Mull and Iona Chamber of Commerce.
Minutes of the meeting of the Board of Management held in the Isle of Mull Hotel on the 7th of July 2008.
Present: Sandy Brunton (President in the chair), Jane Chauvet (Secretary), Michael Ackerley (Treasurer), Georgia O’Neil, Brendan Walsh, Derek Crook.
Apologies for absence: none.
The minutes of the last meeting held at the Isle of Mull Hotel on 2nd June 2008 were read . Approval was moved by Georgia O’Neil and seconded by Jane Chauvet. Motion passed unanimously.
Minutes of the May meeting held at the Isle of Mull Hotel were read. Recommendation that they be approved moved by Michael Ackerley and seconded by Georgia O’Neil. Recommended unanimously.
Matter arising from June minutes.
1 distribution of logos for letterheads for members, use were in hand. The logos would be distributed by email and members would be able to download from the link.
2 Safe Driving on Mull DVD. Members reported that Calmac were rarely playing the DVD. Sandy had spoken to the Hugh MacFee at Calmac and also to Ian Erskine. AP
Sandy to speak again to Ian Erskine and Jane Chauvet to speak to Craignure TC to see if they would play the DVD there. As a related matter it was noted that warning signs in passing places warning that they were not parking areas needed to be increased in number and that some of the worst offenders were tourist wild life operators. AP Jane Chauvet to contact the police to discover their policy. It was noted that that once a supply of safe driving pamphlets were exhausted on the ferry notices, it was rarely topped up. AP Jane Chauvet to contact Councillors..
2 Other transport matters: Brendan Walsh reported that the Oban airport was now operational but the service was causing considerable anxiety on Colonsay on two points: a. the level of charges and b. the lack of lights prevented children using a return flight in the winter. Since the Colonsay operation was part of the economic/social package justifying the creation of the service any refusal by Colonsay inhabitants to use the service or any prevention of a full service placed another question against the existence of the service. Civil Airport Authority rules for the service were still not available and as a result there was very little flight movement. There was still no improvement in the flight control and use of Glenforsa landing strip.
Roads. Sandy had attended a meeting at Duart Castle called by Mull Community Council to discuss the state of Mull roads with Neil Brown the relevant Argyll and Bute officer. Sandy had discovered that although the Council had found funds to improve surfaces to some minor roads the Council had in fact no capital plan for the roads and that indeed the financial information about the cost of maintenance and improvements of roads was inadequate for such a plan to be prepared. AP for SB and JH. Letter to Councillors, copied to Jim Mathers MSP asking about the existence of any capital expenditure plans for the roads on Mull.
Ferry Committee. MA reported he had attended the agm of the Ferry Committee 0n 23rd of June which was quorate. However a meeting was held. Proposed by SB and seconded by BW that MA continue as the Chamber representative on the Ferry Committee. Agreed unanimously. AP SB to analyse the report of the Scottish Government’s “Ferry Services in Scotland Report”.
Local Food Initiative. JC had met Susie Chalupa from MICT to obtain information on past food initiatives on Mull and had found the contact extremely useful. She had also met Drew Collier from Calmac who had been enthusiastic about promoting and using local food on the ferry using the Calmac marketing facilities and this had brought an enthusiastic response from the suppliers she had contacted. JC and Drew Collier were scheduled to go to Arran in early to investigate a similar initiative there. On the logistics side there may be opportunities to tie up wit Forteith or Waltons.
Membership: chasing and registering subscriptions was continuing. It had been discovered that some members were paying more than once, probably over confusion over the Standing Orders they had signed and these members were being made aware of the error.
Treasurer’s Report: A credit balance of £4281.48