Category: Colintraive and Glendaruel Development Trust

As a director and volunteer with CGDT I have been involved since the steering group in 2008. I was instrumental in the 605ha Stronafian Forest for 1.55M and helped run two highly successful CCF projects.

Announcing CGDT’s New Community Forest Project Officers

CGDT is pleased to announce that the trust has recruited Eamon King and Margaret Shields to the post of Community Forest Project Officer for the remainder of the initial  phase of the Stronafian Forest project funded by the Scottish Land Fund and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Eamon and Margaret started in their new posts on Monday and will be taking forward the huge variety of projects for the Forests together in a jobshare arrangement which provides the trust and the community with the best of both worlds.

Both project officers will be available at the CGDT office during the week, please drop by to find out who is in and when.

For more information contact: cgdt@cgdt.org

Community Windturbines for Colintraive & Glendaruel take a small step forward with CGDT

Last night at the presentation by CGDT’s consultants Locogen Ltd. in the Colintraive Village Hall,  those assembled moved that we  progress to the next stage of the process which will hopefully result in the construction of three wind turbines for the community on Stronafian Forest.

Over the next couple of weeks Locogen will finalise and submit a planning application for a Meteorological Mast on site in the forest to test the wind speeds available. The mast will provide the community a clear indication as to whether the development will be economically worthwhile. Alongside this the environmental and landscape impact surveys will continue, and the Development Trust board will report progress on the project in full at the AGM on the 20th July which of course the entire commuinty is invited to.

In the meantime, the trust will be publishing the presentation on the CGDT website shortly, along with an opportunity to ask questions both of the board and the consultants. We’re also happy to make presentations to any group in the community who want to know more.

As readers may remember, the development of a wind turbine was a key element of the Stronafian Forest Plan developed by the CGDT consultant Munro Gauld, and will provide for the longterm sustainability of our community. In his research for this project, CGDT director Bill Carlow has calculated that a single turbine will offset all electricity use in ColGlen entirely – that is reduce our carbon footprint to 0 tonnes for all household electricity.

Bill went further, and to offset all our energy use, including transport, business use and construction, we only require three turbines (our ideal solution for this project). In other words, for this community we can, in one fell swoop, cancel out all the carbon we emit as well as provide for an income which will ensure we are sustainable longterm.

Land Reform Review Group publishes its report recommending significant empowerment to communities in Scotland

So this is not for everyone, but for those of us who have been engaged in Community Development work over the years, this report is highly significant. Not only does it recommend a right to buy for communities, but the ability for Community Councils to recommend compulsory purchase orders (see below). There’re also recommendations on State Aids and de minimis which are very welcome. The Community Land Scotland conference is well-timed to discuss and debate the recommendations, and I am looking forward to it!

Here’s the detail on Right to Buy

At present, local communities have the option of one statutory land right. This is the right of local communities acting through an ‘appropriate community body’ to exercise a right of pre-emption over land under Part 2 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.

The Land Reform Review Group considers that local communities should have other statutory options to fit different circumstances and issues. The Group recommends in this Report that local communities should have four additional land rights. These are described in the text of the Report and summarised below.

With each right, the criteria for the appropriate local community body remain the same and based on those in Part 2 of the 2003 Act. The thresholds of requirements to be met for each right would progressively increase from numbers 1 to 5, with the increasingly significant nature of the rights involved.

1. Right to Register an Interest over Land
Process that enables an appropriate local community body in defined circumstances to register an interest over land where that is judged to be in the public interest, and then to be notified of the sale and any change of ownership of the land.

2. Right of Pre-emption to Buy Land
Process that enables an appropriate local community body in defined circumstances to register a right of pre-emption over land and to exercise that right if the land is to be sold, where that is judged by Scottish Ministers to be in the public interest.

3. Right to Request to Buy Public Land
Process that enables an appropriate local community body in defined circumstances to buy public land, whether or not it is for sale, where that is judged to be in the public interest by the public body responsible for the land or by Scottish Ministers.

4. Right to Buy Land
Process that enables an appropriate local community body in defined circumstances to buy land which is not for sale, where that is judged by Scottish Ministers to be in the public interest.

5. Right to Request a Compulsory Purchase Order over Land
Process that enables an appropriate local community body in defined circumstances to request Scottish Ministers to exercise a CPO over land for re-sale to the community body, where that is judged by Ministers to be in the public interest.

The lo-res report is available on Scottish Government website here and the high resolution version here.

The picture shows communities which own land in our area, including Colintraive and Glendaruel’s own Stronafian Forest.

