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Comrie Development Trust starts its bid for Community
Right to Buy:
the latest episode in the sad saga of Cultybraggan
Army Camp
James Irvine
Teviot Scientific, Cultybraggan Farm, Comrie,
Perthshire
Filed 10 Sep 06
©www.land-care.org.uk
The Ministry of Defence Estates, who own Cultybraggan
Army Camp and a small amount of some adjacent ground, announced
their intention to close the camp and to sell it some 2 years ago.
It is understood that their main reason for doing so was the very
high cost of maintenance of the numerous tin huts that were constructed
as a temporary measure some 60 years ago to house prisoners of World
War II. A further factor in making their decision was the fact that
the sewage system for the Camp would have to be renewed to meet
modern environmental standards. Understandably they felt that it
would not be value for money.
The area of the camp also includes a massive underground
nuclear shelter which is clearly subject to severe damp and would
cost a fortune to maintain in energy bills alone. It is clear that
the Ministry of Defence has found little use for it. After all it
has been many years since the end of the Cold War. And the MOD is
clearly not looking so far ahead as to what Iran might choose to
do in the future.
Cultybraggan Army Camp
After almost 2 years of consideration, Historic Scotland came
up with
imposing a Grade A listing on a strip of these tin huts down the
middle of
the camp, greatly reducing its development potential.
Now a tiny organisation called Comrie Development Trust has got
the permission
of the Scottish Executive to take the next step in the process
of Community Right to Buy.
Photo ©Kimpton Graphics
You would have thought that the MOD, with all
their heavy commitments in modern times, and their protestations
of being short of cash, might have been given the opportunity to
sell it with the proceeds going into their coffers to help defend
us, and perhaps make the world a safer place. After all it is taxpayers'
money. The vendor in this instance is not some supposedly greedy
private landlord that has allegedly been grinding the serfs into
poverty, when their liberation from tyranny might justify substantial
public expense. Comrie is allegedly one of the richest large villages
in the land.
But no, that was not to be. Instead one has witnessed
the capital value of the Camp being dwindled away to the tune of
£millions by the actions of Central Government through its
agency, Historic Scotland.
After almost 2 years of deliberations, after allegedly
receiving only one letter from a single individual that they should
consider placing a preservation order on the entire property to
keep it for all time at the expense of whoever buys it, Historic
Scotland came up with the extraordinary decision to place a grade
A listing on a strip of these tin huts right down the middle of
the site. In May 2006 they duly issued said order to the current
owner, no doubt heavily embossed with an impressive seal in glorious
colour, complete with a chapter of text on the dire consequences
that would befall anyone who violated that command. For a row of
seriously time-expired tin huts, for goodness sake!
So the owners, the Defence Estates, set about
restarting their efforts to sell this burdensome camp, which in
the meantime has been vandalised several times and must have been
costing them (i.e. the taxpayer) substantial sums to employ a private
firm of security guards, and to maintain the grounds - let alone
the loss of income that they could have expected to have received
some two years ago if they had been allowed to sell it.
As a consequence, the reduction in the market
value of the property is estimated to be in the order of perhaps
some £4millions, or possibly much more. But who is Historic
Scotland to worry about such financial implications? Presumably
in their eyes that is someone else's headache: or put another way,
the problem for another undefined department of the Scottish Executive.
But just as the Defence Estates were instructing
a firm of Estate Agents to market the property with its new spec,
up pops a body called the Comrie Development Trust (CDT) with an
application to the Scottish Executive to grant them the opportunity
under Community Right to Buy legislation to formulate a plan for
the property's use and to find the money to buy it for "the
good of the Community".
Who are the CDT, one might ask?
It evolved from the Comrie Development Group which
was founded in May 2005 with the following three aims:
1. to promote the "sustainable development"
of Comrie and the surrounding area,
2. to involve those who live and work in Comrie
and the surrounding area, and
3. to establish a community development trust
for Comrie and the surrounding area.
The third of these aims was achieved in July 2006,
when the Comrie Development Trust achieved the status of an incorporated
company limited by guarantee.
The local press in the form of the Strathearn
Herald - which is indeed an important font of knowledge about all
that goes on locally - has briefly commented on these developments.
As a keen follower of this essential news read, I have noted the
occasional reference as to the activities of the Comrie Development
Group and more recently of the CDT. All appeared to be highly plausible,
with suggestions for activities for young people and for cinema
sessions for folk to enjoy. They were also reported as looking into
how Comrie could preserve its local garage. Fine.
But last week the Strathearn Herald mentioned
that there was to be an open meeting of the CDT when, among other
things, the future of Cultybraggan Army Camp was on the agenda.
So I went along to the meeting.
It was held in the Comrie WRI hall - a convenient
facility with modest seating capacity. While it might well be fine
for the local Women's Rural Institute, it seemed a trifle modest
for discussion of such on an important local issue as the Community
Right to Buy a potentially very expensive bit of land. After all
Comrie does have some 2,400 people on its voting register.
