Issue 54

Arran’s MSP Kenneth Gibson writes:

A new group has been established to find ways of making it easier and more affordable for people in rural and island Scotland to heat their homes. The new Scottish Rural Fuel Poverty Task Force, which had its inaugural meeting on 20 August, will explore the issues facing people in fuel poverty and prepare a report on its findings over the next year.

Housing Minister Margaret Burgess made the announcement in Orkney where she met the council to discuss the Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland: Area Based Schemes (HEEPS: ABS). Mrs Burgess said:

“People in rural and island communities often struggle to heat their homes because their properties tend to be more exposed to wind and weather and are more expensive to heat as the majority are not connected to mains gas supplies. It is unacceptable for people to face these fuel poverty challenges just because of where they live.

“Our new Scottish Rural Fuel Poverty Task Force will identify solutions specifically tailored to help people in rural and island communities reduce their fuel costs and keep their homes warm.

“We are committed to making sure everyone has access to an affordable warm home, and are investing heavily in energy efficiency schemes. Our £65 million for HEEPS: ABS is directed to those most in need of assistance.

“People will benefit from energy efficiency measures such as cavity wall and loft insulation while the Home Energy Scotland hotline continues to offer free and impartial advice on how people can reduce their energy costs. By ensuring that islanders and people in more rural parts of Scotland have the same opportunities to make their homes warmer, cheaper and easier to heat we are taking a further step in tackling inequalities.”

The new group chair is Di Alexander, former Rural and Islands Housing Associations Forum chair who will build on the SNP Government's on-going work. Ms Alexander added:

“Affordable warmth is a problem for too many rural and island households, especially in doubly disadvantaged off-gas areas. The job of the Task Force is to develop practical, deliverable solutions and I'm delighted we have so much problem-solving experience to draw upon.”

Arran’s MSP Kenneth Gibson goes on to say:

“As with so many island communities tackling fuel poverty on Arran is crucial as we will soon head into another winter.

“We must avoid one-size-fits-all solutions and I’m delighted that the SNP Government has demonstrated its willingness to build flexibility into the HEEPS: ABS scheme so that it better meets the specific needs of Arran and its communities.”

More information on energy efficiency is available at Home Energy Scotland website or by calling the free telephone number 0808 808 2282.

Patricia Gibson MP for North Ayrshire & Arran writes:

In my last contribution to Voice for Arran, I made clear my views on the Chancellor’s introduction of his so-called ‘living wage’.

The move was clearly a political sleight-of-hand and allowed George Osborne to claim he was on the side of low paid workers, whilst in fact punishing them through his assault on Tax Credits and a host of other working age benefits. Also galling was the fact that the Chancellor set his ‘living wage’ 65p lower than the actual Living Wage was his hi-jacking of the terminology.

The notion of ‘a fair days pay for a fair day’s work’ is not alien to any of us. We tip waiters and taxi drivers because we recognise good service and like to give a little extra in recognition. We expect to live in a society where people are rewarded for doing something well and we, rightly, demand that we are reasonably remunerated for tendering our services to an employer.

Sadly, a minority of employers who can afford to remunerate their employees more pay them only the legal minimum. This is short sighted and not good business sense. Whilst some will argue that high wages drives job creators away and reduces profit and productivity, this could not be further from the truth. Indeed, the business case for higher wages has been made many times.

Raising wages reduces costly employee turnover and increases productivity, due to increased staff morale, eliminating any fall in competitiveness that would otherwise transpire. Importantly, extra money in the pockets of workers means more money to purchase the goods and services employers are selling.

In order to make this case and to encourage employers to reap the rewards of fair pay, the SNP government launched the Scottish Business Pledge. Launched in May, the Pledge is a partnership between Government and business which works to boost productivity, enshrine fairness and generate inclusive growth across the private sector and beyond.

Pledge companies commit to paying their staff the Living Wage – the hourly rate of pay which is set independently by the Living Wage Foundation (£7.85) – as well as a further eight elements, ranging from prompt payment to senior management diversity.

I am pleased to say that 700 businesses as well as the SNP Government have signed up to the pledge and I am confident a great many more will do so in the near future. Arran businesses can sign up at: www.scottishbusinesspledge.scot/

George Osborne’s hi-jacking of a Living Wage which has genuine meaning is reckless and unhelpful. However, the decision by the SNP Government to promote employment fairness and to make the hard-headed business case for higher wages should be welcomed in helping to deliver a fairer and more equal Scotland.

