Strachur & District Community Council
Minutes of Special Meeting
Held 19:30 on Wednesday 25th September 2024
Strachur Memorial Hall
Members present: Archie Reid (Convener), Ian Lowe, Isabel McGladdery, Steve Mclaughlin, Kirstie Reid and Iain Wilkie (Secretary).
Also in attendance: Donna Lawson, Hugh O’Neill, Nigel Potts, Stuart Watson (all Argyll & Bute Council officers), Chris Woodcock (Mull Car Club, Deputy Clerk of the Course, Argyll Rally) and 15 members of the public.
1. Convener’s opening remarks.
Archie welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced the representatives of Argyll & Bute Council and Mull Car Club.
2. Apologies and declarations of interest.
Colin Moulson (Dunoon Presents), Cllr Gordon Blair, Catherine McDiarmid, Lizzie MacDonald, and William McGladdery apologised for non-attendance. There were no declarations of interest.
3. Argyll Rally 2025.
The following is not a verbatim account of the ensuing discussion but attempts to record the principal concerns expressed by attending members of the public and responses to these concerns provided by Hugh O’Neill (Argyll & Bute Council: HO) and Chris Woodcock (Mull Car Club: CW). MoP: Member(s) of the Public.
(a) Consultation results.
MoP Asked, with regard to the Mull Car Club Consultation that closed on 14th September, when will the results be available and how will Argyll & Bute Council act on these results, particularly concerning revisions to the route?
CW Stated he could not specify when the results would be available.
HO Agreed to ask Sam Spencer (Mull Car Club, Clerk of the Course) about this.
MoP Stated that all attending the meeting were expecting revised proposals for Argyll Rally 2025, otherwise the consultation would be seen as having been a waste of time.
(b) Noise, particularly on roads outwith closed stages.
MoP Expressed the view that the rally cars produce excessive noise that has potentially serious consequences for residents living close to the rally stages and the routes between stages, especially at night.
CW Stated that all vehicles are tested against noise standards to ensure that they comply with the regulations.
MoP Observed that his consultation response had included data showing the unacceptability of the noise levels produced by the rally cars.
MoP Provided further observations supporting the view that the rally cars produced excessive noise.
MoP Asked: Did Argyll & Bute Council have any idea of the number of people affected by the rally?
Suggested that, since over 90% of the rally participants and most Council officers making decisions on the rally were male, there was a potential breach of the Equality Act 2010.
HO Said that he could not obtain details of everyone affected by the rally. He emphasised that he was trying to work with concerned residents, understood that some had been seriously distressed and asked the last speaker to send him details of her
particular case. He also noted that Argyll & Bute Council had to look across the board when making decisions pertinent to the rally, taking into account benefits and disbenefits.
(c) Recce session.
MoP Stated that recce sessions should be either abolished or properly policed, as competitors were not adhering to the rules (e.g. maximum speed 30 mph on sections of road that will be closed during the rally), and described specific instances of misbehaviour.
(d) Economic benefit.
MoP Questioned the economic benefit from Argyll Rally and stated that there had been no economic analysis.
HO Reported that Colin Moulson (Dunoon Presents) had conducted an economic analysis of Argyll Rally 2023, which had suggested that it had had an economic impact of over £300,000. Colin Moulson would be conducting an equivalent economic analysis of Argyll Rally 2024.
MoP Asked, if the projected financial benefit is important in deciding if the rally goes ahead, should the economic analysis not be led by Argyll & Bute Council rather than Dunoon Presents?
HO Said he would arrange for the Argyll Rally 2023 economic analysis to be sent to the Community Council secretary for wider circulation.
MoP Stated that there is a significant negative financial impact on businesses adjacent to the closed section of the B8000, especially those in the hospitality sector, that can affect the weekend of the rally itself and the week before and after. Businesses lose money. Otter Ferry is taken off the map. Is this fair?
MoP Asked, in the light of HO’s comment that Argyll & Bute Council had to “look across the board”, what methodology does Argyll & Bute Council apply when deciding if the rally goes ahead?
HO Answered that part of the methodology was attending this and other Community Council meetings and listening to and responding to residents’ concerns.
Made it clear that Argyll & Bute Council would not support compensation for loss of income due to the rally.
(e) Damage to sea walls.
MoP Informed the meeting that the sea walls beside the B8000 had been damaged by rally cars in 2023 and previous years and had never been repaired. Further damage was caused this year.
CW Said that a local contractor had been engaged to repair the sea walls.
MoP Asked who is normally responsible for safety on the B8000 and whether the current state of the road barriers represented a danger to the public.
HO Answered that this is the responsibility of Argyll & Bute Council, which had determined that the current state of the B8000 road barriers does not constitute an immediate danger to the public.
(f) Rally route.
MoP Asked why the rally does not use forestry roads.
CW Said that all forests in the area were out of bounds because of Phytophthora (larch dieback disease).
MoP Described her personal experience illustrating how closure of the B8000 is a great inconvenience to residents and may prevent them getting to and from their place of work.
MoP Expressed the views that everyone is unhappy; an entire community is united against the rally.
MoP Said that the same community had been subjected to Argyll Rally for four years. Why not rotate the route from year to year? Why not move it from area to area?
HO Said that he would contact the rally organisers with regard to the issues of concern, particularly:
i/ the potential to dispense with or change the night-time routes;
ii/ the possibility of rotating the routes from year to year and including other routes, so that any one route would be used only once over the event dates.
Iain Wilkie,
Secretary, Strachur & District Community Council