News

First Publicly Available Defibrillator Installed

by

We’ve just installed the first of three defibrillators to help save lives in and around Alyth.

Defibrillators are life-saving machines used to re-start someone?s heart if they have a heart attack. In a rural community like Alyth, fast access to an ambulance is not always possible, yet there is only a window of five minutes to re-start a stopped heart before fatal brain damage is done ? so access to these machines needs to be fast.

J W Wheatley & Son installed the first defibrillator in the squinty phone box in the Market Square yesterday (18 January) and reconnected the electrical power supply which helps keep the equipment frost-free in the winter months. We’re now finalising the paperwork to enable the Scottish Ambulance Service to switch it on.

When it’s live, anyone needing to use it must phone 999 to get the security access code to open the box and access the defibrillator. The security access code means the life-saving equipment in the box is secure until it is needed, and we hope everyone in Alyth will help keep it safe from vandals and challenge anyone who is trying to damage it ? your life could literally depend on it!

We are planning a community training session in the Spring on how to deal with a cardiac arrest emergency and how to use the defibrillator ? details and date to follow soon. Don?t worry if you can?t get to this training session. In the event of someone having a heart attack and needing the defibrillator the equipment is designed to be used by any member of the public without any training. When you open the box the machine speaks to you and guides you through exactly what to do.

IMPORTANT – remember to always phone for an ambulance first before you try to use any defibrillator.

We’re immensely grateful to to The Collective Dairy (makers of amazingly tasty yoghurt ? the one with the black lid and the cow?s head on) for funding the first of Alyth?s publicly accessible defibrillators in the Market Square. Their donation is in memory of Mike Hodgson, co-founder of The Collective UK, who tragically passed away in August 2015 after suffering a sudden cardiac arrest while riding his bike in the Lake District. We hope that their kind donation will be a life saver for anyone in Alyth in the unfortunate position of needing a defibrillator.

We’re also very thankful to the Drumderg Wind-Farm Community Fund for a micro-grant of ?300 enabling us to reconnect the electrical power supply to the phone box.

We’ll be submitting a Drumderg application in early February to fund another two defibrillators, one for New Alyth and one for the Den Car Park.

PS: Just in case you think the defibrillator box looks a bit squint, it is actually level but the phone box itself is squint! We found out that it would cost about ?2000 to get the phone box straight, so we hope most people will agree that this wouldn’t be best use of such a large amount of community funding.

Major investment on parts of Cateran Trail

by

This is interesting: https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/perth-kinross/579098/major-investment-to-help-safeguard-famous-cateran-trail/

Any thoughts on where/how Alyth might attract similar investment for the parts of the Trail that run through our patch?

Looking for comments on Glenisla proposals

by

Just to remind everyone that Alyth Development Trust and the Alyth Voice are collecting any comments on the Glenisla Golf course development. You can see the proposals in this picture, and there’s an article from the developers on the front page of the December issue of The Voice: http://alythvoice.co.uk/index_htm_files/17December.pdf

Please send your comments to editor@alythvoice.co.uk There is also a comments sheet in Alyth Library, or you can message us through Facebook – either our page or the Voice page.??The developers are currently meeting local groups and organisations, including ADT, and if we receive a lot of comments, we will be asking the developers to hold a public meeting so that everyone can talk to them.

Glenisla Developments say they want to engage with the local community and organisations in the run-up to and throughout the process of getting detailed planning permission later this year.? ADT wants to encourage and promote as much discussion and debate about this massive new development of our town as possible, and we urge you to make sure your views are heard either by talking to the developers direct, or through the pages of the Voice over the coming months and years as the project proceeds.

What do you think about the Glenisla development?? Will it be a good thing or a bad thing, and why?? What do you like about it?? What don?t you like?? What would you like to see changed, if anything?? Let us know and we?ll do our best to make sure that all views are fairly represented.

Happy New Year!

by

Happy New Year to everyone from Alyth Development Trust! We had a great 2017 and we’re looking forward to an even more exciting 2018. We’ve got loads of fantastic projects coming up which we’re looking forward to telling you about – and we hope you’ll get involved in helping to make Alyth the best it possibly can be! ??

