Last weekend an intrepid pair of Glendaruels ventured up to the chambered cairn – we thought you might like to see the photos:
Category: Renewables
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!
Last night Sara held the second of our Are You Ready? meetings. This was follow-up to the session in Edinburgh which Charles and Sara attended and was designed to develop our ideas into a more concrete format. Everyone enjoyed the session, as well as the tea and cake afterwards. We even got our new Community Forest Project Officer along too, Mark — here’s a photo of the group.
The other thing to notice is the refurbished Colintraive Village hall. Warmer, more efficient and much better acoustics mean it is truly a delight to meet there.
Congratulations to the Colintraive Village Hall Committee for perservering and coming up smelling of roses (and paint and sawdust at times too!). A wonderful team effort with contractors, volunteers and funders creating a really wonderful space. The Grand Opening is at midday tomorrow, following the Village Hall Committee AGM.
It could not have been achieved without funding and support from the Climate Challenge Fund, Argyll and the Islands LEADER Programme, Cruach Mhor Windfarm Trust, and Argyll & Bute Council. The work was carried out by John Brown (Strone) Ltd, Forteiths Heating and Refrigeration Ltd, Gibson’s of Dunoon [electrical], Jim Carruthers [decorator], Calum Maclean and Andy Henderson [for the hearing loop and acoustic treatments].
Today Charles and Sara attended the follow up workshop in Edinburgh, building on the very successful Are You Ready? pilot at Colintraive Village Hall in February. For more information on the project, and the very successful day of resilience imagineering with agencies, utilities and communities, click here. The Trust will be contacting participants in the first event shortly to begin the process of creating a fully-fledged resilience programme.
Colintraive and Glendaruel Development Trust (CGDT) have purchased Stronafian Forest and are now recruiting for a dynamic Community Forest Development Officer.
CGDT are delighted to confirm that they have now purchased Stronafian Forest on the Cowal Peninsula, Argyll. The forest, purchased for £1.55M from the Forestry Commission under the National Forest Land Scheme, will provide the community of Colintraive and Glendaruel with opportunities to create sustainable housing, woodland crofts, renewable energy sources and wonderful amenity spaces.
The Trust has been working since early 2010 on the acquisition of the 600ha+ woodland, developing a thorough-going business plan, as well as working on the funding package which includes £1.3M from a commercial tenant for the rights to the commercial forestry over 99 years. Alongside this tranche of money, raised from the private sector, the trust has also raised over £300,000, both for the balance of the purchase price, but also the legal fees and a two year Community Forest Project Officer post. The trust believe this is the first purchase of its kind to combine private and public sectors in a community woodland acquisition.
Come Work With Us
The Trust are still recruiting for the post which offers an exciting blend of community engagement, project management and business development in a forest context. The Community Forest Project Officer will be tasked with taking forward a community wind turbine, developing 4-6ha woodland crofts and preparing building plots for self-build and affordable homes, as well as making the forest accessible to the local community and its visitors. This is an opportunity to work with one of the West Coast’s most innovative trusts, in an environment of outstanding natural beauty, with a community whose Hogmanays are reputed to be the best in Argyll. To apply download our application form here.
CGDT’s chair, Charles Dixon-Spain said, “We are thrilled with this acquisition which is confirmation of the momentum our community has been building over the last five years. Colintraive and Glendaruel is a community that has been in decline for many years, and the Trust feels this purchase signals the renewing of our community, of bringing people in and services back and of ensuring the future of those services that we have held onto. Thanks to everyone who has helped us get to this stage!”
CGDT wish to thank Forestry Commission Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Argyll and the Islands LEADER, the Scottish Land Fund, the Big Fund, Aitchesse Ltd. and our tenant for all their help, financial support and encouragement over the last three years.
Alan Caldwell brought the Are You Ready? project to Colintraive Village Hall this evening. With 17 residents, Sara led an interesting and lively session looking at how we can be ready for the increasingly turbulent weather that climate change is likely to bring. The group established the outline of an action plan which the DT was tasked with taking forward. The next step is to attend a follow-up session in Edinburgh and find out how and when we might implement things. For more on this, click here.
For those of you keeping an eye on our developing plans for Stronafian, we have just published the updated Business Plan on our publications page.
As part of the CCF initiative we’ve got a carbon footprint calculator on the front page of the Warmer Colglen website. It’s a great tool to see how much carbon you are producing — go on have a go, its a reall eye-opener!
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.