Knoydart Foundation Directors Meeting Monday 10/02/2025

by | Mar 12, 2025 | About Us, Minutes of Previous Meetings | 0 comments

Knoydart Foundation Meeting Minutes

Knoydart Community Hall, 6pm

Attending: Davie Newton, Rhona Miller, Terra Burgoyne, Aaran Watson, Jane Hollowood, Reagan Nunn, Ness Porter, Jenny Ruddle, Sarah Wilson, Calum Wilson, John Cocker, Jo Firminger, Kristy Brown, Philip Evemy, Helen Evemy, Denise Atherley, Stuart Dillett, Tom Dalziel, Steve Brook, Corinna Calder, Sara Donald, Ben Nunn, Grant Holroyd

Apologies:  Tom Harris

Declarations of Interest: Reagan Nunn declares an interest as a farm director

Minutes of Previous Meetings inc. single item agenda meetings

January Board Meeting minutes – Approved

Matters arising

Matters arising and actions from last Meeting

Updates and reports

  1. Knoydart Trading Update- Rhona Miller- Just had meeting. Next one will be 1 week before KF meeting to allow report. Busy couple of months. Shop new merch and mail order from website. Bunkhouse- mould battle and new person starting April. Butchery making profit and new products. Wee Hooses temporary water supply solution. Ness and Jane going to take on approval of payments. RM thanks all staff and directors in KT. Liz had her last meeting with us – thanks to all her work as a trading director
  2. KRL update- Tom D- Written report available. Will be complete after quarterly board meeting tomorrow night. Agenda has been sent out. Discussing revised tariff from beginning April.
  3. Foundation Office update – Arranging settlement of loan with Triodos. Toby’s Manitou has been purchased, quotes from three training companies probably will go with a refresher course. Will need to be fully insured. People will pay for the course themselves, but the foundation will facilitate it. A logbook will be needed. Sent newsletter to FOK – had some lovely feedback. Insured telehandler with NFU – £423 till Sept 25 (in line with policy). NFU finalising the quote to separate KT from KF policy. KR signed a service agreement for 2025. KT reviewing service agreement at meeting
  4. Land management update – FIRNS, Deer Management budget, management agreements, Deer Management Group JMT – Nothing to report until a meeting on Wednesday
  5. Ranger update – genny shed, masts, mapping and next year. – No update from Finlay
  6. Sara Donald Project manager report
    1. Workers Accommodation Project – Cristien has been back on site since the end of January. Been working on haulage plan to inform people of movements. Funding from Highland Council’s top up grant has been drawn down to cover first bill. Working hours has been agreed with KF following the Highland Council’s guidance. Community will be made aware if working hours will be extended due to noise.
    1. Construction Support Facility – Ideally will be set up by the end of March. Funding from HIE confirmed and agreement signed. Sleeper and welfare cabins in stock.
    1. Millburn Cottage – Architects are working on building warrant. Harley Haddow have quoted a water supply – if we go ahead with this we have funding from HIE to cover 74% of the costs.
    1. Bunkhouse – Getting quote replace the roof.
    1. Housing Maintenance – Discuss Small Isles and Knoydart Housing Management Partnership.
    1. Aaran will be replacing Richard Williams as Sara’s Line manager.
    1. Directors Agreed to discuss Small Isles and Knoydart Housing management partnership.

Items for decision/recording

  • OSCR report – Davie as chair of KF ,was informed by OSCR, the Scottish charity regulator that concerns were raised that relate to; Allegations of dominant behaviour of the Chair and decisions being made which were not with the agreement or involvement of the Board, and allegations that the Chair is not managing conflicts of interest appropriately. OSCR do not intend to investigate any allegations at this stage and feel it appropriate to just highlight it to the board’s chairs and trustees. The board agrees that the allegations against the chair are baseless and gave staff the opportunity to comment. The Directors agree that Davie is a credit to the board and brings a wealth of knowledge and insight and is helping to move the foundation in the right direction. The Foundation has been through a period of instability over the last few years and he has put a huge amount of his personal time to get to the bottom of often complex matters and his efforts have steered the Foundation forward to a better place. The board would like to acknowledge and thank Davie for everything he has done and also reassure the community that we are all involved in decision making and deal with conflicts of interest when and if they arise. All meeting attendees agree and made similar statements of support and praise for Davie and his efforts.
    • Perhaps there could be an anonymous way to raise a grievance directly to the Foundation.
    • AP – look into a way for anonymous grievances to made directly to the Foundation.
    • AP – Corinna to write up a formal usage agreement
    •  Mobile Sauna proposal – Directors agree with the proposal as it is able to be moved and no   planning permission is needed. A discussion may be needed to come up with a written agreement. Discussion about hygiene, tidiness and water.
  • Farm extension proposal – Directors agree in principal to extend the area of the farm’s rented field. Need to discuss how much to increase the rent by.

