DOUBLE CHRISTMAS and NEW YEAR ISSUE

Issue 207 - December 2009 and January

2010
e-mail edition

KINTYRE ON RECORD "archives" online at

http://www.scribd.com/Kintyre%20On%20Record

WEATHER FORECASTS - LOCAL WEBSITE and OTHER LINKS and MORE at

http://www.kintyreonrecord.co.uk/articles.php

http://www.kintyreforum.com/

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 http://www.the-carradale-goat.co.uk/

CONTENTS

- LICE-SENSE TO FARM
- PEOPLE IN BIG HOUSES SHOULDN’T . . .
- COMMUNITY COUNCIL ADMINISTRATIVE IMPERATIVES
- COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING
- AIRTRICITY
- WIND-FARM GET-TOGETHER
- OTHER NOVEMBER MEETINGS
- CARE & REPAIR
- WREATH-LAYING
- KINTYRE U3A - UNIVERSITY OF THE 3RD AGE
- OCTOBER RAINFALL
- EVA & VICTIM SUPPORT
- CARRADALE - NAOMI MITCHISON’S ESSAYS AND JOURNALISM
- THE KINTYRE MAGAZINE - ISSUE 66
- BOOKS AND MAGAZINES FOR SALE - Back copies of The Kintyre Magazine
- THE HISTORY OF U-BOAT "U-33" IN SCOTLAND
- JAMES CAW Sr.
- THE BUCHANAN FAMILY OF CARRADALE ESTATE
- JOSHUA
- CHERYL GREENWOOD 1967 - 2009
- DONALD KELLY SEES RED BUT NOT REID - A LETTER TO ALAN REID MP
- FORTHCOMING EVENTS - IN THE CARRADALE VILLAGE HALL
- SIXTEEN TO THIRTY ?
- GLOBAL WARMING : A SOLUTION ?
- ROOM FOR ONE OR MORE ON TOP
- THE CHIMERA OF COMMUNITY PLANNING
- WIND-FARM TRUST AUTUMN GRANTS
- GRACE WINS AGAIN

LICE-SENSE TO FARM
At long last Lakeland Marine have progressed their application for a fish farm in
Kilbrannan Sound to the Planning Hearing stage.

Fairly promptly at 10.30am on Friday 6th November the Council’s traditional defensive
‘square’ of seated participants developed into a distorted hexagon with the galaxy of
Argyll & Bute Councillors on two sides of this distinctly unfamiliar shape. While they
almost faced Richard Kerr of the Council’s Planning Department and his assistant, the
applicants, consultees and supporters, sat on a fourth side and the objectors and their
supporters on a fifth.

In an unacceptable move 120 local residents and interested visitors were cramped
together behind the competing parties and would have provided distinct evacuations
problems in the event of fire. While the hall stage was available for the computer
presentation, the planning department chose to stand it on the hall floor - out of sight of
most of the audience. A further problem was inaudible comments from one or two
speakers who failed to use the microphone system, and from almost all those unfamiliar
with the technique who did.

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Richard Kerr provided a competent description of the application, its relevance to the
area plan and to the problems inherent in fish farms - all that the Councillors needed to
make a decision, but with ‘community engagement’ the name on the planning bottle, the
contents had to emptied out and prodded to ensure that no foreign or dead bodies were
part of the mix. Reference was made to the planning history of the site, from the time
that Mike Foreman, James Alan, Archie McMillan and Sandy Galbraith set up Ocean Shells
Ltd through the interest shown by another party, to the transfer agreement with Lakeland
Marine, and to the change from shell fish, to cod and finally to salmon. He pointed out
that Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency had no
objection if all the relevant safeguards are observed. Plans for the fish farm include 14,
32 metre, tanks and a 14sq m feeding and accommodation barge sitting 5.8m above the
water when empty and between 4.5m and 5.5 m when in use.

Colin Blair from Lakeland went into great detail about the plan, and the safeguards they
were obliged to provide. Dr John Webster, a biologist involved with fish for over 35 years,
gave additional scientific support, as did two members of a local family - Colin Oman, who
had been involved in helping Ocean Shells Ltd with their application, and Findlay Oman
who is involved in a net manufacturing business - he described the high quality products
manufactured for Lakeland.

Shelagh Cameron of East Kintyre Community Council, speaking for the statutory
consultees, made it clear that the application could bring jobs and attract younger
families to the area. Stuart Irvine, of ‘Network Carradale’ spoke of the recent
improvements to the harbour and the need to ensure that its facilities attract other users.

Mrs Logan, representing 73 local residents and 129 visitors associated with the North
East Kintyre Consortium, spoke for the objectors and on the dangers to wild fish spawning
in local rivers. Mrs Jane Wright, of the Argyll District Salmon Fishing Board with a wide
experience of the problems sometimes associated with fish farms, gave a long and highly
detailed account of the Salmon Fishing Boards work and of its concern over the
development.

An interval was called at 12.40 pm and with Councillors leaving the hall it was assumed
that the planning hearing would adjourn for lunch. This proved not to be the case and as
a result Colin Burgess opposition to the scheme was not heard by this reporter.

On returning to the hall at 1.15 pm there was a delay until the Councillors, returned at
1.45 pm and Richard Kerr by 2.10 pm. Subsequently questions came from most of the
attending Councillors; local Councillors spoke expressing the view that they were in
favour of the project so long as all safeguards were observed. Councillor Rory Colville
expressed particular concern over the box-like shape of the accommodation barge and
expressed the hope that its colour would mitigate some of the adverse criticisms of a
similar barge visiting Campbeltown earlier this year.

