Chairperson’s Annual Report 2006-2007

Introduction

Once again a great deal has happened during the year and while I have tried to include anything relevant it would be wise to consult our Project Manager’s report as well. The principle reason behind the difficulty in concise reporting is the sheer diversity of material which the Trustees consider over a twelve month period. Indeed, one of our most serious problems is deciding which ideas we should attempt to progress and which we should either try to have advanced through other agencies or, frankly, determine not to action.

This latter point is probably one which has exercised our new Project Manager considerably since his appointment in July 2006. Graham Young has been re-assessing the direction of the Trust and trying to ensure that we focus on relevant and achievable objectives. This is no easy task, as even a cursory reading of last year’s report will convey. The resignation of our Administrative and Finance Assistant, Rachel Jackson, during the summer of 2006 seemed likely to give him further difficulties. However, I am very happy to report that Rachel has been able to continue to work from home on our behalf, principally in compiling and editing the Coupar Angus bulletin which has become a regular monthly feature of life in the town. I wish to record my thanks and those of the Trustees, to both Graham and Rachel for all their work over the last year.

Our minutes show that following the AGM last June there was something of an interregnum as far as meetings of Trustees is concerned. This was caused in part by the changes to the staff but also to the inordinate time it took the Heritage Lottery Fund to finally adjudicate our Townscape Heritage Initiative funding bid. Indeed, for a time it seemed the matter had fallen into some black hole, so silent did things become. That ended in November 2006 when we learned that we had been awarded the sum of £859,000 towards the scheme. Since then matters have progressed, but slowly it has to be admitted, and I shall refer to those under the “Projects” heading below.

Assistance has continued to come from various directions and this year, I am please to say, our efforts to promote activity in the town have been quite successful. That is to say that both the Pride of Place Group and the Horse Fair group have continued to work well. We have done what we can to support them and they are now quite independent. Indeed, the Pride of Place Group were recognised by the Take a Pride in Perthshire campaign winning 5th place in the Small Country Town category and first place in the Working With Schools category. The Horse Fair took place on the 17th of March 2007 and was another huge success. I shall not go into detail here since the format was covered in my 2005/6 report. Suffice it to say it was bigger and better this time! Our Project Manager’s assistance, however, was crucial in raising the funds required for the event. His successful Awards for All application and to the Council’s internal funding body ensured the event could proceed without the need for the emergency funds CART had agreed could be made available should an emergency ensue. Indeed there is surplus to apply to next year’s event.

Administration

As noted above we appointed our new Project Manager, Graham Young, in July 2006. Since then he has been reviewing our activity and recommending which areas to concentrate on. His first report to the Trustees was made at the October meeting, following the gap noted above. He has also been considering the question of our office accommodation which, as previously reported, is in shared premises in Union Street, Coupar Angus. The lack of any formal agreement as to tenure and rental is a continuing problem to which all associated with CART have given consideration. A review of potential premises in the town was carried out but no viable alternative was identified. It was agreed that we would continue on a month by month basis where we are and efforts are ongoing by the Project Manager to come to a sustainable agreement with the principal lessee of the offices. The failure of the application for assistance to the Lloyds TSB Foundation has lent additional concern to the situation but the recovery of a proportion of last year’s rent donation as Gift Aid will help offset this cost.

Production of the Coupar Angus bulletin has been transferred to the local printers, Culross, given that the office equipment is no longer capable of dealing with the quantity required. We are grateful to Communities Scotland for their continued support to allow this to happen. Rachel Jackson has continued to work for us on a freelance basis from home gathering the data for the bulletin and ensuring its arrival on time at the printers. This is most fortunate since we were unable to recruit a full time member of staff in her place. Only one candidate came forward for interview and the considered view of the panel was that they be not appointed.

Projects

(a) Buildings and Townscape Heritage Initiative

The award of the HLF funding in November has meant that the building renovations will now take place but we are not able to say what the time scale will be. The necessary structure of the Executive Committee, which will consider applications for grant aid, has been agreed and efforts have been ongoing to appoint a THI Project Manager. The administrative arrangements for that post were somewhat tortuous I think it is fair to say but an appointment has now been made. Additionally there will be a student assistant. The Project Officer should be in post by the end of July 2007 and thereafter begin making personal contacts with the owners of the relevant buildings to explain the scheme and how they can engage with it.

