CGDTThe 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
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:
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).
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.
And a phoneline on 3rd November. We’ll update here when the facility is available for community members to use. We’re hoping holiday-makers will also be able to connect.
We’ll be publishing our letter to the council here shortly, but in the meantime there is a report on this at the community site: ColGlen.org
The Development Trust received notification today that our application to acquire a right to buy on the Glendaruel Hotel has been accepted by the Scottish Ministers, and that copies of the application have been sent to the present owners. A prohibition on the sale of the property is now in place.
We will now await the response of the owners, and thereafter the determination of the Minister.
Another small step towards achieving the right to buy, and eventually the forest itself, was made today. We had confirmation that our application is eligible for the scheme.
Our application and our supporting documents (also published here) will be placed on the Forestry Commission website and a press release will be issued. We’ll also shortly have a formal visit from a member of the NFLS panel along with the Forest District Manager.
Today we met with the Glendaruel Village Hall to talk about how the space we’d be using in the back-room would be structured. The idea is to see if we can create a set of shelving and desk space that will fulfill our requirements as a two-day-a-week office, and the Hall’s need for a creche-and-quiet-space for the children. We think we have worked it out, so next steps are to cost, implement and then move in.
Once we have the broadband in place, we are hoping to make it accessible to all residents wanting an internet connection in the hall by supplying a computer in the hallway. Those with laptops will be able to access the wifi.
BTW. One of the more interesting challenges with getting a phoneline and broadband to the hall is that it has never been allocated a postcode — we now have one, PA22 3AE!
Written by Munro Gauld, the business plan has now been submitted as part of our application to the National Forestry Land Scheme.
Our thanks to Munro for all his hard work.
To read the document, please download it from our publications page.
Colintraive and Glendaruel Development Trust was supported in the production of this Business Plan by Highlands & Islands Enterprise.