Perhaps the most significant turning point over the danger of disease from farmed
salmon infecting the wild population in the Carra was Shelagh Cameron’s statement that
the stock of salmon in the Carra had been twice augmented in the past twenty years by
the release of farm salmon. While this in no way answers the criticism of diseased farm
stock contaminating wild salmon, there is also a chance that disease-free farm salmon
escapees could be infected by local wild salmon.

As a regular event on the social calendar it is to be recommended, encouraging, as it did

on this occasion, those with flu to spread the good news about, those recently returned
from hip operations to offer their advice and for visitors and holiday home-owners to see
to what lengths a rural community will do to encourage local prosperity.

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Unfortunately it was a pity the Hall Committee didn’t make a killing by on lunch-time
refreshments as Councillors, applicants, objectors and some residents became more
familiar with other places of refreshment and enjoyed the experience - I wonder if Richard
Kerr and his assistant were amongst them and got carried away by local bon homie.

G.P.

PEOPLE IN BIG HOUSES SHOULDN’T . . .

One of the disturbing aspects of the comments made at the November meeting of East
Kintyre Community Council meeting were the references to members of the North East
Kintyre Consortium - the principal objectors to the proposed Kilbrannan fish farm.

What started out as a commentary on the principal features of the scheme and the
support given by East Kintyre Community Council to encourage more local employment,
ended up as adverse comments on some objectors who, though enjoying holidays in the
area and wishing to preserve its nature, were dismissed as lesser mortals whose
objections were not of value. Somewhat ghoulishly reference was made to objectors who
no longer needed planning permission for their underground accommodation and who,
unfortunately, were still on the NEKC list.

Departing from this understandable but regrettable stance came a tirade of comment
about a recently established house overlooking Claonaig which was assumed to be the
headquarters of local mafia resistance. Questions were asked of the attending Councillors
how the seemingly never-ended series of gables fitted the preferences in the local plan
and if all the extensions had planning permission. No one stopped to ascertain if the
house in question or the one next door was host to well informed, environmentally aware
and respectable members of the Claonaig community.

Eventually a little logic was engendered and Councillors were asked to investigate and to
report back to the Convener. Once again had the Convenor referred to the Community
Council Review’s Code of Best Practice she could have remonstrated with the
commentators and restored some dignity to the discussion.

Perhaps the moral is that if you have principles and your house is unusual there is a
distinct likelihood that any attached philosophic greenhouses and conservatories may be
at risk from employment projectiles.

G.P.

COMMUNITY COUNCIL ADMINISTRATIVE IMPERATIVES

Before the usual monthly meeting of East Kintyre Community Council, Charles Reppke,
Head of Community Services and Governance, came to induct the new community
council and to introduce the New Model Constitution, Good Practice Agreement, Code of
Communication and the Code of Conduct for Community Councillors.

Included is continuing requirement to publish an agenda 10 days before a meeting, and

to publish and send to members of the community council and the relevant corporate
services manager printed draft minutes within 14 days of the meeting taking place -
practices which have not been followed by some community councils in the past.

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He also asked the new community council to consider increasing the democratic
involvement of local residents by adding to the 6 residents who decided to stand for
election. This would give a complement of 10, matching the statutory standard for the
smallest community councils. The Convenor, Shelagh Cameron, replied that she thought
the present number was sufficient to operate satisfactorily, despite 5 being the minimum
for East Kintyre to be officially constituted.

Unfortunately the Convenor’s decision not to seek 4 more councillors would leave little
room for absence through illness or other commitments. Indeed, if up to 2 councillors left
the area, died or were unable through illness or other commitments to make statutory
attendances, the community council would cease to exist – co-option being no longer
permitted. Additionally if the Convener’s assumption that an establishment of 6 was
statutory, a resulting quorum of 2 would be democratically unacceptable and certainly
not in the best interests of the community.

The 5 community councillors present appointed Shelagh Cameron as Convenor, Andrea

Hopkins as Vice Convener & Secretary and Stewart Irvine as Treasurer; Shelagh will
continue to monitor planning.

Before Mr Reppke left he paid tribute to the locally resident Secretary of the Association
of Argyll and Bute Community Council who, with three other members of the Executive
Committee, had assisted the Director of Corporate Services and members of the
Department in the passage of the Community Council Review.

COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING

The November meeting of East Kintyre Community Council, following the formal
induction, proved to be the usual mixture of local issues apart from a protracted
discussion of the issues surrounding the proposed fish-farm in Kilbrannan Sound - The
Public Hearing of which was due to be heard in Carradale the following day.

Altogether three ABC councillors, Robin Currie, John McAlpine and John Semple, five
community councillors and nine residents heard another plea by Jimmy Williamson about
the ‘doggie’ bags on the top of the now non-operational bins on Sally’s Walk. Lachie
Paterson suggested that the boxes be removed from the supporting posts and discarded;
there were no volunteers to restart the facility and the suggestion that forestry workers
should be asked to empty them was not treated seriously. Marcus Adams complained
that, as a commercial operator, he was likely to be fined if he continued to put Hotel
bottles in the Harbour recycling bins.

The perennial appeal to upgrade un-adopted roads this time featured the state of
Broomfield beyond the Abbeyfield junction; the Convener was hoping to promote
upgrading based on the active participation of local residents. Those with experience of
similar moves in the past expressed their doubts about its chance of success.

ROAD ISSUES

Just when small sporadic piles of salt and sand have appeared by the side of some
country roads Carradale residents are still fighting for sections of the roads to be
repaired. While the Abbeyfield ‘puddle’ could have been useful years ago in hosing down
Harry Douglas when nurses refused to risk showering him, it provides somewhat of a
shock to those unwise enough to use the footpath.

