MINUTE OF COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING 5th September 2016, Kilarrow Youth Centre, Bowmore

ICC Members Present: Glen Roberts – Chair GR Islay McEachern – Vice Chair IM Catherine Gilchrist – Secretary CG Kerry Baker KB Billy McFarlane WM Garry MacLean GM Jim Porteous JP Alastair Redman AR Liz Redman LR Geunda Young GY

Others: Dr Pat McGrann – Islay & Jura Locality Planning Group PM Ann Pilley AP

Public: Dr Mike Senior

Apologies: Barbara Woodrow, Rachel Whyte, John McGillivray, Mairi Lawson, Robert McEachern, Petra Pearce

Action 1. Welcome – Glen Roberts opened the meeting and noted apologies as above.

2. Minutes of the ICC meeting of 9th June 2016 and 18th May 2016 – The minutes of the meetings were agreed as a true record and adoption was proposed by GR and seconded by GM. There had been small changes made to the narrative of the Roads section in the May Minute.

3. Matters Arising – None

4. Community Council Minutes – ICC sub-groups monitoring the activities of ferries, healthcare and camper-vans hold their own meetings and are obliged to report back to ICC. This has resulted in an ever-increasing amount of information to be absorbed by ICC members at each ICC meeting. GY suggested that each of these groups forward its latest Minutes or reports to the ICC Secretary and these documents can accompany the ICC Agenda when it is distributed to ICC members in advance of Council meetings. These ‘Board documents’ will give members the opportunity to apprise themselves of latest developments which may then obviate the need for long discussion at the ICC meeting. ICC agreed that this would be a useful process to adopt.

5. Post Office – GR took the opportunity to convey best wishes from Islay Community Council to Mr and Mrs Kerr of the post office, and Alison McGillivray for her new venture in Bowmore.

6. Correspondence

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a. Roads – CG reported that further reports of incidents on the road from Keills to Ardnahoe had been received from Mr and Mrs Brown. It would appear that A&BC Roads Department have begun to mark the road in preparation for the enlargement of passing places, however, the timescale of this work is not yet known. ICC agreed that CG CG should write to A&BC regarding the ambiguous sign at Springbank which says ‘mainland ferry only – turn right’ to request that it be changed

b. Letters i. Islay Roads - CG wrote to the Transport Minister regarding the possible trunking of roads on Islay and suggesting that funding could be sought from the £100m promised by the First Minister for improving infrastructure. CG pointed out that ICC had gone as far as it could with the local authority. Letter drafted using Brendon O’Hara’s Faslane press release as a template but in the Islay context, to press the case for more funding. Mr O’Hara confirmed that the contribution from the Islay whisky industry to Westminster is in the region of £192million per annum. The tar machine report has still not been received from Mr Smith of A&B despite several reminders

ii. Japanese Knotweed – CG had written to Ms McIlory of A&BC again on 30th August 2016 reminding her of the extent of this problem, but has not yet received a response

iii. Community Planning – A&BTSI had notified ICC of the opportunity for members to attend community planning training which would enable community organisations to better submit funding applications. Any member interested in attending should email CG

iv. Scottish Islands Federation – The questionnaire was completed and returned on 25th July 2016

v. Ramsay Hall Concert – CG reported that a recent concert with Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham and promoted by A&BC saw only 36 tickets sold. The performers were reported to have been appalled by the lack of audience, plus the sub-standard facilities backstage

7. Motorhomes – BW had kindly submitted an update from the sub-group. In summary, a consultation took place with questionnaires in the Ileach, a notice in the Ileach with a dedicated contact email address and face-to-face conversations across the island. 2% of the island population responded. The outcome demonstrated the following priorities: 1. Increase the number of chemical waste facilities. 2. Increase the campsite facilities. 3. Increase the information available to campervan/motor home tourists. GR thanked the group for its work on this and advised that he had constructed a pamphlet, based on one that Mull uses with distribution planned for 2017. GR suggested that ICC members visit the ICC webmail where all the feedback can be read. Councillor Horn had suggested that chemical waste disposal facilities could be

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sited alongside public lavatories. Further investigation of this would be required. At the next ICC meeting in October, GR would expect to be able to GR discuss with ICC members what they feel the next steps should be. GR to circulated draft pamphlet to ICC members.

8. ICC By-election – Due to be held in October 2016 and the papers will be published on 12th September 2016. All those who are currently seconded onto ICC, must apply for election.

9. Treasurer’s Report – Although the Treasurer was not present, the message was sent that all is up to date.

10. Planning – Nothing significant to report. GR reminded the meeting that ICC had raised concerns about safety on the Ardnahoe road in connection with the new distillery and increased traffic.

