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Bleak future for deteriorating former Rothesay Academy buildings – exclusive pictures

25 Jan

Picture by Mhairi Mackenzie.

IT’S a shock to see the condition of the old Rothesay Academy site at Chapelhill. It holds a wealth of memories for locals past and present, having educated the island’s children for 137 years. It’s an important chunk of Bute’s history, but five years of neglect has left the old buildings and grounds grey and defeated. It’s a sad sight to see, and there’s not much in the way of hope.

Rothesay’s brand new joint campus opened in 2007, marking the end of an education era on Bute. The island’s first academy site at Chapelhill opened in 1870, although the original gothic building was famously destroyed by fire in 1954. The lower academy building that stands presently opened in 1959 and continued to serve the island’s children along with the older upper building. The school had separate buildings for technical classes, P.E., art and science. Located on high ground, it boasted one of the best views of Rothesay Bay. (more…)

Bellshaw ready for the battle for Bute

19 Jan

Standing for election in the 2012 local council elections, 18-year-old Adam Bellshaw is giving the youth a good name.

ADAM BELLSHAW will be 19 when the next round of Scottish local council elections take place, and he will be running for office on the Isle of Bute. The island’s three current councillors – Len Scoullar, Isobel Strong and Robert Macintyre – have had a strong following for years. None of them are under 50 and all of them make Bute’s older population – a strong feature across Argyll & Bute – feel represented.

They probably don’t give a great deal of hope to Bute’s younger generations. The island’s brightest and best young minds are usually fleeing to the city by the time they reach Adam’s age. The prevailing attitude is that Bute is the place to raise your children and, rather morbidly, to die.

For anybody in between, they face an increasing struggle to find work and opportunity. The island needs some new ideas, and Adam Bellshaw is screaming from the roof tops.

Adam was born and raised in Cambuslang until the age of seven when his parents, William and Lorna, relocated the family to Bute.

“The area we lived in was a bit too dangerous, my mum didn’t want us to grow up around that. She thought it would be a nice quiet life for us. It was a lot better than Cambuslang and everyone was a lot friendlier than Glasgow,” Adam said.

“That is why I took such an interest in what’s happening on the island. I love the quietness and the community spirit.”

(more…)

Bute Forest to celebrate the cutting of the first tree at Rhubodach Forest

6 Dec

Community-owned Rhubodach Forest

BUTE Forest is inviting members of the community to celebrate the cutting of the first tree this Sunday, December 11.

Mulled wine and baked potatoes will be on offer to keep everyone warm at the event although everybody is advised to wrap up well to keep the brunt of winter at bay. The celebration will begin at 1pm and finish at 4pm and Bute Forest Support Group member Hanne Mason told ButeBites anybody who plans to stay until the end should try to bring a torch to keep vision clear as the night draws in.

“It’s our community woodland – come and see for yourself the very beginnings of work there and learn more on the day,” said Hanne, who also hopes transport can be provided. “We hope that the Community Links bus will be repaired and available at Guildford Square at 1.15pm but unfortunately cannot guarantee at this point,” he continued.

“[people can] Park at Rhubodach Cottage on the waterside as that is safer, or further on at the ferry lay-by. A steward will be at the cottage guiding everyone up to the event site just 800m up the track, where you can enjoy some warming mulled wine, baked potato and other goodies plus make a memento from the first tree cut to take home with you, plus more ideas of what you can make from things you find in the woods. And perhaps plant a small Christmas tree.” Hanne added.

Taking part in the occasion will be new forest project manager Emma Cooper, who has just taken up her post with Bute Forest, giving members of the community an opportunity to meet the woman who hopes to take forward the vision for Rhubodach Forest.

By Angela Haggerty

The Big Society or the big social enterprise?

4 Nov

HANDING CONTROL BACK to local communities and out of the grasp of bureaucrats; giving the people on the ground the tools and flexibility to take over, create and maintain their own services; teaching our youth social responsibility while giving them the skills and training for a better future. It’s a concept that provides the answer to so many social problems in a country where social policy has always been high on the agenda – social enterprise is taking Scotland by storm.

In England someone else has had the same idea. There they call it the Big Society, and it’s being led by a man that Scottish voters have shown a clear distrust in: David Cameron.

