Author: Dixon-Spain

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.

By request: a 11×8.5″ flyer for Highland Games in North America

We have several Lairds and Ladies who throughout the summer attend Highland Gatherings in North America, and wish to spread the word about our marvellous project so we have designed a trifold flyer in American proportions. What we will do is print these out in the US or Canada and get them sent to any Laird or Lady who goes to these events regularly – if that describes you, and you’d like to promote the project to restore the castle, let the ScottishLaird team know by emailing them here.

marketing-outside

marketing-inside

Meet the Likely Lairds Radcliffe & Maconie from Radio 6 Music

Over the last twelve months the ScottishLaird office has spent its afternoons listening to the superbly funny Radcliffe & Maconie show on BBC Radio 6 Music. All of us have spent many frantic minutes trying to guess the Teatime Themetime feature – and to my shame I never, ever get it right.

A week or so ago there was a feature on silversmiths, one of whom volunteered to make the guys a crown. That turned out to be too expensive, so we thought we’d send over a Laird package for them.

Today the gentlemen announced their ascension to the ranks of our Lairds and Ladies.

Here’s the iPlayer catchup version of the show. 1 hour 41 mins

It sounds as though they were thoroughly entertained by the idea which is absolutely as it should be, as they have so thoroughly entertained us over the last year.

They are the “Likely Lairds” …

Video: Barty Basset Hound Sleeping Very, Very Loudly!

Barty Bassett Sleeping Loudly.

Click on the link to hear Barty sleeping soundly and so loudly that we were unable to hear the TV.

The Joy of Tours at Dunans on the #MayDay #BankHoliday

Both Colin and myself took tours today. I chose the easier option and took Scot AnSgeulaiche’s Jamie and Claire Tour based on the Outlander series of books by Diana Gabaldon. What a lovely bunch of folks from Canada and the US (pictured above taking photos of the newly annointed Lady Sue on her square foot). We did the full circuit including looking through the trees, over the ravine, at the C-listed Fletcher Mausoleum.

Colin on the other hand, was tasked with showing a 32-man tour around – they all definitely had a ball – and there are a bunch of photos on Facebook taken by Jean Donaldson, our fab in-house photographer. The shot below, just shows how many folks that is. A really good day at Dunans!

crowdonthebridge

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.

#onmyplaylist: @KateTempest debut album Everybody Down = greatness

Kate Tempest – Everybody Down

While I was working on spreadsheets I was looking for something that would keep me engaged. Saw this reviewed as 4 star, didn’t read the review, but saw Kate’s photo and thought to myself, well, there’s a face that I kind of recognise (can you guess who I was thinking of?). I’ll listen I thought. This is a hardcore album for those who prefer their music unfluffy, vexed and mostly verbal. Great rap. Acute observation. From South London. Reminds me of my time in North London & the Bush & Goldhawk Rd. “Chicken” especially is genius – makes the link between her beginnings as a performance poet and the music. Standout is ‘The Beigeness’ though.

 

It is such a lovely day I decided to take some panoramas of our A-listed Bridge

pano-bridge-vertical… to celebrate the refresh of the Dunans Charitable Trust website at Dunans.org. We’ve shed some dead wood, organised the information more clearly and changed the header photo to the main feature shot here.  However, the portrait of the bridge (right) is my favourite showing the main arch, adorned as it is, with self-seeded foliage.

Later: having posted the images above I then had a moment waiting for the children to return from school. I used the time to take a couple of different panoramas, the second of which I think shows in a very succinct way the difficulties anyone would face accessing Dunans in anything bigger than a 7.5 tonne truck.

pano-thinner-edit
bridge-pano-diff

 

Progress on the Bridge! We’re devising applications to Historic Scotland and Heritage Lottery Fund this week to effect its repair and restoration.

bigbridgeThe next stage in our progress to restoring Dunans, notwithstanding the ongoing consultation on our Conservation Plan, is putting in place the funds for the repair of the bridge. Today I have been working on the application to Historic Scotland on behalf of the Dunans Charitable Trust. I’ve now worked through the entire online form (excerpt attached to this post) and I am beginning the process of making the application to the Heritage Lottery Fund while I await feedback. Necessarily this is a detailed process, but the work that Robin Kent and David Narro associates have put in on the Conservation Plan and Indicative Costings make the whole process much less onerous than I thought it would be.

Once we have finalised the application we’ll be publishing the submitted form (less confidential material) on the Dunans Charitable Trust website here.

#CommunityBenefit: How not to consult with a community on a small renewables project

Last night I witnessed what I can only described as the worst cast of community consultation I have ever seen.

A landowner, who had already submitted their planning application for a small renewables scheme, was invited by the relevant community council to their normal monthly meeting to discuss their [the landowner’s] plans. The Community Council had been unaware that there was an application submitted until after the statutory consultation period had passed. It was therefore concerned to, first assess what the community’s view on the project was and second, to understand why the landowner had not been proactive and consulted with the CC months prior to the application being submitted, as would have been good practice, diligent and good manners.

The landowner sent two employees to the meeting, who proceeded to give the Community Council and all those assembled that the reason that the community hadn’t been consulted in person prior to the submission of the planning application was that there was no requirement for the landowner to do so, and that they, the landowner had fulfilled all their statutory obligations. They said that the planning materials had been posted in the usual places, and if the Community Council hadn’t received the application in time to look at it prior to submission that was (and I am paraphrasing a little) the Council’s fault.

Not only that, on further questioning, the landowner then implied that the community should support the application because of all the advantageous leases and permissions the landowner gave to the community, and that there was no way of separating the issue of the planning application and these other relationships in the community.

The Community Council chair did sterling work to insist that the landowner brought back the developers themselves to make a presentation to the community, to negotiate appropriate community benefit and to start a more consensual approach to the project.

Personally, I was appalled by the lack of foresight, the arrogance and the obvious patrician attitude that the landowner could behave in this way and not be brought to account. Unluckily for the landowner, the CC chair had already received an undertaking from the local planning department that until the consultation had taken place, no determination on the application would be made.

I suspect that the consultation meeting will be very well attended when the time comes.

Landowners like this harm the cause of renewables, and therefore the battle against global warming.

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