Project Committee Meeting   Tuesday 31st August 2004

Present:        S. Bruce, D. Bryce, K. Gordon, S. Jamieson, M. Lloyd,C. MacBain,  D. MacInnes, M. Mackie, K. MacLennan, N. Masson, K. Newton, B. Nicoll, S. Padfield, D. Scott.

Apologies:      M. Cranfield, M. Jones, Y MacDonald, J. Penman

The chairman welcomed those present and read the minutes of the meeting held on 24th August 2004.  There being no matter arising the minutes were adopted.

Trustees:       The committee was pleased to welcome Maitland Mackie and Sue Padfield. Due to a prior engagement with overseas visitors Mary Cranfield was unable to be present.  The role of trusteeship was discussed and discussion extended into the situation regarding the community land. In the absence of John Loveday the committee was unable to give definitive answers.

Area Manager, Keith Newton delivered drawings of the village and parish as requested at the meeting held on  24th August 2004.   On the matter of further exploring the viability of selling the existing hall site for housing, no planning problem was envisaged for up to 5 houses. The meeting felt that two to three houses was a more likely figure.  Keith further intimated that two recent applications had experienced no problem on drainage approval. Colin MacBain announced that he had contacted Scottish Water and was advised that no further applications can be considered until a survey of the sewage works has been completed in 2005.

Grants: K. Newton advised the meeting of a banked Planning Gain grant of around £1662. Further, and very much depending on a range of factors, it might be possible to obtain a £30K grant through Education Services. The chairman spoke of his ongoing contact with Sports Scotland and how this is a further worthwhile grant source.

Primary School:  Sue Padfield expressed her concern about taking pupils to either of the two proposed sites at the top of the village, especially in winter. Health & Safety and supervision issues make these options quite unattractive. A hall on any new site would require to be within reasonable walking distance of the school.

User Group Questionnaire:  Diane Scott has received some information from Dorothy Lamb of Kinellar and is working on a version that will be more suitable for our purposes. K. Newton emphasised the need to cover existing and potential users.

Donations:  We can only take advantage of Gift Aid donations after charitable status for Daviot Hall is established. An application to Inland Revenue has been made.

Options:  Further discussion took place and it has been agreed to concentrate on three options, namely:-

  1. Extend and refurbish existing hall building
  2. Erect new hall on site obtained from George Rich
  3. Erect new hall on site at the top of the church glebe obtained from the General Trustees of the Church of Scotland

It was agreed to proceed with investigation of acquiring land for options 2 and 3

The release of part of the glebe will be discussed at the next Kirk Session meeting on 16th September 2004 (Duncan MacInnes will raise the matter on behalf of the Project Committee)

Norman Masson will contact Newton of Mounie landowner regarding ground required to form suitable access

Mike Lloyd will carry out survey of glebe land and area to enable access

Investigation  under Option 2 is being carried out by John Penman.

 Next Meeting:                      Tuesday 7th September at 7.30pm