COLONSAY COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Draft Minutes of Colonsay Community Council

Meeting held on 4th February 2019 at 6:30pm

Councillors Present : Keith Rutherford (KR), Helen Mann (HM), David Hobhouse (DH), Alex Howard (AH), Kevin Byrne (KB), Liz McNicoll (LM), Richard Buttrick (RB)

Members of community present: Jan Brooks; Sue Dance, Donald MacNeill (minute secretary)

Item	Discussion	Action/Decision
1. Apologies	Jane Howard (JH)

2. Minutes of last meeting	Minutes of last meeting not formally approved	Carry over

3. Declarations of interest	None Declared at this stage of the meeting
4.Matters arising from previous minutes.	Community Council Website. Oban Hostel . KB expressed concern that parents may be being pushed into allowing their children to come home on a Friday ferry in anticipation of no Saturday flight, thus missing out on schooling. After robust discussion it was decided to monitor the situation. Accounts Almost finalised. Service Point Funding . Dannie Onn has written to the council to ask for clarification of the situation. Sue Dance reported that CCDC were actively investigating how to enhance the service and LM made suggestions as to how the service point could be more user friendly. Broadband No further progress. Ferries It was remarked from the floor that Calmac had reinstated a hitherto cancelled ferry. This should be noted as up to this point a cancellation decision had been regarded as irrevocable even when weather conditions improved dramatically. AH stressed the need for advance booking, even foot passengers, to confirm need. Concern was expressed that there have only been 5 Monday ferries this winter.	KB to post minutes. No action. DH to progress. Waiting for Dannie's report. DH to e mail area manager to thank him for more flexible approach.

5.Letters to A&B council	A letter has been sent regarding the service point (see above) It was decided that dialogue should be established regarding the threat to the air service. See next item.

6.Air Service	KB and AH provided some background as they understood it from informal discussion. The present tender for this service ends in May and at present the tendering process has stalled. It was felt that diminution or cancellation of the service would be catastrophic for the Island. HM, speaking as a parent, said she would leave the Island if her children were unable to get home at weekends. It was also felt it would inhibit families with young children from coming to live here. Concern was expressed that the Community Council were not being kept updated on this very serious matter. KB said that Moira Kerr, a freelance journalist who has written previously about Colonsay was keen to give the matter some publicity. This was felt to be a good idea. KR wondered if we should be contacting Robin Currie (councillor).	AH to speak to Moira Kerr. JH to contact Robin and establish communication with A&B.

7.Community Fund	RB reported that the sub-committee had recommended a grant of £2000 to COHT for production of a historical booklet and Up to £500 to George Leppard as a contribution towards a specialist piece of equipment for tv installation and repair services. Both were approved by the Council. Feedback from Sub-Committee Various suggestions were made by the sub-committee to make the application process clearer, these are outlined in the appended report. RB will prepare amended guidelines for the council to consider at the next meeting. DH proposed we thank Marine Harvest for their continued support. HM suggested we advertise fund to attract new bids. This will be done after the next meeting.	RB to emend guidelines. ???

8. Planning	AH declared interest. Colonsay Estate have applied to build a modular house in Scalasaig. It was noted that this may well provide a useful exemplar for the wider community and Alex is happy for people to see the building. Apparently it comes with the TV attached to the wall!
9. A.O.C.B	Heating Oil. RB had been approached by a concerned user regarding: • Irregular Supply • Cost • Future Supply Of oil. Brogans had tried to come but were prevented by ferry cancellation. Cost is not felt to be within CC control AH had spoken with Brogans who assured him supply would continue. Newsletter RB suggested the council need a newsletter. HM will deal with this. Calmac KR was concerned that an initiative by Calmac to introduce different rates of ticket prices would impact unfairly on Colonsay. It was felt that these were being introduced on busy routes to encourage traffic to be more evenly spread across numerous daily sailings…not something that Colonsay suffers from, and that Colonsay shouldn't be affected.	HM.
12. Date of Next Meeting.	4 th March 2019 @ 6:30pm

Colonsay and Oransay Community Fund (Second Round of Awards)

Colonsay Community Council Sub-committee – Chair's Final Report to CCC

The CCC Sub-committee COGF of local residents who volunteered to review the latest round of applications to the COCF has met 5 times since the beginning of November, with at least 5 of the volunteers present at each meeting. The panel of volunteers has reviewed 5 applications, and raised questions with applicants via email and in person, notably when Sarah Hobhouse twice attended subcommittee meetings to answer the panel's questions about the CTMG application for funding support of live music at ceilidhs, and when a member of the panel took questions from the subcommittee to George Leppard. Notes of the 5 meetings are available from the subcommittee Chair on request.

In December the following recommendations from the subcommittee were presented to the CCC and approved:

(a) Application by the Colonsay Village Hall Committee (CVHC) for £2,500 towards the cost of replacement windows for the hall.

The sub-committee recommends that an unconditional award of £2,500 be made to the Colonsay Village Hall Committee.

The sub-committee supported a return by Colonsay Village Hall Committee to this fund at a later stage if necessary.

(b) Application by Colonsay Tourism Marketing Group (CTMG) for £4,000 to meet the cost of providing support for live music at the summer season ceilidhs.

The sub-committee recommends that an award of £4,000 be made to the Tourism Marketing Group. The award should be conditioned to cover two years; £2,500 in the first year and £1,500 in the second, drawn down separately. The conditions should also include that the uptake must be monitored and reported to the Community Council and that unused contributions will be returned.

(c) Application by CTMG for £1,500 as a contribution towards the beach cleaning initiative for its next five year phase. (This is a modified version of the original application)

The sub-committee recommends that an unconditional award of £1,500 be made to the Colonsay Tourism Marketing Group.

The remaining two applications to the COCF were reviewed further by the subcommittee in January and the following conclusions and recommendations reached:

(d) Application by the Colonsay and Oransay Heritage Trust (COHT) for £4,350 to produce an illustrated booklet introducing the history of the islands.

The sub-committee raised a concern that alternative sources of funding could have been better considered, and subsequently the COHT proposed that it contribute £500 from its reserves, reducing their request from COCF to £3850. Following further consideration the subcommittee concluded that a limited award was appropriate.

The sub-committee recommends that an award of £2,000 be made to the Colonsay and Oransay Heritage Trust.

The sub-committee understood that this would sufficient for an initial print run of the booklet, and that income raised from sales should be sufficient for a further print run if needed.

A challenge for the subcommittee with this application was in assessing the potential scale of the community benefit from new digital equipment needed to service a new generation of satellite set top boxes. George Leppard gave helpful answers to questions from the review panel, and the sub-committee reached the following decision by majority decision rather than consensus.

The sub-committee recommends that a partial award be offered to George Leppard of 50% of the cost of the specialist SkyQ meter only, up to a maximum of £500.

The subcommittee also offered the following observations and feedback on the developing process for the COCF:

• The guidance could include that applications from individuals would be welcome – provided that they show a community benefit.

• There is potentially a need for business support loans and small-scale funding to allow new businesses to establish.

• The guidance might be improved to better capture the contribution from the applicants in terms of voluntary work.

• Applications could be improved by providing additional guidance to applicants (where necessary) before the sub-committee is set up.

R Buttrick

Chair COGF Subcommittee

In case you have stumbled upon this page by accident, Colonsay is a beautiful island in the Hebrides with about 130 inhabitants. Just search online to find out more or use the "Links" facility at the foot of this page.

COLONSAY COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Site Map and Links