Businesses vote to ban the bags
A DUNOON businesswoman has launched a campaign to make Dunoon Britain’s first ‘bag free’ town.
A meeting, organised by Caroline Cuddihy, who owns Parker’s in Church Street, and chaired by Councillor Ron Simon, took place in the Queen’s Hall on Tuesday night.
It was well-attended by local businesses, who voiced strong support for the project. While some potential difficulties were identified, it was clear that the concept was welcomed by those present.
Mrs Cuddihy said that she had been inspired by the efforts of Modbury in Devon, a village which took the decision to ban plastic bags back in April, and has succeeded to such an extent that its efforts have featured in at least two national newspapers.
Caroline says: “It’s all a matter of breaking bad habits. In this country we take plastic bags for granted, but on the continent they’re practically non-existent. People either use canvas bags or load their shopping on to supermarket trolleys, take them to their cars and unload them.”
She does not, however, underestimate the scale of the task ahead.
Modbury has a population of just 1,500 - the population of Dunoon at the last census was over 9,000.
“I’ve been around all the businesses in Argyll Street, Hillfoot Street and Queen Street,” she explained. “I haven’t had a single ‘no’. I’ve had a couple of ‘maybes’. The Co-op has agreed to do it, and the manager of Somerfield’s has agreed to take it up with the owners of the company - although they are currently operating their own bag for life scheme in order to reduce plastic bag usage.”
Caroline has done her homework, and can reel off some frighteningly impressive statistics.
A staggering 1.2 trillion plastic bags are produced each year; a million bags a minute - an average of 300 bags per adult - and most of them are used in the developed world.
The ‘working life’ of the average plastic bag is just 12 minutes.
47 percent of wind blown rubbish from landfill is plastic, and almost 80 percent of marine rubbish is plastic.
Mrs Cuddihy highlighted a programme, Animal Planet, to be broadcast on July 21, which portrays the appalling damage being caused to whales and other marine animals through the ingestion of plastic bags.
In other European countries, notably France and Germany, recycling was much more highly developed. She had recently visited France, where re-usable bags were the norm, and there was a significant absence of plastic rubbish on the beaches.
There was a need to address the issue on a national basis, and she felt that if Dunoon’s campaign to become the first plastic bag-free town was successful, then it would give the area a very positive profile and give solid support to its attempts to portray itself as the Gateway to the National Park.
It was proposed that participating shops should put recycling bins outside their premises, preferably decorated for the disposal of plastic bags. They would only be on the streets during business hours, and would be taken into the premises at night.
Mrs Cuddihy had uncovered a radical solution for the disposal of the bags. An artist in Yorkshire used them as a basis for creating items such as plastic chairs and other items. He had a mobile unit and could come to Dunoon to work on site.
There was great potential to get the schools involved in the project, especially in terms of the ‘recycling’ into other products, with items such as pencil cases and rulers. They could also become involved in designing a logo for the project.
The meeting was also attended by Alan Lothian of Argyll and Bute Council, who promised that the council would provide as much support as possible, particularly in terms of providing bins for the collection of plastic bags for recycling.
Mrs Cuddihy produced a sample of the re-usable canvas bags which would replace the existing plastic ones, pointing out that they were relatively inexpensive and could be manufactured in a variety of sizes to meet the needs of different businesses.
Cllr Simon said that the proposed launch date for the scheme was October, and it was hoped that by the spring of next year the town and its environs would be plastic bag-free.
The meeting agreed that a working group should be formed to drive the project forward.
After the meeting Mrs Cuddihy said that she was heartened by the response from businesses.
“I’m convinced that we can make this work,” she said. “All it takes is the will to do it and the public to support us.
“I’ve spoken to most of the businesses in the area, and will be speaking to those that I missed over the next week or so.”


Fire rips through Dunoon hotel
On Saturday night around 11pm Strathclyde Fire and Rescue were called to attend a fire at the West End Hotel in Dunoon’s Victoria Parade.
On their arrival, minutes later, firefighters saw smoke coming from one of the rear rooms and discovered that there was a fire in the kitchen and in a first floor bedroom. Four firefighters wearing breathing apparatus went into the building to tackle the fire.
The three-storey building, which had twelve guests at the time, was evacuated.
A spokesman for the fire service said: “Extra fire engines were summoned to ensure that we had enough firefighters in breathing apparatus sets to tackle the fire. At the height of the incident fire engines from Helensburgh, Inveraray, Clydebank, Dumbarton and Paisley had joined their local colleagues from Dunoon who of course had been first on the scene.
“The fire was extinguished at 03.09 on Sunday morning. Fire engines from Port Glasgow and Greenock arrived later in the morning to provide relief cover. Our fire investigators were called to the scene but I have no cause of the fire.”
A police spokesman said of the incident: “The fire is not believed to be suspicious. There were no injuries and the hotel, along with adjoining hotels, was evacuated whilst the matter was dealt with.”
Suzy Tomsett of the West End Hotel said: “We are still working out how long we will be closed for, but we have put signs up saying that we are closed until further notice.
“It came as a shock to us and we are all devastated, but we have had plenty of support from the local hotels. Our neighbour Rick Murray was really good to us during and after the fire and we would like to extend special thanks to him.
“We will let people know when we are able to open the hotel again through the paper, and we sincerely hope that it won’t be too long. We are managing to stay happy at the moment, well - you’ve got to…”