Community Broadband in Colintraive & Glendaruel takes a step closer with decision to move to Phase 2

On Thursday night a meeting of over 50 residents of Colintraive and Glendaruel agreed to take the next step towards improving the parlous broadband provision in ColGlen. With Community Broadband Scotland’s help (ably represented by Campbell Cameron on the night) those present tasked the Development Trust to take the community into the feasibility phase of the process which began with a scoping study carried out over the last three months.

The Scoping study, available here, shows what we already knew – very few people achieve more than a .5MB connection on the present service. There is an appetite for a better level of connectivity and a frustration with the present service.

The meeting discussed what is happening at a national level, how we are placed in that, and when BT might get around to upgrading our service themselves. Once the feasibility study is in place the community can then make an informed decision as to whether we should move forward with our own project or await BT’s own provision sometime in 2016.

 

 

Important community meetings for CGDT: on broadband and renewables

windoposterTwo dates for your diary if you are resident in Colintraive and Glendaruel:

  • There’s a meeting on Local Broadband provision this Thursday, 15th May at 6pm in Colintraive Village Hall
  • There’s a presentation by our wind turbine consultants Locogen Ltd on 28th May at 7pm, in Colintraive Village Hall.

The Development Trust will also be making their monthly report at the Community Council meeting on 19th May at 7.30pm in Colintraive Village Hall.

CGDT uses timesheets to record everyone’s activities – and that means the directors too now!

cgdt-timesheetThe Development Trust board was thinking about how to leverage the hours and hours of voluntary time that it puts into the organisation. The first problem is how to record that time. The answer, of course, is to use the timesheets that Sara has developed for the CCF project. Of course, we are all slightly wary of recording the hours we put in because there might be too many … but too many at least means more match-funding, no? I think we win either way!

There are lots of events coming up related to CGDT’s activities, including our AGM on the 20th July (1400hrs), a consultation on Community Wind Turbines on 28th May (1900hrs) and a meeting about our progress on Community Broadband on 15th May (1800hrs). There’ll be a newsletter coming out soon as well.

#CGDT is recruiting for a New Community Forest Project Officer: it’s a varied role at the heart of our community

This is an extraordinary opportunity to work with a highly successful Development Trust in a truly beautiful ‘neck of the woods’. For a year the successful candidate will work with the excellent CGDT team who have developed an exciting and varied roster of projects. From Archaeology to a Dark Skies park, from Woodfuel to Woodland Crofts, from Housing to renewables, this is a contract for only the most able and most ambitious community development officers.

You’ll be supported by an experienced and professional voluntary board toward each of the project outcomes while also having an eye on extending the contract beyond the funding that we have available to us.

If this is interesting to you, to read more, download the application or contact the trust, please visit the CGDT website here.

Panorama from Stronafian Community Forest to the blue afforested hills of Bute and Kilfinan

Today a group of directors with potential contractors visited the highest point in Stronafian Community Forest – of which a panorama above. We were nearly blown away by the ferocious April blast. But the views were terrific! The forests of Bute and Kilfinan in the blue distance to the south. Our forest closer at hand. Invigorating. A good reminder, as we sit at desk or in kitchen burrowing into the interweb,  of how we should get out more often into the heathery, blustery hills. Certainly there was lots of thigh strain, huff, puff and deep breathing – and that was getting out of the car.

By the way, this weekend we have the Bin Men in Colintraive Village Hall from 6pm onwards on Saturday, and there’s also the big archaeology weekend at the chambered cairn in the Forest. A great weekend to be in ColGlen. More accurate details here. And more photos soon!

James Hilder => #ConflictResolution Guru from An Roth

Yesterday myself and Nikki Woolf (CGDT Greener ColGlen admin and communications officer as well as KCFC Forest Operations Administrator) attended James Hilder’s inspirational and really-very-useful seminar on conflict resolution held by the Community Woodlands Association in Ardfern.

Some real nuggets came up and some hugely useful processes, all of which I hope we can implement at CGDT. Preparation was the one which came up again and again – the best way to deal with destructive conflict is to prepare yourself and your organisation so that it doesn’t happen. Communicate well, and much of the angst of conflict is obviated – and if there is conflict, it is a useful, thought-provoking, solutions-oriented, issue-based process.

Thanks James, great day!

Are Your Ready Workshop Presentation: What does a climate ready community look like in 2050?

The following assumes that increasingly climate change will force communities, particularly rural ones, towards self-sustainability as far as possible …  Continue reading Are Your Ready Workshop Presentation: What does a climate ready community look like in 2050?

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