Category: CRtB
At the Glendaruel Hall on Saturday 16th Jan, 11 am!
The appraisal of the potential sites is now complete and we will score the options against how they meet our criteria.
Our meeting will be facilitated by the consultants – the Design Team and Business planning team, who look forward to meeting everyone.
At the last meeting of the working group we spent two hours poring over the decision matrix we had developed in the previous session. With Donald’s ongoing and able help we were able to develop some ideas about the types of solutions we would need to look at for various initiatives.
Over the next week the remainder of the group will revisit several of the most important themes, score them and send those back to Donald for collation and summary. That summary will be then submitted to the DT board for consideration.
Its been a long process, but very well worth it, and has developed some decision points for the community which will be presented at our next appropriate public meeting.
Here is the present working document for download.
One of the ongoing discussions we have been engaged in is seeing a way forward for Glendaruel what with the CRtB on the Hotel, the initial plans drawn up by the Hub Group and the ongoing progress the Village Hall Committee are making towards renewing the hall. To aid the community’s thinking we organised a session with all three groups at the Village Hall facilitated by Donald Walker and building on the decision-making matrix that the Development Trust has already developed.
Here’s Donald’s Review of the meeting:
The group listened to a short introduction of the aims and process and then heard 5 minute summaries of the activities of each of the working groups. The group were given the opportunity to ask clarifying questions and then worked through 2 set exercises which were designed to generate a consensus over next steps.
Using the presentations and the knowledge of the group, the team assembled a number of criteria which will be used to evaluate options. These criteria were forced ranked 1 to 10 although it was agreed that there could be an opportunity to combine or reclassify some of them at a later date.
The team then selected a number of “wants and needs” for the community and listed these in no particular order. The “wants and needs” were written in way that did not describe the solution; so, the community wants/needs access a licensed premises rather than the community wants/needs a pub. In this example, a pub is one possible solution to the requirement to access a location which is licensed to sell alcoholic beverages.
The team used a 1-3-9 scale to score the relationship between the “want/need” and the criteria where 1 = remote relationship/influence, 3 = moderate influence and 9 = strong relationship. This scale is designed to force a separation between items which have a big impact and those which don’t.
Next steps
The team agreed that this activity should not delay or derail any activities planned by the Village Hall team.
All those present agreed to re-convene for a further 2 hour meeting in the new year to complete the table. During this second session, the team agreed to define each of the criteria to improve clarity and to make the description more objective.
The team also agreed to complete a third session which would be designed to form solutions to each of the wants and needs. These solutions will be evaluated using the same approach as the prioritrisation matrix.
The presentation and matrix are attached so that all interested parties can see what was covered and participate in the process.
Glendaruel Discussion Presentation 5MB
This is Donald’s opening presentation outlining the method and the way outcomes are achieved.
XLS Spreadsheet
If you have Excel and would like to contribute your scores to our next discussion, please send them into us. Remember to score only 1s, 3s and 9s!
PDF of spreadsheet
For those of you who don’t have excel, here’s the pdf which you can open using Adobe Acrobat Reader, freely available from adobe.com
2012 looks like being a big year for our community and the projects we’re bringing forward.
After two fabulous evenings at our village halls (well done organisers) and a series of power cuts over the festive period which rather stymied everyone, we’re now looking at getting things moving pretty quickly.
If you have an idea for a project, event or business which would be a community enterprise, please let us know, particularly if it uses wood, forest land or hilltops! We’re available at the Village Halls during the week, and always through the contact page and the comment facility on this website.
New local news website Cowal Courier has a report on the presentation CGDT’s chair Charles Dixon-Spain recently made to the Local Area Community Planning Group regarding our plans for Stronafian Forest and a medium scale community Windfarm.
The presentation, which seemed to be well-received by the committee of over 20 people and audience, is reported on the pay-for-news website here.
Over the last weeks there has been an unprecedented level of activity in the community looking at our future and the projects we might like to take forward. The ‘Ship-to-shore’ and the ‘Colintraive Gateway’ steering groups have met and made reports to the board, while the Clachan working groups have both reconvened and made recommendations as to the next steps they would like to take to further their work.
The board has also pushed forward with the process to purchase Stronafian Forest, on which we have a right to buy, as well as the community windfarm.
Russell Gill our intern has been working hard to put some shape on initiatives and ideas that have emanated in the community, and we hope to have some papers on matters as varied as mountain-biking, astronomy, and bridleways in hand by the end of the month.
Lastly, Russell and Rhona spent a very enjoyable morning with the Kilmodan school children as they had a forest school session. Both came back damp but delighted!
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.
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!
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.