East Kintyre Windfarm Trustees
Argyll and Bute Council · 21 October 2024
Back to Argyll and Bute Windfarm and Renewables Trust — 21 October 2024 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
Page 1
East Kintyre Windfarm Trust Annual Report 2024 East Kintyre Community Council (EKCC) currently consists of 5 elected and 1 co-opted- members. These members, along with 3 independent trustees, make up East Kintyre Windfarm Trust. During the financial year ending 31 March 2024, EKWFT received £76,110 in grant pay- ments from Argyll & Bute Council in relation to Beinn an Tuirc 1 and 2 and Deucheran Hill Windfarms. A total of 12 applications for grant funding were received during the year with 11 being approved and 1 refused. Grants totalling £52,987 were agreed with £57,850, including some carried over from the previous financial year, paid out. This reflects a return to pre- pandemic levels as clubs and community groups have re-established themselves and is despite the opening of the East Kintyre Community Fund, which paid out grants of just over £70,000 during the same period and made awards of over £138,000 to 12 new projects. The trend seems to be towards larger capital and revenue projects, which may reflect the reduced availability of grants from larger funders. Anecdotal evidence sug- gests that the additional funding provided to community groups and facilities during the pandemic has been exhausted with them now turning to the likes of EKWFT for support. An example of this is Carradale Village Hall, which is the primary focal point for communi- ty groups and events. Being an older building, it is in constant need of repairs and up- grades to meet current standards. During the financial year, EKWFT made significant grants to the hall including £19,845 towards the re-roofing of part of the hall and £10,110 for the construction of 2 disabled parking bays at the entrance. A grant of £2,000 was also made towards the cost of hall insurance, which has increased markedly in recent years. In 2022, Kilbrannan Sound established themselves as a Community Interest Company for the purpose of providing affordable entertainment in East Kintyre, which can be difficult to provide in a remote area at the end of a 19 mile single track road. The CIC applied for and received £4,500 in November 2022, which enabled them to put on 6 events during the Winter months with an entry fee of £10. They were granted a similar amount the following year for another 6 events. The most successful and popular events were the Hogmanay parties, which were sold out. During a cost of living crisis these events provided low cost entertainment for the community, with the entrance to some being limited to “pay what you can”. Sports and leisure featured highly in the grants paid during the year with the largest amount of £3,000 being awarded to Kintyre Seasports towards the training of secondary school pupils in dinghy sailing. Where a group such as this is based outwith East Kintyre a pro-rata award is made that reflects the proportion of the population that will benefit from the project. This formula was also used to agree an award of £1,500 to the Aqualib- rium in Campbeltown for new gyms equipment. In the same category, Carradale Angling Club were awarded £2,300 for a new shed and the Kintyre Way were awarded £4.461 for maintenance of the East Kintyre section of the route and promotional materials.
Page 2
The maintenance of a network of tracks and paths in the Carradale area is a priority for the community. Walking and outdoor recreation were identified in the East Kintyre Local Development Plan (LDP) 2020/25 ( http://eastkintyre.org/ldp.php) as priorities by both res- idents and visitors. To help with this, EKWFT sets an annual budget for the maintenance of paths and community areas and facilities. in the last year £6947 was paid out to local contractors to carry out these works. Maintaining the Well Park playing fields and pavil- lion, which is owned by the community council, is also included in this budget. EKWFT will continue to support larger projects such as the Community Shop/ Post Office, and the Village Hall, which are more likely to deliver long term benefits to the community, in line with the East Kintyre LDP. To assist in this regard, a development fund was estab- lished in 2016 and currently has a balance of £69,246. Each year, 10% of all community benefit funds received are transferred into a retention fund (2 bank term deposit accounts) for use by future generations. At 31 March 2024 it had a balance of £83,692. Wherever possible, trustees look for evidence of match funding from applicants, although a degree of flexibility is increasingly necessary as it becomes harder for them to obtain such funding. NOTE - This report should be read in conjunction with the attached audited accounts. Alasdair Bennett Secretary & Treasurer East Kintyre Windfarm Trust 4 October 2024