In terms of the critical project buildings, planning consents have been issued for the Lodging House and the former Co-Op building at The Cross. In regard to the latter the accelerating rate of inflation associated with construction is causing concern and efforts are in hand to close the funding gap shown by the tender returns. Negotiations are continuing regarding the precise details of the affordable housing element to be provided in the former Royal Hotel and I hope that will be resolved very soon.

As a direct consequence of the THI Perth and Kinross Council has embarked upon an initiative to extend the Conservation Area in Coupar Angus. Essentially this would incorporate a small area on both sides of George Street west of The Cross and a much larger area south of Burnside Road. This would bring the Tolbooth Tower, Strathmore Hotel, north side of Abbey Road, the Abbey Church itself, its graveyard and the scheduled monument area of the Cistercian Abbey within the Conservation Area. The modern housing area of Abbey Gardens, the Medical Centre and Candlehouse Lane industrial area are not proposed for inclusion. Public consultation has already taken place and a full assessment will be carried out once the results of the consultation have been received.

(b) Environmental Projects

The proposal to floodlight the Abbey ruin on the Dundee Road has been postponed pending the outcome of the process to extend the Conservation Area, thus there is no more to report on that matter at present.

Following a major piece of research by our Project Manager a bid had been made to the Big Lottery’s Environmental Justice Fund to support what has been named the Coupar Angus Rural Renaissance, again at Graham Young’s suggestion. If successful, which we hope to be informed about in July 2007, various open space improvements will be commissioned. These would include the town gateways mentioned in my last report, A94 corridor landscaping along with the Grampian Country Foods plant frontage, memorial gardens, a major contribution to the Council’s upgrading of Larghan Park (being planned with the Friends of Larghan Park), various access and path improvements for walkers and cyclists and public transport infrastructure upgrades. The total value of the bid is £497,000 while partnership funding, if the bid succeeds, could total £355,000 thus providing £852,900 for the full range of the proposals. We can only wait to see if this comes to fruition but I would record my thanks to Graham Young for the huge amount of work he put in to co-ordinate the various aspects of the bid and its costings.

The core path planning process locally continues and consideration continues to be given to the question of bridging the Isla to facilitate a link between Coupar Angus and Blairgowrie. Discussions have taken place between Graham Young and Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust but so far integrating this into the plans of the East Perthshire Access Network have not been successful.

(c) Socio-Economic Concerns

Following wide ranging research by Graham Young the idea of trying to develop a famine relief centre in Coupar Angus has been shelved. It transpired that major relief agencies had decided to source as much of their food requirements as possible from countries near to famine areas and there was little or no opportunity to enter this “market” from East Perthshire.

The CART website went live during the year and the Trustees are most grateful to David Scott of Coupar Angus for his voluntary work in designing the site, obtaining the domain name and making the site publicly available. Much concern still exists about the apparent reluctance of local groups to contribute data to the site and efforts will continue to encourage them to do so. Any organisation which wishes to add its information to the site, which could include contact details, activity details and calendar, should contact David Scott at Inglewood, Forfar Road, Coupar Angus, PH13 9AN or through the website e.mail address. The web address and e.mail address are:-

http://www.coupar-angus.org web@coupar-angus.org

The possibility of reprinting Margaret Laing’s book, Close-up on Coupar Angus, which the Coupar Angus and District Heritage Association very much wish to do, is under consideration. The Chair was recently (June 2007) given the available materials in regard to the first edition of the book in various formats which the author had retrieved from South Africa where the initial editing had been done by a relative. Those records will be investigated by Perth and Kinross Council’s Library service to see if a complete database can be created. If that is possible then any corrections and/or additions required can be effected. Thereafter the idea would be to have the database placed with the Publishers’ Association for on-demand printing of smaller numbers of copies than a full commercial print run would entail, thus controlling costs.