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The damage just to the north of Grogport village continues to endanger car suspensions
and pedestrians are still at risk from speeding vehicles in the restricted 30 and 40mph
zones. With three police-persons living in the area, despite having their main duties
elsewhere in Kintyre, one is pleased to hear that the new constable is receiving speed-
detector training. Perhaps it is time the Community Council took the initiative and engage
in the detection schemes operating in other areas; I am sure Jim Campbell would have
welcomed an opportunity to be involved if he was still living opposite Semple’s garage.

AIRTRICITY
The company hoping to operate the proposed Cour wind-farm has cancelled its exhibition
and presentation.

WIND-FARM GET-TOGETHER
Community councillors in Kintyre have been asked to attend a meeting of every
community council in Kintyre in Campbeltown on Wednesday 2nd December at 7pm to
discuss wind-farm related matters.

OTHER NOVEMBER MEETINGS

Senior citizens who managed to attend the South Kintyre Seniors Forum in Carradale
Village Hall on Thursday 12th of November heard an interesting and informative talk by
Malcolm McMillan, the Community Power-down Project Officer of the South Kintyre
Development Trust. Malcolm spoke on a variety of ways of insulating homes and came
with a Christmas gift of the new low power consumption lighting bulbs. It was a pity that
most Carradale senior residents were unable to attend because of a transport failure.

CARE & REPAIR

It is hoped to have a summary of the services offered by Argyll & Bute Council’s Care and
Repair team in the February Antler - out the last week in January.

WREATH-LAYING
The traditional wreath-laying ceremony for those who died in the two World Wars and in
subsequent conflicts took place on the 8th of November - the Sunday closest to Armistice
Day. Matthew Ramsay conducted a well-attended ceremony before the normal service in
Saddell and Carradale Church. Wreaths were laid on behalf of the Armed Services, SSAFA,
the Fire and Rescue Service and young residents of the village on behalf of the Football
Club.

KINTYRE U3A - UNIVERSITY OF THE 3RD AGE

Thank you for advertising the above in your Issue No. 206, November 2009.The U3A is
open to everyone either in part time work or unemployed/ retired. Re the last paragraph
or your article, we would advise you that a number of people did give positive feedback
to Dr Carrier and it is always thought provoking to have differing points of view on any
presentation.

Since the Inaugural meeting 6 groups have been initiated. These being: Computing,
Painting, Music Appreciation, Walking, Crafts and Writing. More members would be
welcomed to these groups and to any other activity.

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As part of the Programme of General Meetings a further Meeting has been arranged for
Thursday 3rd December at 10.45 am to which all interested parties are invited. This
meeting will take the following form :

1. A 15 minute film on the Aims and Objectives of the U3A

2. A Presentation by James Lafferty Campbeltown CARS & THI Project Officer on the
“Planned Development of Campbeltown Town Centre”.

3. Tea/Coffee with a chance to view the progress of existing groups and an opportunity to
join.

Signed on behalf of the Kintyre U3A - Alister Nimmo (Secretary)

OCTOBER RAINFALL
Heavy rain fell at times in October, but the total of 165mm was well below the average of
206mm. The range over recent years has been between 109 mm in 2003 and 312 mm
last year in 2008.

The month was wet both at its beginning and at its end, but there was a relatively dry
spell between the 12th and the 24th when only 10mm fell.

There was heavy rain on four occasions with 11mm, 23mm, 13mm and 18mm on the
2nd, 3rd, 10th and 26th. Exceptionally heavy rainfall of nearly two inches (49mm) was
recorded on Sunday 25th October.

Falling temperatures throughout the month gave a distinctly wintry feel to the weather
which was accentuated after the clocks went back. With the darker evenings and the first
frost it’s official winter’s here !

“ Dull November brings the blast. Then the leaves are whirling fast.” Sara Coleridge.

I would like to thank Alan Briggs, who once again stepped in to take the daily rainfall
readings whilst I was away at the end of the month. ML.

EVA & VICTIM SUPPORT

Eva MacDonald, MBE, was recently a guest of Mr. Kenny MacAskill, Cabinet Secretary for
Justice at a Reception in the presence of HRH the Princess Royal. The Reception took
place in the Great Hall, Edinburgh Castle, and was in celebration of the 25th Anniversary
of Victim Support Scotland. Eva was representing Argyll, and had the honour of meeting
Her Royal Highness. The Princess asked Eva which part of Argyll she came from, and
thanked her for volunteering with Victim Support Scotland.

CARRADALE - NAOMI MITCHISON’S ESSAYS AND JOURNALISM

Kennedy and Boyd has just published Volume 2 in the seven-volume edition of Naomi
Mitchison’s Essays and Journalism.

The essays, collected by Moira Burgess, is devoted to Naomi’s writing about the West
Highland village of Carradale, to which she moved in the late 1930s and where she lived
for over sixty years. She writes about many aspects of Carradale: her farm, the local

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fishing industry, the big garden, which was particularly dear to her heart, and ‘the village
and the Big House’.

A long essay, ‘Rural Reconstruction’, never reprinted before, is a snapshot of Carradale in

the 1940s and a spirited presentation of Mitchison’s dreams for its future. The book is a
paperback, 9” x 6”, of 434 pages ISBN 978-1-84921-011-9 £16.95 $35.00

The Series was launched by Moira Burgess at K Martin’s Bookshop, Campbeltown, on

Saturday 14th November 2009.

