Moniaive Initiative is currently working with walking charity, Living Streets (Scotland) on their national pilot project: Lower Speed Communities.  With communities of all sizes expressing concern over the speed and volume of traffic on their streets, Living Streets will be working with local authorities and community organisations in four pilot communities to support the introduction of 20mph areas.  In remote and rural communities such as Glencairn, cars are as vital as they are troublesome.  The village of Moniaive was shaped in an era of horse-drawn vehicles, when walking was ‘the norm’, but pavements were not necessary.  These narrow streets are now lined with parked cars, and groan under the weight of the HGV and agricultural traffic that powers our local economy.

Lowering vehicular speed is all about redressing the balance between walkers, cyclists, and vehicular traffic.  Lower speed communities benefit from cleaner air, less traffic noise, and safer streets.  At 30mph there is a 1 in 5 chance of a pedestrian being killed.  At 20mph that drops to 1 in 40.  Remember that next time you drive past the village school.

Our first target will be to increase local support for the principle of a 20mph area.  Before we even start to look at imposing speed limits, we want to discuss where the ‘problem areas’ are, and consider a variety of alternative means of encouraging drivers to reduce their speed in these target areas.

Whether you are a pedestrian, a cyclist or a driver  – a resident or a visitor –  if you have comments or ideas to share on this issue, please do contact us.

We have spent the last few weeks using our Development Grant from the Climate Challenge Fund to look at ideas for possible carbon reduction projects in Glencairn. These are some of the ideas that have come out of our local consultation. (You can get a closer look by clicking on the individual pictures.)

We have created a quick online Survey, so that you can vote for the scheme that you would like us to carry forward.  There are just 6 questions to answer, to let us know your preferences.  It only takes 5 minutes, and it’s completely anonymous. So why not click on the link now!

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/C27SNBT

We are pleased to announce that Moniaive Initiative have been granted £8,889 towards the Aerial Runway element of our proposed Park Improvement project by Dumfries & Galloway based charity, the Holywood Trust, an organisation dedicated to creating and improving opportunities for young people across the region.

This latest award brings the total of secured funding to date up to approximately £18,800.   Thank you to everyone who has donated to date, particularly the staff of Watsons Groceries, who donated over £100 from the sale of the “Big Graham” calendar over the Christmas & New Year.

Legal negotiations to secure the necessary lease on the park are still ongoing, but once this has been achieved, Moniaive Initiative will be in a position to submit grant applications for the remainder of the funds required.

We are pleased to announce that Moniaive Initiative have been awarded a Development Grant from the Climate Challenge Fund (CFF) to look at possible climate action projects.  You can help by sharing your ideas or even coming along to one of our workshops – please let us know if you’d be interested in this.  Further details on the poster below. You can also have a look at the CCF webpage to see what other communties are achieving or follow the link to watch a short film on one particular community: https://youtu.be/xkSV5-JvZT4

We would like to say ‘Thank You’ to the owner of Ebruchie for kindly letting us continue to use the shop window in the High Street.  Our latest display, a “no-budget” Christmas Window, was unveiled as the first event of the Moniaive Living Advent Calendar on Monday 12th December 2016.  Based on the ‘Buyarchy of Needs’, everything in the display is borrowed, recycled, upcycled, eco-friendly and/or handmade.

The bottle-cover, stocking and heart decoration were all made from a charity-shop blouse and scarf just a couple of days before they went in the display.  The hanging decorations were created from a collection of charity-shop ‘mixed media’ including book pages, stamps, lace and vintage buttons.   Even the hanging decorations on the doors are made with re-used ribbons and yarns (-thanks to Moniaive Playcare for the yarn-wrapped pine cones: they really add a splash of colour!)  We hope you enjoy looking at our Christmas display as much as we enjoyed making it!

With very best wishes for a Happy Christmas from the Trustees and Staff of Moniaive Initiative!

The next step on our journey to developing affordable community-owned housing is to find out about housing needs in our community.  Affordable housing is housing which someone living and working in the community can afford to buy, or housing for rent available at a monthly rent which can be afforded by someone on a local wage.

We wish to find out how many people and families are in need of affordable housing in Moniaive and Glencairn. Affordable housing can include homes to buy at below market value, self-build homes, homes to rent and community owned & managed homes to let. Affordable housing also includes homes for young people looking to set up on their own and older people who may find their existing house too big and/or expensive to run and less suitable for their current needs.

We are working with Dumfries & Galloway Small Communities Housing Trust (DGSCHT), who seeks to enable affordable homes for local people in small rural communities.  A survey has gone out in the post to all households in the Glencairn area, but you can fill it out online if you prefer.  Please share with anyone who has left the area having been unable to find an affordable home and who may wish to return.  The more responses we have, the stronger our case for affordable housing.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/8MDTCDD

In August 2016 we were awarded money from the Scottish Land Fund and the Scottish Government’s Rural Housing Fund to begin feasibility work on community housing in Moniaive.  This is a very exciting next step for us and we need your help.  We will shortly be uploading a housing needs survey which we would ask anyone with an interest in housing to complete, so we can get as full a picture as possible of what our needs are in our community.  If you would like to join our Housing Information Register to be kept up to date with this project, then please use the Contact Us form below to get in touch!

This month we’ve been busy doing some ‘hands on’ work in Macara Park with the Friends group.  Following on from a number of comments from parents regarding the slippery condition of the safety surfacing under the childrens’ play equipment, our volunteers decided to roll up their sleeves and tackle the issue.  We spoke to the supplier of the safety surfacing, and then to D& G Council (who inspect and maintain the equipment) and agreed that the first approach should be to clean the surfacing thoroughly with a pressure washer (no chemicals, just water).  The job took much longer than originally anticipated, but we think the results are worth the effort.  We also did a bit of weeding, cutting, and general tidying, to ensure that the play equipment, the benches, and the Park in general is ready for summer.  We would like to say a big thank you to Dave, who spent many hours operating the pressure washer, but also to everyone else who lent us the necessary equipment or helped with the tidy-up.  Now all we need is for the sun to come out!

We would like to thank everyone who took the time to attend our AGM on 24 May 2016.  We were very pleased to be able to share some of the work that we have completed this year, and to discuss how we intend to move forward with our project portfolio.

For anyone who missed the event, you can see a slideshow from the Community Presentation on our recent public consultation work here:

Community Presentation_AGM2106

We’d like to invite you all to come along to our AGM on Tuesday 24th May at 8pm in the Glencairn Memorial Institute.  Refreshments will be provided and it’s a good opportunity to come along and see what we’ve been up to, view our new Action Plan and chat to our board and staff members.  Any queries, please contact us through the website or at moniaiveinitiative@gmail.com