready” scheme onto their website. You’ll see some familiar faces talking about what the project might mean to Colintraive and Glendaruel, and also the effect weather has on our community. This sort of feedback has led to further meetings, the formation of a focus group and potentially a very exciting CCF application.
To see the videos, click here
We’re delighted to say that the much anticipated and longed for repair works to the roof of the Glendaruel Village Hall have begun today. The works should last 6 weeks and finish at the end of June. Here’s hoping the weather holds and everything goes to plan!