A Meeting With Wigtown Festival Company

Wigtown Festival Company

I had a lovely meeting today with Anne at the Wigtown Festival Company. What a lovely lady.

She was telling me about all the wonderful events in the town from the book festival all the way down to previous garden parties that the town has had. This is obviously a community that likes to come together and enjoy a good time.

We also talked about further a field events, such as the Spring Fling and the Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival that draws tourism in from out of town as well as providing entertainment for the locals, which of course is great for the towns economy.

I also mentioned to Anne about a little event that I'd like to arrange and she offered me some great advice and encouragement. So over the next few weeks I shall be trying to arrange a little picnic in the gardens as a VE day celebration on Friday the 8th of May 2020.

Fingers crossed that the sunshine will be smiling down on us!

The Old Town Hall, Clock Tower and Tolbooth of Whithorn

The Old Town Hall, Clock Tower & Tolbooth Whithorn

Last night amidst the start of storm Ciara, I went to spend a couple of hours inside the Old Town Hall, Clock Tower and Tolbooth of Whithorn. What a wonderful old building, built in the 1700's and is tucked and hidden away behind its modern facade of shop fronts.

In the photo to the right, the white arched door is the entrance to the old town hall and stairs take you to rooms up above the shops. The photo also shows the white glow of the clock face above.

The evening event was to raise some much needed funds for the ongoing project. They were holding a sponsored sleepover and the Whitehorn Paranormal Investigators were on site setting up equipment in the goal cells.

The Old Town Hall, Clock Tower and Tolbooth was bought back in November 2019, so it's not had new ownership for long and they are very keen to transform it into a museum and art gallery. The previous owner had changed the original use of some of the rooms and the new owners want to put them back to their original use and remove all the present day fixtures and fittings.

The Great Hall

On the stairs the previous owner has added a ceiling and removed access stairs to the clock tower. Again the new owners would like to return the stairs and allow people to go up the tower where they hope to show off artwork and host exhibitions.

Sadly the original clock mechanism and bell are no longer in situ, and they did mention that 2020 might be a good year to get a new bell cast for the tower.

What was really nice to see was the enthusiasm for restoration of this old building and for the local history tied up in it. They told us stories of people who still have living connections with the old place; a man has contacted them to say that his father used to have the responsibility of winding the clock.

What would be good is that if the building is restored and becomes a museum, it will be another tourist draw into the town to sit alongside the story of Whithorn. 

For more information about the The Old Town Hall, Clock Tower and Tolbooth of Whithorn visit Whithorn Heritage.

Draft Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy

Offshore Wind Energy for SW1?

I went along to the meeting last night about the Draft Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy. You can read the Offshore wind energy: draft sectoral marine plan for yourself here. The Plan aims to identify the most sustainable plan options for the future development of commercial-scale offshore wind energy in Scotland.

At this stage Marine Scotland are looking at potential sites that may be good to places to lease the seabed to wind farm developers.

Apparently 7 years ago they looked at SW1 and area of sea that would affect our neck of the woods (or waves) and the overwhelming response from the residents was that they didn't want offshore wind turbines in SW1. (SW1 is South West 1 - the kite shaped area just off the Mull of Galloway)

Map of Proposed Offshore Wind Energy Sites

There were about 30 local folk at the meeting and I had gone along to the meeting thinking it might be a good idea; afterall we do need green energy.

However, after closely following the presentation and following debate it turns out that turbines in SW1 is the site, of all the proposed sites, that would suffer the most social and economical impact.

Some fishermen that were there were explaining that even though the turbine companies say that you can fish near the turbines, in reality they couldn't because they would be sued for any accidental damage their boats in strong winds and tidal waters might cause to the turbines. They were saying it just wasn't worth the risk to fish near them and that that site would therefore close down fishing on commercial and a recreational bases.

It also looks as though the turbines (which would be much bigger than the one on the way to Glenluce) would be just off the Mull of Galloway, just in front of the lighthouse. Of course the lighthouse and the marine life and sea birds are a hotspot for tourism. Turbines would affect the area and the tourism that it brings in.

Another interesting point was raised that jobs that were brought to the area in the building of the turbines would not got to locals and the locals would not benefit from cheaper energy. Likewise the companies who would build the farms might lead to any profits going offshore and not stay in the country.

Therefore SW1 would suffer the greatest impact from the building of the offshore wind farm and would feel no benefit from it either.

Whilst I am pro-greener energy, it can't happen at the cost of the local environment and the local people.

There was one potential saving grace and that is that the proposed site is in an already established shipping lane from Ireland to Liverpool (I think it was Liverpool - it was certainly that kind of way). If the shipping lane can't be changed, maybe this will help to hinder and deter developers.

What Happens Now?

