Community Council

The Diary hates missing meetings of West Ardnamurchan Community Council. Firstly, they are wonderful examples of local democracy at work and, secondly, they are far more fun than watching TV at home. True to form, last night's meeting covered a great deal of ground in the usual cheerful, constructive manner. The only regret was that relatively few people attended - six Councillors and four members of the community.

Affordable housing for local people is worryingly scarce, yet it is essential if our communities are to thrive. It was good, therefore, to have Blair Allan, Chief Executive of Lochaber Housing Association, come all the way down the peninsula to talk to us about their plans for developments on West Ardnamurchan. These included the proposed sale of one of LHA's existing local properties, now empty, the proceeds from which would be used to build two new, 'affordable rent' houses on plots already acquired next to Queens Cottage; ideas for funding the building of houses for key workers such as nurses, teachers and workers on the Estate; and ideas for working with major local employers to develop new housing. His ideas were welcomed by WACC. LHA's website is here.

WACC has a meeting scheduled with NHS Highland and the Scottish Ambulance Service on 8th August, at which the future of 999 medical emergency provision on the peninsula will be discussed. The Chairman explained that our First Responders had felt it necessary to resign so that they would not be used as a smokescreen behind which the SAS could hide - but expressed the hope that, once we had a good emergency service in operation, the scheme might be restarted.

WACC has applied for representatives to attend the open event following the Scottish Cabinet's meeting in Fort William on 28th July, and is hoping to ask a question relevant to the Nurses Dispute.

Two worrying items involved Cal Mac and our local Care Homes. Cal Mac recently published figures showing a significant drop between 2009 and 2010 in passenger and vehicle use of the Kilchoan - Tobermory Ferry yet, when one of our Community Councillors recently highlighted the high prices charged, had denied that this was a factor. Our Care Homes are struggling to find enough capacity, with two of our local residents now off the peninsula, one at Mallaig, the other at Glencoe. The distances involved make visiting extremely difficult, and effectively cuts them off from their communities.

The next meeting of WACC has been moved from the first Monday of August to the second, giving our representatives at the meeting with NHS Highland and the Ambulance Service the chance to give an immediate report back.