Author: Strathdearn (Page 39 of 90)

‘We are very pleased to announce that following a funding application by SCD on behalf of the community to SSEN’s Resilient Communities Fund for 2022,we have been awarded £17,500.

With requests totalling almost £1.5m for the £1m available funds we are delighted our application came out on top!

This will allow SCD to move this project forward and purchase a generator (we currently hire one).

We will assist SCC in developing a Community Resilience Plan with the community’s input.

Thanks go to SSEN for making the funds available.”

Work to upgrade the Balvraid Road (U2829) will be carried out during the summer of 2022. This is to aid timber extraction from Glenkirk Forest and is funded by the Scottish government’s Strategic Timber Transport Scheme (STTS).  Weekly schedules will be published here.

CLICK HERE to download map

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Stuart Bell BSc CEng MICE
Senior Engineer
Arvikaconsult Ltd
stuart@arvikaconsult.co

Come and meet James Beatty, SCD Director, at the first Informal Drop in Session at the Strathdearn Hub, Wednesday 10th August anytime between 10am and 12 noon. If you can’t make this time feel free to email any questions or ideas to info@strathdearn.org

Strathdearn Community Council Meeting

9^th of August 2022 At 7:30 PM @The Strathdearn

The meeting will also be available via ZOOM.

Meeting ID: 829 6019 7698

Passcode: 798293

Members of the public are welcome to attend all meetings of the Strathdearn Community Council.

Agenda:

1. Apologies

2. Declarations of interest

3. Minutes of last meeting (June minutes, and AGM minutes)
   

4. Matters arising

5. Financial report

6. Law and order

7. Road safety

8. Applications to the SCCT

9. Planning matters

10. Windfarms

11. Update from SCD

12. Highland Councillors questions

13. Correspondence

14. AOCB

Date of next meeting: 13^th of September 2022 @ 7:30 pm

MOY MATTERS (19)

1. First of all welcome to our two new MSC members – Charlie Cameron and David MacQueen. We are delighted to have you on board to share your valued ideas and opinions.
2. It has been a while since the residents of Moy, Lynebeg and Ruthven have had the opportunity to meet up informally. So, you are invited to come along to The Strathdearn on Saturday 10^th September between 2pm and 4pm for a cup of tea/coffee, some cake and an informal chat about anything and everything! It will also be good to hear more detailed views on the findings of the (Moy) community plan released on 28^th May (Moy meeting place, parking, winter preparedness, ranger).
3. Ranger: Our new ranger, Donald Tolmie, started at the beginning of June. There is a photo of him on our MoySC FB page so if you see him around please stop and say hello, he will be delighted to meet you. His interest is in birds and hopefully will lead a walk around the loch for Moy residents in early Autumn. He is also working on an information board about Loch Moy, local wildlife and wild flowers.

His summary for June is as follows:

Sum of Number of Vehicles parked – 25 Sum of Number of tents – 3 Sum of Number of new fire marks – 3 Sum of Number of fires put out – 1 Sum of Amount of Litter on site – 19 (Equivalent of 4-5 bin bags)  Sum of Number of people seen – 38 Sum of Number of people spoken to – 31

The reason the litter figures are fairly large is I identified a fly tipping site & removed 3-4 bags worth of rubbish & waste. Looked like it had been there a fair amount of time & potentially more is buried into the embankment. This may need further efforts to clear & fully remove all waste.

I met with Forestry Land Scotland & identified large fell trees obstructing the path south side of the Loch. Hopefully a member of forestry should be down in the following weeks to clear from path.

I’ve not seen anyone on the island but have had to inform several wild swimmers to stay clear of the island and not to disturb wildlife nesting this time of the year. Everyone I’ve spoke to has been respectful of the area & understanding.

4. Reminder……Island in Moy Loch: the island has been designated a Section 1 protected nesting site by the RSPB with a maximum fine of £5000 if anyone is found disturbing the nests. If you see anyone on the island could you please let Neil Fraser know. (07753 186014)
5. Carved benches: we are waiting for the joiner to install the two benches.
6. Planters: Thank you to all the volunteers who are helping with our planters this year – buying, planting, strimming, watering – they are looking lovely. (And great photos of our young volunteers on the MoySC FB page). Please feel free to water them if you think they are looking a bit thirsty or attend to them if they are looking a bit needy.
7. Roadside path: we are waiting for the roadside path to be maintained – vegetation cut back, culverts cleaned out and general maintenance. This should take place soon.

As always we need your ideas so please get in touch with any of the MSC members to share your ideas or give any feedback.

Remember…..The MSC has been established by Strathdearn Community Development (SCD) “to identify projects for funding through the Strathdearn share of the Moy Windfarm Communuty Benefit Fund”.

The members are Marian Hendry (marianhendry@strathdearn.org), John Clarke (johnclarke@strathdearn.org), Linda Armit (lindaarmit@strathdearn.org), Charlie Cameron and David MacQueen.

*Unfortunately two cats have gone missing in Moy over the last couple of months. The remains of one cat was found but her GPS/radio collar had been removed and all tracking stopped. Sadly the second cat is still missing.