Debate rages about who came up with the idea first. The basic concept of social enterprise stretches back to the Rochdale Pioneers in the 1840s, a group of workers who set up a co-operative society under tough living and working conditions to ensure decent, affordable food could be provided for philanthropic agendas, and the existence of The Co-operative in Britain today is testament to the success of the model.

“I like the Big Society, I like social enterprise, but I don’t think it’s David Cameron’s idea. I’ve been doing it for years, the same formula. He’s just picked up on tag words that were already about, he’s just seen what’s coming from the street,” said 37-year-old Isle of Bute resident, Nicola Jones.

An artist by trade and tutor in the local college, Nicola lives with her two young children in the small village of Port Bannatyne. She has spent much of her professional life working with local groups and state-run initiatives to improve life in communities. But after the economic downturn and the massive decline in the economy on Bute – which was suffering economically even before the credit crunch – Nicola decided action had to be taken to provide services children on the island badly need, and it became clear that the local authority, Argyll & Bute Council, simply had no money left.

Nicola Jones highlighted the poor condition of the meadows playpark

The swings in a deteriorating state

“We set up Project Play Park in April last year, which is for doing up the play parks. My friend, Lisa, and I realised there was a need for children’s play parks. We phoned the council as the parks were in a bad state, and that just opened the can of worms as to setting up a little group to fundraise because the council can’t get money to do those types of things,” Nicola said.

“From there, we took a kiosk on and ran the park’s tennis courts. We’re now doing final designs for an application to the Big Lottery recreation fund for £250,000.”

Nicola’s plan is to use a large chunk of core funding to regenerate the parks, then use the social enterprise model to provide sustainability for the services by running a small kiosk shop and activities like tennis.

Nicola launched Project Play Park to tackle the problem

Aside from the attractive financial sustainability of social enterprise, Nicola believes bigger rewards come from the initiative. A by-product of Project Play Park has been the creation of Sk8 Bute, a group set up to source funding and build a skate park for the island’s youth. Importantly, Sk8 Bute requires the children themselves to form a committee under the supervision of adults to take the project forward.

“You’re leaving a legacy for your children not only in what you build physically in your assets and your business, but also giving them a legacy that anything’s possible. So it’s a great faith, optimistic vision and dream. It’s got a bit of magic attached to it.”

Sk8 Bute has captured the imagination of the island's youth

Local councillor, Len Scoullar, couldn’t be more supportive of the social enterprise model at a time when Argyll & Bute Council is facing some of the toughest challenges it has ever known.

“As the money supply is diminishing for councils – almost on a daily basis it would seem sometimes –our council have become not only supportive but in some cases dependent on the third sector to supply the things that are becoming unaffordable,” he said. “The beauty of this is that often social enterprise can access funding streams which are no longer available to local authorities.

“Nicola and her  group are a classic case of this and I hope they are successful in what they seek to achieve. I think you will see that our council, where rules permit, will be supportive of all or many groups who seek to work with us to achieve our goals for our communities.”

Some in Scotland say that social enterprise will be a false economy. It will steal jobs from the public sector rather than providing new ones. It will take away the responsibility of local authorities, both financial and social – no more than a clever band aid for cuts.

But Scotland is embracing it. Another project on the Isle of Bute made headlines 18 months ago when it completed the largest community buy-out of land in Scottish history. Bute Community Land Company purchased Rhubodach Forest from Lord Richard Attenborough on behalf of the community. BCLC is a social enterprise and it claims the opportunity it has grabbed could be the key to the economic regeneration that the island urgently needs. Social enterprise on Bute doesn’t stop there.

“A classic example I think is the future of our [Rothesay] Pavilion,” said Cllr Scoullar, “and its massive programme of repair, restoration and improvement which we are seeking funding for. The bill will be in the order of £7m and we hope in the near future to be forming a volunteer group to take the matter forward, and also to run the building, when improved, for the benefit of our community and visitors to Bute.”

It is accepted on the small Scottish isle that it can’t be left solely to the state to support the economy, and the people of Bute are ready to take control.

Nicola continued: “I believe people should put something back. I think people have got too greedy, too selfish, too self absorbed, too lazy. They expect it all to be given, they bite the hand that feeds them and then continue to do that. You’ve got to lead by example.”

By Angela  Haggerty

What happened to Rothesay’s THI project?

