Chairman's Report AGM 2008

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

For Annual General Meeting on the 21st April 2008 at Culbokie

This year, the Community Council started off with 10 Councilors which is one of the highest numbers for many years, although still two short of the 12 we should have. Our first meeting, and all subsequent ones were held in the community room in the new Culbokie School something we have all fought long and hard for. We were given a tour of the school and all its wonderful facilities, in May by Shirley-Anne Stevenson the head teacher and we decided that to mark the occasion of the provision of this school for the village by donating a trophy to the school, in August, to be know as the ‘Community Council Cup’.

The provision of the new school left the old one surplus to Highland Council’s requirements and we tried to elicit help from the community regarding its future use. No ideas came from the community and the only approach was from the Church who initially came to the Community Council in August with the proposal to use it as a church with associated community use such as a youth club. The Church came back in November with a proposed use of the old school building as a church and along with Cairn Housing, low cost housing in the remaining part of the site. As no other firm proposals were on the table, the Community Council, as a whole, supported such a development in principle, although this did cause disagreement amongst some community councilors.

The local elections were held in May and we were concerned that the Highland Councilors’ attendance at our meetings would be less. Our concerns, I am happy to report, were unfounded and we have always had at least one Councilor at every meeting. The changes made, however, to ward boundaries meant Ferintosh Community Council area was split into 2 with everything West of the A 835 being in Ward 9 along with Dingwall Conon and Muir of Ord and everything to the east being with the rest of the Black Isle in Ward 10. Ward Forums were set up for each Ward and Community Councils have the opportunity to raise issues with Councilors and officials if things cannot be resolved at Community Council level. From these we had such things as training on planning issues, which proved particularly useful. The Conon Bridge Community Council was reformed and its new chair came to our meeting in February where some boundary anomalies were resolved with the A835 being the new boundary between both councils as far South as about Kinkell Castle to ensure all of Conon was within Conon Bridge Community Council area.

The idea of an Environmental Group was born in January 2007 and this, in turn, lead to a public meeting in Ferintosh Hall on the 12th May where there were representatives from a variety of environmental and recycling groups with information and displays. This was a great success, and a large proportion of the people there wanted the establishment of such a group in the community. The group now meets every 2nd Wednesday and has gone on to have various events and walks which have proved very successful.

When considering the new car park provided by the Forestry Commission at Monadh Mhor, at our August meeting, it was agreed that the Community Council would fund a suitable memorial there to mark the sad loss of 3 boys’ lives who drowned in Simon’s Loch in May 1952. The memorial will now be unveiled next month.

During the 12 years I have been chairman planning issues have dominated the agenda and this year has again been similar. We have now developed a Ferintosh Community Council ‘Planning Policy’ as guided by advice from Highland Council. This was adopted in November and will make it clear what we will comment on and what we will encourage within the community area. Despite the numbers of applications, especially in the Culbokie area, we do not seem to be able to either influence Planning Gain or acquire anything from Community Benefit. We will, however, continue strive improve what we can for the community using the Planning system to the full.

In January we had a presentation and discussion about the establishment of a farmers market. After ensuring that such a venture would not adversely impact on the local shop and other existing local commercial ventures, the Community Council agreed to fund the use of Findon Hall for a trial period of 6 months to allow the establishment of what would be called a Community Market and it is hoped this will start shortly.

Many other issues within the community have been tackled throughout the year ranging from new signs for Culbokie, faulty road signs on the A9, lack of broad band, digital TV reception, new community notice board in Culbokie post office, post office closures.

I wish to thank all the Highland Councilors for taking the time to attend our meetings and for their support and advice.

I also wish to thank all my fellow Councilors for their continuing hard work through out the year, at our meetings and subgroups and for ensuring our events were successful, and again, especially to Ann Acock who has continued to carry out the time consuming work of both Secretary and Treasurer.


Colin C Craig
Chairman 17th April 2008