MINUTES

TIREE COMMUNITY COUNCIL

MAY MEETING

7pm 14 May 2025

On Zoom and streamed on Facebook

1. Present: Gerard McGoogan (chair), Dr John Holliday, John MacCaskill, Tim Arkless and Frances Khetrat. Argyll and Bute (ABC) Councillors Amanda Hampsey and Andrew Kain. There was one member of the public on the Zoom call. There had been 518 views of the meeting by the date the minutes were written.
2. Apologies: none received.
3. Minutes of last meeting: the date of the May meeting was wrong, but otherwise the minutes were accepted. Proposed JMC and seconded GMG.
4. Matters arising: the only matter was the use of the all-weather pitch. There had been no progress on this.
5. Correspondence:
6. Review of the proposed new Scheme of Establishment of Community Councils: there are six pages of changes. This document had been put up on our website and Facebook pages for public comment. The length of time recordings of meeting can be kept and where copies are stored will be specified. Minutes of meetings now have to be written within 21 days. There is nothing we need to comment on
7. Roads capital programme for resurfacing to the roads at Milton; Moss; and Croft View, Balephuil. Total cost £150,000
8. CalMac Community Board were recruiting new members. This has now closed. TCC thanks Donnie MacInnes for his sterling service on this for several years
9. Local Action Group recruitment: this makes decisions on local grant applications
10. Argyll and Bute Council have funding for ‘Re-use Containers’ for Tiree for suitcases, furniture tool etc. They are looking for local groups to manage this facility and raise money from its operation. AK will find out about this. JH will reply to the Council to find out how much money might be raised and will post details on FB
11. Resilience Fund: the Scottish Government has granted £4.4 million for island communities affected by the poor ferry service. We have written to our MSP and the Council leader to ask for more details of this funding stream. AK will pursue this. Tiree has little precise information over money lost by businesses, unlike Uist.
12. Meetings: GMG had been to the SSEN drop-in at the hall. The old cable is staying in place because removing it causes too much disruption to the seabed. The Tiree power station is staying open for the foreseeable future. The cable is no longer the limiting factor. TA had contacted SSEN about recreational diving in the Gunna Sound, and these bodies will now liaise with each other. GMG also went to a meeting about a medical link worker between general practices and community groups. GMG has given the information to the medical practice, and there will probably be meeting on the island in September.
13. Transport (JMC): Tiree’s representation requesting an additional Friday sailing about next winter’s timetable has now been formally submitted to improve ‘island connectivity’. CalMac has turned this request down as it was not ‘cost neutral’. We made the point that there was no point ‘consulting’ us if there was no increase in funding from Transport Scotland. We also want the Colonsay timetable to be agreed in advance, with any subsequent changes being agreed with Tiree. There is a leak in the bow visor of the Clansman. There will be a restricted timetable for a few days while this is fixed. Our Sunday sailings will also be later for a few weeks due to provide cover for the Uist service. The Barra link will be restored on 4 June, 2.5 months late. This is worse than last year. We want the Barra day to be changed next summer. This would cause, however, a problem with crew changeover, and the unions will have to be consulted. He has a meeting with the Coll Transport sub-committee. We have reported concerns about the forum with Coll and Mull overseeing the deck space pilot scheme. This has not met for a year. The new Area Manager will be in post in the next few weeks, and will come out to Tiree. GMG said that Hebrides is currently proposed as the replacement for Clansman. We had met with the team designing the new pier office and car park. Option 1 has been chosen: this includes a new, larger office, and the extension of the marshalling area by removing the grass triangle. The final design will be shared with the Tiree community at the end of May. We want them to include a defibrillator location so that the nearby current one can be repositioned..
14. Councillors’ reports: AH has been trying to obtain figures on ABC spend on Tiree from the Head of Finance, but has been unsuccessful to date. AK reported that there is going to be a new Islands Plan. The islands need talk with one voice. Otherwise, the jobs will continue to be seasonal and low paid and the population will continue to fall. There is a lot of work in setting up this sort of conversation, and AK will look for capacity within ABC to help this process.
15. Tiree Library: LiveArgyll have told us they will be consulting with the Tiree community over the next 12 weeks. ABC is currently using the library ‘for other purposes’, but we have not been told what this is. There has been no consultation. GMG has put in a number of Freedom of Information requests to LiveArgyll. LiveArgyll is a charity, but there does not seem to have been much in the way of independent fundraising to raise money for libraries. It is very hard to communicate with them. We have been in touch with the communities in Tarbert and Cardross. TCC believe that libraries should become a hub for a range of community activities. AH has been told by Kevin Anderson that the library was closed due to resourcing issues (a lack of money for staffing). The current thinking is to move the library into a smaller space inside the school, run by volunteers, to continue the book swapping service, inter-library loans, the borrow box, electronic readers, Press Reader, a warm space and Book Bug and to turn the current library into teacher accommodation. LiveArgyll has told her that an Island Community Impact Assessment is not required as there is not a closure. The community councillors queried this assertion. Access to the school is likely to be an issue.

TCC agreed this motion unanimously:

‘Tiree Community Council has lost faith in LiveArgyll to manage the Tiree Library, and requests that Argyll and Bute Council looks into taking the whole library service back under council control.’

JH will look into the details of the Islands Act. AK and AH agreed to ask ABC to find £18,000 to keep the Tiree library open in its current form.

10. Visitor Levy: the results have now been submitted. ABC has employed a consultancy to analyse the results. These will be presented to ABC in May (preliminary) and full (August). Councillors will then vote on it. AK said that ABC should go back to the Scottish Government to ask for changes in the legislation.
11. TCC accounts: we will pay Phyl Meyer for expenses for hosting our website. JH and GMG will organise this. Our full accounts will be presented at the next meeting.
12. R100: GMG has spoken to some senior managers. Currently, 271 premises are available for full fibre with another 100 by the middle of June. This is about what was originally planned, but is behind schedule. Ferry capacity and terrain have been issues. The team will then leave the island. The connections team will then be on the island from the end of June until the end of August. The successor to R100 is called Gigabit, taking national coverage from 85% to 99%. OpenReach is hoping to push Tiree to the start of the Gigabit programme.
13. Planning: one application for a barn in Caolas. This does not concern TCC.
14. AOCB: we want to thank the Coop for keeping the service going despite the recent cyberattack. Tiree, as an ‘extremely remote location’, is given priority during episodes like this. Logistics and the staff have been superb.
15. Date of next meeting: this will be in-person on 11 June and will include our AGM. JH will book the room.

The meeting closed at 9.05 pm.