Moira Burgess is a novelist, short story writer and literary historian who lives in Glasgow.
She is the author of Mitchison’s Ghosts (Humming Earth, 2008), on supernatural and
mythical elements in the writing of Naomi Mitchison.

THE KINTYRE MAGAZINE

THE KINTYRE ANTIQUARIAN AND NATURAL HISTORY
MAGAZINE
ISSUE 66
The Editor received a complimentary copy of this authoritative magazine towards the end
of October. This 66th issue is packed with interesting and informative articles, including
‘Ferns in Kintyre’ by Christine Russell of Peninver, ‘Two War Memorials in Kintyre’ by
Murdo MacDonald, and ‘A Box at the Inneans’ by Ian McVicar introduced by Angus Martin.
Neil Kermack writes of his introduction to a veterinary career at Ronachan and Agnes
Stewart gives her Botanical Report for 2009. But, in addition there are requests for
information on an event off Carradale in November 1939, on William McTaggart by Per
Kvaerne – a professor at the University of Oslo – and from Angus Martin on James Caw Sr.,
father of Sir James Caw, the father-in-law and biographer of William McTaggart.

BOOKS AND MAGAZINES FOR SALE - Back copies of The

Kintyre Magazine
Numbers 6 to 49 are available at 3 for £1 plus p & p, though some issues, e.g. Number
48, are now sold out.

Numbers 50 to 64 are available at £1.50p each plus p & p.

The following books published by The Society are also available by mail :

Kintyre in The 17th Century by Andrew McKerral - £9 plus p & p.

Meanders in South Kintyre by James McNeill - £5 plus p & p.

Kintyre Birds : Notes, Quotes & Anecdotes, a 60-page compilation by Angus Martin ~ £2
plus £1 p & p (UK).

The Place-Names of The Parish of Southend, 40 pages - £2 plus £1 p & p.

The Place-Names of The Parish of Campbeltown, 60 pages - £3, plus £1 p&p.

Kintyre at War, 1939-1945, CD-Rom in Microsoft 'Word' edition for PC computers,

compiled by Donald Kelly- £5 plus p & p.

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The Kintyre Magazine is available at both Campbeltown bookshops at £1.50.

THE HISTORY OF U-BOAT "U-33" IN SCOTLAND

Mr Nigel Graddon is completing a book on U-Boat 33 and its activities in Scottish waters
from late 1939 to early 1940. He has been in correspondence with many Scots since
2001 about locations in which the U-Boat was observed during that period. One of the
sightings which he is keen to pursue can be dated to the afternoon of 22 November 1939,
when local fishermen and the occupants of a school bus on Arran observed U-33 landing
men in Carradale Bay. A report was transmitted to the Royal Navy at Greenock, but it
remains unclear as to whether that report was acted on. He will welcome any
information, however slight, on that incident. Mr Graddon can be contacted at 4 Nailsea
Court, Sully, Penarth CF64 5SQ; e-mail : rosniveus@googlemailcom
JAMES CAW Sr.
The Editor of 'The Kintyre Magazine', Angus Martin, is seeking information on James Caw
Sr., father of Sir James Caw, son-in-law and biographer of William McTaggart, for a brief
article on his life and work. James Sr. visited Campbeltown on painting trips in the early
1860s and early '70s and sold paintings locally. If any reader has examples of his work or
can help with biographical or other material, please contact the Editor.

THE BUCHANAN FAMILY OF CARRADALE ESTATE

Following the inclusion of an item about the ownership of Carradale Estate in the late
1800's, Donald Kelly was supplied a brief history of the family.

Colonel David Carrick Robert Carrick Buchanan added Carradale and Torrisdale in Cantyre
and Finlayston, at Langbank in Renfrewshire, the ancient seat of the Glencairn family, to
the family inheritance, Buchanan coming to Carradale in the summer of 1861.

In 1862 the lands in the parish of Old Monkland belonged to 50 heritors, Colonel
Buchanan of Drumpellier the most extensive landed proprietor in the parish, his family,
connected with the district for upwards of a century, always taking a deep interest and
prominent part in the area and tending to its prosperity and welfare.

The founder of the family was Andrew Buchanan, merchant, grandson of Buchanan of
Gartichairne, born in 1691, who purchased the estate of Drumpellier in 1735.

Andrew Buchanan, his family belonging to the Leny branch of the Clan Buchanan, in
whose ancient territory Ben Lomond towers in all its grandeur, was one of the celebrated
Virginia Dons, he made Provost of Glasgow in 1740 and was one of the original partners
of The Ship Bank, in 1750 and it was through his instrumentality that Robert Carrick was
admitted a junior clerk into that monetary establishment, Carrick rising to become one of
its chief partners.

Through his grounds, Buchanan opened Glasgow's Virginia Street, it named after the then
British-American province where his extensive plantations were situated. Andrew his
three brothers - George, Neil and Archibald - were founders of The Buchanan Society, in
1725, Glasgow's then second oldest charitable institution, the first being Hutchesons'
Hospital.

Andrew had two sons, James and George, James dying without male issue and, prior to
his death, selling the Drumpellier estate to his cousin Andrew Stirling, merchant in

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Glasgow, in 1792 and George, the second son, who purchased the estate of Mount
Vernon in 1757, dying in 1762.

The Stirlings appear to have been very extensive merchants in Glasgow about the period
when Andrew became proprietor of Drumpellier in 1792 and, at that time, the family
removing their extensive warehouses first to one of the wings of the Shawfield Mansion,
at Glassford Street and then to Cunningham's Great House in Ingram Street, it now The
Royal Exchange.

