'I do not want to be seen to be funding a private fire service': Sutherland councillors unhappy over Carbisdale Castle firefighting scheme bid
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A move by the owner of Carbisdale Castle to source public funding to house a fire engine in the castle grounds has sparked concern among local councillors.
Samantha Kane - known as Lady Carbisdale - wants to accommodate a fire engine she has already purchased in a new woodland hub she is planning. It would be used to tackle potential wildfires in the area.
But Sutherland County Committee members, who heard about the plan at their meeting in Golspie on Tuesday, said they were not “comfortable” with it and were not prepared to support it financially.
Committee chairman Councillor Richard Gale said: “I do not want to be seen to be funding a private fire service.”
It was pointed out that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service already maintains a fire station at Bonar Bridge, less than six miles from Carbisdale Castle, and that this fire unit is experiencing recruitment difficulties.
The plan emerged as committee members discussed applications for funding from the Community Regeneration Fund.
Lady Carbisdale Community Interest Company Ltd, which was set up last October, has applied for £75,000 to create a new woodland hub in the grounds of Carbisdale Castle.
The community interest company was set up to provide “grants to community groups” and organise community events at the castle.
Highland Council project officer Paula Betts told councillors: “The hub will educate visitors about the Battle of Carbisdale and the history of the castle as well as providing educational and cultural opportunities.”
Confirming the intention to house a fire tender at the woodland hub, she said: “It will also house a rapid response facility for potential woodland fires in the area and will also be a training base for local fire fighters.”
The aim of the whole woodland hub initiative was said to be to “help economic recovery and sustain growth through the promotion of tourism, education, culture, heritage conservation, and climate change mitigation".
In a scoring system used by Highland Council to evaluate applications, the Carbisdale Castle project scored 18 out of 30 - the lowest score of any of the 16 applications under consideration.
The initiative was rated low in terms of robustness, engagement and support and value for money.
Ms Betts pointed out that the community interest company was newly established so it was difficult to assess how sustainable it would be in the future, although a business plan with income generation projections had been provided.
She said that local support or community engagement over the project was “not evidenced” in the application and that the letters of support received focused on the purchase of land rather than the woodland hub.
And she added: “One of the queries raised was to get a letter of support from the local fire service and more information on how the rapid response unit would work in partnership with the fire service and this is not clarified in the application.”
County committee chairman Cllr Richard Gale said: “Looking at this project, I am happy with the educational side of things but I would not be happy to approve funding for a fire tender.
“I have severe doubts about this particular application. I am uncomfortable with it and I do not want to be seen funding a private fire service.”
Councillor Leslie-Anne Niven said: “To be perfectly honest, I am not comfortable with someone’s attempt to run their own fire service. There are very few people available to do this job, and who would be driving it? It opens all sorts of issues about health and safety.”
Cllr Jim McGillivray said he was “iffy” about the fire tender aspect of the application but was keen to support development in the Kyle of Sutherland area.
Councillors decided not to reject the application after hearing that match funding had been secured for the project which could be used to purchase the fire tender, meaning any grant from the Regeneration Fund would be spent solely on the Woodland Hub and its activities alone.
It was agreed to defer a decision to find out more information and ascertain whether the community interest company would be prepared to remove any reference to the fire tender from the application.