The gardens on Holy Isle are an inspiration for many of us on Arran, and there is now an opportunity to help maintain and develop them further. The Holy Isle team writes this for the Voice:

The biodynamic/organic kitchen garden on Holy Isle has grown, and we are looking for

• Two full time experienced biodynamic/organic/ permaculture gardeners, and
• An enthusiastic pool of short term volunteers to support the garden team

We hope that this will lead to longer term volunteering with the Holy Isle Project as part of the garden team.

Our gardens provide organic food for our community and the Centre for World Peace and Health at the North End of Holy Isle, all year around. We grow vegetables, herbs and fruits as well as provide a garden for wildlife and a peaceful space for our guests. We would welcome volunteers from Arran to join our project for short or longer periods and would hope to facilitate opportunities to suit different needs.

To apply, please email: volunteering@holyisle.org. For more info please visit: www.holyisle.org

The next film at Corrie and Sannox Village Hall on Sunday September 12th at 8pm will be Ilo Ilo, held over from last month.

Set in Singapore during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Ilo Ilo chronicles the day-to-day drama of the Lim family - troublesome grade-schooler Jiale and his overstressed parents, Heck and Leng. Comfortably middleclass and with another baby on the way, they hire Teresa, a Filipino immigrant, as a live-in maid and nanny. An outsider in both the family and Singapore itself, Teresa initially struggles to manage Jiale’s antics and find her footing in her new community. The two eventually form a unique bond, but just as Teresa becomes an unspoken part of the family, unforeseen circumstances in an uncertain economy will challenge the new normal yet again.

According to film site Rotten Tomatoes, Ilo Ilo is quietly compassionate and rich in detail, and a strikingly mature debut from writer-director Anthony Chen.

Do come along to Corrie and Sannox Village Hall on Sunday September 12th at 8pm to see it – all are welcome.

Kirsty Crawford, daughter of Fiona Henderson (Crawford) and the late Robin Crawford, has been appointed by the British Council to work with the library service in New Dehli. She is keeping a blog and with her permission we will be printing some of her entries.

As most people on Arran will already be aware the South Arran Marine Protected Area was designated in July 2014 following COAST’s MPA proposal submitted in May 2012. The proposal took many months to prepare and had support from SNH and Marine Scotland, as well as many other organisations and individuals. However, most importantly, the MPA is very unlikely to have been proposed or designated had it not been for the enthusiasm and dedication of the people of Arran. The South Arran Marine Protected Area is a truly community-lead project, for which we should all be justifiably proud.

There is still much to be done. Since designation we have been campaigning hard, with the continued support of many people here and further afield to ensure that effective management is put in place for the Arran MPA and Scottish MPA network. The Scottish Government’s recently published Marine Conservation Order, which will bring in legally binding management for the whole of the South Arran MPA, while not perfect, is an improvement on previous proposals and will prohibit scallop dredging within the entire MPA. It will still allow trawling in three outer areas of the MPA, however, something COAST is opposed to. COAST has made representations to the Scottish Government giving our support for the measures in so far as they go, but stressing we will continue to campaign for a complete exclusion of all bottom active gear within the MPA. Creeling (except for in four defined areas of maerl and seagrass), sea angling and scallop diving will all continue within the MPA outside the No Take Zone, as will yachting, kayaking and other marine leisure activities. COAST believes the MPA has the potential to deliver real environmental benefits, as well as social and economic benefits to Arran and the wider Clyde.

The battle is not yet won. Richard Lochhead the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment is currently under a lot of pressure from some members of the mobile fishing sector to water down his proposals. Some very emotive and misleading language is being used to scaremonger communities. The proposals are actually pretty modest and will impact less than 2% of mobile and dredger gross income (assuming they do make this up by simply fishing elsewhere, which of course they can and will do). In fact, Scotland’s MPAs will only go a little way towards recovering our badly damaged inshore fish spawning grounds and sea bed nurseries which are so vital to fish stocks. It is important, then, that we support the broad sweep of the measures and make sure our elected representatives know we are holding them to account. Please write to your MSPs and our MP. The south Arran MPA and wider MPA network is an opportunity that we need to grasp and cherish. Like the existing No Take Zone it has the power to show things can be done differently and in ways that benefit all stakeholders and future generations.

