Iona Community Council
Draft minutes of the quarterly meeting held in Iona Village Hall on 5th June 2025
Present - 4 x CC plus 25 members of the public
Apologies - Shiona, Ruhemann, Toben Lewis, Jane Kindlen, Rhona Hastings
Welcome and minutes of March meeting agreed
AGM reports
Overview of ICC and activity over last year - Jane Martin
Finance to April independently checked. Administer ads on board and assisted with grant from Waterfall Fund. Little activity and available - contact Katy Russon.
Iona Housing Partnership from Jann Simpson
Partnership has ticked over but is rising to current housing crisis.
AGM in May appointed new directors and looking for members - forms available and return to Jann or submit by email.
IHP is working with MICT, SWMID, ICC Argyll & Bute Council and Iona Community regarding the Macleod Centre opportunity. This is transformative for the local community but sad for IC but good result to come out - Jann and Katy for more information. All help or support welcome. Membership drive important to have strong local membership and balloted for activity. Register for new list. Resident on Iona and registered to vote for two years is criteria but could expand for repeat staff for example.
Thanks to new directors and to those with a previous role.
Iona Village Hall Community Trust
The village hall has been busy and will be busy over the next few months.
We all enjoyed the afternoon of the Royal Visit in late April - thanks to everyone who helped organising the event and took part in the gathering in the hall.
Community Survey - the survey closed at the end of April. We received a good amount of replies and are looking forward to processing the information with Community Enterprise. There will also be a community engagement event in July to which all island folk will be invited. The exact date will be advertised nearer the time.
Solar panels - Gordon Bruce has, on behalf of the committee, been looking into getting solar panels for the hall. The installation would benefit us immensely, with energy costs still rising. We hope to apply for funding towards the end of this year.
Heating - we had a heating engineer looking at the heat pumps which seemed to be malfunctioning a lot during winter and early spring. The system seems to be working fine now.
Events coming up:
18th June - public meeting for Machair offshore wind farm
5th July - ceilidh
19th and 20th July - Sound of Iona Music Festival
8th August - golf disco
23rd August - Rachel and Holli - Scottish trad music
3rd September - Mendelssohn on Mull
13th September - SALT - a play
Iona Renewables
Iona Energy has completed an overhaul and updating of the project model, including heat loads, current heat usage and capital costs. This was a major ‘bottom up’ exercise, based on renewing detailed building-by-building surveys and data. Thank you very much to everyone who helped in providing the data. We’re also very grateful to Natural Power and the potential lead contractor for their generosity with time and their hard work.
We worked with tight funding, which did not include Scottish Government support as they were reviewing their assessment and position on the project. During March, IEL had to respond to more questions from Scottish Government, some of which required Natural Power’s input as this is an innovative, highly technical project; as we’re not using any more IEL reserves currently, this work had to be funded by the IEL team transferring resources from paying for their time to paying for Natural Power’s time instead - ie IEL project personnel effectively had to fund personally the third party work to respond to Scottish Government’s latest questions.
This experience reinforces our concern, expressed explicitly to the Minister for Climate Action and as updated at the last ICC meeting, that the outcome of Scottish Government’s review of the project "will be self-referencing, ‘meta' conclusions, that don’t meaningfully get beyond whether Scottish Government followed its own “appropriate processes” – whilst not learning lessons or adapting processes to the reality of Scotland’s communities”, particularly remote island communities. Governments need to support and resource community projects, particularly when making demands on them, not continually year after year use up their resources.
In summary, we’ve done some very valuable work with support of everyone involved in the project, and we’re waiting to hear from Scottish Government and to see the collaborative approach they committed to in February.
Iona Broadband Committee
R100 Full Fibre Network
In early March, Openreach resolved the quality issues which were preventing two groups of properties from accessing the full fibre network There are approximately 140 registered addresses on the island and all are now able to access the network.
Broadband Upgrade Orders
The majority of households have now successfully upgraded their broadband and telephone services from copper to full fibre.
For some, the process was relatively straightforward but for all those who were with BT Broadband and wanted to upgrade to BT full fibre there was and still is an issue which causes those orders to fail and be cancelled repeatedly. This issue affects both BT residential and BT business upgrade orders.
We identified and raised this issue with BT in mid February. BT organised a process with us to work around the issue. Since then we have been co-ordinating the affected orders and working with BT and BT Business to get those orders placed onto their systems correctly and monitoring them through to completion.