New approach to ferry problem ‘crucial’
A new approach to the Dunoon ferry problem is crucial, a senior council official told the recent meeting of the Bute and Cowal Area Committee.
The Director of Corporate Services, George Harper, said that the council had to make things happen, rather than to await events.
He said that the ‘Marine Gateway’ concept which had been floated was the key to progress, and the ferry was only one element in the whole waterfront project.
He outlined the history of the ferry issue; years of discussions and meetings which had culminated in a meeting in February with the then Transport Minister.
There was now a change of government and the council leader had been in touch with the MEP, Alyn Smith, and Jim Mather MSP.
Mr Harper said that the agenda had to be pushed forward with vigour, and meetings should be set up to achieve that.
“There’s very positive feedback coming from Europe,” he said, “but we can’t sit back and wait for things to happen, we have to drive them forward.”
Cllr Marshall asked how they could get past the hurdle of anti-competition legislation, which appeared to be the biggest hurdle.
Mr Harper agreed that it was a hurdle, but Alyn Smith was of the view that there was an area for discussion.
Cllr Walsh, however, said that the competition issue had been addressed back in 2002, when the EU had no difficulty with what was planned. The issue was held up when the decision was taken to put the Gourock-Dunoon tender in with the CalMac ‘bundle’.
Four years down the line we were no further forward, however, at the election the route had been a priority commitment on all the manifestos.
He concluded by saying that the important thing was for all parties involved to work together, the councils on either side of the water, the National Park, and the commercial sector.
In the discussion which followed it was noted that CalMac did not seem to have the will to provide a ship for the route.
In terms of ships, there were no ships within the fleet, with the exception of the two new Bute ferries, which could service Dunoon’s linkspan.
Rothesay councillor Len Scoullar said that the way to proceed was to have a STAG appraisal of the route - this was what had been done on Bute. A STAG appraisal is how the Scottish Executive assesses all such projects.
Cllr Alec McNaughton said there would have to be two vessels - the sort of service being discussed could not be carried out with one ship alone.
Asked about the condition of the current pier, Alan Lothian said that while it was operating to full capacity at the moment, its future was dependent on regular inspections.
He added: “ A new service would have to be routed to the new terminal - the old pier is a dripping roast” - in other words, it would cost too much in the long term.
The ferry issue has also been on the agenda for MSP Jim Mather, who has organised a series of meetings on the matter. He has had what he described as ‘constructive’ meetings with CalMac and is due to meet Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson and MEP Alyn Smith this week.


NO BROADCAST LICENCE
BUT ALL SYSTEMS GO AT RADIO FYNESIDE
Radio Fyneside learned earlier this week that Ofcom has rejected its application for a Community Radio licence.
Both volunteers and board members at the station are nonetheless determined to keep their plans on track, and to use this unwelcome news as a spur to greater success.
No reasons for rejection were provided by Ofcom as they informed the station on Wednesday afternoon, but it is hoped that details will be available in the next week.
On hearing the news, Radio Fyneside Managing Director Lynda Henderson said:
“When I passed the news on to Professor John Patrick, chair of our board, neither of us could even guess what the reasons for rejecting our application might be - but we’ll find out next week.
“However, on-air broadcasting was only ever a part of the spectrum of services we plan. We will simply focus the full power of our broadcasting plans on internet delivery - and we are very innovative.
We also plan to develop partnerships with Argyll College, Wild Biscuit Music and Dalriada Arts and Culture to deliver training courses leading to formal qualifications and to develop and promote new music – these are unaffected.
Whilst disappointed with the news from Ofcom, Lynda was upbeat, adding: “Curiously, this decision offers us as much as it takes away. On-air broadcasting is a dying medium, internet broadcasting is putting on audiences thick and fast. - and a Community Radio licence is for a five year period only, with no mechanism for renewal. We were already beginning to be concerned about the impact of this restriction on the return on investment we could offer to potential funders.
“Our establishment costs will be reduced without the need for masts and transmission gear. Our operational costs will be reduced through the absence of Ofcom and WTA licence fees to be paid - and we can earn income of any kind, from any source and to any resulting percentage of our gross annual income. Ofcom can restrict activities in each of these things.
There is something undoubtedly sexy about being live on air and we would love to have been ale to bring that to the experience of our community volunteers. However, we will be live online - worldwide - from exactly the same studio set-up, with live phone-ins, interviews and the impromptu responses to emergencies that live work of any kind involves. And we plan to be pace setters.
“We are delighted for the other Scottish stations who have been granted a licence and we have reason to feel a collective disappointment with those, like us, who have not. We look forward to working with both in the very near future.”
As we went to press, Dunoon Community Radio had not been informed of any decision on its separate application to Ofcom to broadcast in the district of Dunoon.
Last month, Bute FM was granted a licence by Ofcom to broadcast within and around the island area.