Andrew Telford is leaving Arran and COAST to go travelling at the end of the month. He is heading for the Far East, across land! Andrew has done a fantastic job over the last two years delivering COAST’s schools outreach programme, summer events, in-house IT, accounting and general admin functions. It has been a very busy couple of years during which COAST marked 5 years of the No Take Zone in 2013 and the designation of the South Arran Marine Protected Area in July 2014. Andy has been an enthusiastic and vital member of the COAST team and we would like to wish him eventful but safe travels. We will miss him and look forward to his posts from far flung places.

On the up side, we are delighted to announce that Manuela de los Rios will be our new Communications and Administration Officer. She started with us this week. Manuela grew up in the UK and Spain and has moved to Arran with her partner and three primary-aged children from sun-baked Cadiz (and, yes, they do know about the unpredictable weather!). She has MScs in coastal zone management and environmental education and has previously worked for CoastNet as their Communications Coordinator and with the University of Cadiz, as a guest lecturer and coastal officer.  She has also set up and run a number of community-based initiatives and will play a crucial role in delivering the potential of the South Arran Marine Protected Area for the community on Arran. COAST would like to thank everyone who has suggested or offered accommodation options to Manuela and her family as well as everyone who has helped to get her three children enrolled at school at very short notice.

We are also very pleased to announce that Sheridan Waldon will be providing bookkeeping services to COAST. Sheridan has previously worked for Arran Homes and the Citizen’s Advice Bureau and will be a real asset to the extended COAST team.

Finally, Jenny Stark will be with us from mid-October until Christmas as a short term volunteer. Jenny is just completing an MSc at York University and has been conducting baseline Seasearch dive surveys with COAST’s Chair Howard Wood this summer.

The website Save Scottish Seas recently reviewed the fishing situation in our inshore waters. This is what they found.

Something important is happening. For the first time in years, we are having an increasingly open debate about how we fish our inshore waters. These issues are usually confined to the clipped minutes of a regional fisheries meeting, quayside chat between skippers, or the dry consultation correspondence on proposed technical regulations. Over the years there has been very little media coverage of one of the most significant ongoing problems: how do we best manage our inshore waters, which have suffered from decades of lack of management, resulting in declining species and habitats and which are now experiencing intensive fishing competition.

But recently, a programme aired on prime time TV – a documentary called ‘Prawn Wars’ as part of BBC Scotland’s Landward series. It was followed by a live debate on Scotland 2015, BBC Scotland’s flagship current affairs slot.

It was a watershed moment. It focussed on the very real and pressing issues which face fishermen: where to shoot their gear, whether to invest in new more powerful boats, views on historical catch levels; overlapping fishing grounds; declining stocks and how the different sectors within the industry perceive both the past and the future prospects for fishing.

For newbies to the debate, the programme explained that inshore fishing in Scotland (the area out to 12 nautical miles) is now mainly about catching two species: prawns and scallops. And we use different methods to do this: dredging (for scallops), bottom-trawling (for prawns), creeling (for prawns and crabs and other crustaceans), and diving (mainly for the growing premium hand-dived scallop market). Creeling is by far the most common method – over 70% of all inshore fishermen in Scotland are creel fishermen.

These methods are in competition where they overlap and yet in the absence of clear spatial regulation, fishermen are to an extent left to sort it out for themselves.

From an environmental perspective the programme was a bit light on the detailed ecological impacts our inshore area has experienced in recent decades, but the varying effects of the different catch methods was sensitively explored. One interviewee offered a pretty mournful reminder of the former plenitude of the inshore area – when prawns (our now beloved langoustines) were the size of lobsters and there was a vibrant, mixed fishery, which employed significantly more boats than currently operate on the West coast.

Despite the title (‘Prawn Wars’) there was no actual fighting in the storyline, but it did allude to an emerging ‘regulatory’ battleground. During the programme, a creel fishermen, described the case for the re-instatement of a ban on ‘bottom-towed mobile’ fishing within three nautical miles of the shore. This regulation known as the three mile limit was, as the programme stated, repealed during the years in 1984. This allowed trawlers to start fishing closer up to the shore. There is significant and ongoing debate about the effect of this on other fishing sectors and on Scotland’s sensitive marine species, habitats and ecosystems.

