Abernyte Community Interest Company AGM Minutes for 2024
5th of February 2025, 7pm
The Cart Shed Tea Room, Rait PH2 7RT.
Theme: Focus on Community
Preliminary Agenda
Attendees:
Morag Gray, Neil Gray, Mhairi Hole, Norma Nicoll, Gordon Nicoll, Liz Foubister, Graeme Foubister, Trefor Woodford, Jane Woodford, Julie Early
Jonny Early, Ron Neville, Trish Neville, Henry McSorley, Danielle Smythe (Director), Esther McGoldrick (Director), Gerard McGoldrick, Stephen Hole
Natalie Kirby, Sue Vardy, Mike Pirie Malcolm Mcswan, Juliette Mcswan, John Bowbeer, Norman Alm (Director), Cathy Caudwell, Barry Caudwell (Director)
Ruth Herrington., Ian Duncan, Yve Duncan, Sarah Donaghue, Matt (School PC), Sarah Petrie, Digby Lamotte, Fiona Lamotte, John Shabashow
Andy Corkhill, Ian Campbell (Chair, Director), Mary Shrimpton (Secretary, Director),
Apologies:
Mandy Forbes
Gill Watson
Mark Petrie (Director)
Stuart and Morag Gordon
- Election of Directors
All directors were re-elected.
- Minutes from previous AGM
Minutes from 2023 AGM were approved
- Chair’s report
2024 was another busy year on the theme of “Community Resilience in a Changing Climate”.
We had a Millennium Walk maintenance party in March where members of the community pruned, trimmed and tidied. The community walk in May was attended by around ten members of the community and took in Ballo, Little Ballo and Redmyre.
Abernyte in Bloom was on the theme of “Cascades and Waterfalls” and won by Trish Neville. We’d like to boost the presence of flowers in the village and by the road to help slow down drivers by showing that people live here and take care of their environment. Anyone with any ideas for doing this or who wants to take the lead to please let Ian or Mary know.
Abernyte festival was a great success and raised £914 for Maggies Centre, this was very kindly topped up to £1000 by Morag Gray.
This years theme: A Focus on Community
There are things in the world that we cannot control. Discourse is polarised while we spend more and more time online and less and less time with our friends and family. Where we can make a difference is in our own community and we want this to be a community that meets face to face, is supportive, caring, and resilient.
The activities that we will cover under the Plans and Aspirations item will focus on how we make a difference in our community.
- Treasurer’s report
The Abernyte Community Interest Company (CIC) made a small profit of £40 in the 12 months from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024.
Fundraising by the community covered the CIC costs and community projects and made a substantial donation to Togs for Tots, a local charity.
A community event was held in September 2023, raising over £ 1,200 from various stalls, food and bar. A donation of £680 was made to Togs for Tots.
The community spent £228 on bulbs for community planting. This was paid for by the Nature Fund, which now has a balance of £772 (included in net current assets).
Other community expenses included £71 for webhosting and domain name renewal, £157 for insurance, £21 for the rent of the Glebe and £35 for the hire of the church for the AGM in February 2024 (as a contribution to the heating costs). Note that the Glebe rent was lower than in the previous financial year (£27) because the invoice covered 10 months rather than 12.
Bank interest of £67 was received.
- Community Initiative Updates
- Communications (Ian)
Ian Campbell is now Editor of What’s On Abernyte and sends out the email. Sarah Donaghue is editor for the Facebook posts. Stephen still has access to both to provide resilience.
- Oil collective (Stephen)
Henry McSorley from Abernyte very kindly offered to help me run the group and manage day-to-day orders. As the number of deliveries we offer each year has grown from four to seven, this shared workload is much appreciated.
Our two-year supply agreement with Johnston Oils ended in September 2024. Last summer, an invitation to tender for our business was sent to five local suppliers.
Johnston Oils offered the best price, and based on their locality, the service they have provided, and to ensure continuity for our members, we awarded them the contract for another two years.
