Machrihanish Airbase Community Company

A public meeting was held in Victoria Hall Campbeltown at 7pm - 9pm on Tuesday 29th November 2011.

MACC's Directors and Advisors brought everyone up to date with progress and invited ideas from the community for the future development of the Base.

An idea of the type of work that MACC have been carrying out since January 2011 until now (September 2011)

Jan 5th -Negotiate with Scottish Government to accept the ballot and approve results

Jan 11th - Meet with Highlands & Island Airports to clarify and agree the area of ground required by them and the future development or air traffic.

Jan 12th - Meet with Highlands & Islands Enterprise on the subject of engaging a business consultant and possible funding.

An EGM has been arranged to propose an amendment to the Memorandum & Articles of the group. It will be held on Thursday 16th June, 2011 at 7:30pm in the Red Cross Hall, Kirk Street, Campbeltown.

The letters of initial rejection and later consent by the Scottish Government for MACC's right to buy have been made available for download on the web site.

The result of the second community ballot was 94.72% saying YES and only 5.16% saying NO. Hundreds of ballot papers were caught up in postal delays at a time of exceptionally icy weather conditions with lying snow affecting many roads. The delayed votes were counted separately.

MACC received the following in an email from Ian Hay, Defence Estates on December 9th 2010.

Ian - I pleased to see, from your website, that you are proceeding with the second public ballot. I wish you every success this time.

Ballot papers have been sent out to all eligible voters in the PA28 6 area. The Ballot has been funded by HIE and Argyll & Bute Council and arranged with support from the Scottish Government Community Assets Branch. The deadline for return of Ballot papers is 5pm on Friday 17th December 2010. Prepaid envelopes are included with the Ballot papers so all that is needed is to detach the Ballot paper at the perforation, put a cross in the appropriate box, put the Ballot paper in the envelope and post, in order to reach The Burnet Building in Campbeltown by the deadline.

On 11 August, the Scottish Government declared that there were problems with the recent MACC ballot and wrote to MACC setting out the issues. See the text of the letter for yourself in the Downloads section.

MACC is preparing a response to each of the Scottish Government's 6 points and expects to meet with MOD and Scottish Government officials in the near future to discuss the way forward.

Issue 1, July 2010, is out now! See MACC Newsletter online.

Following a successful application to Argyll & Bute Leader Fund, we have appointed DTZ as consultants to carry out our feasibility study and business plan. In partnership with WSP they will also carry out an appraisal of the liabilities. If the business plan shows that the airbase will be a viable proposition then the community will asked if they wish to support the buy-out.