Delay puts Castle Toward on course for buy-out
“If a common-sense approach is adopted the purchase of Castle Toward by the Trust is achievable”
A “REVISED” marketing schedule for Castle Toward has given the castle’s operators a much-needed period of consolidation, and increases the chances of a buy-out which would see the castle continue to operate as an outdoor centre.
The Castle, which was inherited by Argyll and Bute Council from the old Strathclyde Region, is the subject of a controversial sell-off plan. However, this has been delayed, and Actual Reality, the company which operates the castle and its outward bound facilities, has been told that they can continue in occupation until June next year
The Castle Toward Trust, which oversees the running of the centre, sees the delays beneficial to its own plans to purchase the stately pile, which has given thousands of children a taste of the countryside, and introduced them to a range of outdoor activities which they would not otherwise have experienced.
The sell-off decision was taken by the council back in October 2003, and was greeted with widespread anger. Opposition to the sale was not just local - there was national and in fact international concern over the plan and the potential loss to the community of the castle and its facilities. This led to the formation of support groups including the Friends of Castle Toward, which numbered among its members a number of prominent people from the world of music and entertainment, and ultimately the Castle Toward Trust, was formed to manage the castle’s commercial operation.
Chairman of the Trust is Bill Mann, a prominent and highly successful Glasgow businessman.
He said: “I understand that the delay is to allow a conclusion to be reached on the local plan for the area.
“I personally believe that to expect the local plan issue to be resolved in this time-frame is pretty optimistic. There are a number of objectors to the plan for Castle Toward - ourselves included, and also objections to other proposed developments in the area.”
He went on to say that the delay was advantageous to the Trust, since it gave them more time to pull together their own plan to purchase the castle and estate.
“We have a figure for its worth based on the District Valuer’s estimate, and we also have two independent valuations. We believe what we have is a ball-park figure which provides a basis for negotiation. If a common-sense approach is adopted the purchase of Castle Toward by the Trust is certainly achievable. although we are a charity and there’s no way, for instance, that we’d be prepared to make an offer that’s way over the valuation.”
The Castle, which was built in the early nineteenth century, has served as an outdoor centre for children since the end of the last war, originally operated by the old Glasgow Corporation. It has continued to operate and is currently being run by Actual Reality, who have been successful in attracting a steady stream of business since they took over operations following a threatened closure in the 1990s.
Mr Mann continued: “Structurally the castle is in remarkably fine shape; it’s both wind and weathertight. although it requires considerable internal renovation to bring it up to modern standards and to cope with ongoing health and safety regulations.
“The business is doing remarkably well. The castle’s operations continue to be carried out by the Actual Reality team, but the financial side is being run by the Trust, which consists of some pretty formidable business brains. They include individuals with strong local connections such as Lennie Moffat of TSC and Gordon Ross of Western Ferries, as well as people like myself from outside Cowal who are firmly convinced that Castle Toward’s future is as an outdoor centre for youngsters.
“In essence, you’re not talking about woolly-headed dreamers, but hard-headed people with solid business backgrounds. What we all share is a conviction that Castle Toward is a viable proposition as an outdoor centre.
“I am constantly amazed, that, when I tell people of my involvement with Castle Toward, so many of them respond by saying that they have been there in their childhood. When you consider that 6,000 youngsters pass through the centre every year, and multiply that by 50 - it really has quite a heritage to boast about.”
Mr Mann said that the centre was now running profitably and had an important role to play in the development of young people. “It’s not just kids from the inner cities who benefit,” he said. “ I was talking to a teacher who’d brought over a group from Helensburgh recently, and said that I thought it strange that, coming from such an area, there was any benefit in coming to Toward.
“ ‘Of course there is,’ she said, ‘they spend their time looking at computers. Castle Toward provides a real opportunity for them to do something completely different.’ ”
He added that the number of youngsters coming to Toward had a further effect. “If only one in ten of these kids enjoyed the experience enough to remember it in adulthood and wants to revisit Cowal to rekindle old memories, then what a boost that is to tourism!”


Blaze hits bakery – but business as usual
A FIRE which broke out in the premises of one of Dunoon’s oldest businesses at the weekend has caused major disruption to the firm’s operations.
