Abernyte Community Interest Company
AGM for 2025 (DRAFT)
25th of February 2025, 7pm
Abernyte Church, Abernyte, PH14 9ST
Theme: Get Involved
Agenda
● Election of Directors
● Minutes from previous AGM
● Chair’s report
● Treasurer’s report
● Community Assets Update
● Community Initiative Updates
● AOCB
Attendees
Morag Gray
Neil Gray
Mhairi Hole
Stephen Hole
Liz Foubister
Graeme Foubister
Jonny Early
Ron Neville
Trish Neville
Henry McSorley
Danielle Smythe
Esther McGoldrick (Treasurer, Director)
Gerard McGoldrick
Sue Vardy
Alan Vardy
Mike Pirie
Stef Pirie
Malcolm Mcswan
Cathy Caudwell
Barry Caudwell (Director)
Sarah Donoghue
Matt (School PC)
Ian Campbell (Chair, Director)
Mary Shrimpton (Secretary, Director)
Matthew and Elise
Mandy Forbes
Gill Watson
Mark Petrie (Director)
Frances Smith
Gillian Lauder
Apologies
Jane and Trefor Woodford
Anna Mclaughlin
Election of Directors
All directors were re-elected.
Sarah Donoghue and Gerard Mcgoldrick elected to be directors
Minutes from previous AGM
Minutes from 2024 AGM approved
Chair’s Report (Ian Campbell)
Another busy year with some great weather on the theme of “A focus on community”. We had a Millennium Walk maintenance work group in April. The community walk in May was held on a really sunny day and well
attended and we started out at Hoolmyre Farm (thank you to Jeannie for the parking spaces) and walked to Rait where we had refreshments at the Cart Shed. Thank you to Neil and Jonny for organising.
The Mary Young lecture in May was a departure from the usual type and we heard from Home Energy Scotland on options for insulation and heating your home. We’ve continued to have Abernyte in Bloom and will continue boosting the presence of flowers in the village and by the road to help slow down vehicles by showing people live here. Abernyte festival was a great success and we raised £2.3K in total, this allows us to donate
£574 each for Tayside Cash 4 Kids and Gaza Infant Nutrition Alliance. Most money was made from the food stall with the “Bougie Burgers” being a great success. The historical re-enactment group Knights of
Monymusk were in attendance with fighting and archery displays and the Happy Ukes played.
Tree planting at South Latch was attended by many members of the community who planted a hedge and trees then enjoyed some home baking. The area has been fenced off and there is little to no deer
damage, during the dry Summer John W and kids watered the seedlings contributing to an excellent 90% survival rate for seedlings. There are gates at either end of the fenced area that will allow a footpath through
the woodland.
Flood barrier practice was held in March where members of the community learned to put the barriers together.
We held a film night in October and watched Interstellar in the Church. Attendance was low, but all those who attended enjoyed the film and the company.
This year’s theme: Get involved
Who is missing out, how do we reach out, and what other events and activities can we offer? We have put together a feedback form and we are keen to hear your views. The link will be circulated by email.
Treasurer’s report (Esther Mcgoldrick)
Proposed: The resilience underspend will be ring-fenced and used only for spending within the terms of the grant.
This was agreed by a quick show of hands.
24-25 Fiscal year
Assets increased by £3,572 over the year, to £8,376 (which includes ring-fenced funds for the Nature Fund, the Oil Collective and the Resilience Group). Most of this increase (£3,511) relates to an underspend on the grants that the Resilience Group successfully applied for.
The festival made a profit of c. £1,800, and a donation of £1,000 was made to Maggie’s.
Community expenses (excluding the Oil Collective) were £818, which covered admin in respect web hosting, insurance and Companies House (£277), Glebe rent (£41) and cost of refreshments for the AGM (£500).
25-26 (so far)
The festival made a profit of c. £2,300, up from £1,800 in 2024. Main differences were higher profit from the barbecue (+£100), the gardening club (+£100) and teas and cakes (+£200), likely related to higher attendance at the festival. Donations of £574.50 have been made to both Cash for Kids and Gaza Infant Nutrition Alliance.
Community expenses broadly in line with previous year so far.
Community Assets
Abernyte News (Ian Campbell)
Now stands at 203 registered members. Ian Campbell edits What’s On Abernyte and sends out the email. Sarah Donaghue is editor for the Facebook posts. Stephen has access to both to provide resilience.
Oil collective (Stephen Hole)
Membership stands at 97, an increase from 91 last year. We welcomed 10 new members, with 4 joining in place of households that have moved away.
Over the past 12 months, the collective purchased 195,000 litres across 262 deliveries, compared with 205,000 litres and 272 deliveries in the same period last year. This reduction, despite having more members,
may reflect better home insulation, warmer weather, or a combination of both.
The annual cost of running the collective remains £100 for the management software. This will be paid by the supplier, who may recover the cost from members on a per‑litre basis. Last year, Johnston Oils kindly covered the fee.
Across the year, June and August offered the lowest prices, while December was the highest, though this pattern varies from year to year.
Based on prices from the eight main local suppliers, the average saving compared with purchasing 1,000 litres individually in PH14 (with a 7–10 day lead time) was 7.3 pence per litre. For a typical household buying
2,500 litres annually, this represents a saving of £182. Collectively, members saved £14,600, and the whole community and planet benefited from fewer tankers on local roads.
