Clearing Up A Misunderstanding
There seems to be much confusion and misunderstanding of the workings of the Wind Farm Trust.
The Trust was set up in 2003 by Argyll and Bute Council and CRE Energy who provide an annual grant. The first payment of £21,000 was received in 2003. Subsequent payments in June each year have increased annually through inflation and the last of £22,762 was received in June 2006. The bank pays interest on the account.
The area benefiting from the funds is that covered by the Colintraive & Glendaruel Community Council. The Trustees comprise one member of the Community Council from Glendaruel (Tom Mowat) and one from Colintraive (Bridget Paterson, who has now resigned from the Community Council and also as a Wind Farm Trustee), a local authority Councillor (Douglas Currie who retires in May), an elected representative (Alec McNaughton) and a representative from Scottish Power. A&BC also have an interest in the Trust and receive copies of minutes. The chair is Alec McNaughton and the Secretary/Treasurer is Tom Mowat. The Trustees meet quarterly. and claim no expenses and there have been no running costs.
The Trust received a constitution from A&BC and Scottish Power and guide lines for awarding grants were determined. Trustees were restricted to awarding grants to ‘groups and organisations which undertake activities which benefit the joint community of Colintraive and Glendaruel’. This has been interpreted as allowing grants only to non profit making groups. A condition which has caused concern is the need for ‘match funding’ which requires any group applying for more than £1000 to have a similar amount of their own or from some other source, often not easy to achieve. The Trustees have found this too restrictive and referred the matter to Scottish Power. This coupled with changes to the constitution was referred to their solicitors some months ago and the outcome is awaited.
The Trustees consider all applications and have to date given grants totalling £46,100. The largest grant has been £28,000 to the children’s playpark and grants totalling £5,600 have been given to the school for various projects. The shinty club, the Gun club, the village Halls, the Cowal Way, the Fellowship and the Newsletter have also benefited. The Trust funds are there to be used for the benefit of the community and cannot be spent unless applications are made. Application forms are available from the secretary.
Alec McNaughton, Chairman
Tom Mowat, Secretary/Treasurer
