Minutes Of Public Meeting Wednesday 24 November 2021
Notes of Public Meeting of Steering Group of Fossoway Community Development Trust
24 November 2021, 7.30pm
Elizabeth Wilkie Hall, Crook of Devon
Present:
Mike Barnacle, Trudy Duffy, Jim Pritchard, Eileen Black, Rhoderick Moncrieff, Elaine Melville, Diane McMillan, Nicol Wheatley, Fiona Allan, Alan Harper, Janet Harper, Hugh Wallace, Angus Cheape, Penny Pritchard, Carol Farquhar
1. Apologies
Ben Thornber, Colin Dawes, George Shand, Nicola Marchant, Lis Stenhouse, Callum Purves
2. Summary of Discussion
Thanks to the church for allowing us to use the hall.
The purpose of this meeting is to gauge interest in Fossoway Community Development Trust from the local community, to generate ideas for potential projects and to see whether anyone is interested in participating as a board member or regular member.
Fossoway Community Development Trust was proposed at the end of last year based on Comrie and Stanley Development Trusts and their success. There are approx 12 DTs in PKC.
According to the national guidance, there needs to be a minimum of 3 board members and 20 members from the community. It is suggested that there should be a membership fee of £5 per year.
The vision for FCDT is on the website. There are differences between what the Community Council, Perth & Kinross Council and a Community Development Trust do – all very different but can work together.
A Community Development Trust can not take forward projects that benefit a single person or that do not benefit the wider community. E.g. replacing coping stones on the wall along Naemoor Road, although a good suggestion, is the responsibility of the landowner so a CDT cannot take this forward. Road infrastructure is the responsibility of PKC and therefore projects relating to roads cannot be delivered by a CDT. Post Meeting Note: It is important to be clear about what the Trust can and cannot do – it would be useful to filter the existing list of suggested projects to identify those that can and cannot be delivered by the Trust.
It is possible to have members from outside of the area but they would not have voting rights.
There are three options for taking forward projects in Fossoway, as follows.
A. Form a Community Development Trust with members from Fossoway
B. Form a Joint Development Trust by joining forces with Muckhart
C. Form a sub-committee of the Community Council
At the last steering group we decided to defer a decision on joining forces with Muckhart until we know the level of support from within Fossoway.
A summary of the projects suggested so far was shared (see table below).
| What do you think Fossoway CDT should tackle first? |
| Activities for older children and teens etc, such as a pump track for bikes |
| Some sort of cycling facilities in the park. |
| Build a bike pump track |
| Footbridge over the River Devon |
| Make a flume park |
| Better Internet in the Aldie Road – it is very slow and Openreach do not seem interested and yet there are many businesses and families in that road that need fast internet. |
| Youth activity projects eg cycle track, additional playground equipment. Improvement of junction of A977 and the road leading to the school. 20mph speed limit through the village |
| New bridge you propose sounds great! |
| Footpath network signage and information |
| Stone walls along Naemoor road need re-pointing and copes reinstated. |
| Purchasing and re foresting of local land and introducing rights of way through (but with the priority being on creating habitats). |
| The bridge over the Devon. Could the CDT consider a business centre/shared workspace. As office work is changing from office to home working, having a place for locals to meet up and complete work in a shared environment would in my mind help bond the community and reduce work for home fatigue. |
| Toilets and additional court for the tennis club. |
| I don’t think reconstructing the bridge that was washed away is the best thing. There are still two bridges across the water that adequately serve the purpose.I would prefer to see the current footpaths around the village having a little more attention as some are becoming quite overgrown and the surfaces are being broken up, often by bikes, and therefore are holding water and becoming very muddy, which may decrease the usage. Better Internet into the Aldie Road, if it gets any slower we may have to invest in some pigeons. Would massively welcome the cycle path from Crook that stops at the Aldie road to be completed, so that it runs through to Kinross as originally planned. The scrub trees at the park car park were never supposed to be there. That was a flat area for a shed, pavilion or container. They should go into a shredder. Foot route to Kinross; Cycle tracks / route from Stirling; Bridge – make sure it’s accessible and consider parking; Broadband |
| The bridges in the gorge don’t serve the purpose adequately – they are not accessible for those with mobility issues. |
| Defibrillator training for many members of the community. Bespoke road / name signs. Funding for trimming hedges back. |
| Activity weekend with Lendrick Muir for local youngsters. |
| Reinstate village cross near Duncan Penney’s woodland |
| Place signs to show historic road names. |
Question about what is the quickest way to get things to happen? Maybe develop a plan for community recreation/tourism. These are often the mainstays of successful CDTs.
The guidance on the DTA website suggests national guidelines are aimed at encouraging DTs to carry out business activities and actually generate income. Electric Vehicle charging points for car parks like the church and village hall might be something that could generate revenue. Deposit return scheme places requirements on retailers, which our local shops might not have space for – could the CDT do something to provide this service?
There was a suggestion from the floor that working with Muckhart should be encouraged because that would increase the number of people contributing and Muckhart has a good track record of successful projects. The Hydro Scheme is looking to support the Muckhart community as well as Fossoway. A joint DT would fit with this well. Every year, the hydro scheme provides index linked funding (set at £5k 5 years ago) for the Fossoway community. Last year it had a good year and has given £5k to the church, same to the village hall, £25k distributed locally and there is potential to distribute the same again. Muckhart also has access to windfarm money that Fossoway doesn’t have.
How many other pilot schemes are there that we could learn from? There are many. LDTs are often listened to on planning matters such as influencing Local Plans.
Suggestion to publicise the list of potential projects and ask people whether there are specific projects they would be willing to support. We could then get those who express an interest to help deliver those specific projects.
Each project delivery group could be run as a subgroup of the Community Council. That would get us focused on the projects themselves rather than concerns about the type of group we should set up. It was pointed out from the floor that the CC doesn’t have charitable status, which would suggest a trust with same would be more appropriate for taking projects forward.
A formal Development Trust with identified members might be useful so that people know who to approach. The replacement bridge is a very ambitious project. Some more easily achievable projects might be good in the short term to cut our teeth. E.g. new lights for the tennis court, new heating for the church.
Suggestion to set up a community interest company. If we have a purpose for the company, it makes it easier to set up. We need a way of generating income to add to grant funding. This increases the attractiveness of projects to potential funders.
There was support for running a consultation on the Fossoway Forum Facebook Group, the FCDT Website and in local shops with paper reply slips to invite people to put themselves forward to support and help deliver specific projects.
It was noted that the Church already offers hot-desking and meeting rooms and that the village hall is also being adapted to provide office space for people to use (work is underway on this now). Bear this in mind if similar suggestions come forward from the community (it was noted that this suggestion had come forward during the initial consultation, too).
Mrs Allan (Fossoway School Headteacher) would like the school involved in community projects if possible. Happy to publicise on the School’s messaging app.
There was also a suggestion to use existing groups to engage with their members – e.g. ask the church congregation whether they would be willing to work on specific projects, do the same for the school parent council and other groups. Also invite representatives from other groups to attend Development Trust meetings to share the views of their committees to broaden engagement.
Mike said he will try to get some initial funding for startup admin costs and publicity.
People in attendance were invited to leave their details if they are interested in being a member or a board member on the Fossoway CDT.
Mike summarised that we would identify specific projects, collect the names of people interested in helping to deliver those projects and then move forward.
The meeting then closed.