held on 12th March, 2004, at 18.00 hours
at Port-na-Con
Present: E.
Meyer, A. Walker, L. Black
In Attendance: F. Keith
1.
Minutes of Committee Meeting, Friday, 6th February, 2004
Minutes of Committee
Meeting, Friday, 6th February 2004 were distributed.
Matters arising:
Eddie Meyer had written to
Ronnie Lansley requesting Minutes of Meetings prior to 2003 to be deleted from
the Laid Website. Ronnie is still working on the site and photos etc. will be
returned in due course.
2.
Letters / mails sent
16.02. All Laid connections AGM notification
18.02. Hugh MacLellan, LGC Ref.: mail dated 07.01.2004
24.02. Kenny MacRae, DCC Laid Fire Hydrants
29.02. Ronnie Lansley Laid Website
04.03. Alfred Walker Meeting
04.03. Erka Seki Requesting copy of Laid study
05.03. Ian Wilson Durness Estate
05.03. Peter Hayes, HMS Hood Ass. HMS Hood
Memorial Trophy
06.03. John Morrison, Gualin Gun Club Games Shoot
06.03. Ann Avison, Durness Games Games
Shoot
11.03. Ronnie Lansley HMS Sutherland crew visit
3.
Letters / mails received
08.02. Ann Avison Games Shoot
18.02. John + Elisabeth Whitelaw Unable to
attend AGM
25.02. HMS Sutherland March
visit
26.02. Liam O’Neill HMS Sutherland Crew visit
4.
Membership fees for 2004
The Treasurer reported that
the Marsham’s had now paid
Hugh MacLellan had indicated
that he would not be re-joining the Residents’ Association. There had been no
word from the Smiths.
Alfred Walker suggested that
it would be useful if members who do not pay their fees should at least
formally state their intention, i.e. to re-join or not, at least then we would
know where we stand financially.
5.
Fire Hydrants
Francis Keith stated that
according to the Durness Community Council Minutes, Laid was to have four Fire
Hydrants installed with the first (apparently) to be installed at the Old Post
Office and every second house from there. He suggested that the Residents’
Association ensure they instruct the Fire Officer where these are to be sited.
Alfred Walker suggested that
the permanent residents should have prior considerations over holiday homes.A
notice in the local paper for planning permission for enlargement of the
Laid water tank and improvements to its access was briefly discussed, but
no members present knew anything more about the intention, although it was
thought this may have something to do with the installation of the Fire
Hydrants?
6.
Laid Notice Board
Francis Keith had organised
a £100 grant from the Highland Council and a cheque should be received
soon.
Kenny MacRae was to be asked
to contact Lesley Black about the problems with the board.
7.
Land Postal Address
Eddie Meyer has been to
almost every resident who would be affected by the address change and so far
has had refusals to sign by Frank and Jean Morrison and Jonathan Dale.
Lotte Glob, Colin Curtis,
Ian McLeod, James and Julie Clark had all indicated verbally their agreement
but had yet to sign the petition.
8.
Laid Website
Ronnie Lansley has now
removed the 2002 Minutes from the site. Anyone requiring these should contact
the Secretary.
Alfred Walker asked about
the Website fees – what would these be? At present this is unknown as the fees
have not yet been set.
9.
Shoot 2004
The Shoot will be held on
Saturday, 3rd April at the Gualin Gun Club site in Durness, since
Port-Na-Con was too small with insufficient close by parking. Current stock of
ammunition appeared sufficient, but as there were only two boxes of clays more
of these were required.
Last year not too many local
persons participated, but others came from as far afield as Ullapool.
Lesley Black had been asked
to cater for the shoot, but had requested some cover and suggested the Durness
Highland Gathering Marquee be hired for the day. Unfortunately there seems to
be some confusion about ownership of this marquee so the DHG Association could
not be very positive at this stage.
10.
Durness Highland Gathering Shoot
The Gualin Gun Club had
recorded that the Laid, Polla and port-Na-Con Residents’ Association would
again host this year’s event, but there seems to be some confusion since the
Gun Club
Secretary has now advised
Eddie Meyer that Alec Morrison was to run the shoot. This decision has,
apparently, been made without consultation of the other club members and so far
no formal notice has been made to the Residents’ Association. Ann Avison,
Secretary of the DHG was to write to the Gun Club to clarify the matter.
Eddie Meyer had also
informed Ann that he had been in contact with Northern Constabulary advising
them that the Residents’ Association was running the shoot to enable the
relevant authority be received from them. In previous years the shoot had not
had this special dispensation licence, so this should also be pointed out to
the Gun Club.
A meeting with Gualin Gun
Club was due to be held within the next weeks so hopefully the situation would
be clarified then.
11.
HMS Sutherland crew visit
The visit went quite well
and the shoot netted the Association £205. The ammunition and
clays already having been paid for. An enjoyable evening was had by all at the
end of the day.
It had been a cold day for
the participants, but all had enjoyed themselves. Captain MacKay had invited
participants to HMS Sutherland in September, when it is hoped the ship will be
in Eriboll for a few days after the 18th September. Captain MacKay
is also trying to arrange for the last surviving crew member of HMS Hood be
bought up for the presentation of prizes at that time.
12.
Land Court / Port Chamuill
The Land Court Hearing is due to be held in Durness
Village Hall on 23rd March. It is to be an open meeting so any
member of the public can attend, but not participate unless their submissions
had already been requested.
A result on the day was not expected.
13.
Annual General Meeting 2004
Eddie Meyer
presented a Draft Agenda.
Francis Keith
suggested including an item about any correspondence with Durness Estate.
An item
outstanding from last year’s meeting (scrap metal in Laid quarry) was discussed
and it was suggested that providing it was agreed at the AGM, Eddie Meyer would
write to Ian Findlay, Melness, requesting him to remove the metal within 14
days and if not Eddie would request the Council to do so.
14.
Laid Christmas Party
The Residents’ Association
party will be held at Port-Na-Con on Monday, 20th December 2004. It
is hoped that by then Donnie and Katy will be resident in the village.
15.
Any other business
Sheep: Eddie Meyer will write to the Laid Grazings Committee to request
Eriboll to remove the sheep from Laid.
If nothing happens the
Residents’ Association will write directly to James Clark requesting him to
remove the sheep.
Eddie Meyer added that he
had seen Ian MacLeod driving sheep into Laid in the early hours of one morning
so we know who owns the sheep.
There being no other business the meeting closed at
19:30 hours.