Bids invited for new community funding – get your thinking caps on!

by
Here’s something intriguing to think about in the New Year! Perth & Kinross Council has opened up something it calls the Participatory Budgeting process. There’s ?20,000 on offer for community projects in the Blairgowrie and the Glens Ward in the Eastern Perthshire Partnership Action area (there’s a similar amount available in the other two wards in the area).
?
You can apply for any sum from ?50 – ?3,000 to pay for, or help pay for, projects that will:
? respond to neighbourhood priorities and address local inequalities;
? benefit as many people as possible from across the community;
? meet a need that is not currently being met;
? take place before end March 2019.
?
Applications can be submitted by community groups and partnerships. Groups do not require to be constituted though they would have to have a suitable bank account where funding could be held; a personal account is not eligible. The closing date for applications is Monday 29th January and you can download a copy of the application form here:?Eastern Perthshire PB application form 2018
Residents in each Council Ward will be invited to vote on projects for their local area. You can vote online (details to be sent out later) or in person in Coupar Angus Town Hall on Saturday 24th February.
PKC are holding a couple of information sessions?on Tuesday 16th January in Rattray Community Connect from 1pm ? 3.30pm, and on the same day in Alyth Community Wing from 4.30pm ? 7.30pm to which you are invited to drop in for information, advice etc. Further sessions to be arranged in the New Year.

Royal Bank of Scotland closure

by

As you will be aware, the Royal Bank of Scotland is closing the branch in the Market Square and are planning to sell the property. We have for some time been in discussion with the bank to see if they were willing to enter into negotiations about the building and its potential use as a community hub.

This would provide support for all voluntary organisations in Alyth and information for residents. It would also help and encourage visitors to the town.

We continue to try and enter negotiations with them. In the meantime we are looking at funding opportunities to conduct a feasibility study to see if Alyth would benefit from a community hub, what facilities it could off to the community and where it might be sited.

Fundraising and AGM

by

As we have reported previously, the Development Trust is required to raise ?90,000 toward the Town Centre regeneration costs. As part of our strategy for achieving this significant amount of funding, we applied to the Sustrans Community Links fund in February for some of the town centre regeneration costs, including the replacement of one bridge. This is a highly competitive fund and we were very pleased to have been selected to go through to the second stage of funding and gave a presentation to a panel of 11 Sustrans associates in March. Sustrans were to inform projects by April 8th if they had been successful, unfortunately we received confirmation from them that they were delaying the assessment process and we will now not hear the outcome until early May. We are deeply disappointed by this delay but remain hopeful. We will report on the outcome as soon as we hear. We have also been working hard on a preliminary application to the new Scottish Enterprise Tourism Destination Development fund. The fund aims to support the highest impact projects proposed within tourism destinations, enhance the visitor experience and increase visitor spending. The Expression of Interest we have submitted focuses on the cultural and natural heritage of the Alyth Development Trust area which is one of Visit Scotland?s current priorities. If we are invited to make a formal bid, we will be looking to present a three year plan around this focus involving accommodation and food/beverage providers, local cultural and natural heritage attractions, events and activities.
The Trust needs to continually raise money for running costs. If you have any ideas to help us fundraise we would be delighted to hear from you!

AGM

The Trust?s Annual General Meeting is to be held on Wednesday 8th June at the Ogilvie Rooms at 7.30pm. Along with the AGM office bearers election we are delighted to announce that Jo Campbell Mackenzie is going to give a talk on her recent trip riding across Scotland with two highland ponies, two dogs and a rescue peregrine falcon. One not to be missed! Diane Cassidy from Perth and Kinross Council will also give an update on the Planning Aid Scotland Consultation findings, the regeneration of the town square and replacement of the bridges. Please do come along and support your Trust. We are currently working on a Strategic Plan for the Trust, which we hope to share with you at the AGM. This will state the short and long term objectives of the Trust relating to the findings of the Planning Aid Scotland Consultation report.

PAGE TOP