Our campaign’s members, like most people, are not keen on public spats, but we are interested in spat, specifically scallop spat, which is one of the key stages in the life cycle of a Pectus maximus. Scallop spat is the larvae of one of Scotland’s finest fruits of the seas – the King scallop. Individual scallops can live up to around 20 years of age and spawn at least once during the summer months, when each juvenile and mature scallop can generally produce several million ‘ooecytes’. This cloud of scallop ‘spat’ can drift as far as 10km before settling on the seabed. The success of this spawning process requires the right ‘habitat’: areas of the seabed with the biogenic complexity that provide as much three-dimensional structure as possible for scallop spat to stick to and mature, undisturbed, from a tiny scallop into the creature whose larger shells we often see washed up on the shore. A healthy seabed habitat is therefore a crucial part of the scallop life-history.

We think it is essential that fisheries management of the inshore starts to more fully integrate ecosystem-thinking by protecting – and recovering – the kind of habitats upon which a healthy scallop fishery depends. The inshore MPAs – whilst not designed for managing fish stocks – may help in this regard. But management in MPAs will likely affect only 10% of Scotland’s inshore waters. There are many areas outwith MPAs where protection for nursery habitats could be considered. In short MPAs are just one part of this broader debate.

The recent review of the King scallop fishery was a small step forward, but the wider debate around the management of the inshore highlighted in Landward indicates that a broader debate around spatial management of the inshore is now emerging.

I’ve taken on the role of Development Manager for SAYFC (Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs) and recently attended an NFU Scotland Stockjudging, Tup Viewing and Family BBQ on Arran.

The event was on Saturday 22nd August at Springfield Farm by kind permission of the McAllister family and saw a great turn out of young and old! The proceeds from the day have been donated to support the set up of an Arran Young Farmers Club.

The keen individuals hoping to set up a club very shortly are meeting Friday 28th August to discuss plans.

Please visit www.sayfc.org to find out more about our association or if you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me at jenny@sayfc.org or on 07760401855 (National Office number 0131 333 2445).

Becoming Animal, An Earthly Cosmology by David Abram (Pantheon Books, 2010). This is a deeply impressive and powerful book, but also a difficult one to describe. The Voice can do no better than quote Rex Weyler of Greenpeace, wrote this about Becoming Animal:

Ecologists today must ask a difficult question: Are we succeeding? Is the human enterprise changing quickly enough? We glimpse forests ticking away, deserts growing, and temperature rising. We know a great deal of numbers. But we also feel the impact in our gut as we witness another great tree fall or another species blink out of existence.

Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring, launching the modern environmental movement, almost 50 years ago. Today, the world has many more ecologists, environmental groups, lobbyists, green trade shows and ‘earth-friendly’’ products. We have more Environment Ministers, laws and university courses. However, are we more sustainable today than we were in 1962? No, we are less sustainable. After 20 years of the Kyoto climate protocol process – science, politics, meetings and agreements – do we have less global warming? No, we have more global warming. Why? What else must we do?

Ecologist David Abram helps examine these questions in one of the most compelling and important ecology books in decades: Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology. Through encounters with wild creatures and terrains, Abram reminds us that we do not stand outside nature as independent observers, but rather fully within, embedded in a dynamic, living world. We exist only in relationship to this world. Our species, however technologically complex, co-evolved with every living thing around us. These may appear as philosophical ideas, but they are not trivial ones. These ideas prove critical to the actions we take and the success we achieve.

In Becoming Animal, Abram takes us deeper into our ‘embeddedness’ with the wild, evolving world. He suggests we will not develop those ‘true’ relationships with nature through political strategy, policy initiatives, or technological breakthroughs until we first ’apprentice’ ourselves to nature. He encourages us to spend less time in front of our computer screens talking about nature and more time being in a dialogue with nature.

Abram examines our ideas through our actions and, specifically, our encounters with the landscape and the creatures with whom we share those landscapes. His insights spring from a naturalist’s experience in the wild, through encounters with moose, spiders, forests, shamans and even the contours of his own home.

