Issue 11 October 2011
April 2017
We fight da slokkin o da light Latest news at da NCDC office fae Maree & Cynthia Hello! Cynthia Poleson and myself have been busy working away on NCDC projects and there’s news of some of that in this newsletter. We’ve also been providing support to a few local businesses over the past few months. We’d be grateful if you’d take a peerie bit of time to complete the Hillswick shop survey. You can eitthr fill out the paper version here, or the online survey. Links to the online survey can be found on the NCDC and Hillswick Shop Facebook pages. Most of our time has been taken up with the waste and recycling scheme project. It’s taking longer to get the project up and running than we planned but we’re still ploughing on. Broadband services in Northmavine have also taken up a fair bit of our time. Services still are poor for a lot of folk and we have been working to find ways of improving what has become an essential service for a lot of folk. Progress is slow, but we’ll keep at it. We would encourage folk with an interest in telecoms, to go along to the Digital Forum meeting in the Museum on Saturday 22nd April. We’re very excited to see that the refurbishment of the former weaving shed at Hillswick by new owner, Geoff Jukes, is coming along brilliantly. Geoff is having a celebration to relaunch the building and the new Weaving Shed Gallery. He hopes that the folk of Northamvine will come along on Sunday 28th May to have a skoit and join him at St Magnus Bay Hotel for some maet and music. A lot of you have maybe noticed that we also spend a lot of time near the Hillswick junction! This is where we make the polycrub kits ready for sale. Polycrubs are proving very popular, so it’s been a busy time. Lately we’ve sent kits off to Orkney, the Hebrides, Fort William and Skye, as well as the local market. Our work with the polycrubs means that we don’t have as much time for community projects as we would like but we’re trying to get a better balance. Please remember that NCDC is owned by YOU, so if you have any ideas you’d like to discuss, please get in touch or maybe stop along the Hillsook junction some day! Maree Hay – Community Project Officer, NCDC
Would you like to help make Northmavine a better place to live, work or visit? If so, why not join us as a member of NCDC? It won’t mean that you have to sit through endless meetings or wade through reams of paperwork. It will mean that we can keep you updated on what we’re up to at NCDC and we can show funders that people here want to make Northmavine a better place to live, work or visit. This will help when we try to access funding for projects. Please get in touch if you’d like a membership form.
Phone: 01806 544222 or 07769 530897
Please accept this invitation to the opening of the Weaving Shed Gallery, Hillswick on Sunday 28th May 12pm - Weaving Shed Gallery opening with light refreshments 12:45pm - Jarl Squad procession 1:30pm - Refreshments at St Magnus Bay Hotel and music from 3pm onwards
E-mail: maree@northmavine.com
Facebook: NCDC-Northmavine
Our priorities In the coming year we have identified some priorities. This doesn’t mean we won’t be looking at other things, but emphasis will be placed on these topics: Housing, Recycling and waste, Broadband, Young People and Tourism Do you agree? Should we be looking elsewhere? Let us know. We’ll also be updating our development plan this year, so we’ll be seeking your views in the next few months. Launch of the Weaving Shed Gallery The end of the lambing for most folk will coincide with an event to celebrate the rebirth of a much-loved, derelict building in Hillswick. The folk of Northmavine are invited to the celebrations on Sunday 28th May. Geoff Jukes bought the community-owned former weaving shed, near the Hillswick Shop, last year and engaged Al Whitworth and a team including Jeff Tungatt, and George Magnus Nicolson to renovate the ailing building. Geoff and his partner Jeannette Obstoj had been coming to Northmavine for long holidays for over a decade. The couple loved Shetland; especially Northmavine. Sadly, Jeannette passed away in March 2015 after a short and sudden illness. Jeannette was an extraordinary talent; video-maker, artistic director, poet, painter, graphic artist and lyricist who wrote songs for Tina Turner and Dusty Springfield amongst many others. During her life, Jeannette produced many stunning paintings that expressed her extraordinary imagination, humour and love of animals. Geoff was keen to find a special place to hang Jeannette’s work and her deep love of Shetland, and Northmavine, made it fitting that her works should find a home here. Geoff wants to spend more time in Shetland and have a permanent base in Northmavine. The weaving shed was the ideal place. Living accommodation for Geoff, family and guests has been created on the upper floor of the shed. Downstairs has been transformed into a gallery for Jeanette’s paintings. He is keen for the building to be of value to the community. In addition to Jeannette’s legacy in the gallery, there is also workshop space and accommodation downstairs. He plans to use the workshop and living area downstairs as a space for an artist in residence programme, bringing artists to Northmavine to create. Geoff would like the folk of Northmavine to be closely involved in shaping the residency programme. Geoff would like to invite the folk of Northmavine to come along on Sunday 28th May to celebrate the opening of the Weaving Shed Gallery. The opening will take place at 12 noon with refreshments in the gallery. Northmavine Guizer Jarl, Liam