June 2023

KILMUN COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Facebook - @shoresweepersandKCC Website - www.kilmuncc.co.uk

MINUTES OF MEETING
13 th June 2023 @ 7.30PM.
Blairmore Hall Blairmore
Meeting Start -7.30pm

PRESENT; Lindsay McKenna (Vice Convenor), Janet Holm (Secretary), Graham Revill, Lachie
Macquarie, Kerris Bone, Mandy Grout and Peter Hunter Douglas.
Also Present: Cllr. Gordon Blair, Fraser Macdonald (Forestry Land Scotland), Malcom Bird, Bruce
Marshall, Gordon Holm, Catherine Harper, Catriona Darroch, Anne Rodger, Andy Rodger, Lyndsey
Greer, Graham Thompson, Jean Thompson and Sharon Perry.
APOLOGIES Diane Nicholson (Convenor), Cllr. William Sinclair (Rep ABC and LLTNP), Councillor
Shonny Paterson (Rep LLTNP), Russell Humphreys (Treasurer), Councillor Y McNeilly (Argyll and
Bute Council) and Eddie McGunnigal (Cowal Police).
This session was recorded for the minutes.
2. DECLARATION OF INTEREST:
None
3. MINUTES OF LAST MEETING:
The 11 th April 2023 minutes were:
Proposed: Janet Holm
Seconded: Lyndsey McKenna Carried
4. MATTERS ARISING NOT ON THE AGENDA
None
5. TREASURER’S REPORT
Carried forward £3465.93
Income
Expenditure
Funds In
Totals.
General fund £ 1597.53
Gardening and Shore Sweepers £54.44
Festive Lunch £154.47
SSE grant £1090.92
Directory donations £7.00
Grant from ABC (For new road sign) £56.00
Overall total 3465.93
6. POLICE REPORT
No update submitted.
Lynsey McKenna said that there had been some vandalism in Westfield – graffiti on a boat and a
resident had his car window smashed and lipstick put on his car.
JH will email Police Scotland and say that it is 2 months at least since we have had a report and that
there has been some vandalism in the Westfield/Strone area. The residents will report these
incidents to the police themselves.

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JH will also ask what the progress is on the community speed watch.
There was some discussion on the viability of speed bumps being put on the A880.
7 CORRESPONDENCE
Informal correspondence re the proposed right of way past Highgate Hall/Tyneshandon to Strone
Brae.
8. PLANNING APPLICATIONS
2022/0324/LBC Erection of extension with associated internal and external renovation works -Finnart
Kilmun, Dunoon, Approved
2023/0181/NOT Formation of timber stacking area Land to The South Of Am Binnein, Loch Eck,
Dunoon.
2023/0165/ Alterations, extensions, and erection of front decking to dwellinghouse, Riviera Shore Road
Strone.
2023/0038/HAE Construction of 1.2m chimney and installation of slate roof covering Dunbheag
Cottage Strone Dunoon
2022/0177/DET Change of use of part of barn from agricultural/forestry to mixed use agricultural and
commercial event space Eckford House Uig Road Benmore Refused
Replacement of chimney pots and installation of new chimney pots to annex; painting of chimney
stacks; removal of roof light; amendment to bathroom layout; insertion of roof ventilation. Inverchapel
Lodge Loch Eck Dunoon