Black’s Bakery in George Street Dunoon, which opened for business 84 years ago, was hit by the blaze early on Saturday morning.
The outbreak was discovered by bakery employees, who called the fire brigade at around 6.45am. Dunoon Fire Brigade was quickly on the scene, and when owner Charles Black Snr arrived shortly after 7am the fire had already been extinguished.
However, despite the speed of the fire brigade’s response - which Mr Black described as ‘fantastic’ the bakery has suffered considerable damage.
Mr Black said: “I left at 6am to take out one of the vans. I always check the confectionery room religiously when I leave and I did so on Saturday. I did a visual check on the oven and rings and also ran my hand along the top to make sure it was actually off, and it was.”
He went on: “However, two investigators have concluded that the oven had a faulty isolation valve, and that when the workers were moving a piece of equipment they bumped into the oven. This, they have concluded, would have created enough of a spark to trigger off the fire.”
The confectionery room is the only area which has suffered actual fire damage, but the entire bakery is contaminated by smoke and the foam used to extinguish the fire.
“Fortunately,” said Mr Black, “there’s a vent directly above the room, and this tended to draw the flames upwards rather than outwards.”
Mr Black said that at this stage it was impossible to establish how long it will take to get the bakery operational again.
“An optimistic estimate would be several weeks,” he explained, “but that’s dependent on a number of factors. Above the confectionery room are steel beams which run the length of the building. If they’ve been damaged by the heat and have to be replaced, then that will be a major job; similarly, establishing what needs to be done to bring the electrical system back into commission is an unknown quantity at this stage since much of the ceiling will have to be removed to check for damage to the wiring.”
“Most of the equipment, which is fairly complex, will have to be stripped down and checked, the roll machine, for instance, is huge - it weighs over five tons. It was manufactured in Germany and will need to be recommissioned by the maker’s engineers.”
Logistically, however, the company has coped very well with the loss of the bakery. Mr Black explained. “As well as using the bakery facilities in the shop, we have enlisted the help of three Glasgow bakeries and Jim MacLean over on Bute, and on Monday morning we had achieved 86 percent of normal production. We will make every effort to maintain the quality and production of our products.
He observed wryly: “Talk about anniversaries - It’s just over 25 years since we had a fire here before - but that was on the other side of the bakery.”


Politicians clash at Innellan
A hastily-called meeting at Innellan Village Hall still managed to attract around 40 villagers, proving that there is yet considerable anger and resentment over Scottish Water’s planned sewage treatment provision for the village.
However, an exchange of words between local politicians has ratcheted up the temperature and moved the issue on to a new platform - the integrity of the Scottish Executive.
The meeting was called largely because of the availability of MSP Jim Mather in the area, also present was local MP Alan Reid, deputising for his LibDem colleague George Lyon, who had prior commitments elsewhere.
The Innellan Three, local residents Jim Duncan, Jim Donaldson and Gilbert Pyke, have run a high-profile campaign against the water authority, and have gained maximum publicity via press and radio interviews over the last few weeks.
The meeting was introduced by Jim Duncan, who argued that the judgement of the Reporter - who reversed the council’s decision to turn down the Site Three septic tank - was flawed: “it contained far too many ‘maybes’” said Mr Duncan.
A lot more information had become available, he said. It was clear that the Scottish Enivonment Protection Agency (SEPA) took the view that directing both surface water and sewage into septic tanks - which is the design for the tanks at Innellan - was totally unacceptable.
The other issue was that Scottish Water was seeking planning permission to use the Sandy Beach car park as a base for ten months; this was an area set aside for people to use the beach and the play area. “We asked for a risk assessment to be carried out,” said Mr Duncan, “and the response was “We’ve got a problem with our computer - I’ll get back to you”....but nothing has been heard since.”
He introduced Jim Mather, who described Scottish Water as ‘a cash cow’. In 2003, he said, there was growing concern about high water charges in Scotland. On investigation, he said, it emerged that today’s customers were subsidising tomorrow’s consumers. The fashion in which the company’s finances were being managed justified the view that customers had been overcharged by around £1bn.
