Letter added to November minut

We are quite concerned to find that a letter proporting to be from Blairmore Hall Committee has been attached to KCC Minutes .  The letter was not mentioned nor discussed at a hall committee meeting and the views within it appear to be those of one or two individuals and not a view endorsed by the whole committee.  The undersigned members of the hall committee wish to disassociate themselves from this view which they do not consider to be an accurate reflection of events.

Bryan Shrewry,  Pat Lynn, Catherine Rae and Victor Sandall

The Facts

A few months ago the Hall Committee Secretary put out a request for hall users to give their opinion on the desired changes needed for the Hall.  As a representative of The Shore Community Hub Pat Lynn reported back to the hall saying that they would like improvements made to:

The Toilets, The Kitchen, Floor Space, Disabled Access and at the same time praised the committee for the new lighting and heating which were much appreciated.

At the October meeting of the hall committee Pat outlined the issues of concern from local people. The response from the Chair was that they were already aware of all of these issues.  Pat pointed out that many new people had come into the area and she felt would be interested in helping the committee to take forward plans. The Secretary pointed out that they didn’t have the time to do the work required but they had the ideas and would welcome any members of the community to help prepare funding applications for the Hall renovation work.

This request was fed back to the concerned residents.   In discussing whether this help could be offered, some Blairmore residents and users of Blairmore Hall expressed concern at the length of time which had elapsed since renovation plans had been drawn up in 2015. There had been a number of changes to the village in the meantime, including the purchase by the community of land immediately adjoining the hall.

This group wished to offer help to the hall committee and made a suggestion that they form a Project Team to progress the renovation. They also felt that the plans needed to be revisited first to ensure that they had the best possible chance of attracting funding.   A meeting was requested with the Trustees of Blairmore hall committee to discuss this offer  and to better understand the actions the committee had taken to date,  however the Trustees declined to meet with representatives of the group asking that the proposal be put to the next committee meeting  by a committee member who had been present at the discussion.  The committee member in question requested that the originator of the Project Team idea attend the committee meeting to explain the approach proposed by the community group. This was refused by the Trustees.

 As a meeting was not possible the offer was explained in an email to the Trustees (this email was not circulated to the full hall committee).  Further emails followed explaining that the proposal was not from an individual but had the support of a number of local residents. At no time was there any criticism of the Trustees or committee. Indeed correspondence frequently thanked the committee for the hard work they had done to date.

At the hall committee meeting the representative was not allowed the opportunity to put forward the proposal from members of the community as the Chair called an early close to the meeting and informed the committee that the 3 Trustees  (Chair, Treasurer and Secretary) were calling a EGM for 13th January at which they would resign from the hall committee.

This offer was made in friendship and a desire to see the hall prosper for many years to come – sadly it was received with suspicion.