As of today, a total of 46 households and businesses on Iona affected by this issue have had their upgrade orders placed successfully through this process and another 8 households on the Ross of Mull.
Without Gordon McCormick, rollout would not have moved forward. Thanks!
Question asked abut temporary phone number - Finlay MacDonald said to phone BT and ask to move back.
Katy Russon still to be sorted - good luck.
Mull and Iona Ferry Committee and Sound of Iona Harbours
No new news for ferry. Isle of Mull in dock for passenger evacuation system - 3 to 4 weeks at full capacity. Caledonian Isles to come back into service next week. This will free up other boats, Frisa and Isle of Mull for the rest of the season - great to have vehicle and passenger capacity increased. Still book as foot passenger.
CMAL ongoing with Committee. Independent enquiry in to procurement process underway and to be presented end July.
CMAL apologetic around Bull Hole light issue but no apology made to ICC yet. The temporary solution of a floating light is to become long term but is not suitable and the crew wish fixed light back. Important for winter. CMAL claim installation and maintenance is difficult. Lasted well but not well built. Limited life of Bull Hole for CalMac is a possible reason.
Breakwater - new ferry will come but not until breakwater in place.
No movement on work due to licence reissued for seagrass. Revised mitigation and monitoring plan submitted 17 March to Nature Scotland but not moved forward. Elsa Simoes, lead engineer, said today that the final version of the plan is to be accepted within 2 weeks. The rock is ready at Glensanda. Delay meant south side of pier clearance has moved on and is already easier to use. This is very positive as work was uncertain.
Jetty progressing and was in a worse condition than thought, steel rods going in and pouring to commence. To graduate at end, will be same level as pier.
Question - any word on seas trials of Islay ferry? Late August to be in service. CMAL need to accept then CalMac induct crew. Different so will take time to get familiarity.
Question - Still 72 hour window? On Frisa but not Coruisk as Coruisk wasn’t meant to be here. 10% or 3 vehicles so gives good opportunity. Still a pilot scheme but has already been adopted in some other islands. Coll and Tiree not worked as well as fewer ferries, finding visitors know about it. Coll and Tiree have asked if can distinguish between residents and not (and possibly price difference). Debate on who is defined, probably regular users like tradespeople and delivery companies.
Question - how is it being evaluated? Ferry Committee has survey. CalMac can track too via accounts. Generally positive but Coruisk not included is an issue. Tourists plan in advance so weighted to residents.
Question - has all the rock taken out from south side or more? Ferry crew has highlighted an other area further out. Finlay suggested speak to Foyle staff. Close to pier needed extra permission, other area is within their work area.
Thanks to Finlay and Ferry Committee.
National Trust for Scotland - no representation.
End June for landing on Staffa (from Finlay)
Iona Community - nothing to raise
South West Mull and Iona Development - Ailidh Lennon
Joined IHP as SWMID rep. Any questions to Ailidh.
Nothing relevant to Iona.
Mull and Iona Community Trust - Sarah Akehurst
Not much relevant to Iona. Meeting Monday.
Future of ranger service was in question but supported by the Royal Foundation and secured for at least a year. Succession planning for board underway and involved in the MacLeod Centre and housing project.
Update
University of Stirling research project exploring the social values associated with the islands of Iona, Staffa, and the Treshnish Isles – that is how they contribute to people’s sense of identity, belonging, and place.
AOB
Septic tank - letter of support to be issued.
ICC contacted by Mull CC asking for support with Scottish Water around issues getting septic tanks emptied. Katy Russon speaking with John Maughan from Mull CC. Change of rules around emptying of tankers and staffing. Impacts time for emptying as need to get to pace. Quote of £2.5k for one person’s tank. Any experience of difficulty or cost? Let ICC know as evidence. Jann suggested speaking to Cara. May be an issue over winter. Other names given to Care as STS could not come back. Scottish Water has replied to MCC saying no resource to staff place longer hours. Suggesting contractors should have storage to wait until place is staffed. STS based in Lochgilphead so not an issue on mainland for them. SW need external contractors to be there when SW staff are present. SW seem to be less available to pick up so pushing customers to private contractors.
West Highland Chamber of Commerce - some Mull Accommodation Providers have engaged with WHCC and will be inviting Iona businesses to join with their efforts.
Ceilidh on 5th July - posters and Facebook info soon. Bar and food. In aid of parent council.
Date of next meeting – Wednesday 3rd September