9. COMMUNITY MATTERS
The Shore Sweepers / Graham’s Point
JH said that the tub at the end of the road is flowering nicely and is needing a lot of water but
fortunately it is a self-watering tub which is good in this hot weather. Mandy and Janet are working
together to keep this tub maintained. We are still waiting to hear from ACHA re Grahams Point.
The tubs along the shore are looked after by individuals and the area at the Brae Garden is
maintained for the Shore Sweepers by Frank Glover. Kerris also said that Andy Rodger helps by
strimming and keeping the grass areas trimmed.
BM gave JH the latest contact details for ACHA to contact to see if there is communication that can
be restarted re Graham’s Point play area.
Highgate Hall
Graham Thompson reported that there was meeting in April and at that meeting the consensus was
that the hall was not now useful in the condition that it is in and according to the deeds Highgate Hall
will now be sold. The money raised will be used to help registered charities in the area. They are in
the process of doing that and an agent has been appointed. They hope within the next month it will
be advertised and by September and October they will have a buyer. PHD asked if there are any
constrictions on what the land can be used for. GT Responded that that within the deeds and from
the National Park, there are no restrictions. Kerris asked if it was listed which GT replied that it was
not. She also expressed a hope that something of the history of the hall could be retained in some
way which GT agreed and perhaps the funds raised can be used to achieve that but there is no
restriction within the sale to do that. However, they have asked the agent to ask potential buyers, not
only the price they are willing to pay but also what they intend to do with the building. JH asked that,
as it was said that money raised will only go to charities that that would have an impact on many
organisations who do not have charity status. GT has been advising over the last months that it
could be prudent to set up a charity for the benefit of the people of Strone.
There was some discussion on the pigeons which are in the building, but they are apparently not
protected and would be a problem for whoever bought the building.
Tyneshandon
This issue is being addressed by the National Park at present.

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The issue of the footpath beside Highgate Hall was raised and whether the footpath can be
separated from the sale. GT replied that was not possible.
Possible right of way
Catriona Darroch said that Scotway is the national organisation who deal with rights of way and are
the people you would go to find out the information you need to know about rights of way. For
example, who has ownership and who is responsible. Catriona said that there a pathway up past the
Strone Inn, passed Tyneshandon and passed Sharon’s house and Lindsey’s house and up through
woods to the high road above Strone. As the path passing Tynshandon was closed off by the owner
of Tynshandon, Bill Anderson, the only other entrance to the woods is would be the path at the side
of Highgate Hall. A fence was put up by BA which to begin with was a very temporary structure and
in a short space of time people found a way to go through it so he reinstated the fence so you can’t
get passed it. Lots of residents use this path for example walkers, people with dogs, schoolkids but it
now can’t be used. However, the Highgate Hall path, can used the but the hall is up for sale.
Catriona said that to find a way to secure the network of paths in the woods a few residents got
together and contacted the National Park. However, they said that they didn’t know much about it so
they contacted Scotway and between both of them and the residents a questionnaire has been
compiled which would prove or not the use of the path over the last 20 years. It would appear that
there is quite a case for that and if this information is collected and given it to the parks department,
they will work with Scotways and decide if the route is a right of way. If that is the case, it will be
declared a right of way. There are survey forms at The Strone Inn, The Blairmore on notice boards,
an online version on FB page The Shore Social and from, herself. There was discussion about how
the path would be maintained if it was adopted as a right of way. Catriona said that it would be the
responsibility of the community to maintain the path and that the onus was not on the landowner.
Councillor Blair said the ABC’s right of way officer is very good and has helped with another local
right of way issue in Strone. The group have been in touch with him, and he has been helpful.
PHD also said that the above path had also been blocked by a resident who had put up a fence
which you can get past but in wet weather you would have to go through a little stream.
However, there was discussion about the heading and wording on the survey which stated that
“Kilmun Community Council were investigating” the possible claimed right of way. However, KCC
had not been contacted and had no knowledge of the survey. This has caused confusion for
KCC members and the community. After the meeting KCC have been in touch with Argyll and Bute
Council governance, ABC councillors and with the Recreation and Access Manager of Loch Lomond
and Trossachs National Park and this survey cannot go forward in the form it is at present. It would
appear that there has been several miscommunications in this process to date. This matter will be
added to our agenda and KCC committee with discuss the way forward at our meeting in August.
LG raised the issue of Tyneshandon and JH said that NP and ABC had been in touch to say that the
matter was at this point being addressed.
10. DISCUSSIONS A&BC LOCAL COUNCILLOR AND NATIONAL PARK
REPRESENTATIVE,
Argyll & Bute Council
Councillor William Sinclair gave an email update to say that he has been working with CalMac and
now believes that the Passenger ferry will change at peak time to allow a better flow and residents
will see a better more effective service. He attended the Active Travel Public meeting in Dunoon and
will not be supporting the design by Stantec. He is not happy with being excluded from this whole
project and only finding out about the route design the same time as members of the public. 2
councillors attended the public meeting out of a total of 6.
Councillor Gordon Blair explained that this was the proposed development of a cycle way at
Hunter’s Quay.
Councillor William Sinclair has also met with Ardentinny Community Council, and they are happy to
work as an area group to create a local Place plan and will be discussing with the National Park
officers how we will do this moving forward.
Councillor Sinclair says that speeding traffic is now being brought at all of the community meetings
he attends and hopes to discuss this matter with senior Council Officers.
Councillor Gordon Blair said that they had both gone to a meeting with ACHA to see ‘The wee
hoose’ which is a format of housing which is prefabricated format so they are delivered to the area>
it may be more appropriate for island communities.