11 Oct

IT MADE NATIONAL news in May when Rothesay’s Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) was awarded £1.5m funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, but nearly five months on there has been no considerable change to the seafront in Rothesay and, as demonstrated on Facebook’s HaveYourSay On Bute page in the months since then, some people have begun already to lose heart.

Project coordinator Lorna Pearce, however, says the project is going well and there is a lot more to come.

“We’re a lot further forward than most THI’s when they start,” Lorna told ButeBites. “They are always slow to start, it tends to be year three people turn around their ideas.”

Part of Argyll & Bute Council’s CHORD – a project set up to regenerate the town centre and sea front areas of Campbeltown, Helensburgh, Oban, Rothesay and Dunoon – the Rothesay THI project will provide access to funding for business owners and tenants to improve the appearances of buildings in the town centre, particularly surrounding the town’s Guildford Square and East Princes Street.

“The project runs until March 2016 but the bulk of the work needs to be completed by March 2015 because there will be a year of evaluation. The £1.5m is Heritage Lottery Funding and the Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) is a Heritage Lottery Fund project,” Lorna said.

Although the award has been made to Rothesay’s THI, every penny still has to be approved before it is spent.

“The £1.5m doesn’t sit in a bank account somewhere, Argyll & Bute Council acts like a bank pay roll – we have to justify how the money will be spent before it’s released.

“The £1.5m is there, it’s ring-fenced, but we need to prove the work is up to the standard required for payout,” Lorna continued.

Rothesay’s THI has four funders – the Heritage Lottery Fund, LEADER, Historic Scotland and Argyll & Bute Council. The majority of the funding will go toward designated priority buildings which are in more urgent need of repair and restoration. Owners must contribute 20% of the overall cost of any work undertaken and many are already in the process of setting up an owner’s association that can take the project forward on their behalf.

However, the economic downturn means that no matter how appealing the offer of 80 per cent funding is, finding the other 20 per cent is a big obstacle for many owners who say they simply don’t have the money.

“I’m trying to work with those eligible for priority building repairs. It depends on the people in the buildings to form an owner’s association and contribute 20 per cent for the project,” Lorna said.

“The feedback I’m getting is that the banks are not greatly supportive but we’re looking at a lot of other options.”

Another potential stumbling block for the tenants is the revelation that they may be asked to pay a percentage of any profit made on the sale of a property back to the funders of the project if the price of the property has increased as a result of the THI. This would apply to properties sold within 10 years of the completion of the project.

Small building repair grants of up to £15,000 will also be available, but may be more of a challenge to access, Lorna explained:

“This one is a competitive process. A number of business and tenant owners have shown interest. Once the deadline has passed and we have all the applications, we need to decide which buildings need repair most; how prominent the building is – for example, is it along the seafront?; and is it listed? All these are part of the criteria we will be looking at.”

Lorna admitted the response from shop owners for the shopfront repair grant had been disappointing, despite needing just a 5 per cent contribution from an owner toward the overall cost. While eligibility for the grant is restricted to shops in Albert Place, Guildford Square and East Princes Street, if interest does not pick up it could be opened up to a wider range of shops to apply.

It is hoped the Rothesay THI will play a major part in a new effort to turn around the economic decline of the island, and evidence from THI projects in other areas suggests a positive outlook.

“Some house prices have gone up, some towns have had higher visitor numbers, it depends on the location,” Lorna said. “Most importantly, when people start to see things happening and improving it encourages others to do the same. There’s a very positive energy and it seems to be the same in all the THIs.”

While there is no exact timescale for the completion of the larger scale priority building work, it is expected some of the smaller projects will be completed by the end of next summer.

ButeBites says:  The THI project, along with other large projects on the island such as Bute Community Land Company, is an important opportunity for Bute to begin a new chapter. The days of Bute’s booming economy have gone as the market the island once appealed to has gradually disappeared. Rothesay’s seafront and town centre currently looks old and tired and can only serve as a reminder to any visitors to the island of how things used to be. This investment and helping hand to business owners and tenants in tough economic times can play a big part in taking the island forward to a different future, but as is the case with any big project, it needs the full support and attention of the community to reach its full potential.

Elderly care or economy care?

