Ardentinny Community Council

The lastest Newsletter from ART

/file/ardentinny-renewables-trust/END-2023-NEWSLETTER.pdf

 

 

Notes from The Ardentinny Renewables Trust AGM held on 27th July 2023 at the Ardentinny village hall at 7pm

Attendees

Douglas Menzies, , Neil Robinson, Stuart Gray, Jo Carr,  John Brint, Bill Tierney, Keith Woods, Neil Bennett

                     

Apologies

Helen West

DM Welcomed everyone to the AGM and gave a brief outline of what would be covered in the meeting which included the following:

1   Minute of last AGM

2   Any matters arising from minute

3   Treasurers Report

4   Election/re-election of trustees

5   Secretary brief update on projects completed and membership levels /details  

6   A.O.B.

7   Date of next AGM.

 

No Further Action required

2.

DM read out the minutes of the last AGM which had been on display and asked for a proposer and seconder that the minutes as read be accepted.

Proposer: Bill Tierney

Seconded: Jo Carr

3.

SG handed out a copy of the accounts for FY22-23 which were.

shown to have been audited then gave a detailed treasurer’s.

report which contained the following key points:

Total money in since last AGM = £15951.09

Total grants paid out since last AGM – £9463.21

Total uncommitted money remaining in account is £21,530.59 of

which £6000 is currently ringfenced as the Emergency Fund.

 

BT asked how long we would keep topping up the Emergency.

Fund. SG proposed that we continue assigning the Ross McArthur

payments (£1000pa) until we reach £10,000 and then review the

way forward.

No objections were raised to this suggestion.

4

DM informed everyone present that as per our constitution all the current members of the trust had to formally stand down.

All current trustees stood down

5

All the members were asked if they were happy stand again for another year.

DM Volunteered to stay on for another year Proposed: JC   Seconded:  JB

BT Volunteered to stay on for another year Proposed:  JB    Seconded:  JC

NR Volunteered to stay on for another year Proposed: SG Seconded: BT

Jo Carr Volunteered to stay on for another year Proposed: DM   Seconded: JB

Helen West Volunteered to stay on for another year Proposed:  JC Seconded: JB

Stuart Volunteered to stay on for another year Proposed:  BT   Seconded: DM

John Brint Volunteered to stay on for another year Proposed: BT   Seconded: DM

6

NR gave a brief secretary’s report and informed the group of the following points:

The trust aims which are:

a. To advance the protection of the environment through the promotion and sustainable production of energy from renewable sources, in particular, but not exclusively, investing in the development, operation or management of a hydroelectric scheme.

 

b. To support rural regeneration in the Ardentinny Community Council geographical area through the management and distribution of funds accruing from the production of renewable energy for community benefit.

 

Currently we have a total of 57 members we do need to advertise the fact that to apply for funding people should be a member of the ART there has been a shake up in the village with a number of new families moving into the area and some moving out so we should ideally be looking at taking on more members

Membership is free all that is required is an email to: ardentinnyrenewablestrust@gmail.com stating your name address email and contact number.

Full Membership is open to any individual aged 18 or over who is resident in the geographical area under the jurisdiction of the Ardentinny Community Council

The projects that have been granted funding are varied and have been put on various newsletters, so I won’t mention all the individual projects however:

Since the last AGM a total of £9463.21has been granted to various groups and individuals, this makes the total amount granted since the ART formed and funding started to come in is £32692.35.

Since the ART formed, we have generated a total income of £56,845.61.

 

This is a very good indicator that the fund is being used by all the groups within the community area and individuals who have their own projects and ideas to both improve the area or use the funds to help their organisations in some way shape or form.

AOB

1.Alister Wood raised a question (by email) “why was the money generated by the hydro being banked and not spent and why the trust were not actively looking for projects to spend the money on”

DM reminded the group that the trust is not set up to manage projects, the projects themselves need to be generated by the community who apply for full or part funding, the trust then do some simple checks raise concerns where complicated projects are being considered and allocate money accordingly.

SG handed out a chart that showed that with the exception of the ringfenced funds and a recent

large deposit from Hydrover the fund is being spent in the village on projects. As the Newsletters do not include projects pending, there will be some mismatch between the fund level reported therein and that presented at this AGM.

DM also stated that the trust is open to new members so Alister may join so he gets a better feel for the trust and how it needs to operate so it stays fair and serves the whole village, Alister did not attend the meeting, so no comment was made on this response.

2.SG reminded the group we had discussed alternative banking arrangements. The current bank did not allow online banking facility and paid no interest into the account, research had been ongoing and a proposal to switch the current bank account to “Charity Aid Foundation Banking “which offered a much better service, The proposal was unanimously agreed by all members and Stuart will begin the process of switching over accounts

3.JB mentioned it would be worthwhile to provide more regular updates to the community on what projects ART fund, say a 3 monthly update that could be included in the ACC/Village Hall Weekly Note which goes out to a lot of members within the village. SG agreed to provide any new spending updates for inclusion in the weekly CC News letter

4.newsletter.

DM stated the next meeting of the trust would be, July 2024 this would be a public, minutes will be made available for anyone unable to attend

DM thanked everyone present for attending and formally closed the meeting

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The Mid 2023 Newsletter from The Artenttiny Renewables trust.

documents/ardentinny-renewables-trust/mid-2023-newsletter-final.pdf

UPDATE 2023

We would like to remind everyone in the village that the Ardentinny Renewables fund is not just open to large projects in the village it is there for everyone to use so yes even the small groups or individuals can apply for funding it could be a small amount or large amount depending on the project you have in mind, the project should benefit the village in some way shape or form, this could be simply enhancing the beauty of the village putting in benches protecting and promoting wildlife or gathering funds to get new equipment for your group, any projects can apply.

The two hydro schemes have been working at maximum capacity throughout the winter and we are awaiting the first payment from the feed in tariff.

Ross has his first payment and Hydrover say we should be paid in March as they will be paid from SSE in March (one year since the scheme was formed)

NOTES OF MEETING HELD 24th MAY 2017 IN ARDENTINNY BOWLING CLUB.

 

Douglas Menzies Bill Tierney Neil Robinson Janette Reilly   Ross McCarther

Kenneth Evans    

 

Apologies

Rob Bray

 

Not in attendance

David Mackenzie   Thomas Marshall

 

Item	Notes	Action
1	DM introduced everyone including Kenneth and a vote was conducted to co-opt Kenneth onto the ART.   Kenneth would become a direct replacement for Thomas Marshall who was stepping down from the group	Vote was proposed by Douglas Menzies   Seconded by Bill Teirney   Everyone present was in favour and Kenneth is now a co-opted member of the ART
2.	DM gave an overview of the current standing of the ART which is now fully set up as a charity which does have rules , a fully accepted constitution and responsibility’s such as attendance of meetings as and when required by the group
3.	DM asked the secretary NR to remove Thomas Marshal from the headed paper and replace him with KE	Completed letter head has been revised.
4	DM gave a full overview of the state of play for the current Hydrover system This system is now fully in place and although there are some minor teething issues with reception for the communications the system is complete and the ART may receive the first funds sometime in November 2017.
5	RM gave an overview of his current system. The system still has outstanding work to be completed such as electrical work and some turbine work but he expects the system to be up and running by the end of July. He has had to downgrade the system from 200kw to 100Kw due to decreases in the current FIT rates and increases in other costs, clearly this will have an impact on the amount of money coming into the group but until the system is up and running it is unknown how much the impact will actually be. He will inform the group once all the work has been completed and give us a full tour of the site   RM also stated that he is considering putting in another smaller 50Kw system in the area sometime in the future, he will notify the group if this goes ahead.