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Gordon said that when he was at Lochgoilhead cc meeting there had been a discussion about road
signage, yellow lines, speed bumps appropriate or not and that is an area that we just need to keep
under review. The council are also going to lodge a participating budget page on the council website
to give each community and individual an opportunity to say where do you want the money spent
and have to have your say.
Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Representative
Councillor William Sinclair was not present at the meeting but has reported in the section above.
Councillor Iain Shonny Paterson who is our representative for LLTNP sent a report after the meeting
but there were no points that were relevant to the Kilmun Community Council area
Forestry and Land Scotland – Fraser MacDonald
It was decided to include all of Fraser’s report in our minutes to give copious information on the
forestry work that is happening in our area for our residents.
Also, attachment 10031 Kilmun Triangle SSE OHPL Felling PDF
Changes from last meeting have been put in red below.
Current Felling:
There are a number of SPHN sites being worked or in process of starting within Kilmun Community
area
• Beinn Ruadh (above Coylet Inn) – There is a small section of Larch still to be felled adjacent to
SSE Overhead Power line still to be completed when a shutdown can be organised. No confirmed
date as yet however.
• Beinn Ruadh( above Coylet Inn) – Harvesting site currently on stop. There have been a number of
issues on this site that have to be resolved and a contract review meeting was held at Glenbranter
this morning. An SSE OHPL shut down will be required to complete works and as yet this is not
planned.
• Corrach (Scottish Water Treatment Plant) Harvesting site – site is currently inactive but hoping
contractors will return to site soon. Likely to resume early 2023. This site is likely to commence
works in next two weeks with timber haulage starting early March. This site is in standstill due to
breeding bird and wont start until late summer. It is expected that this site will not start until
September.
• West Loch Eck (opposite Coylet Inn) – site is currently active including timber haulage. Harvesting
operations have ceased only timber haulage remains active. The remainder of the felling coupe is to
be worked by a new merchant as yet to be determined.
• Pucks Glen –. Pucks Pylons currently inactive but will resume early 2023. This site is likely to
resume late April. This site has recommenced, and harvesting should be completed by end of June,
haulage will take an additional month to complete.
• Kilmun Hill – Timber felling operations are complete with exception of some chainsaw remedial
works only timber extraction and timber Haulage ongoing. Site not complete as yet timber haulage
ongoing. Only a small amount of timber to be uplifted.
Kilmun Triangle and OHPL resilience felling will commence early July this will remove infected
timber and clear trees along the OHPL corridor.
Public access along the forest road will be restricted.
Kilmun Arboretum – Plans are being put into place to be able to fell and extracxt infected Larch
above Riverside Surgery this will take a bit of planning and consultation and likely not to be worked
until later this year or early 2024.
• There will be ongoing civil engineering maintenance works associated with harvesting sites as
listed above.
• Benmore Botanic Garden (Burmah Road) – Chainsaw felling and extraction of larger timber above
BBG Courtyard there is no timescale for this as yet due to complex nature of operations. Will update
when plan in place.
• Fell to waste of young Larch within KCC area – Fell to waste operations have been carried out in
Inverchapel/Pucks Glen area with further areas close to Gairletter Sand quarry to be carried out at a
later date. Some individual trees still to be removed that have been missed. Now able to deal with
these as no environmental timing restrictions. This work is ongoing. This work will recommence
September 2023

