Category: Community Affairs

The Trustees of the Mitchell Trust met recently, having reviewed the activities of The Reading Rooms

The Trustees of the Mitchell Trust met recently, having reviewed the activities of The Reading Rooms and of those two activities in the village, The Woodland Group, which manages the Burnside Wood, and Kippen Sports Development, which holds a lease granted by the Trust.

The Mitchell Trust was established under a deed recorded in 1934, to hold premises known today as Kippen Reading Rooms, and land, then known as The Games Field, now used for the football pitch and extending up the Burnside Wood to the road beyond.

All this property was effectively bequeathed by the family of Stephen Mitchell, former owner of the Boquhan Estate, to the village for the benefit of ‘the subjects’ of the village of Kippen.

Continuing Trustees of the Trust were specified to be the successors of the offices of The Minister of the Old Parish Church, The Doctor and two other successors.

Today, the composition of the Trust is:

Reverend Ellen Larson-Davidson                Minister of the Parish of Kippen

Dr Annett Schmautz                                        Doctor

Ms Carole Logan                                               Head teacher, Kippen School

Mr Jeremy Gaywood

Mrs Moira Turner

Jeremy Gaywood is also Secretary to the Trust

The property of the trust, being now managed either by the Committee of The Reading Rooms or by by Kippen Sports Development or The Woodland Trust, allows the Mitchell Trustees to take a passive, supervisory role, and to be on hand for consultation by those bodies.

Such consultation might involve Planning Permissions regarding changes to the fabric or land constituting its property. Another function is to receive planning applications initiated by neighbours which may be sent for review from Stirling Council.

Any enquiries regarding The Mitchell Trust may be made to any of the Trustees.

Despite the passage of time, it remains a remarkable fact that the assets owned by the Mitchell Trust continue to be as relevant to the life of the village as they were more than eighty years ago.

Finally, it would not be appropriate to conclude without recognising the role of Winnie Dunlop who has faithfully monitored and maintained the records of the Trust since 1985 or when current records commenced.

and of those two activities in the village, The Woodland Group, which manages the Burnside Wood, and Kippen Sports Development, which holds a lease granted by the Trust.

The Mitchell Trust was established under a deed recorded in 1934, to hold premises known today as Kippen Reading Rooms, and land, then known as The Games Field, now used for the football pitch and extending up the Burnside Wood to the road beyond.

All this property was effectively bequeathed by the family of Stephen Mitchell, former owner of the Boquhan Estate, to the village for the benefit of ‘the subjects’ of the village of Kippen.

Continuing Trustees of the Trust were specified to be the successors of the offices of The Minister of the Old Parish Church, The Doctor and two other successors.

Today, the composition of the Trust is:

Reverend Ellen Larson-Davidson                Minister of the Parish of Kippen

Dr Annett Schmautz                                        Doctor

Ms Carole Logan                                               Head teacher, Kippen School

Mr Jeremy Gaywood

Mrs Moira Turner

Jeremy Gaywood is also Secretary to the Trust

The property of the trust, being now managed either by the Committee of The Reading Rooms or by by Kippen Sports Development or The Woodland Trust, allows the Mitchell Trustees to take a passive, supervisory role, and to be on hand for consultation by those bodies.

Such consultation might involve Planning Permissions regarding changes to the fabric or land constituting its property. Another function is to receive planning applications initiated by neighbours which may be sent for review from Stirling Council.

Any enquiries regarding The Mitchell Trust may be made to any of the Trustees.

Despite the passage of time, it remains a remarkable fact that the assets owned by the Mitchell Trust continue to be as relevant to the life of the village as they were more than eighty years ago.

Finally, it would not be appropriate to conclude without recognising the role of Winnie Dunlop who has faithfully monitored and maintained the records of the Trust since 1985 or when current records commenced.

Dear All,

One of my priorities is working to reduce the burden of unfair energy bills. Recently, I spoke in the parliamentary debate for the proposed Energy Price Cap, something I strongly support. During the debate, I asked the Sec. of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy to acknowledge that it would take far more than just making switching between suppliers easier, to ensure a fairer energy market in the UK.

According to a Price of Power survey, people across the Stirling constituency are overpaying for energy by over £7 million per year- an average of £257 per family. The reason for this is largely due to the nature of the energy market. While there are six companies supposedly in competition with each other, they are clearly not doing so and there appears to be a lack of competitive pressure to push down prices.

Smaller energy businesses are hamstrung by the difficulty of changing suppliers, so as a result many small energy companies do not survive, leaving the whole sector unbalanced as smaller businesses are strangled out of the market.

I was very pleased to be able to sign the open letter calling for an effective price cap and calling for the Government to act, ensuring we see a reformed energy market. This letter helped encourage the recent announcement from the Government, which I welcome.

However, there is far more to do. As your MP and as a member of the committee which scrutinises the Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy Department, I will continue to campaign for real reform to this sector to ensure it operates in the best interest of the consumer.

 

-Stephen Kerr MP for Stirling

 

1^st Grant Application Deadline: 31^st January 2018

Kippen is to receive around £22,000 per year for the next 20 or so years from Kingsburn Wind Energy Ltd, a company which has built a windfarm near the village, now known as Kingsburn Windfarm.  This money is intended for the benefit of the community members of Kippen and it is up to all of us to put it to good use.