On October 1, 1792, Andrew Stirling withdrew from the Glasgow establishment and
formed the extensive commission house of Stirling, Hunter & Co. of London, the family
business, which had been carried on under the name of William Stirling & Sons,
continuing and rub by John Stirling and James Stirling, as the only remaining partners.

The Stirlings were prominent shareholders in the construction of The Monkland Canal and
also as coal masters in the district but, other ventures at home and abroad were
unsuccessful and the Stirlings were made bankrupt in 1807, David Buchanan, son of
George Buchanan of Mount Vernon, who had succeeded his father in 1762, re-
purchasing the Drumpellier estate from the Stirlings' creditors in 1808, the Stirlings
however still retaining the superiority and the title Drumpellier and David then taking the
surname of Carrick in 1821, on succeeding to the lands which belonged to the great
Glasgow banker Robert Carrick.

David, who died in 1827, left a family of four, two sons and two daughters - Robert, late
of Drumpellier, Andrew, of Mount Vernon, Mrs Hay of Morton and Mrs Graham of Leckie -
and was succeeded by his son Robert, who died in 1841 and was then succeeded by
David Carrick Robert Carrick Buchanan. Such is a brief outline of the history of this family.

JOSHUA
Derek & Fiona at the Ashbank Hotel would like to Thank everyone for their kind wishes,
cards and gifts on the birth of Joshua born 13th May 2009.Your kindness has been over
whelming and great appreciated. Sorry for the delay but the wee man has kept us very
busy.

CHERYL GREENWOOD 1967 - 2009

When I think of my mum, I think of her smile. That smile I saw only a few weeks ago, that
smile that says “I love you, everything will be ok”. That smile went a long way. I wasn’t
the only one it beamed at, mum really wanted to make those around her happy which is
why she joined so many community-led projects and committees. Even I was surprised to
learn of how much she had going on locally.

Mum knew that little voices could make a big difference and she always had something to
say. Her smile wasn’t just for local projects either, she campaigned the length of Scotland
as disabilities officer. Everyone had a voice as long as mum was around, there was no
one she wouldn’t listen to and do her very best to help.

Whatever mission she was on we were all so proud of her. All the things she was involved
in, mum gave it her all.

From her early days as one of the first voices of the Kintyre Community Radio to the new
Citizens Advice Bureau that started in the town.

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She was the UHI Millenium Institute Student of The Year twice and vice-chair of the
Campbeltown Grammar School board, not counting all the committees and fund-raising
projects she had on the go.

When mum found out about her cancer she had her moments, as anyone would, but she
mostly saw it as a minor inconvenience. In fact, hours after her diagnoses she was off to
Inverness to sit on a committee about Disabled Student Rights! She saw her diagnoses as
an opportunity to help others and went to the Kintyre Youth Enquire Service to be filmed
while having her various treatments so that kids could see the danger in smoking. All
through her treatment, we saw that smile and we were all vague on how the treatment
was affecting her because of it and carried on regardless, still putting others first.

Mum had even signed on to be part of a new drug trial, not to find that secret cure to
save herself but in the hope that research done with her could save others from her fate
and that’s mum in a nutshell really, always striving to make a difference. She was a
fantastic friend, wife, mother, sister, daughter and grandmother but, most of all, person.
I always called mum my guardian angel and all angels need to go home at some time.
She won’t ever be forgotten that’s for sure; all the good weather Argyll’s been having
recently has got to be the work of the newest committee she must have started.
Wendy McVey & Peter
Greenwood.

DONALD KELLY SEES RED BUT NOT REID

A LETTER TO ALAN REID MP
I'm sorry I missed you this morning (Friday) when you were in Muasdale, my wife Ruth
meeting you in Iain Sinclair's shop and coming home waxing eloquently about your own
goodself. Had I managed to catch you this morning (or had Ruth remembered), we would
have drawn your attention to the notice pasted up in Muasdale's RED phone kiosk which,
though it, this time, properly and formally dated 23/09/09, appeared about the weekend
of Sat/Sun Oct 10/11, 2009 and asserting "A detailed survey has shown that this kiosk is
not being used sufficiently to continue service at this location…"

As there are not, to the best of my knowledge, any 'discontinuation of service' notices in
any other of ‘The West Road' (modern) phone boxes, it would seem that BT's thrust is to
have one of the following courses of action implemented (1) to remove the telephone
facility and the RED telephone kiosk or, (2)) to have Argyll and Bute Council or West
Kintyre Community Council adopt the RED kiosk and subsidise the telephone service or,
even more cheaply, (3) to have Argyll and Bute Council or West Kintyre Community
Council simply adopt the RED kiosk and BT then remove the telephone facility leaving, it
would seem, Muasdale without a payphone facility but leaving all the other hitherto well
and strongly fought for modern kiosks elsewhere on the West Road and at the Tayinloan
Ferry Terminal untouched !

This, it would seem, is a RED KIOSK matter and there is a 42-day response period from
the date of the notice in the kiosk, namely September 23, 2009, it up to (a) Argyll and
Bute Council and/or (b) West Kintyre Community Council to respond to BT in Croydon.

Though we have been through all this before, we have not had BT trying to employ 'the
RED KIOSK' strategy to boost their profits from the Muasdale site.

The 23/09/09 notice in the Muasdale kiosk refers us to BT's 'Adopt A Kiosk'. BT's FAQ's
page making interesting particularly in Paragraph 5 – “A sponsorship fee of £300 (plus
VAT), payable annually, will contribute to the ongoing maintenance costs for each kiosk"

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and then in Paragraph 20 "BT currently pays an average of £17 pa for electricity, your
local supplier may charge a different amount".