Their offer this year is 6ppl over the refinery price, as per the previous contract. In addition, they will fund the cost of our annual Smartsheet software licence, which is now £100 per year.
Summary of the last season:
We lost two members who moved last year and one who switched to an air source heat pump, but we gained three new members, bringing our current total to 91 active members.
The average saving compared with buying 1,000 litres in PH14 with a 7–10 day lead time was 7.2 pence per litre (ppl). For the average buyer (2,500 litres), this represented an annual saving of £180.
Prices have been gradually falling since 2022, from over £1 per litre to around 60p over the past 12 months. (51.0 ppl in 2014)
On average, over the past 12 months, October had the lowest price. However, this is not always the case, as wars, global economic trends, and varying presidential policies tend to have the biggest impact on oil prices.
Thank you for your continuing support and for Henry stepping up to help run our group.
- Defibrillator (Ron)
Thanks goes to John Shabashow for continuing to host the Defibrillator on the side of his house. There will be repeat training held on the use of this in 2026.
- Tree Planting (Ron)
A tree planting event is scheduled for 10 AM 22nd February at South Latch. Everyone is welcome, please bring clean planting implements and snacks for the planters will be very welcome.
Digby Lamotte offered space for tree planting at Guardswell next year. This will be arranged at an appropriate time of year.
- Abernyte Archive (Gordon)
For those who may not be aware, the Digital Archive was conceived in 2016 by former Abernyte resident Alasdair Nicoll to house all the gathered paper based historical documents and images which had been collected over many years by the Abernyte Heritage Group. It was completed with the help of local resident volunteers around 2019 to what we have today.The archive was constructed to be in conformity with the international standards on record keeping and is searchable across the entire range of subject headings from Persons to Places to Gravestones and Baptismal records.
Among other records, it holds 1960 person records, 1149 valuation roll entries, 267 content items, 554 Census records, 637 baptismal records and 213 gravestone records. It provides a well uses resource for the worldwide Scottish diaspora who research their family’s historical links to Abernyte. In 2024 one lady who had searched the Archive successfully, travelled from New Zealand to Abernyte find out more about her Stewart relatives who had farmed at Kirkton Farm. They were astonished to meet Norma, who knew members of that family and we were able fill in many blanks in her search.
The Archive is publicly available, no login required so get searching!
If you know of any other record sets that might sit well in the Archive, please contact Gordon at
- Abernyte Website
AGM update for www.abernyte.org
This update covers the whole of 2024
As in previous years the community website has continued as a popular, small community site.
Although the usage of website has changed from the heady early days of the internet when the Abernyte website launched, it continues to attract a solid number of visitors.
Fun Fact – Abernyte.org first took to the internet on 1st May 2001. It is a big birthday next year, we are almost 25 years old!
Version 1 was hand coded by Alasdair Nicoll aged 16, who is now earning a living in the USA writing much more sophisticated code.
The general move to social media across the internet and mobile messaging applications continues, but our website continues to thrive as a gateway to our local services and to provide Abernyte specific information.
The Digital Archive continues 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, even including a visit in person during 2024 from relatives of the Stewarts who lived at Kirkton Farm, all the way from Australia. They were astonished to meet Norma who knew Kitty Vogelsanger nee Stewart.
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
- Garden Club (Jonny)
Currently has 20 - 30 members. The AGM will be held in March and the members will decide which gardens to visit this year, swap plants, ideas, and plant pots. The visits are to commercial gardens and to members and local gardens. And always finish with tea and cake. The Garden Club stall at Abernyte Festival raised £250, the stall will be present again this year and contributions are always welcomed. All are welcome to join and should get in touch with Jonny if interested.
- Wine Club (Julie)
Barry Klassen, Wine club chairs can’t be here tonight due to work commitment and sends apologies. Wine club is thirty years old, still active, survived the pandemic, original members still come along and the group continues to grow. Due to the growth the school has become too small for many meetings and this year we made the move to Guardswell, a comfortable, less echo-y and more grown up venue. Membership is around sixty, and presentations are given by members, wine dealers and last year we held a trip to Aitken’s in Dundee. If you wish to join the waiting list please get in touch with Sue Vardy.
