Friday, 24 June 2022

This week we ran the second of your Community Action Group sessions.  There were five meetings that were one hour long on Zoom, allowing anyone to participate and engage on the findings of the Community Action Plan.  Some people attended in person, some gave their thoughts by email and together we established a way forward that was community led for some of the actions.  Here are some of the notes from each meeting.

COMMUNITY LIFE – Monday 20^th June, 7-8pm.

CHILDCARE DISCUSSION

2 kids (6 and 10) who attend Stratherrick Primary, This person works in Foyers, husband in Inverness.  No breakfast club or after school club.  There was a local childminder but unfortunately she’s no longer running.  So have to rely on friends or husband’s family (who are an hour away).  Trying to get childcare is like hen’s teeth. Moved her because of the excellent school.  Don’t want to have to move into town because of the childcare issue.

 

Another parent echoed this.  2 kids are 6 and about to start nursery.  Nearest family is 1.5 hours away and work full time.  Lucky that her company allows her to work from home, but that means that she is doing childcare and full-time work at the same time - which brings its own stresses.  There’s no real sense of support, especially if you’re new to the area - it will put off younger families from coming in.

 

What would have been most useful for parents/carers?

 

Childminders who would also do school pickups and wraparound school care, like a few do in Inverness.  There is a nursery in Farr which they used to use, but none of the Inverness childminders were prepared to go out to nursery at Farr to drop off children there after school.  They had to find another job which allowed her to work from home.

 

The other parent agreed.  Did use a local childminder (same on).  She was great but gave up during the pandemic.  Need facilities and childcare for nursery age right up to high school age - not just lack of childcare, but also lack of play parks (eg Gorthleck).

 

Would you both like to help solve the problem, eg help investigate solutions, or are you too busy?

 

The Chairman of Stratherrick Parent Council asked - could Wildside be utilised for a nursery type thing?  It’s a great facility.  Parents would be willing to pay.  I know the lack of nursery stops people coming into the area.

 

Possibility of using Wildside as suggested, need to investigate with Parent Councils, asked parents to email and act as a conduit to the Parent Council.

 

How quickly can childcare happen? Tony explained the process, and that they do want to act quickly.

 

This needs to be parent/carer driven so a meeting with stakeholders for action will be called.

 

Do BCC take referrals from GPs? [Nick didn’t know but passed on contact details]

 

OUTDOORS AND NATURE – Monday 20^th June, 8-9pm

Paths meeting suggested at Wildside Centre on Wed 6^th July at 12 noon.

- Get paths audit group up and running with Graeme's 2-3 other suggested local contacts (hybrid mtg in Wildside/online Wednesday 6th July lunchtime, or feed in via email)

- If there's a role for Boleskine House to get involved with paths around them, they're ready and waiting

- Contact Ruaridh to understand FLS forthcoming activities and re-establish contact with Becky (invite her to the next action group meeting?).  They will help and should be sent ‘quick wins’ document to advise on that.

- Community woodland - leave for now

- Playparks - rolling programme.  The options presented by Kirsty were explained.  General support but most people at meeting for Pathways etc.  Perhaps move to Community Life (?) and engage directly with Baby and Toddlers, Schools, Youth Club and childcare group (who mentioned decline in playparks as an issue

GETTING ABOUT – Tuesday 21^st June, 7-8pm

Rob Mullen did some work on the bus, investigating secondhand hire/purchase or hire of a new bus for a trial.  This was quite challenging.  Secondhand may babe problematic.  A new bus with upfront and £800 monthly costs.  The waiting time for a bus is about a year.  

There is an issue about training drivers.  A 9 seat minibus might be a more viable option than a bigger bus, because of the less onerous training needs.

 

Private hire / taxis are often not accessible for disabled people.

 

Could there be an out of season option with Happy Tours be an option in the area?

 

Discussions are also ongoing with the schools, but Tony doesn’t know the detail.  School minibuses aren't used for summer holidays (eg Millburn Academy has 2 minibuses which are parked up all summer) and might offer the opportunity for a trial, to test demand.  The Council would see it as a way of generating some income.

 

Basically, it’s not easy as Rob hoped, but he and Tony are plugging away.

 

Other nearby examples which might be worth contacting:

- Fort Augustus are exploring community transport

- Strathnairn already has a "drive yourself" minibus for hire

- West Wheels Car Club, Mallaig https://westwheels.co.uk/

- Transport for Tongue (scheduled minibus runs with population smaller than S+F) https://transportfortongue.co.uk/

 

Catriona will make some enquiries with Avis about the possibility of doing something with them.

 

BCC run the car lift scheme and should be included.

