New Community Councillors for Ardentinny

In response to the call for more volunteers to serve on Ardentinny’s Community Council, two members of the Ardentinny community came forward as candidates for the recent Argyll and Bute community council by-elections. As the positions were uncontested, Argyll and Bute Council has declared that Roy Harrison and Marian Norris remain validly nominated candidates and shall be declared to be elected Community Councillors of the Ardentinny Community Council not later than 11.00 a.m. on 27 September 2012.

Congratulations and thank you to both candidates for offering to serve the community in this way.

(Information supplied by Argyll and Bute Council)

Download Notice of Uncontested Election

Ardentinny Community Council Minutes June 2012

Ardentinny Community Council Minutes June 12, 2012.

Ardentinny, Affordable Housing and the National Park’s Local Plan

Ardentinny residents who have asked the Park Authority to be kept up to date regarding Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park’s Local Plan will probably have received a ‘Local Plan Delivery Update – July 2012‘. This includes information on Draft Supplementary Planning Guidance Consultations (consultation date 20 August – 1 October) of which two refer to Callander and the third deals with Housing Development (including Affordable Housing).

In the Park’s ‘Draft Supplementary Planning Guidance Housing Development’ Document (Draft Housing Development in the Park SPG) 5.1 Policy HOUS1: New Housing Development in Settlements, Table 1 sets out the requirements for each settlement with the affordable housing requirement for Ardentinny being listed as 25%.

In order to try and clarify what this means we spoke to Stuart Mearns, Forward Planning Officer for the Park, and posed the following questions:

First we asked what the 25% referred to. Stuart explained that this is the target figure of affordable housing to be included in any housing development exceeding 4 units. He also said that this concurs with the Scottish Government’s benchmark for affordable housing within developments.

We then asked how the percentages of affordable housing requirement for each settlement were arrived at and were told that results of the Argyll and Bute Local Housing Strategy Consultation fed into these decisions.

Finally we asked if any developer has recently applied to build in Ardentinny and Stuart said he was not aware of any applications at the moment other than the Planning Application regarding the refurbishment of Ardentinny Hotel. He added that all submitted applications appear on their website.

If you have any further questions you would like answered, you can contact the Forward Planning team at the National Park Headquarters, Carrochan, Carrochan Road, Balloch, G83 8EG. Telephone 01389 722600, Email: localplan@lochlomond-trossachs.org.

Golden Cross refloating video

Video of the refloating of the Golden Cross on Wednesday 29 August.

Golden Cross: Unanswered questions

Related to the Golden Cross mooring incident reported earlier this week, we received the following email for publication from Mr. D. Symon which is reproduced here with his permission.

Just a short note to let people know the facts about the mooring of the Golden Cross. The tug did not break or wear through her mooring chains. After consultation with an expert (of) 30 years experience the mooring had been tampered with. The Queens Harbour Master had inspected the mooring when it was laid and he was happy with it. So myself and other parties involved along with a mooring expert have come to the conclusion that one or more persons tampered with the mooring. We thank ardentinny.org for their unbiased report.

D. Symon.

Personnel from Clyde Admiralty pilot boat SD Clyde Racer photograph the mooring earlier today.