Doull, will lead a procession of his squad members at 12.45pm and the sailing galley might also make an appearance. Everyone is then invited to gather in the St Magnus Bay Hotel for maet, refreshments and an afternoon of music. The line-up will include artists with special connections to Jeannette, as well as visiting and local artists. Local musicians are encouraged to take their instruments along and join in for a tune. Rupert Hine, Jeannette’s writing partner and record producer of many major artists, will perform some of the songs written with Jeannette. Jeannette and Rupert wrote songs for many artists including Tina Turner, The Fixx, Dusty Springfield, Quantum Jump, Wilson Phillips, Thinkman and Rupert’s own albums. Local duo Maggie and Brian will drop in for a tune or two. They play a variety of styles of music from traditional Shetland tunes to American rags, and everything in between. Indie/blues/ folk/rock group, King Eider frontman, Reuben Tighe is also on the bill. Reuben is an excellent singer, songwriter and guitarist from Edinburgh. Isle of Wight band, Stage Fright, will up the tempo with some lively music from the 70s/80s and 90s with some 60s songs in the mix too. Stage Fright will be joined by guest vocalist Chloe Buckley. Chloe, who is Geoff’s granddaughter, will perform songs written by Jeannette and Rupert, recorded by Tina Turner. The event and the refurbished weaving shed will pay a fitting tribute to the musical and creative legacy created by Jeannette. A warm welcome is extended to the folk of Northmavine. Geoff hopes folk will go along to celebrate.
Did you know you can support NCDC when you shop online? Sign up at http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/ncdc and use the link to shop. We’ll get a peerie donation each time you use the link, and it won’t cost you any extra. Your donation is precious to us. Phone: 01806 544222 or 07769 530897
E-mail: maree@northmavine.com
Facebook: NCDC-Northmavine
Recycling project skips forward a bit
The community-led waste and recycling scheme for Northmavine is moving slowly forward. NCDC received planning permission for the site, near the Hillswick junction but a decision has been taken to move the site a few metres to the North, so we’ll need to apply for planning permission again. It will be another two or three months before we know the outcome. The scheme will: Be a community-led and operated social enterprise. Operate from a secure site and have regular opening hours. Encourage less waste and recycle/repurpose and reuse as many items as possible. Operate a membership scheme for regular users. Membership would cost £60 per year unlimited use. Operate a ‘pay per use’ scheme for households that would only want to use the facility occasionally. Collect waste in skips on site, for landfill. Be manned by volunteers, with an aim to create employment. Ensure that only suitable materials (bulky household items) are collected. Collect waste metal in a separate skip. This would be sold to a scrap merchant. When we undertook a community survey, some folk indicated that they would be willing to join a working group to progress the project. We will be in touch with them soon to arrange a meeting. Anyone else that would like to join the group can also get in touch with us.
The survey also gave us a list of folk that would like to volunteer to man the skips once the scheme is up and running. Once we know the outcome of the planning application, we will also be in contact with them to check that they’re still happy to volunteer. We’d also be delighted to hear from any new volunteers or anyone with ideas on how we could repurpose and restore items brought to the skips that are too good to be sent to the dump. Hillswick Shop Feedback Questionnaire With this newsletter, we’ve included a survey asking for your views on the Hillswick shop. Hillswick Shop has been open, and owned by the community, for over seven years now. During that time, folk have supported the shop really well.
Your survey can either be posted back using the envelope, or dropped in the collection box at the shop. There is an online version too, if you prefer to fill it in electronically.
Over the past year, shop directors have noticed a decline in turnover and folk are using the shop a peerie bit differently. Directors want to look at what can be done to turn things around, before the shop faces any serious challenges that might put the service under threat; so they would appreciate your help with the survey.
Whether you choose the paper version or the online survey, please return them by 30th April 2017.
Directors, Directors, Directors NCDC has two trading arms, Hillswick Shop Ltd and nortenergy. The shop does what it says on the tin and nortenergy markets the popular’ polycrub’. Each company has its’ own board of directors to oversee and steer the company; all of which are local residents. At the time of writing, all three companies are looking for a few new directors and we would be blyde to hear from anyone that has an interest in either of the companies, and a bit of spare time to get involved. It might be helpful if we gave a peerie outline of the aims of each company so that folk can decide if its’ something they would be interested in getting involved with? The main aim of NCDC is to regenerate Northmavine to make it a better place to live, work or visit. The ideas for this come from you, the community.
There will be a link on the NCDC Northmavine and Hillswick Shop Facebook pages and we’ll e-mail it to anyone we have e-mail addresses for.
We’ll share the results after the lambing is bye with.
