Machrihanish Airbase Community Company

DIARY OF EVENTS

What have we been doing since starting in March 2008? Key milestones:-

• 6th June 2008 - A meeting with C&D Mactaggart solicitors to engage them as our lawyers.
• 25th June 2008 – Submitted a draft Memorandum & Articles of Association to OSCR and SEERAD.
• 1st July 2008 – Received approval of Memorandum and Articles of Association from OCSR.
• 9th July 2008 – Received approval of Memorandum and Articles of Association from SEERAD.
• 29th July 2008 – Instructed C&D Mactaggart to incorporate company.
• 11th September 2008 – Received letter of registration of company from Oswalds, via C&D Mactaggart.
• 7th October 2008 – Meeting of Incorporation and election of Directors.
• 28th October 2008 – First Board meeting held in Heritage centre.
• 10th December 2008 – Directors meet with 3 local councillors, D Kelly, R Colville and J Semple to inform them of our group and our aspiration for the ex RAF Machrihanish base.
• 21st January 2009 – Board meeting in guide hall to make up leaflets and membership forms to inform public of our group and our aims.
• 21st February 2009 – Rotary Group distributes leaflets and membership forms round doors in PA28 6 area of Kintyre.
• 4th March 2009 – Public meeting in Lorne & Lowland Church to inform public of our groups aspirations for the ex RAF Machrihanish base.
• 9th May 2009 – Submitted application to register an Interest in the ex RAF Machrihanish base with, at that time, support from approximately 13% of the public. (First submission)
• 15th May 2009 – Application submission returned for more questions to be answered and information required.
• 1st June 2009 – Re-submitted application to register an interest. (Second submission)
• 15th June 2009 – Returned application submission for the second time. This time we were informed that there were new forms to complete and, that now we were a late submission and would require answering additional questions and increasing our public support from 13%.
• 15th June 2009 to 22nd December 2009 – After some hundreds of hours working on completing the new forms and collating the information to resubmit our register of interest we also had to go out and canvas more support from the public taking us up from 13% to 17% of the voting public within PA28 6 area of Kintyre.
• 22nd December 2009 – Submitted application to register an interest. (Third time)
• 11th January 2010 – Received letter from Scottish Government Rural Directorate that the application was acceptable and would be submitted to MOD Defence Estates for comment and then submitted to the Scottish Government ministers for their approval.
• 18th January 2010 – Copy of letter from MOD Defence Estates to Scottish Government Rural Directorate informing them that they have no objection in principle to the application from MACC.
• 11th February 2010 – Notice of acceptance of our application from the Scottish Government Ministers and it has now been registered. Case number CB00112
• 28th April 2010 - MACC received the valuation at midday- the airbase has been valued at £1.
• 5th May 2010 - Presentation by Alan Caldwell of DTAS on "The Comrie Development Trust's Successful Acquisition and Development of Cultybraggan", followed by a general discussion on the future of Machrihanish Airbase.
• 13th May to 24th May 2010 - Community Ballot - we need a turnout of at least 50% of the voters in PA28 6 and of those over 50% must vote in favour of the community's bid to buy the base for £1.
• 21st May 2010 - Open Forum attracts support of elected representatives.
• 25th May 2010 - Result of Community Ballot is a massive "Yes".

From start of our company on 1st March 2008 until this date 20th February 2010 we have had regular meetings and kept up to date by email the following politicians, who are in full support of our endeavours to rejuvenate the ex RAF Machrihanish base.

• Jim Mather MSP Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism
• George Lyon MEP
• Struan Stevenson MEP
• Jamie McGrigor MSP
• Alan Reid MP
• Donald Kelly Local Councillor
• Rory Colville Local Councillor

From the start of our company we have also been in dialogue with

• MOD Defence Estates
• Argyll & Bute Council
• Scottish Charity Regulator
• HIE Community Land Unit
• Machrihanish Dunes Golf Club
• Welcon Windmill Factory
• Highland & Islands Airports Ltd.

To name but a few of all the companies and bodies involved in the Kintyre area.