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There are new harvesting sites planned to be sold and worked throughout 2023 as per map
provided that may impact on KCC area, I will update you well in advance of any of these sites
starting. Due to timing restrictions for SSE shut down which take at least 90 days to be authorised
no coupes have been agreed as yet.
There is the potential for a harvesting coupe to commence early in 2023 in Ardentinny that timber
haulage may use A880, I will confirm when this is to commence. This coupe is likely to commence
late April. This coupe has now started, and haulage is expected to use A880 and A815.
Wildlife Management:
Night shooting is ongoing until 31 st March 2023. Night shooting now stopped.
Public Access:
We have recently carried out some maintenance and tidying up around Benmore and Puck’s Glen in
terms of vegetation management and way marker/bridge cleaning more of this work is expected to
take place after Christmas.
We will be getting the path works and railings fixed on the Big Tree Trail as soon as we can get the
contract awarded.
Ongoing Engagement:
Now that spring is here, we will start to see early indications of new infected areas of Larch and fully
expect to be served with further SPHN’s to add to the current served ones that we are working on.
As of May 2023, we have received a number of suspected locations with in Cowal and Trossachs
area as a result of helicopter surveys. The indications on the ground show that the infection is
spreading further west and North.
No further SPHN’s have been received, we have currently got 73 active SPHN’s with in Central
Region of which 16 of these are non-compliant due to complexity of sites, terrain, location, lack of
infrastructure. Since June 2014 we have cleared over 100 SPHN’s in Central Region with the
majority being in Cowal.
We have received 7 new SPHN in the Priority Action Zone and 37 in the Risk Reduction Zone so far
this this year and are waiting on further helicopter and ground trothing surveys to be completed.
PAZ is an area that has a short timeframe to fell infected Larch (6 months) and this area takes in
Arrochar, Glen Croe and Cruach Tairbeirt.
The RRZ has a longer timeframe to deal with infected Larch and we have had confirmed infections
in KKC area and new sites in Glendaruel and Strathlachlan indicating a wider spread of the
pathogen.
KCC forested areas now falls into the new Phytophthora pluvialis (a fungus like pathogen)
demarcated zone, this is another tree disease that impacts on Western Hemlock, Douglas Fir and
Pine.
Visitor Services – Going forward the VS team will be contributing an article for each edition of the
new East Cowal Echo Newsletter a copy of which can be provided.
New signage and furniture is in the process of being installed on the Black Gates Trail (now
waymarked with Black bands rather than Orange) and around Pucks Glen.
Concerned regarding volume of bagged dog waste being left at Pucks Glen and Kilmun Arboretum
and would encourage owners to pick up waste and take home for disposal. Have contacted Argyll &
Bute Council to ask warden to increase visits to these areas.
Civil Engineering – CE team are hauling stone from Kilmun Quarry to Ardentinny over the next few
weeks. This work is complete for time being.
Road maintenance and upgrade works are also planned on forest road at Kilmun Hill which may
impact on recreational activities for a short time. This upgrade work will be completed this week.
Regarding potential flooding from Kilmun quarry silt mitigation is being put in place around the
quarry to minimise silt entering water courses this work also includes sumps and bunds being
created to act as settling ponds which will be monitored and cleaned out regularly. Water bar
installation will be created below quarry to catch surface run off from quarry floor before entering
water courses.
Strone Primary School and Strone Primary Parent Council

