Following on from the AGM

TIREE COMMUNITY COUNCIL

JUNE PUBLIC MEETING

7 pm 18 June 2026

In person at the Trust Offices, Crossapol; Zoom; and streamed on the Tiree Community Council Facebook page

1. Present: In person: Gerard McGoogan (chair) and John MacCaskill. Online: Dr John Holliday and Frances Khetrat. Kirsty MacFarlane Convenor of Coll CC also joined online.
2. Apologies: Cllr Willie Hume, Tim Arkless.
3. Declarations of interest: JH and GMG are trustees of Solar, which uses the Scarinish phone box. JH is a trustee of the Hynish Trust.
4. Minutes of last meeting: these were accepted as a true record. Proposed JMC, seconded FK.
5. Matters arising (not covered later): the mirror at Pier View. JH has contacted West Highland Housing Association and it should be installed soon.
6. Correspondence:

• We have received the Coll Place Plan, which was excellent. KMF said that it had taken a meeting almost every week for 18 months to produce it
• The May police report for Tiree and Coll recorded 7 calls and 3 crimes
• JH had contacted the doctors about the state of the present mortuary. Police Scotland will make it secure and wind and watertight. A replacement will be considered in the longer term

1. Meeting reports: 

• PlanetYouth: JH had attended. This youth work project has been rolled out nationally. Tiree already has an excellent youth programme, but there may be some additional funding available to expand this
• Mull CC: JH had attended. there was nothing to report relevant to Tiree
• Coll CC: JH had attended. The Coll capital roads maintenance budget for this financial year is £0. JH will write to Cllr Willie Hume to find out about the equivalent situation for Tiree. Coll has similar issues with the use of single-track roads by visitors. Coll CC has asked if the Tiree poster on the ferry could be changed to include ‘Tiree and Coll’. Their secretary will write to us about this

8. Transport (JMC):

• Members of Tiree Transport Forum had met the CalMac CEO Duncan Mackison and other members of his management team. This meeting has been separately minuted. They acknowledged that the Isle of Mull is not suitable for the Tiree run. KMF had also had a meeting with the group, and had liaised with JMC. She felt that the Area Manager should be out on the network and in the communities every other month or so, and having joint meetings with both islands. JMC agreed to support a joint letter to this effect. The company now agrees that the Colonsay service needs to be de-tangled from Coll and Tiree
• A Freedom of Information request has gone in about the failure of the Isle of Mull to complete service on three specific days. On 7 May, the statement from the company was that weather conditions ‘were outwith the safety parameters of the vessel’. There was no acknowledgement of the state of the vessel’s bow visor. Transport Scotland has advised us that a FOI application should not be necessary in such circumstances. JMC will follow this matter up with CalMac
• Deck space pilot: The pilot had been withdrawn during the turmoil of the last two months. JMC favours going back to a 7-day booking period for this. KMF said that the current 14-day period suited their community better, as one could be sure of making the return booking before one set off. We agreed to continue to monitor the situation. One problem is that it is, deliberately, poorly advertised. Michael Scobie, head of communications, has promised a mailshot to islanders about this and medical priority schemes once they are finalised. JMC and KMF will contact Area Manager Stephen Wood about this
• KMF and JMC had written to CMAL about a new ferry. Kevin Hobbs CEO of CMAL has replied suggesting that a programme to procure a new vessel for Coll and Tiree is indeed likely to start next year, although no funding has been allocated for this yet. There are issues to do with the shallow berthing at the Tiree pier and the state of the pier itself that will also need to be addressed. Hobbs will visit the islands later this year
• Kevin Hobbs also said that the new marshalling area and office at the pier are now going ahead
• Transport Scotland (TS) Community Needs Assessment meeting at An Talla. GMG and JMC had attended and there was a healthy turnout from the island. One member of the public had put their points across very strongly, and it was important to treat visiting politicians and civil servants with respect
• An online visitor survey for the Inner Hebrides conducted by Stantec concluded in June
• The winter timetable submission from Tiree and Coll has gone to TS and will be passed to the Cabinet Secretary
• Round 2 of the Business Resilience Fund: GMG has extracted the openly-published data from HIE on the Tiree and Coll businesses that have benefited. A typical grant was £5,500. One Tiree company had not heard of the fund, and if the fund is repeated—as promised in the SNP manifesto—we need to improve the publicity. Any future fund will only apply to tourist businesses and those handling perishable goods. A better way would be to have an improved weather cancellation compensation scheme
• The Glen Sannox will not be coming to Tiree for a berthing trial
• Coll, Tiree and Colonsay all agree to ask for a change in days to the HebAir service. KMF will write accordingly. A new contract for this service is not far away
• Additional ‘bank’ flights for Sea Change and TMF have been agreed. The arrangements for the additional flights for the Tiree Ultra Marathon (early September) and Livestock Sales (October) are at the final stages of putting on the Loganair on-line booking system, and should be in place within the next week or so

9. Dental service: JH had met the Chief Dental Officer John Lyon and his deputy Gill Rees from the Highland Health Board along with two other members of their team. The minutes of that meeting have not been made available yet. They acknowledged that the service has reduced since the turn of the year. Instead of a dentist on site four days a month, they were coming for four hours a month. Taking one of two children to Oban means taking them off school for a couple of days and can cost around £200. This is impossible for many families. Lack of staff, contracts which do not specify overnights away from home and the use of an air service with a 55% success rate have contributed to this. They have plans to boost the service over the next three months, and we will meet again at the end of this period. Some Coll patients are also registered at the Tiree practice.

1. Broadband resilience: GMG has written to BT but has not had a reply. He noted the passing of Tiree Broadband, which has been incredibly successful. He thanked those behind the project from the beginning.
2. TCC projects: 

• Telephone boxes: three still need to be disconnected. This will have to be done by the next community council
• Community Garden: GMG has spoken to a number of people about our Keder house, which is still in storage. We agreed to pass it to Heylipol Church Trust. If they are not successful, we will have to think again
• Bicycle pumps: a cheque for £940 of restricted funds has been [assed to the Tiree Trust, who will now take over this project

11. Recent planning applications: there have been 30 applications this year, the same number as last year. Some, however, are just amendments of previous applications. Most are at the east end of the island. The fragility of the road around Gott Bay to future sea level rises will need to be considered in times to come. No applications this month came within our protocol.
12. Councillors’ reports: Jim Lynch had sent his written report. There were no others.
13. Upcoming community council elections: nominations are still live, and we are keen for as many as possible, particularly from younger and Gaelic-speaking islanders. An election would be good. Nomination details are on our website and Facebook page.
14. MachairWind: this is set to be a large wind farm closer to Colonsay than to us. The nearest turbine will be 18 miles away from Hynish. The turbines will be very tall. We have asked for response from the public. There has been little reaction on the island, but we have around 14 replies to our Facebook post. Most have been against; some are in favour. JH will draft a letter summarising this for submission to the Marine Directorate when the time comes.
15. AOCB: this is likely to be the last public meeting of this session of TCC. As usual, there will be no meeting in July and due to the community council elections, no meeting is currently scheduled for August.
16. Final remarks: JH thanked councillors and members of the public for the support of the community council, which was more needed than ever.

The meeting closed at 9 pm.

Dr John Holliday, 22 June 2026