- Resilience Group (Julie)
The Abernyte Community Resilience Group (ACRG) has been set up as a sub-committee of the Abernyte CIC. This group has set up “The Lookout” What’s App group to be used to warn members of the community about flooding, tree falls, power cuts and other issues impacting them. Details of how to sign up have been shared on tables. The group were successful in their application for a grant of £6.114.80 from SSEN Resilience (via P&KC). This will be used to purchase equipment and storage that will support the community to be resilient in face of changing climate and the impacts on our living environment.
- Plans and Aspirations
- Millennium Walk/Arboretum - 25 Years
The Millennium Walk is 25 this year and we discussed the possibility of creating an arboretum or other changes. An Assessment of the biodiversity was carried out 25 years ago by Barry and Cathy Caudwell and suitable native species sourced and planted. The next working party will shore up paths and repair or replace benches and handrails to ensure that the paths are safe and accessible. We will have work parties in March and a Summer month and will celebrate the anniversary with a BBQ.
The “sweetie den” books are stored by Sue Vardy and it would be interesting to review these and share some of the stories.
- Biodiversity Protection & Development
We’d like someone to volunteer to champion this initiative but had no volunteers at the AGM
- Mary Young Lecture
Ideas were discussed and will be followed up by members of the community:
Home Energy Scotland
Martin Moran Foundation (Neil Gray)
SSE Transmission - resilience, electric distribution network
Living in a PassivHaus
- Community Walk
Neil Gray and Jonny Early volunteered to organise the community walk. They will explore various options including a tie with local history, walks further afield, and will aim for loops that are not too strenuous and have food and shorter options. Will be held in May
- Festival
At the 2024 festival most income came from food stalls, both BBQ and teas, coffees, and bakes. We discussed if we should make any changes to the festival format and it was agreed that we should not.
The charity we will donate to in 2025 is the Doddie Weir Foundation.
- AOCB
Traffic Calming Measures (Mike Petrie)
The Cross Tay Link Road (CTLR) opens on 31st March 2025. We received and update from Daryl McKeown (P&KC) about plans for traffic calming measures that will be implemented in Abernyte mid-March and prior to the CTLR opening. These are:
- Extend the 20mph speed limit at the north of the village
- Install a ramp across the road at the north of the village
- Install a second ramp to the north of the Kinnaird Road to slow down southbound traffic approaching the junction
- At the south of the village, the 20mph speed limit will be moved closer to the village
- Speed ramp installed near the culvert at the south end of the village.
- The 40mph buffer at the south of the village will be reinstated.
- All the direction and warning signs will be upgraded and the virtual footways installed.
These plans were formulated on feedback from villagers across Perth and Kinross.
Traffic surveys will be conducted before and after the installation of the ramps, and repeated after several months, to identify any changes in traffic volumes, vehicle speeds and travel patterns. This information will be used to decide, in consultation with the local community, whether additional speed reduction measures are required. For Abernyte these additional measures include speed cushions. These have been postponed for now due to feedback about the noise they cause for residents.
Letters will be sent to residents affected by this scheduled work.
The possibility of a lay-by for the school bus will be followed up on by Mike Pirie.
Sarah Petrie asked that we follow up on our request for speed cushions because there was no disagreement from Abernyte residents on the need for these. Mike and Ian will reply to Daryl Mckeown to raise this query.
AGM Dates
Do we wish to continue to hold the AGM in February or move to a Summer month. Voted to continue to hold AGM February.
P&KC Minibuses free to local communities
Sarah Donahue and Matt raised where the CIC could support an interest in presenting a suitable case for a minibus for the community. Matt and Sarah will discuss further with CIC to determine feasibility.
Neil Gray proposed community thank Ian Campbell and Mary Shrimpton for their work on CIC initiatives.