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Email from Becky Hothersall
The main news is that Mr Semple continues to provide support for leadership as Mrs Fish is still off
on health grounds and the Parent Council are very grateful for his ongoing support and that of the
staff. Mrs Portwine (P5-7 teacher) has moved on to a Teaching Head post at Kilmodan and Ms
Marshall has been employed to teach the P5-7 class until the end of this term.
The children have had a great term. Both classes have been exploring Africa as part of their topic
work with one area of interest being African animals and they recently enjoyed a wonderful day out
at Blair Drummond Safari & Adventure Park. As part of their Inspiring Scotland grant the Parent
Council funded two new planters for the school, made by Sandy Crowe. The children and Parent
Council volunteers are looking forward to helping plant these up this week with edible plants in one,
and plants for pollinators in the other. 
Dates for the diary: School Day - Friday 23rd June (venue and time TBC)
Community tearoom and leavers' assembly - Thursday 29th June. 
Further details on the above can be found in the "school report" item in the forthcoming East Cowal
Echo.
It looks like the tearoom event will be in the afternoon and I'll send KCC info when I have the details
as we love to welcome members of the community along.
There was a questioned raised about the numbers presently at the school and whether there was a
likely hood of the school closing in the future. One of the disadvantages for Strone Primary is that it
does not have the facilities from nursery provision and wrap around care.
Younger Hall
NTR
Blairmore Hall
NTR
Historic Kilmun
NTR
11 CURRENT ISSUES
Clachaig Water
Graham Revill said that there was no change but that but gave an update for Fraser Macdonald. He
says that it would appear that the solution that had been discussed by the hill owner who wanted to
fell larch on the hillside at our last meeting is too expensive, so the proposals are on hold until
further discussions.
SSE power lines Dunoon 132kV Overhead Line rebuild Project.
The planning has been submitted for that.
13. Any other competent business
Right of way
Gordon Blair had received the following email from Jolyon Gritten Argyll and Bute Access
manager which has been passed to KCC.
I thought that I would send a short update to say that I am still working on this issue, and I have
been trying to collate all of the information available to pass to legal services for their advice.  The
most difficult issue has been establishing who owns the strip of land over which the path runs and
below which a 120-year-old culvert runs which is the source of the problem.  It does not appear to

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be a part of the titles of either the Old School House or Fernhill although further information is being
sought from Registrars of Scotland by Gordon Dagleish in Legal Services.  There remains the
possibility that the land is without an owner, but we hope to have further information about this soon.
 
I have also sought information about flooding problems in the area which seem to date back around
a decade and have in the past caused flooding on Midge Lane A880 and damage to the road
surfaces.  The culvert is c70m long and it is likely to be costly to repair whoever is found to have
liability.  I have sought advice from the Council’s flooding team regarding the potential for funding
repairs to protect the public roads and ensure that the Public Right of Way can be used safely.
This was followed with another email as below:
Following the receipt of further information from Gordon Dagleish in Legal Services I will now
prepare a letter to Forestry & Land Scotland.  FLS, although not the landowners, appear to have a
duty to maintain the culvert below the path recorded in a title deed dated 1875.  Since I anticipate
that the costs of carrying out the required repairs could be between £20-40k they are likely to
contest this.  I will need the advice of colleagues in legal services to prepare the letter so there may
be a delay before it can be sent.
Gordon Fraser FLS said that they have also look at this situation and that FLS does not own all of
this section.
Defibrillators
Peter Hunter Douglas said that the Heart Start team are coming on the 21 st June 2 to 4pm at the
Younger Hall. This course is free.
Bus timetables
JH said that an email was sent. Kerris said that it was raised at the Transport Forum and that West
Coach Motors have taken up the issue seriously.
Any other competent business
Malcolm Bird informed the committee that there will be temporary traffic lights on the A880 just
beyond the summit at Blairmore so that repairs can be done to his gate in the next couple of
months.
He also said that other documents had been added to the planning application re development at
Blairmore Village Green NP ref 2022/0298/DET which could be of interest of residents to look at
Meeting end 8.50pm
Next Meeting
Next meeting– Tuesday 8 th August 2023 @ Blairmore Hall, Blairmore @ 7.30pm
Meetings held Second Tuesday each month alternating between Younger & Blairmore Halls.
Kilmun Hall – January, March, May, July (Recess) September, November
Blairmore Hall – February, April, June, August, October, December
Attachment
From FLS10031 Kilmun Triangle SSE OHPL Felling PDF

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