One wonders two things – (1) If BT were to remove e.g. Muasdale's RED TELEPHONE
KIOSK and, of consequence in cost too, be required to "reinstate the base foundations" to
their original pre-installation condition and state, what would that cost be in £sd / £p to
BT, perhaps upwards of £1,000 instead of just a few £000's and (2) How can BT have the
effrontery to charge 'Adopt-A-Kiosk' sponsors £300 (plus VAT) each year when, on their
own assertion (above) it costs them just £17 pa for electricity plus a, roughly four-yearly,
coat of red paint (the last coat given by BT to the Muasdale red kiosk applied by a local,
non-skilled, 'lady person') and BT's only other costs being for the emptying of coins from
the kiosk, BT's own personnel, based in both Campbeltown and Lochgilphead, passing
more than daily ?

Further, of BT's published charges for renting their own range of payphones, albeit they
designed and intended for internal use their basic 'Contour 100' rental is just £37.00 per
quarter (plus VAT) and their 'top-of-the-range Payphone 490+ ' rental is £130.00 per
quarter (plus VAT), though, we might ordinarily conclude that BT would be themselves
presently applying ‘bottom book’ for their own payphone installation in Muasdale's RED
KIOSK and, trying, if they succeeded in the current exercise, to charge ‘top book’
payphone rental charges to anyone adopting their phone kiosks !

Given that the charging speculations here were correct, one might ‘guesstimate’ that *BT
might be making at least £120 each and every year from every red kiosk adoption
agreement!

If BT were to propose removing the RED KIOSK from Muasdale and be properly and fitly
forced to reinstate the ground site, at a cost of perhaps upwards of £1,000, it would take
BT nearly a decade to recover the cost of such an exercise, one totally unprofitable in the
eyes of any trainee book-keeper or accountant and, it would in no way be acceptable for
BT to simply remove the Muasdale kiosk and simply leave a square concrete base to
mark the ground where the kiosk was sited !

We have in the past successfully fought to retain all of Argyll and Bute Council's 43,
previously threatened, payphone kiosks, on the grounds of ‘Child and public safety’ and,
on the insistence of Councillor Rory Colville of Kilchenzie, on the grounds of Civil Defence
issues, these concerns too of note in the case of the Muasdale and other similarly
threated kiosks, RED and other, throughout the whole area under Argyll and Bute
Council's administration and throughout the whole area of the Argyll and Bute
Parliamentary Constituency and I would strongly urge your own goodself and others in
receipt of a copy of this e-mail to strongly and vigorously oppose this and each and every
other attempt by BT to remove any payphones of any design whatsoever in the area and
to strongly and vigorously oppose this and each and every other attempt by BT to
dismantle their rural payphone services, not least because of the continuing lack of
coverage for mobile phone use in the area, mobile phones, not least in a maritime area,
unusable if affected by water and flooding.

I will indeed be pleased to receive your acknowledgement in respect of these concerns

and look forward to noting any response(s) you mat receive from BT officials about these
matters, BT's 42-day deadline, on the basis of its notice dated 23/09/09, ‘demanding
responses’ no later than, by my reckoning, Tuesday, November, 2009.
The notice in question cites that details of the nearest alternative payphone location can
be obtained by dialling 0800-917-0273, the alternative suggested being some three miles
to the south of Muasdale, at Glenbarr, that payphone facility twice previously listed by BT
for removal too !

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On further enquiry from the 0800-917-0273 number, it seems, despite the 'RED KIOSK'
notice, BT would not immediately be proposing to remove the payphone equipment from
the 'RED KIOSK' at Muasdale, or for matter they say, from any other similarly 'noticed'
kiosks, until BT again reviews the future of all the payphones again – that is no reason for
any complacency in the immediate case here and I would urge all recipients of this e-mail
to be ever vigilant about any and all of BT's assertions and notices as it will take only one
administrative slip on the part of Argyll and Bute Council's officials and councillors and
others to lose the area's oft-forgotten, yet all-important, payphones.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS - IN THE CARRADALE VILLAGE HALL

SATURDAY 12TH DECEMBER, 2009

Here it is ! The Carradale winter quiz. This is the zenith of the winter social season and is
not to be missed. Entries from teams of four at £12 per team, (mathematicians will be
quick to deduce that this means £3 per person. Payment to be made at the door. Bar
facilities will be available. Price of admission includes cost of light refreshments, but not
of anything coming from the bar in bottles, glasses,buckets or other containers.

Doors open at 7.00pm. Quiz begins at 7.30pm

SIXTEEN TO THIRTY ?
Are you aged between 16 and 30 ? If you are, then the following is addressed to you -

Why not volunteer to join the Hall Committee and let your voice be heard in suggesting
the types of events you want to see held there ? There are, of course, other aspects to
the Committee's work. Once decided, events do not organise themselves and your input
is just as useful as that of any other person. Give it a try. Take the opportunity to put your
name forward by speaking to one of the Committee members.

D.C.

GLOBAL WARMING : A SOLUTION ?

“C02 MAY BE GOOD, TREES ARE HARMFUL AND
A GIANT HOSEPIPE IN SPACE COULD SAVE THE PLANET”
Comments on extracts from a Sunday Times ‘Ecosse’ article OCTOBER 10th 2009

While most of us are aware that the Earth has gone through a vast number of changes
with ice sheets advancing and retreating, temperature rising and falling, there is doubt as
to the proportion of change caused by human activity.

Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, authors of a new book entitled ‘Super Freakonomics’
have investigated the activities of Nathan Myhrvold - “a polymath who did quantum
cosmology research at Cambridge with Stephen Hawking - and who started ‘Intellectual
Adventures’ nine years ago.” The Myhrvold scientists agree that the Earth is getting
warmer “but the standard global warming rhetoric is oversimplified and exaggerated”.
Lowell Wood, Myhrvold’s mentor adds, “most current climate models tend to produce
similar predictions. This might lead one to conclude that climate scientists have a pretty
good handle on the future. Not so, says Wood. ‘Everybody turns their knobs’ - that is,
adjusts the control parameters and coefficients of their models - so they aren't the
‘outlier’, because the outlying model is going to have difficulty getting funded. In other

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words, the economic reality of research funding, rather than a disinterested and
uncoordinated scientific consensus, leads the models to approximately match one
another".
THE EMPHASIS ON CARBON DIOXIDE ?

"Misplaced," says Wood. Why? "Because carbon dioxide is not the major greenhouse gas.
The major greenhouse gas is water vapour." Myhrvold cites a recent paper asserting that
carbon dioxide may have had “little to do with recent warming.” But, he adds, “all the
heavy particulate pollution we generated in earlier decades seems to have cooled the
atmosphere by dimming the sun. That sparked a brief panic over global cooling in the
1970s. The trend began to reverse when we started cleaning up our air. So most of the
warming seen over the past few decades, might actually be due to good environmental
stewardship. Not so many years ago schoolchildren were taught that carbon dioxide is
the naturally occurring lifeblood of plants. Today children are more likely to think of
carbon dioxide as a poison. That's because the amount in the atmosphere has increased
substantially over the past century from about 280 parts per million to 380. What people
don't know, the IV scientists say, is that the carbon dioxide level 80m years ago — when
our mammalian ancestors were evolving - was at least 1,000 parts per million. That same
concentration, in fact, is the regulation standard inside new energy-efficient office
buildings. So not only is carbon dioxide plainly not poisonous, but changes in carbon
dioxide levels don't necessarily mirror human activity. Nor does atmospheric carbon
dioxide necessarily warm the Earth: ice-cap evidence shows that over the past several
hundred thousand years, carbon dioxide levels have risen after a rise in temperature, not
the other way around.”

The Sunday Times article goes on at some length about other issues concerned with
climate change including -

“There's nothing special about today's carbon dioxide level, or today's sea level, or
today's temperature. Overall, more carbon dioxide is probably a good thing for the
biosphere- it's just that it's increasing too fast. Rising sea levels, for instance aren't being
driven primarily by glaciers melting, It is driven mostly by water expanding. Sea levels
have been rising for roughly 12,000 years since the end of the last ice age. Rather than
the catastrophic 30ft rise some people have predicted over the next century, quotes a
rise of about 1½ft by 2100; that's much less than the twice-daily tidal variation in most
coastal locations. Planting trees in certain locations exacerbates warming because dark
leaves absorb more incoming sunlight than, say, grassy plains, sandy deserts or snow-
covered expanses. Over the past several years, the average global temperature has in
fact decreased.”

Summarising Myhrvold says that the current proposed global warming solutions are
either too little, too late or too optimistic.

TOO LITTLE means that typical conservation efforts simply won't make much of a
difference. Wind power and most other alternative energy things don't scale to a
sufficient degree. Wind farms are a fundamentally a government subsidy scheme, Coal is
so cheap that trying to generate electricity without it would be economic suicide,
especially for developing countries.

TOO LATE. Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for thousands of years. So even if
humankind immediately stopped burning all fossil fuel, the existing carbon dioxide would
remain in the atmosphere for several generations.

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TOO OPTIMISTIC. The problem with solar cells is that they're black, because they are
designed to absorb light from the sun. But only about 12% gets turned into electricity and
the rest is re-radiated as heat - which contributes to global warming.

SULPHUR DIOXIDE : THE SOLUTION ?

“All really big volcanoes have some climate effects. The typical volcano sends sulphur
dioxide into the troposphere - This is similar to what a coal-burning power plant does
with its sulphur emissions. In both cases the gas stays in the sky only a week or so before
falling back to the ground as acid rain. But a very active volcano shoots sulphur dioxide
far higher into the stratosphere Above that threshold altitude, the sulphur dioxide
absorbs stratospheric water vapour and forms an aerosol cloud that circulates rapidly,
blanketing most of the globe. That's what happened in 1991 when Mt Pinatubo erupted in
the Philippines. It put more sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere than any volcano since
Krakatoa, more than a century earlier. The atmospheric after effects were undeniable: a
decrease in ozone, more diffuse sunlight and a sustained drop in global temperature.”

“Warming is largely a polar phenomenon, which means that high latitude areas are four
times more sensitive to climate change than the equator. By IV's estimations, 100,000
tons of sulphur dioxide per year would effectively reverse warming in the high Arctic and
reduce it in much of the northern hemisphere. That may sound like a lot but, relatively
speaking, it is a smidgeon. At least 200m tons of sulphur dioxide already go into the
atmosphere each year, roughly 25% from human sources such as motor vehicles and
coal-fired power plants, 25% from volcanoes and the rest from other natural sources such
as sea spray. So all that would be needed to produce a globe-changing effect is one-
twentieth of 1% of current sulphur emissions, simply relocated to a higher point in the
sky.”

HOW ?

“Once you eliminate the moralism and the angst, the task of reversing global warming
boils down to a straightforward engineering problem: how to get 34 gallons per minute of
sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere. The answer: a garden hose to the sky.