Well, Marine Scotland (a Government body) are still at the planning stage and finding potential sites. Developers are not involved in any way at this stage. As part of Marine Scotland's report, they have to gather together information from local residents which will be put to ministers. As I said, there were only about 30 of us at the meeting, and 30 opinions isn't very many, so it would be amazing if we could get more people to record their views as well. You can do this really easily online, by email, by post or by phone.

Send Your Thoughts to Marine Scotland

The closing date is 25 Mar 2020.

Call the Sectoral Marine Planning Team 01312446484

Send your email to sectoralmarineplanning@gov.scot

Or fill out the 7 page questionaire online here https://consult.gov.scot/marine-scotland/draft-sectoral-marine-plan-for-offshore-wind/consultation/subpage.2016-07-07.1474135251/

Apparently you can fill out as much or as little as you like - so if you only answer question 1 - your report will still go through and be valid.

Have your Say! Send your opinions before the closing date.

Raising Money for SAMH

The quizzes and word searches to raise money for SAMH are available from Newton Stewart Co-op today!

SAMH Fundraising 

A Meeting with Arts Inc. Community Interest Company

Cafe Rendezvous for a Meeting With 
Arts Inc. Community Interest Company

I met up with James Galloway at Wigtown in Cafe Rendezvous to discuss Arts Inc. Community Interest Company. This is a super exciting project where primary children and elderly dementia suffers come together to produce stunning modernist art work, of local places of interest to create a fabulous board game of the town. They have already created a Wigtown board game and are currently working on a Whithorn edition and hope to also move on to make board games of of other royal towns in the Wigtownshire area.

The project is not only fantastic in that it is enriching the lives of the people working on the project, but its also very educational for the children bringing in core curriculum subjects like history, geography, art and maths.

What the Arts Inc. Community Interest Company aims to do is to bring the board games to market and also teach the children business skills. They have created a salable product but to get the game manufactured in volume they need funding, and here is where it all becomes a numbers game and a catch 22 situation.

The project have been applying for grants and funds from local organisations and are waiting to hear back from these applications. Today we talked about the possibility of local business sponsorship and Crowdfunding as well as websites that sell downloadable products worldwide.

We did talk about the the Local Co-op Community Funds. The Newton Stewart and Wigtown Co-ops work together on this and three charities from the local area are selected and the Co-op raises money for them for a whole year through their members card scheme. This year it’s the Galloway Fisheries, the Traditional Music Festival and Wigtown Bowling Club.

What Arts Inc. Community Interest Company is trying to achieve is a brilliant - wonderful for the towns and marvelous for the people involved in making the art work and talking about the towns rich past. It's such a shame that this wonderful projects lacks funding when its oozing with so much enthusiasm.

SAMH Wordsearch

SAMH Wordsearch

SAMH is the Scottish Association for Mental Health and between the 6 and 14 February 2020, the Newton Stewart Co-op will be running activities to raise money for SAMH.

As part of this fabulous enterprise I have created a little wordsearch competition. The wordsearch has 31 words to find but on 30 of the words appear in the wordsearch. So each entry needs to highlight which is the word that doesn't appear.

What I love about wordsearches is that anyone can do them, you don't need to have a degree or be super brainy, you just need to look and spot words. You don't even need to be able to spell because the words to find are written down for you. It means everyone is on a level playing field.

My family have struggled with mental health issues in the past and still up to present day. It's something that is close to my heart because I know how difficult it is for families to cope with this kind of hidden illness.

I hope our efforts and donations to SAMH make a difference to people in Scotland who are living and struggling with mental ill-health.

If you would like to enter the competition please pick up a wordsearch from the Newton Stewart Co-op and leave them your donation. This wordsearch is just an appetizer.

Newton Stewart Youth Club Meeting

Newton Stewart Youth Club

Tonight I had a meeting with the ladies that run the Newton Stewart Youth Club, it's on a Monday evening at 6:30pm for younger kids in the Newton Stewart Initiative building behind the Penninghame Church hall. It's a later start for older members.

I had a chat with the organisers about the possibility of getting the 13 to 16 year olds some work experience with local charities in the area, doing voluntary work.

Young people always need something to do to stimulate their minds and we thought that voluntary work might open their minds, broaden their horizons and give them some great work experience to write on their job applications in the near future.

Of yourse the charities and organisations win too, they gain an extra pair of helping hands, as well as another person to spread the word about what they do.

Everyone's a winner!

The Newton Stewart Youth Club organisers are going to have a chat with the young people about it tonight and see what they think. I really hope they see the positives and are willing to give it a go. Then every time I talk to a charity, I will ask them about the possibility of a placement of work experience for a young person.

Hopefully we can engage with the Newton Stewart Youth Club and the Creetown Youth Club, and connect them with worthwhile work experience.