Saturday meet at Albert Hotel
We were given a presentation by Mr James Hilder of AN Roth biography with reference to various community take
over scenarios he was involved with; these are totally irrelevant to our
situation which is more of hostile
takeover of our boat club community by NQCT.
We provided an attendance of 33
members and acquitted ourselves well in the explanation of our issues with
their plans.
Several of our members spoke
eloquently and in detail; reiterating the inappropriateness of a harbour
master.
One of our members demonstrated a
familiarity with Mr Hilder’s Tobermory project which was very informative as it
gave a balance to Mr Hilder’s rather rosy picture of community takeovers by
showing some inaccuracies in his presentation.
Two of our members voiced their
opinion of the length of time being allocated to Mr Hilder’s need to inform us
of his experience in these matters. It is not his ability that needs to be
demonstrated but that of NQCT and the fact that someone from out of NQ had to be
imported rather places their claim to be a body capable of running the pier into
question if they cannot manage a meeting unassisted.
Our chairman picked up from Mr
Hilder’s open discussion that the NQHT’s presentation to Fife Council was
totally unnecessary as Government legalisation means only local residents can
form a community trust.
The one good thing to come out of
this meeting is that the council insists (written into heads of terms) all
monies paid (less their expenses?) by boat owners and club are to be spent
within the West Bay/pier area.
NQCT’s chairman gave an account
of how far the negotiations have proceeded regarding the lease; our chairman’s
opinion is that they may have reached an impasse on certain matters.
The rest of the meeting was taken
up by several different points, mainly brought up by our members, which were
written on many sheets of paper on a flip board by Mr Hilder.
I hope I have accurately
described the proceedings as unfortunately there was no-one taking minutes;
which was touch unprofessional for a meeting that was several weeks in
co-co-ordinating.
We have been told there will be
further meetings but as yet no information has been forthcoming.
Our Chairman’s opinion is that
they need our experience and knowledge more than we need them; but what they really want from us is (as community trust put on the community council web
site) our fees.
Our chairman reminds all members
that we must be diligent and standfast in our approach to this matter and not
succumbs to any form of bulling from FC or members of NQCT and not to be
intimidated by people or fancy titles.
