CGDTThe Development Trust has begun its rental of space in the Colintraive Village hall today! A great step forward. We now have to wait for BT to get their act together and install the new line and broadband connection. Tsk!
On our other premises at the Glendaruel Village Hall, we’re presently awaiting the result of some survey work to allow us to plan how the shared space will work. More on this soon.
We’re beginning the count at 3pm on Friday 8th October. Shirley McLeod from the council is officiating and we expect to have a result within half an hour. The question is will the refreshments be coffee and tea or champagne?
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.
Anne Lamb and Joan Robertson are our animateurs and they will be going around Glendaruel and Colintraive respectively taking the views of everyone they can find. Not only residents, but holiday home owners and visitors. The idea is to get as full a picture as possible of what everyone thinks of the project, what we’d like to do with it, and how we might create best value out of it. Exciting stuff.
The animateurs are funded by the Community Land Unit, whom we’re very grateful to!
Tonight in the Colintraive Village Hall members of the community are invited to attend an initial meeting to investigate the possibility of creating a working group to look at the future of the village, and in particular its role as a community centre.
At the board meeting today we decided to move forward with Gordon Gray Stephen’s advice on community consultation. To this end we’re going to pursue three main threads:
All three will be critical to the formation of the business plan / extended options appraisal that we will need to complete for our application under the NFLS.
For Gordon’s full option appraisal have a look at our publications page.
Here’s the flyer for our forthcoming public meeting on 11th July.
