Mark Leatham of Scottish Fire & Rescue attended the Colonsay Community Council meeting on 29^th May, to encourage local residents to join the Colonsay Fire & Rescue Service.   The membership of the team of volunteers has fallen to six, which places pressure on the team, which should ideally be 10, so there are currently 4 vacancies, and with 2 members of the team approaching retirement, the manning level is close to critical.

The Colonsay Fire & Rescue Service is led by Donald MacAllister.   Donald joined the Colonsay team in 1993 and recently received his long service medal.The team provides several critical services to support the community.  As well as Fire & Rescue services, the team supports the local medical team to help in medical evacuations and is a vital safety service at Colonsay Airport, which needs to be available for commercial flights to operate.  In his time with the Colonsay Fire Service, Donald MacAllister has had few fires to deal with but perhaps a dozen call-outs a year to support the medical evacuation of injured and ill patients from the island.   As Donald says, many people, both residents and visitors, have benefitted from having a local, well-trained team. The members of the team receive extensive professional training, which in addition to a general training on the use of pumps and ladders includes Breathing Apparatus, Trauma management, and Road Traffic Collision (RTC) management.  The RTC management skills include learning how to stabilize a vehicle so that it is safe to work on and how to gain access, for example by removing the roof, before safely helping the vehicle occupants. Other skills include learning how to work at heights, known as Safe Working At Heights (SWAH), which as well as being essential for the Fire Service is a broadly useful skill to have. After a general, basic training, the majority of which takes place on the island, there is 3-year cycle of specialist training to raise and maintain the skill levels of the team.  Although volunteers, members of the team receive pay, and other benefits are available including a pension and life insurance.

Anyone interested in joining the Colonsay Fire & Rescue Service should contact Donald MacAllister.

Colonsay Community Council – Candidates for Co-option – Change of date of meeting

The Corncrake received the following announcement from the Community Council:

“Colonsay Community Council

Membership

The Meeting of the Colonsay Community Council, scheduled for 26 June has had to be postponed, due to the funeral of Lord Strathcona.  This meeting will now take place on the 10 July, at 6.30pmin the Hall. We are therefore able to extend the deadline for members of the Community to offer their services to be co-opted to the CCC.  Please consider this, as we are keen to widen the representation on the Council. Please contact any of the below to express an interest in making yourself available, ideally by the 3 July.

Keith Rutherford, Jane Howard, Alex Howard, David Hobhouse”

The following background is taken from an earlier CCC communication:
“In March 2018 nominations were sought by Argyll and Bute Council (ABC) to form  new Community Councils across the region, including Colonsay Community Council(CCC).  Only 4 candidates came forward for the 8 seats on the CCC, so there was no election.

The 4 “duly elected” members are now very keen to invite other members of the community to put themselves forward for co-option, to try and establish a larger spread of membership to represent our community, and to make sure there is a reasonable chance of a “quorum” (minimum of 3) for meetings.

Currently the adopted constitution of the CCC only allows the immediate co-option of 2 members, but if enough candidates come forward the CCC are keen to explore ways of getting the numbers up to the full quota of 8.

The duties of a Community Councillor are not onerous, but the body itself is an important link between the “powers that be” and our community.  It also administers the Marine Harvest fund and oversees the distribution of awards.”

Lochaber High School Musicians

Lochaber High School Musicians returned to Colonsay to perform a concert in the village hall on Tuesday 26^thJune. After consultation with the Estate in view of the funeral of Lord Strathcona, the concert went ahead with due respect.

Lochaber High School with Jen MacNeill (L)

The musicians from Lochaber High School played a program of group, trio, duo, and solo pieces, which were diverse, entertaining and well performed. They were led by Jen MacNeill and accompanied by Murdo Cameron.

Mandolin and Clarsach in harmony

Lochaber High School Musicians in full flow