We welcome suggestions of how to spend this money from any individuals or community groups living in Kippen.  Criteria for how this money should be spent are:

-It should benefit the community of Kippen or part of the community and should not be for the benefit of individuals;

• in particular it should be used to promote health, public participation in sport and other recreation, education, citizenship, arts, culture, science or environmental improvement.

• It should be spent on something that could not happen without this money, i.e. it should not replace fundraising which is already taking place;

• It should not be used for general maintenance;

There are likely to be matchfunding criteria to be fulfilled.

So, we would love to hear about any ideas you have on how this money should be spent.

We have application forms for minor grants (up to £1500), medium-sized grants (£1500-£5000) and major grants (over £5000).  Applications will initially be made to Kippen Community Council, and then suitable applications will be passed on to the Windfarm Panel to assess which applications should be awarded a grant.  Application forms are available from Margaret Beaton on 870536.

The 1^st deadline for us to receive completed grant applications is 31^st January 2018, but if that does not give you enough time, don’t worry as there will be another round later in the year.

Please get in touch if you have any questions about this or if you would like an application form.

If we don’t use it, we lose it!

 

Next meeting is 13^th February 2018.

Minutes of last meeting are displayed with any Planning on the notice board in Main Street.

Any queries, contact Helen Wilson 870672, or Jon Greenman 870446.

The Wee Whist takes place in the Reading Rooms on the second Wednesday of each month at 7.30pm. All are welcome – just turn up on the evening if you would like a game.

It is carrying on despite the sad departure of Bella Crawford.  Diane Loutit is running it at present.

 

Naomi and Fiona would like to thank the 1st Carse Cubs for their fantastic donation towards the upkeep of the tubs. The Cubs are a great bunch who regularly fundraise and donate to local organisations, and we were the lucky beneficiaries this time.

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU.

And a big thank you to all the residents who are filling the collection box in McNicolls. A very healthy sum of £164 has been added to the reserves with these two donations.

 

1^st Carse Cubs (Kippen), will start back on Tuesday 23^rd January. Hope everyone had a fun New Year and Santa was good to you!   After a very successful 1^st term we are looking forward to a busy schedule running up to Spring.

Our first outdoor camping experience was held on the 30th September at the Barrwood Scout campsite, on the road to Denny. Everyone had loads of fun; and the plan is to have another before the end of the school year.

Our Bonfire night, last year, was held on Tuesday 7^th November at the Football Pitch. This was our big fund-raising event and was extremely successful again. Thank you for your support. It’s becoming a favourite event on the village calendar.

We raised more than £900 and were able to significantly help local charities and organisations. We donated money to the Village Hall, the Sports Field Development Fund, the Reading Rooms garden and we also gave money to the ladies who look after the flower pots in the village. We were going to give a donation to the Woodland Group, however, having talked to them we decided that the “Clubs” will spend that money on further renovation of the old coupe area. We will be able to clear out the bases of the concrete recycling bins that are there, as we found these to be ideal locations for the cubs to practice their camp fire building and marshmallow cooking. We are also planning to create more accessible paths and routes into this zone.

These activities and adventures that your children are having at their own back door do not happen without parental support. I am very lucky to be helped and supported by a likeminded group of guys. Our motto is, “If we’re having fun then so are the kids”. If anyone out there would like to come along and help we’d be delighted to have you.

The Beaver Colony in Gargunnock has now moved to Kippen and is currently being run by Annabel Gaywood and Ellen Larsen Davidson (the minister).

Please come along and help, it really can be fun, and your local pack does need you!

You can contact either myself, Derek Shanks, or Cameron Skinner or via email us at – 1stcarsecubs@mail.com or Annabel and Ellen individually.

To book the hall call Claire Thomson 07796601197 or email kippenvillagehall@gmail.com

The Annual General Meeting of the Kippen Community Woodland Group was held in November and plans for 2018 were discussed.

The main focus of our activity will be the woodland work mornings, held on the first Sunday of each month, excluding January and July. In addition to using the work mornings keeping the paths clear and well-drained, in line with the management plan for the wood, we shall be clearing saplings at the East end of the pond so that there is space to deposit dredged material when we start on the next 5 yearly cycle of pond clearance – hopefully Autumn 2018 subject to obtaining funding.

Other work planned for 2018 includes:

• Thinning trees along the southern edge of the wood with help from Wallis Weir;
• Assessing the condition of nesting boxes in the wood with a view to adding new nest boxes made by the 1^st Carse Cubs and possibly also the Primary School;
• Making some picnic benches for the old coup area;
• Facilitating greater use of Burnside wood by Kippen Primary School; and
• Applying for grants to provide an alternative path up the Black Brae.

For those who were disappointed by the absence of a Woodland Group stall at the Christmas market, you will be pleased to learn that we are planning to have a stall this year and to sell some special edition Christmas cards to mark our 20th year. We would like to invite all photographers to submit wintry Kippen scenes for potential use on these cards to kippenwoodlandgroup@gmail.com by the end of March 2018. We shall then select the best photographs and make contact with the person submitting to establish how best to acknowledge them.

Paula Watson

 

We started the season in Reading Room to introduce some new curlers to existing members.  Val Saville, an English International curler, gave an amusing account of her career on the ice.

There are 32 playing members in the Club and we look forward to a busy season.

The Opening Bonspiel was won by a clear margin by Mary MacGregor, Gavin Cross, Margaret Armstrong and Skip, Michael Kay.

Kirsty Cuthbert

The Ladies Points Trophy which will be played for on 19th October