In terms of the practicality of the THI scheme I am glad to be able to report that Scottish Water’s works to upgrade the Butterybank Waste Water Treatment Plant are now well under way. There was a delay cause by the necessity of diverting a gas main away from the site they had acquired but that has all been carried out and as I write the contractors have been on site to carry out the WWTP expansion for several weeks. This removes our anxiety about the refurbished buildings in the town being capable of re-occupation.

Another concern which has exercised us, that of the odours from the Grampian Country Foods chicken processing plant, are now being addressed pursuant to SEPA’s instructions. Not all the new construction has as yet been competed but the company is making real efforts to get on with the job and has two planning consents for new enclosures to control the smell nuisance. Hopefully this year will see this long standing detractor of the town’s reputation removed.

Finally in this section a mention of the special fund within the Perthshire Care and Repair scheme which CART has established to assist pensioners or disabled people in the town with small repairs to their homes. If anyone in either of those groups has a weekly income of less than £200 (or £400 if a couple) they can apply. “Small repairs” are deemed to be those costing less than £250 and may include joinery, builderwork, roofing, plumbing and electrical work. Anyone wishing to apply should contact the Care and Repair service which is administered by Perthshire Housing Association on our behalf. The telephone number is 01738 474810 and staff will send an explanatory leaflet incorporating a simple application form.

Community Consultation and Involvement

This area of work has not been high profile this year due largely to staff changes and the need to fully review the outcomes of the questionnaire exercises carried out last year. The Coupar Angus bulletin continues to be very popular, however, and the print run is regularly taken up in a short time. We are grateful to all the shops and other outlets who have agreed to permit us to place stock with them for anyone to take when they are open. The publication remains free of charge to the public and we hope to maintain that status. Any local organisation wishing to have their events listed or to contribute copy should contact the CART office.

Readers of last year’s report will have noted the Trust’s in-kind contribution to the project under the auspices of the Sirolli Institute and the Scottish Executive to create a business facilitation mechanism in East Perthshire. This has been successful, after the difficult start caused by the withdrawal of the first person offered the Facilitator’s post, and we look forward to the appointee making a real difference to those wishing to set up or develop businesses in our area.

The matter of additional Trustees could appear here but it seems more appropriate to include it below under the section on Development of the Trust below.

Development of the Trust

Pursuant to the decision made at the 2006 AGM a Deed of Assumption has now been completed and registered with the Office of the Scottish Charities Registrar (OSCR) based in Dundee. This document records the resignation of Harry Greig, one of our original Trustees and his replacement formally as a Trustee by Ian Mackenzie who has been our Treasurer. Additionally it records the accession of two new ex officio Trustees representing the Coupar Angus, Ardler and Bendochy Community Council and the Coupar Angus and District Heritage Association. In both cases the chairperson is the Trustee and at present we have Mrs. Christine Itani of the Community Council and Mr. Jo Richards of the Heritage Association. We hope that this broadening of the membership will lead to new ideas and courses of action in the coming years.

Perth and Kinross Council Liaison

John McCrone, the Council’s Conservation Manager, has continued to give the Trust invaluable support in its principal aim of carrying out the Townscape Heritage Initiative. On the formal front the undernoted report was agreed by the Council’s Enterprise and Infrastructure Committee on the 13th of June 2007:-

Report 07/392 Conservation of built heritage – Pitlochry, Blairgowrie, Blair Atholl, Coupar Angus and Perth.

The report updated the committee on progress in carrying out conservation area appraisals in the first three named locations, the extension in Coupar Angus as noted in this report, and the amalgamation of the Perth conservation areas. As far as Coupar Angus is concerned there was an exhibition of the proposals to extend the conservation area in the Town Hall on the 14th, 15th and 16th of May and the closing date for submission of comments was the 4th of June 2007.

I am satisfied that if CART had not initiated the Coupar Angus THI scheme, and been successful in obtaining the initial funding, the creation of the new Conservation Section in the Council’s Environment Service might well not have happened and these developments delayed for an indeterminate time.

Conclusion

As usual this report is incomplete and can only really relate significant items. If anyone believes I have failed to include one of the latter I apologise and will amend the report as necessary in due course. Let us hope that during the remainder of 2007 the THI will begin on the ground in reality and thus make a genuine contribution to the socio-economic revival of Coupar Angus.

Alan D. Grant
Chair of CART
26th June 2007