4 Oct

Rothesay resident Hugh Haggerty is concerned over elderly care changes

A bottle of original Guinness sits on the bar next to the pub’s special half pint glass; only one customer gets to drink from it, and he’s sitting proudly at the bar wearing his good Sunday trousers. His trademark Celtic brooch is displayed on the lapel of the jacket he’s insisted on keeping for the last 10 years and his thinning hair is perfectly combed. 71-year-old Hugh Haggerty is an old school dying breed; a man who knows what decent and proper is. It’s that and the death of Nancy, his wife, that is making him speak out about changes in the elderly care system in Scotland.

“When Nancy died, she only just made it home to Bute. We had to fight for a good two or three days with the hospital to keep trying to find her a bed. She knew she was dying and she wanted to be at home in the house, but the Doctors said she could only get the care she needed from the nurses, so we couldn’t do it. If a bed hadn’t become available in the Victoria hospital she would have spent her last days in a place she didn’t want to be.”

Life for Hugh is not how he imagined it would be at this time in his life. His plan was to be spending his retirement with Nancy, who died of cancer just three weeks after being diagnosed, on Valentines Day, two years ago. His plan never worked out the way it should have, and the tears in his eyes tell his story.

The coming changes to care delivery on the Isle of Bute still only exist on paper, but for anyone who ever finds themselves in the position Hugh did, those papers will have real consequences.

Hugh is one of a steadily increasing number of elderly residents on Bute. The locals say that the island appeals to two main markets: the low crime rates and tight knit community spirit make it a sought after place for parents to raise children, and the laid back lifestyle and idyllic Argyll scenery make it an ideal place to retire after a hard working life. The fact that any age in between tends to flee the nest to make a fortune where the bright lights are makes it all the more attractive.

It is an inevitability for elderly citizens settled on Bute, or in the surrounding areas of Argyll, that they are growing older, and a decent standard of healthcare with a fairly reasonable assumption that they will be taken care of in their later days has been too easy to take for granted on the island. A long-running disgruntlement between the local authority, Argyll & Bute Council, and NHS Highland over who should shoulder the responsibility of care has paved the way for a complete overhaul of the system.

There are big changes ahead for the delivery of care across Argyll & Bute, with the region’s Elderly Care Review taking 18 months longer to complete than originally anticipated.

Rothesay Victoria Annexe, for example, has for years cared for patients with a variety of long term care needs, ranging from stroke patients to dementia patients and many things in between. It has also played a big role in caring for the elderly, caring for those who cannot be described as ill, but who need round the clock care and attention. The announcement last year that the 16-bed annexe was to close as an in-patient facility sent waves of concern around the community, but it didn’t quite come as a surprise.

Change has been on the cards for a long while now.

Questions have lingered over who should be expected to foot the bill for the cost of caring for that bracket of elderly patient – the patient that is ageing and deteriorating and requires constant care, but one that is neither ill nor ‘treatable’ by NHS standards. To put it bluntly, these patients will not get better, and continuing care is not in the NHS remit. This has led to a stand-off with Argyll & Bute Council, which – after a 4.94% cut in its budget for this year, almost double the national average – is even less eager in the current financial climate to take on massive costs.

“What we know at best is that there is less money coming in from the Scottish Government, and there is increasing demand for services. The demographics show there is going to be a sharp increase in the number of elderly people who are requiring care.” Cath McCloone of Argyll & Bute Council’s adult care team explained.

“At best our budgets are going to stand still and we know over the next three or four years it is going to be tough. There’s no doubt council services are more expensive.

“But it’s not a cost saving exercise, because the money will remain in older people’s services to continue to provide the service that is increasing in demand, and we also need to continue to develop the service to meet the needs of communities, so that’s constant.”

Island councillor Len Scoullar has spent much of his career fighting for services for the elderly on the island, but admits that cost must be taken into account.

“Cost is a factor only as much as the service in the future. With demographics as they are projected, the service for Argyll & Bute is unaffordable. This must be taken in light of the lack of government funding to an appropriate level.”

The changes in elderly care delivery across Argyll &Butewill see a shift towards supported independent living, and a move away from in-patient based care.

“Supported independent living is a government desire to give people in need of care independence at home, not in institutions or care homes, if possible. The Council supports this view.” Councillor Scoullar said.