Items for discussion

  • Community garden fencing etc
    • In the original lease agreement with the Foundation, the Foundation is responsible for the upkeep of the fence.
    • A slightly larger car park is going to be made and new fencing is needed.
    • The garden is proposing to split the costs of the fencing and the digger work for the parking space with the Foundation.
    • Discussion about reviewing the garden’s lease
    • Because car parking space will be needed with the new workers accommodation, the cost could be included into that project.
    • AP – for the garden to get a quote for the fencing and come back to the board and let the residents know that Calum will be using the digger next week
    • AP – the directors to review the current lease with the community garden
    • Directors agree that Calum can add more parking space and they will pay £450 of the cost.
  • Current spending explained.
    • Workers accommodation – total cost – just under £1million. 90% funded from external sources. 10% funded from reserves after last year’s donations from KF and Trading. Spending has started with initial outlay of £78k. £62k has come in from one funding source.
    • Construction workers compound – total cost £120k – this has risen from original £100k projection with the addition of infrastructure works at Millburn. Support coming from HIE. Original intervention rate was 50% so we budgeted and agreed a top spend of £50k. Intervention rate from HIE has increased to 75%. This has allowed us to focus some money on the purchase of Manitou. We are awaiting planning. Foundation Group long term targets
    • Manitou – this has been bought from the liquidators of Knoydart Construction. Its operation and maintenance will be managed through the foundation office in the first instance. Its acquisition addresses a gap left in the support for delivery to major projects. There was no direct funding towards this item – although see above. It is expected that major projects(Workers Accommodation/Millburn) will pay for the use of this machine and therefore contribute towards cost and maintenance.
    • Genny shed – Nearing completion. Support for works had come through Renewables project funding and HIE support to Ranger service development and diversification. No further financial implications other than hopefully an increased income stream.
    • Mortgage – Jacqui and Corinna noticed the opportunity to pay off the remains of an outstanding mortgage. The mortgage had 8 years to run and paying off the principle of £67k would save in the region of £35k over the eight years. There was some discussion with accountants about whether this was the right thing to do. In the end they were convinced that the financial position of the Foundation and the rest of the group was stable enough to allow this to happen. The recent bequest to the Foundation helped with this decision. At present we will not discharge the standard security on this mortgage.
    • FIRNS – ongoing support for FIRNS project. This is externally funded.
    • Current financial position – The current financial position is generally good – although there is, as seen above, a fair amount of movement of funds at the Foundation. The end of year accounts are being drawn up and there will be some level of donation from the Trading Company. Money at bank – 10/02/2025: KF operations – £51,50 KF no.2 account- £48,400 KF triodos – £316,100 KT current account – £190,600.
    • Long Term targets – Davie has made a detailed document of future projects and their projected costs. How can the profits of the companies be used for the betterment of the larger group.
    • AP – KF directors to arrange a separate meeting to discuss
    • AP – Davie to send out document to the community
  • HebNet and fibre update
    • Hoping to connect the fibre as far as the generator send and turbine shed to allow renewables to move past their current funding phase. There are a few gaps which will be worked on in the coming months. Once that is started properties can begin being connected. Building a new site in Mallaig on the pier to connect to. Rearranging the masts at the top of the pier. Taking over the management of the school over the summer.
  • Place plan – No update

 AOB

  • Davie and Sara had a meeting with Cristoph Henkel about some of the comments from the community meeting last month.
    • Discussion about borrow pit for community use.