Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre Development Trust is a charitable company
Limited by guarantee. Co. Reg. No: SC318527 Charity Reg. No: SC040407
Registered Office: The Manse, Rousay, Orkney, KW17 2PR.
Telephone: 01856 821229. E-mail: info@rewdt.org
REWDT Board Meeting, Company Office, Saturday 30th March 2013, 10:150 a.m.
MINUTES
Present: Richard Tipper (Chair), Bryan Milner (Vice-Chair), Hilary Byland, Zoë Flaws, Mark Hull,
Eric Shortland, Kayleigh Tipper and John Garson
In Attendance: Chris Cox (CDO), Michelle Koster (GAP Officer), Helen Castle (Co. Sec.), Shelagh
Grieve (Crafthub) & Nick Beal (Crafthub).
1. Apologies for absence were received from Alison Mainland & Angus Flaws.
2. G13 009 Crafthub Team Presentation. The Crafthub team gave a presentation of their
ideas for a craft shop (including workshop craft open days). The directors asked a number
of questions throughout the presentation. At 11:00 the Crafthub team left the meeting
whilst the board considered their grant application. They returned at 11:30. The funding
was approved, after a vote, but at a lower rate of £13,500.00 (due to the winter salary costs
in the financial spreadsheet) and will be issued in 4 stages. These stages are: - Immediately
after the Crafthub bank account is opened £2,500, once M & As received and board
approved a further £4,000 to be issued, then £3,500.00 in July and October. AP1: Crafthub
to produce M of As for their organisation and submit to the board for approval ASAP.
3. Minutes of 25th February 2013 board meeting were approved (Proposed: Bryan Milner,
Seconded: Eric Shortland).
4. Action points and other matters arising
Actions Points.
29 January 2013
AP1: The Chair to draft an official ‘close’ letter to police for missing gardening equipment.
Discharged
25 February 2013
AP1: The Chair to check the broadband connection at the Rousay Wi-Fi Centre. If the issues
have been resolved, the opening times are to be advertised in the next available Review. OnGoing.
AP2: The Chair to contact Chessa (HIE) to ask if using staff funding to pay for relief staff during
periods of sickness would be possible. Discharged.
5. REWIRED: Please see Turbine Manager’s Report dated 25 March 2013 for details. TM
discussed curtailment issues and showed the board graphs illustrating the concerns. Mark
and Michelle were actively pursuing a number of possible measures to both counteract and
mitigate for this situation, but most promising recently was an indication from SSE that they
may have be able to provide limited upgrade to their infrastructure before the likely 2015
timescale as previously stated.
6. Grant/Loan Applications.
a. Applications received (see GAP Officer’s report dated 13 March 2013)
i. G13 008 - Parent Council. The Chair of the Parent Council informed the board that due
to the successful fund raising by the school children the application has been reduced to
£200 towards sending 2 P7 children to Laganlia for an outdoor experience with other P7s
from other schools as part of transition to secondary school. The Parent Council Chair
then left the meeting while the board considered the application. The board
unanimously approved this grant request. John Garson (Parent Council Chair) then rejoined the meeting.
ii. L 13 001 - Soames Excavations. Application for a Loan for £11,000 to procure new
equipment. Board unanimously agreed to the loan subject to DSL checks and Trust
terms. The Trust also agreed that it will pay the DSL set up core costs and the direct
costs associated with the loan request will be added to the £11,000.
b. Proposal for grants approval changes. Board agreed for GAP Officer to make the
necessary changes to the forms and put the new forms onto the website.
7. Staff Reports
a. CDO Report (see CDO Report dated 25 March 2013)
i. Broadband facilities and training – progress report
The Chair reported that as of yesterday the school broadband and phone lines were not
working. CDO to contact BT as a matter or urgency and ensure that the line is fixed
a.s.a.p. request a credit for downtime. LEADER audit for this project is on Tuesday 2
April, Chair has asked the CDO to ensure the room is adequately set up and signs,
posters, opening hours and a list of useful links are all in place in preparation for the
visit.
ii. Water Taxi progress report
John Garson left the meeting at 12:55 p.m. The board discussed the issues raised by the
CDO regarding progressing the Water Taxi in particular the significant amount of capital
needed to start up the operation, use of Lottery funding, and ongoing costs. Concerns
were expressed by several members of the Board about committing this level of funding
to one project and that it is likely to need considerable ongoing subsidy from turbine
funds and/or other funding bodies. Likewise, although it was recognized that this was an
important yet difficult matter without an obvious clear answer so far, there were also
concerns raised by a number of members on slowness of progress and decision-making
on this item. It was agreed that the Chair would work with the CDO to produce a
comprehensive list of options together with their costings in order that the Board could
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review and finalise these at the earliest opportunity and plan how to best progress the
item.
GAP Officer Report (see GAP Officer Report dated 13 March 2013)
Home Support. The board agreed to adopt the scheme as suggested by the GAP
Officer’s report and to launch this ASAP.
Formalising CPO. The board agreed to be member of a formalised CPO, with associated
costs/commitments as stated in the GAP Officer’s report.
Innovations and Infrastructure Fund. Responding to the end of financial year “rush”,
the GAP Officer has brought in £52,384.90 of funding for CPO in the past 2 months. This
has been split as £10,320 looking into Demand Side Management, £4,080.00 funding for
an energy audit of the current Orkney grid and the balance of £37,984.90 for funding to
lease electric cars for participating members of Community Power Orkney.
Michelle reported that she had been appointed as Shapinsay’s Turbine Manager in a
consultant capacity, following her period of 3 months covering the post on a temporary
basis. REWDT will invoice Shapinsay Renewables Limited for Michelle’s time. Therefore
the board has agreed that her employment can be handled by the Development Trust,
subject to the usual invoicing criteria.
The bank has informed REWIRED Ltd that as an SPV it should not continue to raise
invoices for Michelle’s time. Therefore the board has agreed that her employment can
be handled by the Development Trust, subject to the usual invoicing criteria.
Due to time constraints the meeting was closed with the Company Secretary being
asked to cover her report and any appropriate AOB’s submitted using the 48 hour email
consultation.
8. Date of next meeting
The next board meeting was suggested via an email to be held on Saturday 04 May
2013, 10.15am for both REWIRED and REWDT.
Summary of outstanding action points
25 February 2013
AP1: The Chair to check the broadband connection at the Rousay Wi-Fi Centre. If the issues
have been resolved, the opening times are to be advertised in the next available Review.
Ongoing due to BT!
30 March 2013
AP1: Crafthub to produce M of As for their organisation and submit to the board for approval
ASAP. Discharged
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