Change has begun across Argyll & Bute. Continuing care beds from the NHS and state-run care homes are being gradually phased out in favour of independent living. A new policy of extra care housing has been announced, which will see a number of flats from sheltered housing complexes set aside for residents of the community most in need of care. 70 extra care housing flats have been confirmed across Argyll & Bute so far, with 30 of those on Bute.

NHS Locality Manager Viv Smith explained further some of the changes islanders can expect to see in the coming months:

“People will start to become familiar with the terminology over the next few months as part of the new model of care. Something we will talk about is the single point of access.

“There is going to be something called a golden number. One telephone number that will be given over the Argyll & Bute Council area. If you ring that number, you will be asked a list of questions, and you will be directed to the appropriate medical provider.

“We’re looking at generic assessment processes so that health and council staff are using the same documents and the same paperwork for assessment, and this is something that’s been going on within health and council for a long long time across Scotland.”

Responding to community concerns that the loss of the annexe beds will leave the island’s health professionals unable to care properly for those in need, Ms Smith said:

“The last time I attended Bute Community Council, the issue of the annexe closing was quite an emotive issue at the time and a lot of concern was expressed – would there be enough beds in the Victoria hospital, would there be enough time to put the changes in place.

“We always said we would make sure we had extra resources out in the community, particularly the community nursing team. We are on course for the increased demand we are expecting in the community. We are also going to try a community nurse being on overnight, based at the casualty department, who will be available for community nursing type calls overnight, and this is to try and stop patients needlessly coming to hospital for something that is very minor.

“We’re going to try this over the next 6 months, and we have already got a separate overnight care team in place on Bute.”

Although care packages could be delivered by community nursing services, they will ordinarily be delivered by a home care provider. With a number of private home-care companies on the island and a need for the council to make savings, will this represent not only a shift away from state-run in-patient facilities, but a shift towards much more involvement from the private sector?

“In terms of home care services on Bute, around 75 per cent is already out to the independent sector.” Cath McCloone explained.

“If you look at care homes on the island, Thompson Court [state-run] is very very small, most care homes are much larger but staffing levels will be around about the same. It’s a much more expensive service.

“The council purchased a nursing and residential bed at round about £540-560 a week in the independent sector, whereas the cost to run that same bed in the Thompson home is around £1,900 a week. These are figures we just can’t ignore.

“We know throughout Argyll & Bute the majority of services for residential care are purchased from the independent sector already – the council runs a very small amount of care homes. If the decision is made that the council will purchase from the independent sector, there’s no doubt it’s cheaper.”

With the closure of Rothesay Victoria Annexe and with the new model of care ready to commence, there have been fears that the loss of 16 beds at the annexe would result in inevitable transfers of elderly patients to mainland hospitals or care homes when in need of round the clock monitoring, a prospect that causes distress to many families. Viv Smith has attempted to re-assure the community that this will not happen:

“We’ve been tracking all of our patients over the last six to eight months in Glasgow, Inverclyde, Paisley, the Southern general, and we know that the model works. We can assure you every patient has been tracked, we know what’s happened to them.”

Monitoring the movement of patients over the last six to eight months does not come as much comfort to Hugh Haggerty, however.

“About a year before Nancy died, she had a massive stroke. She spent six months in the annexe being rehabilitated while I found a new house for us in sheltered housing. They wouldn’t let her out otherwise, we needed adequate housing first.

“If the annexe hadn’t existed she couldn’t have spent that six months on Bute with her family, and we couldn’t afford the ferry and train fares to travel to Inverclyde every day to see her. She would have been depressed, very unhappy.”

Argyll & Bute Council’s Elderly Care Review showed that residents across Argyll & Bute want the delivery of care to allow them to stay in their own homes for as long as possible, and the  council claims it is striving to meet the needs of elderly people. It is likely, however, that the council may have a struggle on its hands to convince residents that it can achieve that while maintaining the needs of patients who cannot stay at home.

“The idea that she could have spent those six months away from home is really just unthinkable,” Hugh continued: “and I can’t bear the thought that she could have had to spend her last days in a mainland hospital away from her home because Bute didn’t have the beds. She couldn’t be cared for at home, she would have needed more than one nurse full time, we were told that. Home care won’t be practical for everybody.

“I hope that I stay in good health because I worry about the future. The authorities need to save money,  but sometimes they really forget about us.”

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