At a base station sulphur would be burnt into sulphur dioxide and then liquefied. The
hose, stretching from the base station into the stratosphere, would be about 18 miles
long but extremely light, its diameter just a couple of inches. It would be suspended from
a series of high-strength helium-filled balloons fastened to it at 100 to 300-yard intervals
ranging in diameter from 25ft near the ground to 100ft near the top. The liquefied
sulphur dioxide would be sent skyward by a series of pumps, fixed to the hose every 100
yards. These, too, would be relatively light, about 45lb each.”

If ‘Times’ and ‘Antler’ readers are not alarmed by the prospect of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’
devices in their localities, perhaps we should persuade the Carradale Drama Group to do
a little experiment next time they do a variation on this well known panto. If everyone
offers a few yards of surplus hose, who knows, Kintyre may be buck the ‘global-warming’
or, at the worst, if it the experiment fails, we could still look forward to enjoying slightly
higher temperatures and a bit more sun. Alternatively can we persuade Arran’s volcanic
mountains to do their utmost to save the planet ?

However, in view of the comments on ‘trees,’ should the Community Council’s be warned
against planting dark-leaved fruit trees at Tormhor ?

ROOM FOR ONE OR MORE ON TOP

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The once familiar call of the conductor on double-decker buses, trams and trolley-buses
has more than a passing connection to some graveyards.

On an annual visit to a grandparent’s grave in England, thirty-nine years after its first
incumbent died, a decision was made to replace the small block and its flask for flowers
with a standard tomb-stone. Enquiries at a local ‘Bereavement Services Department’
established that the grave had only one year of its ‘lease’ to run and would need to be
transferred from the ownership of the second grand-parent to die to the enquiring
applicant’s grandchildren - now aged 75 & 78.

There was a moderate fee of £21 for the transfer, but further payments of £100 for ten
years or over £1,000 for 50 years to continue ‘ownership’ even though there was no
depth left for another burial.

In answer to the question ‘what would happen if these extra payments were not paid ?’
the reply was that it would be available for anyone wishing to inter ashes on the same
site. In crowded cities one can understand that the shortage of ground may be a ‘grave’
problem, but in this particular provincial town with ever expanding garden cemeteries,
there was no need for this strategy except to increase Council ‘coffers’.

With the average Scottish burial now costing £2,867, cremations £2,263, and a ‘stone’
nearly £1,000, pensioners on state benefits may have to turn off their heating and move
daily to warm public buildings so that relatives can ‘enjoy’ traditional lairs. The question
is - Is it time that Argyll has local memorial-free burying in natural settings where
relatives can sit and reflect on lives well lived, rather than on the profits made out of
being susceptible to the grim reaper ?

G.P.

THE CHIMERA OF COMMUNITY PLANNING

It is becoming clear that the original good intentions of Argyll & Bute Council and the
reinforcement of successive national Labour and SNP administrations to allow residents
to have a greater say in the way their communities are run, is doomed.

The first meeting of the Mid-Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands Local Area Community
Planning Group on Wednesday 4th November, made it abundantly clear that the
voluntary embrace of the Council in 1999 and the statutory obligation of 2003, a plethora
of committees and thematic groups are strangling the initiative to a point where local
groups will be gasping for air in the stifling atmosphere of admin-jargon.

The meeting was attended by local Council Members and Officers, by Campbeltown
Police’s Chief Inspector, an unknown NHS representative, Glenn Heritage, (Manager of
Argyll Council of Voluntary Services and Argyll & Bute Volunteer Centre - to be known as
Argyll Voluntary Action) and by Geoffrey Page, the Association of Argyll & Bute
Community Council’s Secretary.

Apart from the active participation of Council Members and Officers, the remaining
‘partners’ remained strangely silent; whether this was due to the complex presentation
by Jane Fowler, the sporadic questions and support of some Councillors, the ‘exemplary
‘conversion’ of another or simply that the community representatives were trying to
preserve their sanity, is not known.

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According to members of the predominating group of Argyll & Bute Councillors, it is
becoming clear that the 2009 and 2010 budgets are already committed and it is unlikely
that even Council Members would be able to influence the ABC Executive Committee’s
unannounced cuts, already under consideration by the Council’s own officers.

No one seemed to known what had happened to the financial boost of £30,000 originally
suggested by the Scottish Government to come directly to local communities, unless it is
being used to provide yet more ‘jobs for the boys’ (and girls) in the shape of four new CPP
Area Coordinators.

So for ‘Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands Area Community Planning Group’ (MAKILACPG)
read ‘Much Ado Kindles Initiatives Lacking Adequate Cash Provision aGain’.

WIND-FARM TRUST AUTUMN GRANTS

Due to a misunderstanding the Trust met unannounced on Thursday at 7pm in the Village
Hall and, after a lengthy period trying to persuade Geoffrey Page to continue as
Secretary, appointed J. Stuart Irvine to act as Treasurer and Secretary. There was no
resolution whether or not to retain all three existing external community representatives
or to confirm the appointment of at least two of three other possible candidates. The
applications were dealt with within 30 minutes and the resulting grants are shown above.
Mr Page was thanked for his services over the past four and a half years.

GRACE WINS AGAIN

While not quite in the same category as a lottery win, Grace Galbraith of Lochpark has
won £100 of Farm-foods in an Oban Times Competition.

SEASONAL GREETINGS
Seasonal Greetings to all 'Antler' readers - The 'Double Issue' here, for December 2009
and January 2010, has been produced on this occasion to ease the pressure on the
printers of our paper edition, Krisp Print.

Best Wishes to All

Geoffrey Page
Editor of 'The Antler'

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