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£150,000 Fund from Muir Homes
As
many of you may be aware, as part of the Muir Homes Development within
the village of Inchture they were required to donate £150,000 to
the local community to compensate for parts of the initial plan which
were no longer going to be included to provide community facilities.
The Inchture Area Community Council has been entrusted with this money
and are looking to work together with members of the community to
ensure this money is spent in a beneficial way. The money is currently
in a 6month high interest account until such times as it is ready for
use.
Update After Meeting (Thursday 17th January 2008)
It was unfortunate that there was
quite a poor turnout to the Open Meeting to move forward the
discussions over how to spend the money and the setting up of a Sub
Committee for this. It was decided by vote from those attending that
the money should be placed with the Perth & Kinross Quality of Life
Trust who will administer and manage the money for us when intrusted as
necessary. A group of five were elected/volunteered to join together to
form a trust agreement working with the Quality of Life Trust to ensure
that the money will be put to use in an effective way. Once this
agreement has been reached there will then be another meeting to decide
on a further sub committee to then allow decisions to be made on how
the money should be spent.
Response To
Councillor John Hulbert from Inchture Community Council
29th
November 2007
The Community Council
would like to make a number of points in response to the comments made by
Councillor John Hulbert in the November 2007 issue of the ‘Council Business’
newsletter, and also the article in the December 2007 issue of the ‘Inchture
and Area Newsletter’, in connection with the Muir Homes development and their recent
£150,000 donation.
- Councillor Hulbert states “there was an
implicit assumption that the money would go towards either a direct access
to the A90, or a ring road around Inchture”. In the minutes of the
Community Council meeting of 6th July 2006, which was attended
by Councillor Hulbert, it states ‘the publics feelings regarding the link
road/A90 in/out are to be canvassed via the newsletter’ and there is no
statement of assumption of use. The community council feels that whilst
usage of the money was discussed, there was no certainly no implication of
use. There is also no link specified in the minutes of any other community
council meetings, and indeed it is clearly specified in the minutes of the
meeting on 7th September 2006 and the 2nd November
2006 that the money should be spent “as the community wishes”.
- Councillor Hulbert also states in connection
with the £150K, “… it might be augmented, and eventually a heavy lorry
free main street achieved”. Again the community council feels that this
brings in an non-existent implication of use/ Additionally the council also
feels that further very substantial development at least 10 times the size
of the current activity would have to take place, with associated
community donations, in order to achieve the funding necessary (in the
order of £2 to £2.5 million from figures mentioned in community council
meeting minutes) for development of a link road.
- It is also stated by Councillor Hulbert
that “I am concerned that the money has been paid without any safeguard,
or Trust arrangement stating what the money is for, and how spending
decisions should be made”. The Community Council is a statutory body, with
accounts audited on a yearly basis and the audit details (along with all
minutes of community council meetings) are sent to Perth and Kinross Council. As stated in
the November Inchture newsletter, the money has been deposited in a 6
month high interest account, and a special meeting arranged to set up a
body to make spending decisions. The legal department of Perth and Kinross council were also
contacted for advice on what action to take immediately upon receipt of
the money, and we were specifically advised not to go down a ‘Trust’
arrangement upon initial receipt. Additionally the term ‘Common Good fund’
by the community council in the Inchture newsletter was purely as a term
of reference with no other implication to any other separate council
operated ‘Common good fund’.
- Finally, Councillor Hulbert states “Having
a large sum on money within a small community can be very divisive”. I
suggest that legal advice should be taken…” The community council has already
taken (and will continue to take) legal advice on usage of the money, and
as stated previously has already arrange for a meeting to set up a
committee to take input from all parties on usage of the funds.
In summary, the community council feels that it has to set the record
straight on some of the comments made by Provost Hulbert, and is disappointed
that some were not verified prior to publication in an open newsletter. The Community Council also takes very
seriously the responsibility associated with determining the usage of the
£150,000, and will work both for and with the Inchture community in order to
determine the way forward.
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