Knoydart Community Hall, 6pm
Attending: Davie Newton, Danny Gorman, Corinna Calder, Liz Tibbets, Sam Eason, Kristy Brown, Finlay Greig, Grant Holroyd, Helen Evemy, Philip Evemy, Janey DeNorwall, Tom Dalziel, Costa Cotran, Matt Porter, Calum Wilson, Tom Harris, Sara Donald, Trish Birch, Reagan Nunn.
Apologies: None
Declarations of Interest: None
Minutes of Previous Meetings inc. single item agenda meetings
July Board Meeting minutes
GH- Quoted at end under plan- not accurate- ‘GH advised that those involved’- to be removed.
LT- Trading Update- Social Media Help is from Yuliya not Calum.
Approved with the above changes.
Matters arising
Matters arising and actions from Last Meeting
- Finlay Greig- to meet with Bernie to look at records- ongoing
- DG- to gather resources/ place plan- see later in agenda
Updates
- Knoydart Trading Update- Welcomed Jane Hollowood and Ness Porter to the board. Given managers £5k annual maintenance allowance for each department and any extra expenditure needs to go to the board. Continuing marketing for venison but reducing hours to keep costs down. Not yet having result but would like to continue with the Facebook posts for now. Agreed £33,000 donation to foundation for year ending Dec 23.
- KRL update- Written Report Available.
July data sparce due to connection issues and Kyle being away so not being able to resolve this.
Undergrounding ongoing according to plan. Site visit last week looking at downhill section to Scotas field, tricky area. Necessary to have some outages to keep within existing routes to avoid damage to well established trees.
Discussions with accounts, KF and lawyers to agree mechanism of donation to KF- looking for tax advantage but future availability of funds to KRL. Have agreed £100k donation which will be made before 30th September.
Hosting a visit from Eigg Electric & Community Energy Scotland for a programme of information exchange.
Qn when is KF AGM? Auditor to send over full documentation in next week once donations confirmed. Will be before 30th September. Suggestion Friday 20th or Friday 27th September.
Discussion around charging boats from pier and trying to set this up as part of undergrounding project. This will be an additional income stream for KRL.
- Foundation Office update- written report available.
- Land management update – FIRNS, Deer Management budget(draft), management agreements, Deer Management Group. – Written Reports Available.
Suggestion that community consultation may feed into the local place plan (later in agenda).
- Ranger update – Written Report Available.
Turnover incl. grant income is £45,300 up to August. Costs £21,222. Operating profit £24,100 until August.
Busy with tours, up on tour and camping bookings on same period last year. Costa’s kids classes have been a hit.
Genny shed building warrant approved. Concrete pouring for ramp to go ahead this week.
Shared rural network. Labour government considering dropping funding for non-spot areas.
Nature Scot funding potentially drying up, Finaly exploring funding from post code earth trust for seasonal ranger next year.
Some anti-social behaviour at the campsite, ranger is monitoring it and put up signage.
Items for decision/recording
- KFT request to add accommodation to lease area-
KFT had community consultation to add seasonal workers housing on KFT lease area. Lease at present doesn’t allow for accommodation and requesting permission to add this to the lease. Lease, responses and drawings available.
Plan: 3 units to accommodate up to 6 people. Out of season would hope that could be rented for other purposes to help pay for them. Expect land rent to go up as upgrade to current lease. Need conversation about how much to pay but at moment looking for approval in principle to allow planning application to go in.
Review due between KF and KFT every 3 years and plan to have this in the next few months.
Some concern over commercial lease and need to comply with short term let rules and potential conflict with what KF are trying to do.
All other commercial leases have been reviewed at 4% increase across the board starting 1st August.
All agree to moving forward with accommodation plan.
AP- DN and KFT to have review meeting
Reports
- Accommodation Project Officer report. – Written Report Available
Items for discussion
- AGM and new directors- Nomination forms to go out to community on Friday. Kristy still has to decide if she will re-stand. Aiming for AGM on the 20th September. Confirm ASAP once hear back from accountants.
- Planning application- has been submitted for KF construction workers units that are planned for behind pub and library.
- Accounts
Cash at bank overview- Aug total funds KF £325K, total funds incl KT £495K, this includes £55K grant funding. KT are donating £33K and KRL £100K to KF. KT money may be overstated at bank as service agreement to KF hasn’t been agreed and there will be some back dating of this. KF still making year on year loss but looking much better than it has for a long time.
- Place plan-
MP- Place Plan is a national program driven by highland council to try to democratise planning in rural communities. HC are working on a local development plan. They are encouraging community councils to come up with place plans. Focus on use of land but also environment, ecology, climate change, jobs, housing etc. Different places have different focus.
MP feels Community Council (CC) should take this forward and not KF. Community planning act that states the constitution of organisations that create a place plan which CC fit. Also place plans are meant to interlock with other places. Therefore, HC are keen that it is a CC responsibility. It should be democratic and transparent.
Need for it to be joint between KF and KCC. MP wants to put a team together to do it.
DG and TH have been liaising on behalf of KF. DG and MP met last week.
Qn: Do you need to have one or is it a choice? Encouraged by HC but not legal requirement.
Grant- CC are not good at consulting the community and should have a transparent consultation process before moving forward with this.
Sam- if the plan is made is that then binding, or does it get reviewed over time? It gets turned into specific planning guidelines. HC can overrule these but gives them a steer of what people want.
Calum- is there a timeline on putting the plan together? Not really, we wanted to put it together before local development plan but that is coming out October 2024. Hope to put framework in place by end of 2024.
Costa would like to get involved in nature, agriculture and archaeological part.
DN- concern over the amount of work and ranger involvement and cost to KF. Also concern about further consultation and perhaps one line saying that local consultation is priority on KF land is enough. Locally people rarely comment on neighbouring land.. Concern that it will create a barrier for own development.
MP- having a broad consultation means may need less consultation on individual applications. Empowering community to take view on adjoining land.
Trish- Concern that it is a lot of work and may not be necessary as there are already local processes in place and this may make it harder for people wanting to build.
MP- Other CC plans that are trying to open affordable housing.
Trish- We already have rural housing burden. This adds extra layer of bureaucracy.
MP- shouldn’t affect people wanting to build house but is a background plan, especially if building areas are identified.
Calum- Is this going to help people going through the planning application.
MP- Yes, if ring zones for development are identified it should then speed up the planning process. It will only cause barriers in areas that have been identified as not wanting to be developed
Grant- If done well it could be very positive.
AP- MP, DG, TH to move place plan forward
Update on 25th anniversary celebrations
- Fri 13th Sep Table Night
- Sat 14th Sep- Hall event start 11am, lunch, speeches, film, photo, tours and walks, exhibitions, music, dancing, D.J’s
- Suggestion that KF and KFT allocate some funds to make the event a success. Need suggestion of how much before agreement.
AOB
AP- Finlay- to contact western isles to update contact point.
Date of next meeting: 14.10.24, 6pm @ Hall
