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News
Latest News Update
As it moves into its 2020/21 session, the Community Council has some news to impart and some requests to make of the community. Election of New Members There are two vacancies on the Community Council and we are making a call for volunteers to join. Applicants need to be over 16 years of age, a registered elector and resident in the Dores and Essich area. The role need not be greatly demanding of your time but will be of great value to the community. For further details or expressions of interest please contact the Secretary at [email protected] or any of the Community Council members listed on the website at https://doresonlochness.com/community-council/.
Iain Cameron has announced his intention to stand down from the Community Council and, as a consequence, the role of Treasurer will be vacant and to be filled from the elected membership of the Community Council. Iain has given many years of service to the community and the Community Council wishes to record its gratitude for that. COVID-19 The Community Council and the Dores Community Development Trust have jointly been managing a fund to help those members of the community experiencing hardship during the COVID-19 lockdown period. An application is shortly to be made for further funding from the Scottish Government from its Response, Recovery and Resilience Fund, the outcome of which will not be known for some time yet. The support provided by family, friends and neighbours to those in need to date has been commendable and, whilst it is hoped that this can continue, anyone experiencing hardship should continue to contact any of the Hardship Fund sub-committee as advised previously. What Do You Want Us To Do?A note of the current matters and issues being dealt with on your behalf by the Community Council can be found in the minutes of the CC meetings, available to view on the website at minutes-20-03-09-2.pdf, minutes for our virtual meeting held on Monday will be sent out shortly. Members of the community with any suggestions or requests of matters that you might wish to be put on the agenda going forward. These might relate to:
- community facilities
- transport
- health and welfare
- planning
- issues arising from the lockdown/COVID situation
.…….or any number of other topics.
You decide!
We can’t promise to take all of them forward (as we are limited by resources) but your responses will help inform community planning should opportunities arise in the future. Your ideas or suggestions should be sent by email to [email protected]. Thank you!
Dores and Essich Community Police Reports
We discussed at the recent virtual Community Council meeting about putting the Police Reports that we get on the new website . We usually get them prior to each CC meeting so as and when I get them I will post them here so the community can read them.
As we have not had a CC meeting since early in the year I’ve attached the two most recent reports.
Dores Community Trust 2020/2021 Education Bursary
DORES COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT TRUST
EDUCATIONAL BURSARIES 2020/21
Applications are now invited for bursaries for the 2020/21 academic year.
Details of the policy on bursaries and an application form are available
from the Development Trust’s page on the Doresonlochness website.
When completed, application forms together with evidence of enrolment on
an appropriate course should be returned to me by 30 September, either by
email to [email protected] or by post to Ballindarroch Cottage,
Scaniport, Inverness IV2 6DL.
David Mason
Treasurer
8 September 2020
Virtual Meeting of Community Council
A virtual Meeting of the DECC over will take place on Monday 7th September using Google Meet.
Observers report on Red John Public Enquiry
The Hearing part of the Local Enquiry took place over Zoom as a virtual hearing, split into two parts over three days.
The Reporter started by saying that all submissions, including those not forming part of the hearing, would be taken into account before making her decision, and that Scottish Ministers would have the final say.
The hearing itself however, would only cover:
- Firstly the need for the proposal as questioned by the objection submitted by local resident and DECC constituent Fiona Henderson from Midtown.
- Secondly the landscape issues which formed the remaining objection by Highland Council.
This meant that the flood risk would not be part of the hearing itself, partly due to the DECC issuing a reply which stated that after our second written submission we no longer would wished to take part. This final reply was, I believe, never discussed by the DECC, and remains unexplained.
Part One: This took all of the first day and consisted of a series questions and replies by Fiona H regarding the following:
- The need for the proposals in the overall context of national energy requirement.
- The sustainable credentials of the proposals, particularly the claims by ILI about the proposal in itself being regarded as a Renewable Energy development.
- Questions about the size of the proposal given the market reasons given by the applicants, and whether or not a smaller or larger dam was more appropriate.
- The alleged environmental improvements resulting directly as a result of the proposal and whether or not these would happen anyway in the near future without the need for the proposal.
- The applicant’s statements and methodology in general particularly those involving the ecological losses versus gains .
In summary Fiona H implied, with some evidence, that many of the applicant’s claims were at times exaggerated, the economic case unconvincing, the environmental downsides underplayed, and in general scientific terms, many of their conclusions lacked sufficient rigour.
The applicants of course countered these claims with their own statements and evidence from their seven strong team including a QC.
The reporter’s job will be to decide what weight to give to each of the arguments and come to a conclusion.
Part Two.
This took up the remaining 2 days of the hearing and was for the most part a more balanced situation with each side having a team of experts and a QC apiece.
This time the arguments were entirely based around legal and technical points about the interpretation of Highland Council and Scottish government policies on the effect of cumulative developments in the proximity of the proposal and the Loch Ness area in general.
Basically these centred around whether or not the policies which were largely created to protect against over development and excessive visual intrusion in sensitive landscapes applied in this case and how relevant they were.
These arguments were too complex and nuanced for me to makeany meaningful attempt to comment on, but suffice to say, will be decided on strict legal interpretations of either sides case.
In other words the reporter will need to turn to governement lawyers to help her reach a conclusion on this part of the hearing.
John Martin
07/09/2020
Annexe:
The Flood Risk
Apart from the Bamforth report which highlighted concerns over the current regime of the Reservoirs Act and called for a review, ILI are also relying on SEPA’s representation to the enquiry which is, and I quote:
“the probability of failure of a reservoir structure managed under the 2011(Reservoirs) Act is considered to be so low that it is beyond the scope of likely probabilities considered within the Scottish Planning Flood Risk Framework. As a result we have not considered the reservoir breach analysis when providing you with advice on flood risk. “
So, for the avoidance of doubt, SEPA have not even considered the implications of a future seismic event or an inherent seismic weakness, despite that being responsible for the tunnel collapse at Glendoe.