11. ICC Ferry Group – IM reported the change of name and although Jura will act separately, they will continue to support the main issues. JCC have agreed to meet with members of ICCFC to discuss/agree common aims & objectives. He also advised that since the last ICC meeting, the Ferry Committee had been very active and along with the regular monthly meetings with CalMac, had several other special meetings which included three with Michael Russel MSP, two with Brenan O’Hara MP, two with Andrew Collier CalMac Operations Director, one with Richard Hadfield Head of Ferries Finance, Infrastructure & Sponsorship Transport and one with Humza Yousaf Minister for Transport and the Islands to discuss issues with the current Islay ferry service. Jim Porteous was interviewed and appeared on BBC Alba to discuss the effects of the most recent ferry breakdown. IM gave a very brief overview of these meetings which the committee felt were very useful. The Ferry Committee asked Brendan O’Hara is he could give an indication of the tax revenue generated from whisky production on Islay. Brendan subsequently advised that he was unable to narrow this down to an exact figure, but roughly calculated the Islay whisky contribution is in the region of £192million per annum. The Ferry Committee asked CalMac if they could confirm how the commercial revenue generated on the Islay route compared to the network. CalMac confirmed that the commercial revenue generated by the Islay route equated to 21.5% of the entire network. In a news article shortly after the meeting with Humza Yousaf, the Minister for Tranport & the Islands said “I recently visited Islay and understand the problems being faced by travellers. I am very keen to make sure that lessons are learned from this disruption so I will be holding further discussions on this incident with CalMac to highlight the inconvenience caused and ask them to consider contingency measures for any similar incidents in the future.” Full minutes of these meetings will be available on the ICC website shortly. Going forward, Michael Russell, in conjunction with the ICCFC is arranging a Ferry Summit scheduled for 17th October, with the main purpose being that of establishing a contingency plan to avoid a repetition of this Summer’s devastating problems. Dr McGrann advised that his group had not received any complaints from patients who were trying to travel during the time that we were reduced to one ferry. AR expressed a wish that other MSPs should be involved but, after comments by GR and JP, IM underlined the historical help and support that Mike Russell has given along with his comprehensive knowledge and the fact that he has taken the lead in organising the summit.

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However, going forward, it may be that other MSPs should be invited if any other ICC issues arise.

JP advised that the Ferry Group had originally requested extra sailings throughout the Summer, long before Finlaggan’s mezzanine deck operation failure. Calmac had agreed only for the busiest months of July and August. Following the MV Hebridean Isles incident on 23 July, we lost one ferry, had no mezzanine deck, and the entire Calmac booking system was closed down for a period of 16 days. The last straw was the telephone line, to which travellers had been specifically referred, being found inoperative when bookings finally re-opened. This entire debacle meant a reduction of 50% capacity at one of the busiest times of the year, major disruption and delays and serious damage and loss of income for the island’s tourism industry in particular. Calmac initially underestimated the damage repair time for MV Hebridean Isles and chartered an ill-suited timber-carrying boat which could carry 21 cars but no passengers. On a very few occasions, Calmac managed to use Finlaggan’s mezzanine deck in manual mode but this resulted in inevitable delays. Calmac tried to persuade passengers to travel without their vehicles and their press release activity around that time, gave the impression that a 50% reduction in capacity was being coped with and the demand covered. Clearly, with severe delays for previous bookings and the system closed for new bookings, this was not the case. The Ferry Group brought pressure to bear which eventually resulted in an overnight service being provided by MV Finlaggan, but this was too late to be of significant help due to late re-opening of the booking system and Kennacraig’s telephone line problem. Immediately prior to the Islay Show, MV Isle of Arran was temporarily redeployed into the service.

JP and WM will attend the Argyll Ferry Users Group during week-ending 9th September 2016 at which the long-term strategic plan will be discussed, including the size of proposed ferries and associated revamp of piers. The usual issue of flawed statistic being submitted to Transport Scotland will once again be revisited.

12. AOCB

i. Healthcare – Islay and Jura Local Planning Group – PM confirmed

that they are in the throes of looking to bid for £60k to bring new

services to Islay in connection with young people facing mental

health problems, reducing unnecessary hospital admissions,

providing more facilities on the island for appointment that would

previously have been carried out on the mainland, looking at

young carers on Islay – how many and how they need to be

helped. Providing ‘befriending’ services to reduce loneliness in the

community. PM did express frustration at existing attitudes

ii. ICC Website – The meeting agreed that ICC should proceed with the construction of a new website at a construction cost of £250- GY £450 with an annual hosting and support charge of £110. GY to investigate Ts and Cs before instructing Braveheart Web Design to proceed. iii. South Islay Development – GM advised that work on the new play

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park in Port Ellen is due to start on 3rd October 2016

13. Next meeting – tbc following the by-election

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