There are several important lessons here. First of all, we cannot observe nature without disturbing it. We need to understand this deeply. All of our technical ‘solutions’ to ecological challenges include further disturbances to the natural world. Most human ‘problems’ are artefacts of previous ‘solutions’.

Secondly, that world occasionally resists, fights back or seeks its own balance. We’re not in control of nature, as Rachel Carson reminded us. Nature has its own rules and rhythms. There is no ‘End of Nature’ no matter what we do. Nature is far more resilient in its diversity and native intelligence than humanity and our technologies.

Finally, this is a story about language and communication. Humans often presume that we are the only animal with ‘language’, but Abram points out that language is simply the power to convey information. Birds call a companion, beg for food, announce territory, threaten aggression and sound alarms, all with nuances of their voice. Ravens, whales and wolves have language and use it. But Abram takes this further. “Everything speaks,” he observes.

Once we remind ourselves that we are in a constant interchange with the beings and processes of our world, our actions take on a new quality. Abram invites us to feel this reciprocity with nature by paying attention to our senses more than our intellects, by spending time within the miracle of nature and paying attention.

Cultures who live in reciprocity with nature understand intelligence is a quality of the whole living world. Even our science tells us that nothing exists independently in nature. There are no ‘things’ alone unto themselves in nature, only relationships. Every breath we take could remind us of this fact.

This book sets out to remind us that we exist inside a living matrix of intelligence. This is not purely philosophical. Many indigenous people know this instinctively. The small farmer and attentive gardener know this. Ecologists should know. Sentience is an ongoing encounter between our body and the larger body of the world. Our purely human dreams and technologies can only impose their patterns within the constraints of the living biosphere.

As I read Becoming Animal, I felt a great sense of relief that someone with experience and intelligence was able to articulate this message with such graceful storytelling.

No experience necessary! Singing workshop seeks enthusiastic singers!

Singers of all ages are invited to take part in a one-day singing workshop taking place in Ardrossan this September. Katy Cooper, a Glasgow-based conductor and singer, leads the day at the Civic Centre on Saturday 19th September.

It’s all part of Scotland Sings’ aim to get everyone singing, whether you’re used to weekly choir rehearsals, haven’t sung for years or just enjoy singing in the shower! The workshop comes after the success of the one Katy led at the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in January this year, which was attended by singers from all over Ayrshire.

Katy said, “There will be a warm welcome for everyone - you don’t have to be able to read music or have attended in January. We’ll be singing simple songs that we can all learn together on the day and all you need is energy and enthusiasm.”

The cost for the day is £12.50 per person with a free place when you make a group booking for ten people. The workshop has been organised with ferry times in mind so that singers from Arran can join in.

More information and booking details can be found here: www.sing.scot

Selected by David Underdown who also writes the commentary.

South to make Four Hearts. West leads the ♥10.

Last month my husband John and I attended a Community Council meeting in Bute where the Scottish Salmon Company (SSC) were to make a presentation on their desire to open two salmon fish farms around Bute, and with the strategy to progress more aquaculture developments in the Clyde. Over 50 residents on the island attended and posed direct questions to the SSC contingent. In 2006-9 the same island had fought a farm at Inchmarnock, a small island off the west coast of Bute, and won. One of the proposed new SSC sites could not be pursued as a BT line goes across the seabed in that area, but the company has every intention of finding two potential sites in the near future, much against the island’s wishes. Arran beware!

The push by SSC for increased production can also be seen at Lamlash, St Molios salmon farm where a certificate of lawfulness was issued on Tuesday 16 June 2015, for the siting of fourteen 80m-circumference cages and a 220 tonne-feedbarge in association with the existing use of the site as a fish farm.

I think it’s a good time to report to Saveseilsound contributors on where we are now at with industrial salmon installations in our part of mid-Argyll, as there seem to be no current applications and those recently approved have now been installed. It’s hard to believe that it’s over four years since we established the campaign group.

As most of us know, the Ardmaddy relocation was granted in May 2013 by the committee of Argyll & Bute Council voting unanimously and disregarding over 800 individual objections as well as reservations from the local MSP and the guardians of our heritage and archaeology.

