Letter emailed to various members of the Community Council
I’ve also uploaded a printable version of the letter – If you know somebody that doesn’t have access to the internet please feel free to click the above link & print off a copy for them if it’s of interest.
Updated with links to response 5th November 2019
(we also do this with the CC Minutes)
Community Council & Kirkcowan Trust
Camy McGregor
42, Main Street
18th October 2019
Development Trust
Can community members see copies of
the Minutes of meetings for the KCDT?
If not – why not?
Who is the chairman?
When was the decision to employ a Development Officer made?
What redress do wider members of the community have if the KCDT Board are in breach of the Articles of Association?
There are a number of ‘projects’ that have been undertaken by the KCDT which caused some disquiet in the local community the most visible to date being –
Dickie Wood. – Tree Felling & Disposal, Laying of paths, Dyking work
What was the total cost of this
project?
What the cost breakdown of the individual works?
- Presumably there was an inspection of the trees and a report prior to felling the 3 mature trees – may we see the report?
- Cost – Felling & Disposal (2 Beech [£12,090] 1 Scots Pine* [£450])
*correction ‘Western Hemlock‘ - Cost – Paths. [£14,940]
- Cost – Rebuilding of Drystane Dyke [£3,500]
Initial costs response here Re: Paths & Dyking (received 31/10/2019)
Who owns the land surrounding the church where the mature trees were felled?
Was there an offer of matched funding or any financial contribution by the land owners towards the costs of this project & works?
Suggestions
Future Projects – Development Officer
It has been said that the suggested projects and allocation of the ‘Community’ fund to date seem to suffer from a certain lack of imagination.
Given that other communities are in the same boat surely it
should be possible to request or pool suggested projects to find out which ones
a) worked
b) proved popular
c) didn’t work or failed for some reason – so that we can learn from others and
direct the funding more efficiently.
e.g. New Luce has a Taxi Card and ‘Winter Fuel’ financial support for those that qualify in the village.
Hopefully the new Development Officer will have relevant experience and be able to tap into external resources?
Community Council Elections
The recent Community Council Elections have highlighted the very restricted franchise available to voters i.e. you have to be in the village between the hours of 16:00 & 20:00 on a specific date.
I would like to request that the CC and the local council members lobby for a change to the voting system to at least allow for a Proxy Vote so that members of the community are able to delegate somebody to vote on their behalf should they be indisposed or working away on the day of the election.
Also – there was very little in the way of communication available for individuals putting themselves up for election to explain who they were, what they stood for and so forth. I would therefore suggest that the KCDT set aside a small amount of money that would go toward printing / publishing an information sheet to include:
– all the prospective candidates;
– with a brief outline (a set amount of words and perhaps a photo?);
– the date and location of the election;
– to be delivered / made available 3 or 4 days prior to the election.
Update 1st November
Initial response to questions re Dickie Wood costs here…