But the organisers had predicted correctly. The
attendance was indeed modest, perhaps 40. I got the impression that
quite a proportion of that total may have already been appointed
as directors of CDT.
Among those present there seemed to be a number
who were there on an official capacity, either on contract through
EU money or possibly representing some aspect of Perth & Kinross
Council or the Comrie Community Council. The actual numbers in each
of these categories was not clear to me, but there appeared to be
a remarkably small number of ordinary Comrie residents such as myself
who had come along in response to the notice in the local newspaper.
It came then as something of a surprise - to me
at least - that the Secretary announced, towards the end of the
agenda, that the CDT had applied to the Scottish Executive for leave
to proceed to engage in a Community Right to Buy in relation to
the Camp, and that they had been successful in this first stage.
I for one, who lives right next to the Camp and who has regularly
cast my vote in government and local elections in Comrie over many
years, had never heard of any such intention in the name of Comrie
residents.
It subsequently transpired that the first application
by CDT had not been completed quite as the Scottish Executive would
have liked. This was sorted with a revised application, which was
then accepted.
As I understand it, this gives the CDT 67 days
to make an application in principle to the Scottish Executive. If
the Scottish Executive thinks it is plausible, the property would
be valued. The CDT would then have a further 6 months to come up
with a detailed plan and to find the money. The valuer would be
appointed by the Scottish Executive with no right of appeal. Some
would say that the true market value of the property would not be
achieved in the absence of competitive tendering - an argument that
I recall that was frequently made when the Land Reform (Scotland)
Bill (now Act) was put forward for debate by the same Labour/Liberal
Democrat coalition that holds power today.
It is stated that some of the residents of Comrie
were asked "if they would like a say in the future of the Camp".
This resulted in 300 of them signing a petition which sought their
support in making an application to Register an Interest in the
Community buying the MOD Camp. But were they given any information
as to what this might involve? Or did they just sign a petition
on the most casual of basis? I do not recall any meeting that was
organised to discuss this specific issue.
There seemed to be a marked disparity between
300 signing said petition and the very few who took the trouble
to turn up at an evening meeting to discuss the matter, after it
had been billed in the local press.
But does it matter if the CDT gets permission
from the Scottish Executive to proceed with the Community Right
to Buy? Well, yes it does.
There is an undoubted substantial cost to the
taxpayer. There is likely to be a further embargo on any sale of
the property for a further 8 months, when there has already been
a government imposed embargo for the past 2 years. That in itself
is expensive to the vendor, let alone the valuation imposed on the
seller by the Scottish Executive through their appointment of an
"independent" valuer.
But unless the CDT Directors are very good at
playing poker, they have not to my knowledge produced any ideas
as to what they might like to do with the Camp. But in this strange
world of extraordinary profligate spending of taxpayers' money,
the CDT can apparently muster all sorts of expensive professional
advice paid out of EU or Scottish Executive or other public funds.
The Defence Estates - just like any other landowner
in such a situation - has lost control of the sale of their property.
There is a substantial risk that, with all the obstacles that the
Scottish Executive and its agency, Historic Scotland, has placed
on the vendor, the property may go for a song. The loss of revenue
to the taxpayer could be huge.
Frankly, it sounds that it just might be a real
gravy train for perhaps a rather restricted group of people who
just might have a particular interest in the Comrie Development
Trust and what it can achieve for them, directly or indirectly,
in the name of the Community. At present it is understood the membership
of the CDT is 40. No subscription is required. You just sign on
if you are on the voting register, or you can become an associate
member if you have no formal connection with Comrie.
On the other hand, there may be those who feel
that the Directors of the Comrie Development Trust are to be congratulated
on their initiative for the public good. For their bid to succeed
they will have to hold a referendum among those on the local voting
register, with at least 50% of those eligible actually voting and
at least 25% if that minimum of 50% saying yes.
As far as I am concerned the credibility of the
CDT (and of the Comrie Development Group before it) was fine when
it confined itself to highly laudable projects already mentioned.
But contemplating buying a potentially high value property site
(and taking the initial steps in the process), without at present
apparently having a clue what to do with it, seems a big step too
far. It verges on being irresponsible at substantial expense to
the taxpayer.
I duly signed up to become a member of the CDT
on the principle that it is best to get involved rather than to
protest from the sidelines, while also recognising that the CDT
could be the vehicle for good works in other areas.
I also responded to the open invitation
at the meeting for persons to join the working parties on different
areas of the Trust's activities. I volunteered to join the working
party on Cultybraggan Army Camp. I wonder if I will be elected.
But then as the adjoining business enterprise
whose opinion to date has never been sought, the farm may be excluded
from the working party on the basis of a possible conflict of interest,
should it wish to purchase even the tiniest piece of peripheral
land now under a further blocking order from our Scottish Executive.
It is no small wonder that Scotland's economy
is not doing as well as it might.
©www.land-care.org.uk
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