Our two‑year supply agreement with Johnston Oils ends in September. Invitations to tender for the next contract will be issued during the summer.
Thank you for your continued support, and particular thanks to Henry for his help in running the group again this year.
Abernyte Archive (Gordon Nicoll)
Break out the streamers and party hats…our village website is 25 years old this year. It is a remarkable achievement to have been an internet presence at what was the dawn of the modern internet and to still be
active and in place providing a gateway to the world and representing Abernyte in the digital age. Many people in the Abernyte community have made this possible through the last 25 years and it is a tribute to us all.
Despite the general move to social media and mobile messaging applications our website continues to thrive as a gateway to our local services and to provide Abernyte specific information. Work in the past year has concentrated on upgrading all of the software which makes the site possible and that work is complete for now to ensure our website is secure for many years to come. The Digital Archive is now 10 years old, and it too is the culmination of the work of many people over the past 25 years in collecting, storing and transcribing the information it contains. We continue to receive many visitors per year, most of whom are seeking information for
family trees. The depth and range of enquiries it receives from around the world never ceases to surprise me.
I am grateful to the Community Interest Company committee for their continuing support and encouragement in keeping the website and Archive running. As always, should anyone wish a feature or information included in the website please contact Gordon on 01828
686677 or email me at
Abernyte School (Sarah Donoghue)
The school role is now a healthy 41 pupils and projected to be at capacity with the next intake in August. This success has brought some issues with parking outside of the school at drop off and pick up times.
This has been flagged and is under discussion with PKC, school parents and the parent council. Anyone with concerns about parking, please let Sarah know.
Community Initiatives
Tree Planting and the Defibrillator (Ron Neville)
Heartstart will do another session if there is enough interest in the community. A show of hands demonstrated that this would be welcome. Ron will organise this event and send details via What’s On.
A tree planting event is scheduled for 10 AM 14th March at Guardswell Farm. Please bring clean spades and home baking. All welcome, and anyone with mobility issues let Digby or Ian know and lift to the planting site will be arranged.
For the past six years the nature fund has offered to supply trees to landowners and carry out planting on their land. So far all landowners have paid for the trees so the fund remains healthy. Wren and Essie’s woods are both growing well and Ron and Trish do have some replacement trees. If you see any trees in trouble let them know, also let them know if you want to help with maintenance of the woods.
Resilience Group
Verge grass cutting was done twice last year, with some extra on corners where visibility is poor. The road brushes were used after the Fibre company installation work. There have been no requests for work from other villages, and no maintenance costs (Angus Gray carried out maintenance). Tree works have met costs of work and paid VAT.
The gritting machine was used to clear the path to the school effectively.
Pothole Reporting
Thank you to everyone who reports potholes resulting in them being fixed quickly. If you see any sick trees or branches on the road let us know via the Abernyte Lookout whatsapp group and we will get them sorted. The council website shows if a pothole has been reported (login to see this).
Litter Picking
Thank you to Danielle Smyth for her regular litter picking on the B953. All agreed it would be good to organise a litter pick and Danielle will take this forward.
Clips for bins are available from PKC and reduce rubbish spilling onto
roads and verges. Mairi will share details and these will be shared on What’s On.
Decision Making and Transparency
There was a request from Jonny Early that all applications made by the CIC directors on grants with a value higher than £5000 should be shared within the community prior to being finalised. The aim is to ensure that
there is community agreement on applications for grants and what those are spent on. It was agreed that all minutes and decisions would continue to be shared to ensure transparency.
Malcolm Mcswan stated that community initiatives happen because people drive them forward, often this is the directors who do so. Directors are elected democratically and anyone interested can stand and contribute.
Welcome Pack
We used to deliver welcome information to new members of the community. Volunteers to take this on would be welcome.
Millennium Walk
Maintenance is required on the Millenium Walk and we’ll arrange suitable dates for work parties. Suggestions for improvements were discussed and these include a composting toilet, a new bench and improvements to paths. Digby Lamotte has offered use of the Guardswell mini-digger to help and we will investigate access to grants from PKC to facilitate improvements. Mary and Ian to take this forward.
Tayside Biodiversity Group
Cathy Caudwell attended the recent meeting in Inchture with other members of the community and reported that there are some excellent resources available, e.g. swift boxes, information spines, etc. that could
be used on the Millenium Walk. Anyone wishing to volunteer to take this on please contact Ian or Mary.
Abernyte Church
Esther Mcgoldrick let us know that the church is available as a community space, please use it. Longforgan has a group developing the church as a community space. We discussed the purchase of the church, which would not be likely unless we can demonstrate a revenue stream. General agreement to use the church for events.
Mary Young Lecture
Please send suggestions to Ian or Mary, date will be publicised.
Community Walk
Neil and Mike will organise this year’s walk.
Abernyte.org
A suggestion was made that we recognise Gordon and the work he does to keep Aberyte.org alive. Please send suggestions to Ian or Mary.
Are we prepared? (Liz Foubister)
Liz Foubister gave a presentation on the government National Emergency Briefing held in November 2025. During this we considered how ready we are to deal with emergencies and what further preparations we can make. A film will be released in May 2026 which we aim to show in the Church.
AOCB
Inchture Community Council meet on 5th March and parking outside the school will be discussed. Agreed that someone would attend to represent Abernyte CIC.
The meeting finished with a pot luck supper with baked potatoes provided by Morag Gray and fillings by attendees.