92
edits
EMD/AA: Difference between revisions
m
no edit summary
mNo edit summary |
mNo edit summary |
||
Line 31:
For certain categories of development however, there is inescapably a requirement to obtain public funds drawn from general taxation (including local authority funding from central government, which is a very substantial source of their revenue). Similarly inescapable is the political character of concentrating a distribution of public money in pursuit of local goals at, theoretically, the expense of other areas.
The other source of capital AMD identified was philanthropy - charitable giving. Voluntary contributions need not always be in money form, of course. Our local "third sector" appears to be pretty healthy. AMD cited the "200 people" who turned-out for the April spring-clean organised by the "fantastic" Town Team (FWTT). But he thought we could attract more private funds by casting a wider net, and gave several examples of local landowners with philanthropic leanings and/or established charitable trusts. He went on to propose tying all these threads together by announcing an ambition to become British Town of the Year in [[FW2027|2027]], apparently after visiting the Welsh ex-mining town of Treorchy in the Rhondda Valley which was named the UK's High Street of the Year in 2020 (see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treorchy Wikipedia]).
::''Somewhat closer to home than South Wales, another inspiring example might be the Ayrshire 'Craft Town' of West Kilbride (see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Kilbride#Crafts Wikipedia] again).'' -EMD
There was a fairly long discussion about adding features to the High Street. AMD's first suggestion was to commission a suite of appropriately-themed bronzes, presumably life-size. His ideas included: a highland cow, a stag, a drover with cattle or, more realistically, sheep, and a kilted bagpiper. FITCC Secretary Patricia Jordan mentioned some very good bronzes in Perth and Dundee but lamented that permission to site a statue on the West End roundabout had been refused by the road authorities on safety grounds: it was said that it would be a distraction to drivers and therefore dangerous to traffic. Another councillor draw attention to the irony of a statue of an eagle in Inverness tagged with "Welcome to the Highlands," the Highland boundary fault being well over a hundred miles away.
Line 63 ⟶ 65:
::''I know of no way to organise a postal-vote primary for less than £500 because that is the minimum spend to gain access to Royal Mail's 'Mailsort Three' (ie third-class mass-mailing) services.'' -EMD
=====
(DRAFT) MINUTE: Tue 16/11/21 FITCC (‘Teams’) meeting - #3: Angus MacDonald (Highland Cinema and Bookshop)
| |||