Re: Youth Development  

The recent community survey and subsequent action plan have, once again, highlighted the desire and need for more use of the community facilities for children, and a more structured programme moving forward that will, hopefully, encompass holiday activities, after school care, youth clubs and a variety of afternoon and evening activities for the young in the village.  

We are keen to get things started as soon as we can and we have asked Louise Mainland, an experienced local youth worker, to set up some pilot sessions at the end of the holidays and at the start of next term. Following these pilots, we are keen to meet with families and discuss how best the SCD can provide what the community want, and need, as we move forward.  

There are several activities that can be booked at the end of the holidays. We are aware dates and times will not suit everyone, but we would urge families to support these if they can as this will help us determine need/desire moving forward. We are asking for a nominal £1 per session and plan to review pricing with you all after the events so that any future programs can be as sustainable as possible.  

Details of activities for the end of the holidays and details of how to book can be found by following this link to ‘Bookwhen”.  Please note that further activities will be added on Monday.   

https://strathdearnyp.bookwhen.com/schedules/xo1gz08qd2f0  

Please do contact us if you have any questions, but we stress that these are pilots and we will encourage families and the community to work together in the months ahead to plan the best possible outcome for our younger generation! Please also email if you would be prepared to meet at the end of August to discuss and formulate any future plans.  

Contact 

James Beatty  

SCD Board Director  
Mob: 07831 673836  
Email: jamesbeatty@strathdearn.org  

SCD Update 15 July 2022 

Informal Drop in Sessions at the Strathdearn Hub:  

• SCD are planning “Drop in Sessions” every month at the Strathdearn Hub to improve communication with the community. The times of these informal gatherings will vary depending on any requests from the community but to kick things off the first one will be held on Wednesday 10th August between 10am and 12noon – feel free to pop along during that time to speak to someone from SCD with any ideas or queries.  Alternatively, you can contact us on elainemacleod@strathdearn.org   

Youth Development: 

• In response to the recent community action plan, we have set up some pilot activity sessions for some of the younger children that will run at the start of August, details of these activities and how to book will be sent separately. 
• Following these pilots we will be arranging meetings for any interested parties at the end of August to help us assess what the community wants and needs in the months and years ahead and how best we can make these happen.  Please do contact us if you are keen to be involved. 

Paths:   

• A small section has been delayed due to a Robin’s nest being found therefore we will have to wait until it is safe for the birds prior to completion on some of section 8.  

• Following an assessment by a tree surgeon, some trees on section 8 have been found to have problems with their roots therefore are a possibly safety issue and may have to be removed.  This is a Highland Council decision and Highland Council have to assess the risks before deciding further action.  We will let you know when we have heard any news. 
• We are planning a community consultation on street lighting in the backend of the Autumn to address safety aspects of section 8 path.  This path currently has no concrete kerbing apart from around the gullies to protect them. This may be something that is reviewed in the future to improve the safety feature of the paths and will also be picked up in the consultation. We have requested that the Highland Council considers some other method of safety feature to further protect pedestrians.  
• As stated at the last Community Council meeting, a safety audit and review has already been organised with The Highland Council, primarily to review where the give way lines have been positioned at the narrowing traffic calming points, as these appear to be causing issues for larger vehicles passing one another. This will be redone, and the give way lines placed further away to relieve this issue.  

Benches:  

• We acknowledge this project has been ongoing for a considerable time, and we apologise for the delay, but we are nearly there!  

• The location sites have been identified, four of these locations are on the Soilsean circular walking route. Given the most recent information that this road will be upgraded which includes passing places constructed, it would be prudent to wait until this work is completed first.  
• In the meantime we can go ahead and site the other benches once it has been agreed by the landowners (if required). The end is nigh!!    

Community Housing:  

• We continue to work our way through the significant challenges of Flood Risk Management requirements for Planning Consent  
• We will start ditch clearing works North of the Viaduct in the next couple of weeks  

‘Tidy Up Tomatin Campaign: 

• One of the actions from the Community Action Plan is to address some of the areas around the village that have become untidy, as well as try to brighten up other areas.  
• We are very grateful a small group of volunteers have come forward, but many hands make light work! If you could provide some short-term help specifically for this, please do get in touch for further details  
• Tomatin Distillery has kindly donated some barrels, the plan is to fill these with flowers/plants and locate them throughout the village, we are hoping if there is a planter located near you that those residents could water and weed, this would alleviate some of the burden and means we can all play a part as a community in “Tidy Up Tomatin” 
• Seasonal litter picks will be organised so watch out for future info  

• If you have any ideas on this subject that you want to bring forward just let us know!  

Community Events:  

• Another item from the Community Plan which we have started looking to refresh are community entertainment events, as you know a lot of work goes into these   
• If you would like to get involved to plan some festivities for Christmas & New Year, please come forward.     

Community Transport:  

• Transport in semi-rural areas with insufficient public services is always a challenge, therefore, it is no surprise this was also on the Community Action Plan  
• We have a small volunteer group investigating this and will report back in due course