Friday, 30 September 2022
FIVE THINGS FOR A FRIDAY
SLEEPLESS NIGHTS
In my role I should have sleepless nights about the cost of buildings, are deadlines being met, solving problems and developing assets for the community over the next five years to use over the next fifty to one hundred years (certainly beyond my lifetime!). We are doing this day to day and with the cost of materials increasing and tradespeople thin on the ground this is a challenge, as it always will be. Yet this week (and for the last three years) community and charity led organisations have been on the ground solving deeper problems than that. Development and Community Trusts, on the whole, started because communities face under investment or lack of facilities that were created either by employers in areas that disappeared or local authorities in housing, social and recreational care. This week some of our umbrella bodies are asking the question why are community groups, many of whom didn’t exist even ten years ago, fast becoming the answer to also solving social problems when we are really about development and making life better for people who live and work in our areas?
HIGHER HEATING BILLS
We have been working with SSE on a mechanism to provide food and fuel support this and next winter. This is a big shift in policy by SSE which provides individual benefit to those in need. Make no mistake – this isn’t new money. It has to come from somewhere, which takes it away from a budget that potentially provides support in another way. However with bills now three times as expensive than they were a year ago we are all feeling the impact of this and something needed to be done.
INVESTING IN THE FUTURE
This week we speak to Clarendon about our investment policy. This will provide funds beyond the lifetime of the windfarms. Our funds have been performing fairly well, despite Brexit and Covid. Trust Board Directors Maureen McGuire and Ken Sinclair undertook a review of how things were doing at the beginning of the year. This week, after the mini budget, we saw £000’s wiped off personal pensions. It’s true, markets may bounce back. Hopefully our investments will perform as well if not better during this highly difficult time.
BILLS KEEP PILING – WHAT’S ON
The heating bill in our buildings keep piling up, and in the buildings of other groups across Stratherrick and Foyers. We have recently been promoting What’s On in venues across the area so you have warm activities to participate in and you can get a hearty meal at some of those events. That means you can keep the heating and the oven off in your own house for a few hours. As a community we can use the buildings we have developed together to ease the burden people may be feeling. Many of these events are put on by volunteers and we thank each and every one of them. You can read more about what help is out there locally in your latest newsletter.
ARE THERE ANY ANSWERS?
There are some things we can’t control, but external forces and decisions being made on our behalf by elected Government/s do create curve balls and challenges for us as a community. Some of these are unfortunate. Some are well thought out, and our fundraisers are jumping on any support directed to help. As a community we are lucky than most, with core funding underpinning that support. It has been a difficult few years for all communities, but thankfully there are community groups on the ground providing solutions to meet these day to day challenges. Amongst the lofty ideas we see on the TV we often forget about champions who provide help where it is needed on the ground. We should be celebrating their contribution but perhaps knowing we have helped someone in our community get through the day, or if you are that person who needs help from your fellow community members, will make that sleep tonight a little easier.
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Stratherrick & Foyers Community Trust,The Wildside Centre, Whitebridge,
Inverness IV2 6UN
admin@sfctrust.org.uk
07300 562443