Hillswick Shop is a community-owned shop which aims to provide a grocery store which meets the needs of its’ customers, whilst recognising that the business must remain financially viable. Nortenergy has developed and markets the polycrub – a polytunnel which can stand up to a fair bit of the Shetland weather. Considerable changes have been made to the design since the first polycrub was built and the company is always looking at how the polycrub and the business can be improved. So, if you fancy getting involved with any of the companies, or if you’d like more information, please contact the NCDC office. You’ll also find a list of current company directors in this newsletter and it would be worth having a yarn with any of them to find out more.
NCDC Directors (Early April 2017) Margaret Roberts, John Alex Cromarty, Alistair Williamson, Ann Marie Scollay, Bill Manson, James Titcomb, Stuart Balfour, Bob McGeady. Nortenergy Directors Drew Ratter, Margaret Roberts, Stuart Balfour. Hillswick Shop Directors John Alex Cromarty, Ewan Mowat, Christina Nicolson, Aileen Robertson, Leanne Hamilton, Graham Mullay, James Titcomb, Iain Davidson.
Phone: 01806 544222 or 07769 530897
E-mail: maree@northmavine.com
Facebook: NCDC-Northmavine
Broadband Blues Broadband reliability and speeds continue to be an issue in Northmavine. NCDC has been working with folk who are receiving poor services, in a bid to see some improvements, but progress is very slow. The arrival of the green, roadside cabinets heralds the introduction of fibre broadband and increased speeds for many broadband users, but a large number will be excluded due to their location, and proximity to a green cabinet. Green cabinets in Sullom, Ollaberry and North Roe are still not live despite assurances that this would happen in March 2017. A new issue has recently hit some folk in Sullom, caused by a combination of inaccurate information and overzealous marketing. These customers used an online checker to check the availability of fibre and the information led them to believe that they could receive fibre broadband via a green cabinet. The arrival of marketing information through the letterbox compounded their belief that fibre was now available; so, they signed up. The result was that their somewhat poor broadband speeds were replaced with no service at all. Eventually engineers were dispatched and they quickly found the root of the problem. The households were located too far away from the cabinet for any chance of receiving fibre broadband. To cut a very long story short, more than a month later, some customers were still without any service, despite requesting their old service back. Copper wiring still carries the service from the from the cabinet to the home. If homes are upstream and up to 1km from the cabinet, customers will likely receive superfast speeds. Customers who are up to 2kms away may see an uplift depending on current speeds - but after that distance, service falls away. Internet service providers should be able to confirm if customers can receive the service, but this has not been peoples’ experience. So, it would be advisable for anyone thinking of signing up to fibre broadband to double and triple-check that the information they have been given is accurate. NCDC would like to be able to advise folk where they can go to find reliable information, but we haven't found the answer yet! Perhaps there might be some information at the next Digital Forum? Over the years, Alistair Carmichael MP and Tavish Scott MSP have organised a number of Northern Isles Digital Forum meetings in Shetland. The Digital Forum is an open meeting where folk have a chance to hear presentations covering the ongoing work to improve broadband services and mobile phone coverage in Shetland. The meetings also give people an opportunity to raise questions, comments and concerns about telecommunications issues, with the providers present. The next meeting will take place at the Shetland Museum & Archives Auditorium on Saturday, 22nd April 2017, 11:30am – 1:30pm. This forum will be attended by BT and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Ofcom, and EE. Wir Finances We’d like to continue as a long-term, sustainable part of Northmavine so we always need to look to our future in terms of income generation to become self-sustaining. A small amount of grant funding continues from Highlands and Islands Enterprise to help with our core costs (being staff and office costs). Many of our community projects result in little or no income generation, so in order to continue our work in the community it is necessary to carry our work and services to help finance our future. During the year we have undertaken administration for the community council and provided book-keeping services for local businesses. We also provided some consultancy work for community organisations. Additionally, we have given presentations and compiled a weekly column in the Shetland Times. The column is based on local news and is a great opportunity to highlight developments in Northmavine, so we would encourage folk with local news to get in touch.. The latest accounts (2016) show a group total net surplus in funds of £17,426 has been achieved. The main source of incoming resources is attributable to the results of the two trading subsidiaries, Hillswick Shop Limited and Nortenergy Limited. The trading arm companies are responsible for total income of £605,236 (2015: £558,140). 2016
2015
Total Funds Total Funds INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM: Donations Other trading activities Other income Total income EXPENDITURE ON: Costs of raising funds
18243 624782 3270 646295
12435 575921 3211 591567
560693
533157
Expenditure on charitable activities Total expenditure TOTAL Tax on ordinary activities Net Income/(Expenditure)
64727 625420 20875 3449 17426
56600 589757 1810 179 1631
Phone: 01806 544222 or 07769 530897
E-mail: maree@northmavine.com
Facebook: NCDC-Northmavine