Machrihanish Airbase Community Buy-out

[Hels]

By the looks of the MACC website it is open to the public. Surely it must be?! Its not terribly clear though and I haven't seen it advertised elsewhere. I hope a lot of people turn-out, but I imagine space is rather restricted in that venue.

Hopefully MACC will have a full public meeting within the next few weeks (in addition to the one with the guest speaker tonight) so that the community can be up-dated and concerns like those detailed on the forum can then be discussed openly. It seems its time for a well advertised meeting with plenty of space for all who might wish to attend.

[mrn]

The group certainly have my support. Any local group that are willing to do anything for the community has to be supported?

Is tonight's meeting advertised on the machrihanish.org site open to the public?

But why isn't the information on the website posted on here or in the Courier? Would have liked to have attended last night's meeting.

[Hels]

Anyone make it along to the meeting?

[Nancie]

The meeting on Wednesday night was not, apparently, open to the public, although advertised openly on the site.

I see from the Courier that there is an open forum 'bringing together all the interested parties involved in the buyout' at the Burnet Building on May 21.

Not clear if this meeting is open to the public.

[MACC]

The meeting on Wednesday was open to the public although it was not widely advertised. Members of the public were there and were welcomed and no-one would have been turned away. There is a public meeting which is being widely advertised and which will take place on Wednesday 12th May. Please see Poster under Events.

The Ballot will take place during the week of 17th May. The ballot is to give MACC the opportunity to progress a business plan which will inform the community whether to bid to buy the airbase by the deadline which is currently August 11th.

There is a draft business plan which shows that the airbase is affordable and viable but we need community support to progress further. Before the Ballot takes place, we will have provided all the information we can and answered all the questions people may have and will have demonstrated the enormous benefits to the community which would result from community ownership of the airbase.

[Nancie]

Excellent, thanks.

[John S]

Will a successful ballot not do more than just "give MACC the opportunity to progress a business plan". Will it not in fact allow MACC to progress with a buyout without the need for any further engagement with the wider community irrespective of what kind of activities appear in the final business plan?

[mary]

As I see it, progressing a serious business plan/feasibility study in order to be able to make a decision is the next step. If this shows that bidding to buy the airbase does not stack up then we would not proceed. The outline business plan shows that it will stack up and therefore we think it is worth pursuing hence the ballot. However, it is not strictly true that we could buy the airbase in any case, as part of the right to buy legislation requires that a business plan is submitted along with the ballot result and this has to be approved by the Scottish Government.

This is what the legislation says:

"Although there is no prescribed application form to be completed when exercising your right to buy, you must submit to Ministers the following information:

o a letter confirming your CB's intention to proceed with the right to buy;
o evidence to show the relevant level of support from the community to proceed with the right to buy (your ballot);
o evidence that you comply with the requirements of section 51(3)(a) to (e) of the Act, namely that:
# the land you wish to exercise your right to buy is registrable land;
# your CB continues to comply with the provisions of section 34 of the Act;
# your CB's proposals to use the land are compatible with furthering the achievement of sustainable development;
# your proposed purchase of the land is in the public interest;
# there has not, since the date on which Ministers decided your CB's interest should be registered, been a change in any matters to the extent that, if your application to register the community interest was made afresh, they would decide that your interest was not to be entered in the RCIL;
# a feasibility study or business plan;
# any other evidence in support of your proposals."


So John, no you are not correct in your statement that we would have a carte blanche right to buy if the ballot is successful - there are a number of additional hurdles to get over! In any case I can assure you that no-one involved in MACC intends to make other than a very well considered decision backed up by professional advice.

[Hels]

But essentially, as John quite rightly states, if people vote in favour there is nothing to stop the group from proceeding with the buy-out even if the community are not comfortable with the contents of the business plan. MACC simply have to comply with the requirements of the act outlined in the previous post. Legally the community will have no means of saying "stop" if not entirely happy with the contents of that business plan

Mary - is there a copy of the outline business plan available to us just now? Apologies if I have missed it on the MACC site.

