1. Welcome
2. Apologies
3. Minutes of last meeting
4. SSEN New Coll-Tiree cable
5. Matters arising
6. Councillors’ reports
7. Correspondence
8. Meeting reports
9. Transport update              Including Deskspace Pilot survey.
10. Visitor Levy
11. R100 update
12. A&BC budget
13. Planning
14. AOCB
15. Date of next meeting       12th March 2025

Topic: February 2025 Tiree Community Council Meeting (19th Feb 7PM On line)
Time: Feb 19, 2025 07:00 PM
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Minutes TCC Jan 2025

Minutes TCC Jan 2025

MINUTES

TIREE COMMUNITY COUNCIL

JANUARY PUBLIC MEETING

7pm Wednesday 8 January 2025

In-person in the Tiree Trust offices, Crossapol,

and on Zoom and Facebook live stream

1. 1. Present: Gerard McGoogan (chair), Dr John Holiday, Tim Arkless and Frances Khetrat. Also present were Kirsty MacFarlane from Coll CC and Cllr Amanda Hampsey from Argyll and Bute Council (ABC). There were no members of the public on the Zoom call, but over 100 were ‘watching’ on Facebook. Within three days, 219 had ‘watched’ the meeting.
2. Apologies: John MacCaskill, Aran Khetrat and Cllr Willie Hume.
3. Minutes of last meeting: proposed TA, seconded GMG.
4. Matters arising:

• Phyl Meyer is proposing to repair the bicycle repair stations. TCC holds funds for this
• Tiree Community Business is happy to take over the community garden. JH will write to TCB to discuss this and to arrange transfer of the Keder house. The community garden fund is currently – £137, and there are outstanding bills for planning permission fees and the website
• The Coop outside light is still out of action when it rains. The local management is doing its best to get the lighting replaced
• GMG has contacted the R100 team about announcing road closures, and this is now being done via Facebook
• TCC has written to Police Scotland about the future level of rent on the Tiree police station. We suggested that a low rent would encourage recruitment to Tiree
• Library: JH has written, but has had no response. AH said she would help with this

5. Correspondence: we have been invited to apply for a £500 Resilience Fund. We agreed not to do this at present. West Ardnamurchan CC wants us to support their attempt to extend the summer ferry timetable until after the English holidays.
6. Councillor’s report: there has been a lot correspondence from Tiree about the Visitor Levy, all of it against it. She, herself, had voted against the consultation. She encourages people to respond to the consultation, and is happy to come over to Tiree for a public meeting. TCC welcomed that.
7. Meeting reports:

• TCC had been approached by a consultancy called NIRAS to consider a project to make Tiree rat-free. We had met them, with John Bowler and Hayley Douglas. They are acting for a windfarm in the Scottish North Sea, who have been asked to ‘find’ 30 guillemots, the number predicted to be killed by the new windfarm every year. They would eradicate the Tiree rats and monitor the island for 35 years. There might be local employment opportunities. JB had told them that the Tiree guillemots nested on the Kenavara cliffs, out the reach of rats. Rat eradication might, in fact, increase the attacks of feral cats on corncrakes. The poison currently used was now illegal. This ‘trade’ in birds was viewed with some scepticism by most members, but we were happy to keep the dialogue open, with local expert advice. This project might involve Gunna and Coll, too
• We have discussed the use of the all-weather pitch with Alex Edmonstone, the Commercial Operations Manager for Live Argyll. He was keen to make the facility more easily available, and was optimistic that this could happen. He will get back to us. He also promised to get back to us with a contact for the library. Cllr Hampsey will follow this up

8. Transport update:

• We expressed our thanks to CalMac and John MacCaskill for the changes to the timetable over the festive period, allowing passengers to go from Tiree to Coll
• We had received a letter from a member of the public complaining about the poor booking system. We passed this on to the Transport Forum
• We have previously agreed to do a deck space pilot survey. Some questions have been circulated. We discussed the pros and cons of residents’ fares. This could lead to higher fares for non-residents. KMF said that the new CalMac contract is due in October. This was therefore a period when pressure on CalMac might be more effective. We agreed to leave the question about residency cards in at the moment, if we could find the right words to explain it. JH and TA will correspond about this
• Community Transport: we have not heard from Martin Arnold, ABC Community Transport about the possibility of the ABC funding for the RingnRide being restored. JH will send the details to AH. We have also approached the Tiree Trust about a community car scheme. This will be considered by the Board at their next meeting

9. Climate change working group report: we have met three times with ABC engineers and JBA Consulting to help with an ABC funding application to develop an Argyll and Bute Council Coastal Change Adaptation Plan. This would focus on Gott Bay, Hynish Bay (Baugh to Hynish) and Balephetrish Bay. We will hear of the application’s success in May. During Storm Ashley, there were 6-m waves in Gott Bay. We will continue to liaise with the Trust’s environmental committee.
10. Visitor Levy: the views expressed so far had been negative. There were concerns that the increased cost of visiting Tiree would deter people and harm the tourist industry. Tiree residents would have to pay the Levy themselves when going to the mainland. Campervan residents would not be paying. Three of our ABC councillors had not answered the points we had put to them about this. It has been estimated that the Levy would raise £9 million a year for the Council. This would be retained and spent by ABC itself, with no guarantee that Tiree would get its fair share. On a per capita basis, this could work out at about £60,000 a year for Tiree. It was not clear who would decide how this money was spent. There has been a small-scale Island Community Impact Assessment, but it had not raised the matter of charges on the island’s residents. This reduced its credibility. One possibility was to ask for the Levy to be applied for just four months in the summer. The ABC consultation was just about to start. People can respond individually. TCC will be making its own collective response. We will wait until we had collected a bit more information before we run our own survey.
11. 11. ABC budget: this was to be set soon. The predicted shortfall for ABC for the next financial year was £14 million, although a relatively generous settlement from Westminster in the last budget has meant that this deficit is likely to be smaller.The council’s own budget meeting is due to take place at the end of February.  This year, ABC has a dedicated budget web page atOur budget challenge | Argyll and Bute Council . AH asked if there were any services that were better to cut than others. Our reply was that Tiree had already been cut to the bone, and that we would not tolerate any further ones. ABC can be contacted directly onworkingtogether@argyll-bute.gov.uk
12. Planning: there were two pre-apps for new-builds in Ruaig and Caolas. They did not concern TCC.
13. 13. AOCB: we wanted to pass our thanks on to Loganair staff for the efforts they went to to get everyone to their destination over Christmas and New Year.
14. 14. Date of next meeting: the next (online) meeting will be delayed until 19 February because of the school holidays.

The meeting closed at 8.50pm

Dr John Holliday

10 January 2025

AGENDA

TIREE COMMUNITY COUNCIL JANUARY MEETING

7pm Wednesday 8 January

In-person Tiree Trust office, Crossapol,

and on Zoom and Facebook live stream

Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7935569301?pwd=qeHEdMGGKZBvGdyw7cUVUi0LV9f57z.1&omn=87176295839

1. Welcome

2. Apologies

3. Minutes of last meeting

4. Matters arising: including library update

5. Councillors’ reports

6. Meeting reports: including discussions on making Tiree a rat free island; use of the all-weather pitch

7. Transport update: including deck space pilot survey

8. Climate change working group report: including Argyll and Bute Council (A&BC) coastal erosion grant application

9. Visitor Levy, including consultation

10. A&BC budget

11. AOCB

12. Date of next meeting