In
March 2005, 40 local people attended an inspirational presentation from the Westray
Development Trust. At the end of the meeting, everyone agreed that a similar
approach should be explored for Comrie – The Comrie Development Group was
formed. 200 members of our community came together in October 2005 to set
priorities for action and agreed to establish a Development Trust for Comrie.
Comrie
Development Trust was officially launched in July 2006 at the village festival ‘Comrie Alive‘
which was attended by over a quarter of the village. Membership of the Trust
has since grown to over 700 members making us one of the best represented
Development Trusts in the UK.
Following
overwhelming support at a community ballot for the idea of the Trust buying
Cultybraggan Army camp on behalf of
the community, the Trust began the process to secure the site for the village.
The community ballot had a turnout of 72% and a majority in favour of 97% –
this result was the most conclusive community ballot at the time, under the
Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.
The
purchase process took many hours of volunteer time, those involved were
motivated by the end goal of the community owning 90 acres of land by September
2007 – as long the Trust could raise the purchase cost and the community were
happy with the plans. Funding for the £350,000 purchase price was obtained from
the charitable foundation, the Tudor Trust, with the Big Lottery fund
via HIE and Scottish Enterprise having supported business
planning for the deal.
On
Friday 6th July 2007 the Trust signed the
legal documentation to purchase Cultybraggan Army Camp from the MOD for the
benefit of the community. This historic and major community buyout of 90 acres
of land was effected under the Land Reform legislation. The keys to
Cultybraggan Camp were handed over to
CDT on 20th September 2007.
In
January 2008 nearly 400 people took part in the “Big Design Day for
Cultybraggan” highlighting the local enthusiasm to look at the future of
the camp. And as they say…….. the rest is history – or as we like to think – history
in the making.
