Business meeting

• Present and apologies
• Declarations of interest
• Minutes of 2024/25 AGM
• Convenors report
• Treasurers report
• Election of Office Bearers

Open public discussion of 25/26 Annual Report and issues and priorities for 2026/27

Kilfinan Community Council Annual General Meeting Report 2026

Covering the villages of Tighnabruaich, Kames, Millhouse, Ardlamont, Otter Ferry, Kilfinan and Portavadie

This short report provides an overview of Kilfinan Community Council’s activities in 2025/26 and is intended to support discussion at our AGM on Tuesday 30th June 2026 in the Kyles Church Hall at 5pm. After a brief formal business meeting, the meeting will be informal, giving people a chance to drop in, ask questions, and discuss any issues raised in this report or new matters they would like us to take forward.

Introduction

Kilfinan Community Council was re-established in February 2025 after a period of dormancy when there were too few members to operate. This AGM marks the end of our first full year back in operation. Details of meetings, agenda, minutes and reports are available on our website.

Your Kilfinan Community Councillors are: Nikki Brown, John Butcher, Nicola Greenall, John McColl, Ed Pybus, Catriona Renfrew, Robin Webster, and Vicky Wince.

Areas of focus

This section gives a short summary of our main areas of activity during 2025/26. More information is available on our website or by emailing secretary.kilfinacc@gmail.com

Local Place Plan

We worked with Argyll and Bute Climate Action Network to develop a Local Place Plan with a climate lens. The plan provides a basis for engagement with Argyll and Bute Council and helps set priorities for action within the community.

The plan was agreed in February 2026 after many months of local engagement. Throughout 2025 we held a series of events, listening to local stories and aspirations about community wellbeing, alongside consultations and awareness sessions on place planning.

The work also drew on other local projects and community consultations. Finding healthy and resilient ways to live and thrive rurally has been a consistent theme in community discussions for many years. This engagement helped open up wider conversations about current challenges, and opportunities to protect, strengthen, and restore our communities.

The plan has now been submitted to Argyll and Bute Council and is available on our website.

Roads

Concerns about roads were regularly raised with us, so we held an open event with Argyll and Bute Council to give residents a chance to raise issues directly. These included:

• speeding and lack of speed limits
• overhanging trees
• poor drainage maintenance
• potholes
• cycling routes and paths
• obstructions on verges

There has been progress in a number of these areas. We continue to encourage residents to report issues directly to the Council, and to let us know where problems are not addressed. We are also working with the Council and the Development Trust to develop active travel routes throughout the parish.

Residents in Millhouse have long campaigned for speed restrictions in the village. We raised this with Council officers, who proposed speed limit changes across the wider area. We ran a public consultation on these proposals, with results published on our website, showing strong support for reduced speeds.

We have now responded to the Council’s proposals and look forward to working with them to take these forward.

Resilience planning

In January 2025, Storm Éowyn caused widespread disruption, with several days of power outages across our communities. This highlighted a number of issues around emergency planning and local resilience.

We brought together community organisations including Tighnabruaich Development Trust, hall committees, housing associations, Argyll Countryside Trust, Inspiralba, and the Coastguard. This workshop helped coordinate local planning, and TDDT has since made progress in equipping village and church halls to provide local support during future emergencies.

We have also continued discussions with SSEN about compensation clarity and the potential to support local food providers to supply emergency food during outages. This work is ongoing.

Ferry and bus services

Public transport was highlighted as a key issue in Local Place Plan consultations. We have been working with local providers through the Cowal Transport Forum, the ferry liaison group, and directly with council officers and operators.

Raising issues with CalMac has helped secure greater use of replacement vessels when the Portavadie service is cancelled due to technical problems. We have also worked with CalMac on timetabling, including planned maintenance, to reduce disruption to school travel and improve connections with buses and trains in Dunoon.

We have asked CalMac to introduce a booking system for the Loch Fyne service and have been discussing the need for a later request sailing. If you have views on this, please let us know.

The £2 bus fare cap has reduced travel costs, but improving connectivity across the area remains a priority. We continue to work with the Council to explore options to ensure bus services better meet local needs.

Argyll Rally

The Community Council was not in place during the full planning cycle for the 2025 Argyll Rally, but we raised concerns we had heard locally about disruption with both organisers and Argyll and Bute Council.

At our last AGM, held shortly after the 2025 rally, we heard significant feedback about disruption caused by road closures for residents, businesses, and visitors.

From the start of the 2026 planning we engaged with the organisers to find ways for the rally to go ahead, whilst reducing the disruption to our community. When the proposed route was published, we submitted proposals to adjust stage routes within the KCC area to reduce disruption. All these proposals were ignored, and no changes were made to any routes with our parish. We then raised concerns with Argyll and Bute Council, met with officers, and submitted detailed feedback from the community.

Council officers have now approved the proposed routes and issued a motorsport order. We continue to raise concerns that community input has not been adequately reflected in the process.

Forestry planning

Representing community interests in the statutory forest planning process is a key role for the Community Council, given the extent of forestry across our area.

To support this, we established a forestry subgroup, bringing together councillors and others with an interest in local woodlands and land management.

The group enables us to submit detailed responses to forest plans, most recently for the North Otter and Ardlamont forests. By mapping old paths and access routes, we have suggested ways to improve public access. Drawing on local knowledge, we have also identified areas that may be suitable for peatland restoration and native woodland creation.

Health and social care services

We have heard significant concerns about health and social care services linked to our local medical centre. We gathered community views, engaged with the primary care team, and held an open session for residents. We also received input from the Argyll and Bute Citizens Advice patient engagement worker.

We are now asking the Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership to engage with us on the following priority issues:

• homecare: lack of services
• ambulances: response times and coordination
• Dunoon hospital: access to beds
• dentistry: long waits and lack of new NHS registrations
• physiotherapy: long waits and limited local provision
• telecare: access to services
• Interloch transport: lack of provision for carers
• audiology: waiting times exceeding one year

Other areas of work

We have highlighted concerns about retaining population in the area, particularly young families, as part of Argyll and Bute Council’s depopulation work. There are no clear solutions yet, but we are planning a meeting with the Council’s early years team. We have also engaged with Live Argyll to raise concerns, and will work with Tighnabruaich Development Trust to explore childcare options.

We have discussed library provision with Live Argyll. While there is no likelihood of the library van returning, we are looking forward to working with Dunoon Library to find new ways for people to engage with the service. If anyone is interested in helping with this, please get in touch.

Clothing recycling, along with wider recycling issues, has also been raised with us both directly and through the Local Place Plan consultations. This is something the Community Council will look to take forward over the coming year.

Working with other local groups

A key priority for us is working with local organisations to better understand and address community needs.

In 2025/26 we have:

• strengthened links with Tighnabruaich District Development Trust
• nominated a member to the Kilfinan Community Forest Board
• begun working with the Kyles Coastal Community Group on sewage discharge issues
• collaborated with neighbouring community councils on ferry services from Dunoon
• continued to develop constructive working relationships with Council officers and elected members