Subsequently the archaeologists at RCAHMS became aware that the site contained a Viking boat naust, but they didn’t know about this in time as the Council had decided not to commission a full Environmental Statement, which would have triggered a survey.

Then the Council approved the expansion of Pol na Gille, despite numerous objections and evidence of horrendous seabed pollution. I was present on the dive boat when the seabed video was taken and have not eaten farmed salmon since. See here:

Finally last year the Council approved the new installation at the South-west end of Shuna. There was no hearing because an insufficient number of objections were received, which was perhaps understandable after the total failure of the democratic input at Ardmaddy.  Further, having granted the application an official allowed the orientation of the cages to be changed so as to project further across the Sound than was originally planned.

The cumulative effect of these consents is that we now have seven operational fin-fish sites (and some shell-fish ones as well) in the stretch of water comprising lochs Melfort and Shuna, Seil Sound and Shuna Sound, contrary to the official policy of discouraging expansion in inshore sea lochs and voes. At full capacity this could mean there are about over one million mature fish eating an unnatural diet and producing enormous quantities not just of waste food and faeces but also zinc and other additives, medicines and pesticides. If the operators start introducing wrasse that will be another factor in an already overloaded environment.

We have engaged with SEPA, whose function is to grant a licence to pollute under the CAR regulations. On one occasion we requested the Minister to call in their decision, without success. In preparing our submissions we have drawn on our members with knowledge of hydrology and marine biology as well as local knowledge of tidal flows. It is disappointing that SEPA have at no stage engaged with us, or given us any indication that they have even read what we have submitted.

We have taken part in a number of government consultations and engaged with the RACCE committee when they were considering the recent Aquaculture and Fisheries Bill. Block voting by the SNP members ensured that all reservations expressed to the committee were over-ruled and the legislation is accordingly very industry-friendly.

It’s plain that in our main aims of trying to stop the damage to the local ecology and protect the micro economy around Seil and Luing we have been entirely unsuccessful. Engagement with Argyll & Bute Council, SEPA, Marine Scotland and Scottish Government has proved totally pointless and has only shown how impotent local communities are when faced with the power of big business. It is likely that we will not require to engage with these bodies again anyway, because the stretch of water comprising Seil/Shuna/Melfort is probably so over-developed that it may be unlikely that further applications will be made. It’s certainly difficult to envisage where any further installations could be placed.

So, where do we go from here? Just possibly, to Europe.

The existing developments probably contravene the European EIA Directive, which requires those doing environmental assessments to consider the cumulative effects of all operations in an area, not just fish farms. Astonishingly there has never been one in Seil/Shuna/Melfort. Sometimes assessments have not been called for and in other cases they have been sorely defective.

It is likely that there is also a contravention of the Habitats Directive, as arguably the pollution from Seil/Shuna/Melfort impacts on the nearby Firth of Lorne conservation area.

The Waste Disposal Directive is also engaged. In the Spring of 2012 we submitted a complaint to the European Commission regarding the failure by the authorities to monitor the disposal of the carcases of over 80,000 mature salmon which perished a few months earlier at Ardmaddy in a failed biological experiment of some sort. The complaint is ongoing  but it looks as if we little people aren’t entitled to be told what’s happening, ironic because Port na Morachd means literally the port of the big people. The latest update as at 24 June 2015 reads:

“Extensive correspondence has taken place between the Commission services and the UK authorities in the context of the EU Pilot investigation which was triggered by your complaint. I can inform you that the UK authorities have in this context presented an action plan which includes an envisaged amendment to the Animal By-Products (Enforcement) (Scotland) Regulations 2013 and improvements to the official control activities, in particular in relation to contingency planning for large scale fish mortality disposal. In order to maintain the necessary trust-based cooperation between the Member State and the Commission during the pending EU Pilot investigation, further details of the action plan submitted by the UK authorities cannot be explained at this stage. However, the timeline provided by the UK authorities shows, inter alia, that the legislative amendment is envisaged to enter into force by the end of year 2015. The Commission services are closely following up with the commitments of the UK authorities in this context.”