[John S]

Mary I think you misunderstand, what i mean is; if the final business plan contains elements which may be unpalatable to large sections of the community, will we get a chance to say no? or is the ballot, which is prior to the final business plan, the only opportunity for the community to have a say.

After all, it was not that long ago that a proposal to decommission nuclear submarines at Machrihanish was supported by local businesses. I am not suggesting that there is anything as sinister in MACC's proposals but the priorities for the Company might not be as parallel to those of the community as the members of MACC might think, and these should be tested once the final plans are drawn up.

[mary]

An essential part of the right to buy process is public consultation with the community. Once we have a successful ballot, the next stage would be to employ consultants to help with those aspects of the feasibility study and business plan which require professional expertise and the business plan would be developed in full consultation with the community. There is a business ideas form on the http://machrihanish.org website which anyone can fill in and return (anonymously or not as they wish) and all the ideas and aspirations that we have received will be included where possible and as appropriate in the business plan. There will also be further public meetings and continuing consultation with councillors and community councils etc. The plan is for the airbase to be run sustainably for the benefit of the community. This would include provision of community facilities as requested or needed by the community. Suggestions so far have included a golf driving range which can be flood lit for winter use, running summer camps for young people, provision of allotments and space for community food production, space for nursery and creche facilities, a free bus service from the town etc etc. It would obviously take time to develop these initiatives but there is no shortage of space or buildings for any ideas or requests that the community has.

[kintyre56]

It is regrettable that one of our councillors persists in being so negative and unsupportive of his community's attempt to acquire for the community an asset with such tremendous potential! To mention nuclear decommissioning was quite frankly "below the belt" and the buy out group has always made it very clear that environmental consideration are very high on their list - this can be seen clearly from the information in the original bid to register an interest which was lodged with the SG and is publicly available on the community land unit's website. The Councillor should have done his homework! The income already generated by the various leases which go with the airbase is rising and is nearly enough to service the outgoings. The current outline business plan that I have seen shows that in 10 years the airbase will be in profit- that is even without various additional income streams that will be generated by (environmentally friendly) inward investment. This profit will accrue to the community through a trust - similar to the way the wind farm trusts work but will larger grants to disperse to the community. The liabilities were estimated by the MOD in the manner in which we all know that MOD do these things. It was calculated as being the estimated amount required to put the airbase back into military working condition - that was why the figure was so high. CKD Galbraith with a touch of civilian realism, significantly reduced the figure. In addition to this both MOD and the Council have taken steps to reduce the liabilities.
Anyone with any community spirit and any desire to see this area prosper should go along to the public meeting tomorrow evening, hear what the group has to say and then vote to help the group secure this asset for the community.

[Mist Rolling In]

Kintyre56 - I think you are being a little unfair on our local councillor. He states clearly that he is not suggesting that the group would consider anything as "sinister" as nuclear decommissioning. You seem to have looked for the negative in his comment, rather than at what his point actually is - that we (the community) are not at this stage aware of MACCs plans for the site. If we vote yes, we are putting our faith in the group to come up with a business plan which is desirable for us all. If it is not desirable, there is little we can do.

An outline business plan has been mentioned several times, yet I know of no-one outwith the group who has seen it. The group has been in existence for nearly 2 years now - they must have some documentation they can share with us surely? While I understand that there is a need for commercial confidentiality to be respected for some aspects of the plans - this cannot be the case for it all. I for one do not feel that I have anywhere close to enough information to vote.

Come on MACC – please give us something to peruse before the public meeting and before asking us to say yes!

[zeus]

Kintyre56 why not come clean and declare your position within the MACC then maybe enlighten us with the mystical buisness plan if indeed one exists..

[John S]

Go easy on Kintyre 56, she cant help it, its in his nature criticise anything connected to the John Semple - Never says boo to me when I meet her on the street though, funny that ;o)