Knoydart Community Hall, 6pm
Attending: Davie Newton, Calum Wilson, Danny Gorman, Angie Rupp, Sam Eisson, Kristy Brown, Tom Dalziel, Andrew Baldrey, Sara Donald, Liz Tibbets, Reagan Nunn
Apologies: Richard Willams, Tom Harris, Corinna Calder
Declarations of Interest: None
Minutes of Previous Meetings inc. single item agenda meetings:
April Board Meeting Minutes-Approved
Matters arising: Matters arising and actions from Last Meeting
- DN and SD to discuss next steps in operations role- ongoing.
Updates
- Knoydart Trading Update- Liz Tibbets- No Update regarding accommodation. Shop increased income this month compared to this month last year.
- KRL update-Ops Report Available. Undergrounding work is now underway. A cable road has been established and work has begun on the road crossings. Tariff and Pricing policy is under review. ROCs income will finish March 2027. Currently devising a business plan. Adjusting electricity bill timing to bring it into line with other financial planning and reporting. The last quarter of this year will be short Nov-Dec bill. Will is retiring from meter reading, Costa is taking the role over.
DN- had meeting with HIE- discussed getting a financial advisor in to help and advice regarding renewables funds being used as a support for KF cash flow in the short term.
Backup generator diesel capacity, it would be useful to have additional capacity but not a problem currently. Need to figure out if it is worthwhile making that capital outlay.
- Foundation Office update – gift aid/day to day/electrical/historic debt/ Profit and Loss at trading company/organising bookkeepers to get accounts up to date.
- Land management update – FIRNS and Land Management budget. Blackhill’s has been tied off. The funding for FIRNS has come through. Jim and Lorna are interviewing for a project officer at the end of this week. Jim is looking at the land management budget, there has been some issues with the uptake of paid stocking guests mostly due to accommodation issues e.g. Kilchoan has not been available/ is now unaffordable.
- Ranger update- The rangers shed has been delayed a bit more partly by renewables and waiting on Davie. Hopefully this will move on this week. Costa has settled in well.
Items for decision/recording: None
Reports
- Accommodation Project Officer report. – Written Report Available
DN- Had discussion with HIE, they seem very keen to support the accommodation and welfare cabins as a separate entity to the workers accommodation. They would like to see costings to do with placement, hard standing, sewage etc. The support would be over and above the workers accommodation funding. Need to discuss this and where they will go with the community. There is a lead time for the units of 8-12 weeks. One suggestion is in the woods in front of stalkers shed for welfare unit. Whether or not the accommodation is there is another discussion/ decision. Also need to be ready to decide regarding a mortgage for the workers accommodation.
Angie Rupp leaves
AP- All board- single item agenda meeting for workers accommodation.
AP- Arrange community meeting to discuss the above
SD- Need for a business plan to make sure the final building is paying its way regarding mortgage.
Items for discussion
- Accounts- P&L accounts for KF and KT. DN didn’t find them very helpful. Created a summary of the financial position in May for the last 5 years. Looks like there is lots of money currently. KF has £330K, £40K is the FIRNS grant. 2 years ago, there was an income of £119K, in the last year and a half the capital has reduced by £60K at the KF. KT balance at £126K, that is increase on previous 2 years of £35K. Explained mostly by full payments taken on booking rather than deposits and also reduction in intercompany transactions. It doesn’t show in profit and loss, on balance sheet it is shown as prepaid income. KT looks healthy at this moment. KRL isn’t in the summary, but their intention is to transfer some money to KF. DN- believes that Jo Firminger wasn’t that far off when she saw the KF losing year on year £50K, DN thinks more likely £35-40K, if we can have donations from KT to match that then may be closer to breaking even.
P&L looks like wee hooses, bunkhouse etc. is losing money but it only shows until March and they are actually all making money even the butchery.
- Recruitment – operations role. Ongoing AP- DN to complete.
- Legal representation – meetings with John Leyshon. DN and Jim Brown had a meeting with John Leyshon and cleared up some lease issues.
- Untours contact- Slow tourism group that has a foundation associated with it. Got in touch via Wildness Scotland. Would like to invest in some slow tourism destination points. Possibly some opportunities from slow tourism and The Blackhills project. Slow tourism is like the slow food movement, it is characterized by reducing mobility and by taking time to explore local history and culture, while supporting the environment and local community.
- Islands connectivity plan- Highland council have done a response to Scottish government consultation. Normally something that the community council would deal with, but DN wanted to make people aware of it as Knoydart is specifically mentioned in the Highland councils response. The consultation is closed but Andrew Baldrey has been assured that we can still feed into it.
Frank has been discussing disabled access to the pier, this may be something that could be raised via this consultation. AP- Tom Dalziel to mention at next SKCC meeting.
AOB. None
Post Meeting Discussion
Discussion around the accommodation and welfare units (see above). Question if it would be possible to get something prettier/ wooden. Discussion around the lead time for custom units being years rather than weeks which is why the pub got these units. Discussion around pub staff members not loving the accommodation. There are 3 types behind the pub:
- Bedsit type
- 2 single beds with a kitchen/ bathroom in the middle
- 3. A double bed in a separate bedroom.
Davie suggests that the bedsit ones work the best but there are other considerations such as the number of beds required etc.
Date of Next Meeting: Monday 10th June 6pm Community Hall