Sight loss charity RNIB Scotland is asking people to join them in painting Ayrshire neon for a second time. It is holding a GLOW Neon Fun Run again at Ayr's Dam Park Stadium on Saturday, October 17, following a fantastic turn out at last year’s event. Hundreds of people ran, walked or danced their way around the three kilometre track dressed in neon and sprayed with GLOW paint to raise funds for the RNIB Ayrshire Vision Appeal. Elma Magowan, the charity’s local fundraiser, said “We are bringing this exciting event back to Ayrshire, encouraged by the overwhelming support we received last year from local people. There are around 5,000 people in Ayrshire and Arran living with sight loss. By taking part, all the runners, walkers and dancers will help us support people with sight loss at the time they need us most. Our appeal will fund vision support officers based at Crosshouse and Ayr Hospitals who can give people newly diagnosed with sight loss the emotional as well as practical support they need to find their lives again.” This year’s event aims to be bigger and brighter and is fully accessible. The charity will provide guides for anyone taking part who is blind or partially sighted. Further details and tickets are available at www.rnib.org.uk/glow.

This year's programme for the McLellan Arts Festival is better than ever!

Already we have had a successful Arran Open Studios weekend, a terrific evening with award winning, renowned and entertaining poet, Simon Armitage, a rip roaring Ceilidh with the Taiko Drummers, Ruari Gordon and the Jazz Cafe Band in Corrie Hall, an informal evening of music and poetry in Brodick Bar and an hour of wonderful sacred music in Corrie Church with the students from the Royal Northern College of Music.

But there is much to delight still to come. For the first time the McLellan Arts Festival will join forces with the Saltire Society in Altachorvie, Lamlash with writer, Alan Riach and painter, Alexander Moffat who will present an interesting and entertaining evening about Scottish painting on Tuesday 1st September.

A further first takes place on Wednesday 2nd September. In collaboration with the Arran Music Society, an exciting dance company called Indepen – Dance will perform with a live cellist in the Community Theatre in Lamlash.

On Thursday 3rd September in Whiting Bay Hall another exciting event in partnership with Arran Events – Weaving Musical Threads, a stirring, funny and moving drama with music about the Paisley Mill girls during the Second World War. Not to be missed.

On Friday evening, 4th September we will welcome back the talented students of the Arran Summer School who will give us a splendid Opera Gala – guaranteed to be a night of music to remember.

A departure this year is a unique event in Corrie Hall on Saturday 5th September where artist Jim Hardie will show and interact with 5 of his films all connected to flight. Sounds fascinating!

The final event of the festival will be a performance on Sunday 6th September of Hadyn's Nelson Mass with the students of the Arran Summer School as soloists and our own McLellan Festival Chorus.

In addition, workshops for adults will take place in Lamlash Fire Station at 2.00pm on Tuesday 1st (all instruments focussing on improvisation) and Thursday 3rd (Strings). Enquiries to Diana Hamilton 601322).

All this adds up to a really interesting festival.

arrantheatreandarts.org

This year’s poetry competition again attracted a record number of entries. The prizewinning poets are:

Connect Arran is an informal community group devoted to improving connectivity on Arran for resident and visitor alike.

What is connectivity? It’s your mobile phone signal, your broadband connection... your ability to connect with social media, file your tax return, attract new customers, tweet your photos, allow your kids to research homework, watch iPlayer, plan a holiday, track ferry status, order from Amazon, access online learning (whether you're a firefighter, nurse, vet, Open University student etc.) and, of course, read the Voice!

Connectivity is already an essential part of everyday life, and we depend on it for everyday tasks. That’s why we want to map out where the problems are, and demonstrate what a lack of connectivity on Arran means for its residents, visitors and businesses.

ConnectArran is planning a summit meeting to be held at Lamlash Outdoor Education Centre on Wednesday 30th September with generous support from SSE.

The aims of this meeting will be to inform, galvanise and enthuse local projects (one in particular) which will aim to meet the connectivity needs of residents, public services, enterprise, tourism and visitors to the island. We've been working hard on forming links with key partners.

The programme has yet to be finalised but will comprise short presentations/workshops and a drop-in format to enable as many of Arran's business community to attend as possible, if only for part of the day.

Further information will be published on our Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/ConnectArran.

In the run up to the summit meeting we want to collect your experiences of connectivity on Arran. Please visit the link to take our ConnectArran survey … it should take a maximum of 10 minutes to complete (depending, of course, on how your connection is!).