 

Secondly Nick Wright offered a place planning exercise for each area of the Strath, building on the CAP.  This would be welcomed by the local authority to help inform their Local Development Plan in our area, community driven.

 

Tony explained that there are a number of CAP projects which aren’t quite bottomed out yet (paths, housing etc) which could benefit from this approach.  Basically it’s to enable the community to think where they would like things to happen in their community.

 

Points made in discussion:

- It will help visualise the changes proposed in the Community Action Plan (like houses and paths).

- It will help communities see change in the round, rather than isolated proposals like new houses without facilities.

- It will help influence the Council and other public services.

- No voices of dissent in the meeting!

 

OUR HOMES – Tuesday 21^st June, 8-9pm

CHT housing proposal at Inverfarigaig

Ronnie confirmed that the Communities Housing Trust has recently received planning permission for 6 units (mix of 2 rent, 2 serviced affordable self build plots and 2 for low cost home ownership. all under an allocations policy that will be agreed with the community to target local priorities - local residents, the Community Council, the Community Trust).  A newsletter will be coming out soon with an update.

In response to a question, funding is from a variety of sources including Rural and Islands Housing Fund - Ronnie will check and respond.

CHT also has the opportunity at Gorthleck, and keen to look at any other opportunities that come up.

Potential housing site next to the Wildside Centre

SFCT has made a proposal to the Council to purchase land next to the Wildside for general needs housing, and is undertaking trial pits to check ground conditions before confirming purchase of the land.

Housing Needs Assessment

CHT has quoted approximately £3000 for this.  Council has said that they would welcome this.

The HNA could include a question for local landowners to understand whether they have land or buildings which could be used.  An alternative is a more focussed trawl of local landowners.

Ronnie explained how housing allocations can either be in line with the statutory housing waiting lists (through a Registered Social Landlord) or community-led (through SFCT for example acting as a private landlord, which enables the local community to set its own housing criteria - e.g. for young families, or key workers, or older people).  CHT are proposed in the second alternative in Inverfarigaig - with the main community-wide priority already established through the Community Action Plan (affordable homes for rent for local families).

Potential Scottish Government funding for housing feasibility

SFCT needs to decide whether to proceed with the Wildside trial pits / land purchase and Housing Needs Assessment from its own funds, or apply for Scottish Government feasibility funding (Rural and Island Housing Fund and Scottish Land Fund are the two potential sources of Scottish Government funds).  

CHT advice was that it's good to source more funds (especially given the current financial climate) and also to build relationships.  CHT kindly offered to support SFCT fundraisers in preparing applications.  Ronnie point out that community-led housing takes time, so getting the land and banking it would do no harm - so it's ready-to-go when funds are available to build.  Catriona agreed.

SG will want to see an equitable contribution to the scheme, but if that contribution can be without private finance it will create fewer hoops to jump through.

If a Local Place Planning exercise takes place later in the year, it could investigate the potential of empty properties in each area for new homes - bearing in mind that refurbishment of older property can be very complicated and expensive.

Inverfarigaig Forest School

There are two potential land acquisitions under discussion in Inverfarigaig.  

SFCT has agreed to purchase land on behalf of a local community group, had the impression that's what the community is interested in, and were worried that taking forward two bits of land might be too much for a small community.

Claire explained that she and other local residents are keen to progress the forest school and the adjoining land (the other piece of land), and would like to join a steering group.  SFCT has costed the purchase and has spoken to current owners FLS about it.  LIkely to take a year to process the asset transfer from FLS.  Tony welcomed local people being involved.

Tony will send information to Claire.

ORGANISING OURSELVES – Wednesday 22^nd June, 7-8pm

1. SFCT Fundraisers have been working with other groups on their fundraising since March.  This is leading in to supporting capacity for those groups too.
2. SFCT Business Directory is online.
3. SFCT is taking advertising from local business for our magazine and supporting local business as part of the Craft and Food Fairs.  A letter has gone out to all local business how we can help with the idea of a local Business Forum being suggested.
4. The Skills Audit identified approx. 50 people in the Strath wanting to actively participate in projects.
5. We have been awarded funding to take on a Communications Officer for 7 hours a week from the Stronelairg Fund
6. The Trust will trial attracting new Board Members and support the Community Council in doing the same.
7. The Trust and the CC met again to discuss joint working and the CC ran their session to put the community view for the LDP forward which the Trust also participated in, using the findings from CAP as out guide.
8. Nick Wright has sent a proposal for Place Planning
9. We have agreed to and proposed a Customer Relationship Management system to streamline our email communication and help ensure General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)
10. Community Enterprise has completed the Trust Governance review.  It is very positive.  We stretched them to ensure they gave us some actions to do and we will work through them over the next year.

Tony Foster

Trust Manager

2026

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