The Scotttish Executive had also transferred a substantial amount of public expenditure provision out of the water budget to other programmes. The exact amount, he said, was unknown, but was probably around £500m.
He added: “Because of the transfer of provision, out of the water budget, much new capital expenditure now has to be financed from charges: so if price rises are to be restrained, capital expenditure must be restricted - Witness the recent resignation of the former chairman of the company, over a £1 billion disagreement about the required capital spend.”
The industry, he claimed, was ripe for privatisation,
He added: “This is not just a simple cover-up: the Scottish Executive is in self-denial mode as well.”
Mr Mather claimed that 86 percent of Scottish Water’s capital expenditure came from water charges, and that it had actually raised £450m more than it needed.
In terms of the levels of taxation on businesses, he quoted the case of a small business on Mull whose water rates had risen from £70 last year to £300 this year.
Professor Neil Kay said that his property was directly behind one of the septic tanks; he hadn’t complained at the time, he said, because he did not want to be accused of ‘nimbyism.’
However, he was angered by the damage that Scottish Water had done to the shoreline. They had destroyed the environment, and rendered it unsafe.
He did not trust them, saying: “If what we can see is shoddy and inept, what’s it like underneath?”
The issue of transporting the solid waste from the tanks also caused concern. One resident pointed out that the Lock Eck road in winter was notoriously dangerous - what would be the consequences if a tanker of waste was to end up in the loch, which was the community’s water supply?
Jim Donaldson said that when he asked for information from Scottish Water at public meetings he was told ‘no problem’ - however the information he sought was never delivered.
There was considerable discussion over the efficiency - or otherwise - of the septic tanks, and Mr Mather said that the logical solution was to hook Innellan up to the secondary treatment plant at Kilbride Quarry. However, said one resident, he had been told by Scottish Water that this was not practical since pumping sewerage this far would cause odours.
Which raised an obvious question; if pumping from Innellan to Bullwood along a sparsely populated road would cause odour problems, then why was Scottish Water pumping effluent from Sandbank all the way through Dunoon?
Mr Mather said that the company would sooner spend money on spin doctors than listen to local communities.
He concluded by saying: “Some people seem to think this isn’t about politics - but believe me that’s exactly what is is about.”
And it was politics that brought about the only exchange of the meeting between Mr Mather and Mr Reid, Mr Mather had blamed much of the problems faced by the water industry in Scotland on the Scottish Executive, which is, of course, a Labour - Liberal Democrat coalition. Mr Reid sat silently through it, until the MSP accused the Executive of being untruthful.
At that point Mr Reid interjected saying: “That’s a very serious accusation - are you sure you can back it up?”
Mr Mather insisted he could, and said the evidence was in the last three sets of accounts and the £940m in additional charges, which he said were “an absolute scandal.”
But the spat didn’t end there. After the meeting there was a further exchange of e-mails in which Mr Reid accused the MSP of making ‘wild accusations’ and being unable to back them up , to which Mr Mather responded that his views were are matter of public record.


Dunoon Argyll - Scottish champions
Dunoon Argyll Pipe Band are delighted to announce that they are now the Scottish Champions of grade 3B. After a hard winter’s work and an encouraging start to the season with a win in the grade 3 competition at Gourock two weeks ago, it still came as a surprise when they won first place not only in the band competition but also for best Drum Corps in grade 3B last Saturday, at the Scottish Pipe Band Championships at Levengrove Park, Dumbarton. They did it in style too, finishing seven points ahead of the band in second place.
A week before the competition, the Band was approached by the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association and asked to take part in a street parade through the town of Dumbarton. This they duly did, and were well rewarded for their efforts when they won £500 for being voted the best band on parade!
This is truly an exciting time for everyone associated with the Band; something they want to share with their supporters and the community as a whole.
They would especially like to thank the sponsors who make it possible for them to continue to provide the town with a Pipe Band to be proud of, namely, Western Ferries Ltd, Celtic Clothing (Stornoway), Remax Country Properties, Loch Fyne Oysters, Fyne Homes Ltd, Stewart and Bennett, MacClure’s Bar, Cowal Sand and Gravel Ltd and K. and L. Grogans.
They would also like to thank the other businesses and individuals who also support the Band, but who prefer to remain anonymous.