The story so far

You might think that buying a petrol station is probably an unusual spin-off from a proposal  for a windfarm – but Sleat Community Trust have done just that.

Rather than dealing with the community benefits which had been expected to accrue from the alternative energy plan, we are now putting our energy into developing a tourism information centre, a service station and garage services.

The Trust is also developing plans to provide woodchips to feed a new boiler being built at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. The boiler will heat the College's new building Fàs - due to open next month - and any future buildings.  The Trust hopes that other local businesses will soon adapt to the efficient and ecological ways of biomass, which would allow us to support a full-time wood chipping business.

The Trust came into existence following a windfarm proposal, which required the setting up of a body through which to receive monies and disperse any profits. The proposal, which was backed by the local estate and around 80 crofters was, however, later dropped .

The Trust continued with its work though, bringing in the CADISPA project team from Strathclyde University. CADISPA (Conservation and  Development in Sparsely Populated Areas) is concerned with developing sustainability both through impact on the ground and by academic studies. The researchers sent out a community questionnaire and also sought the opinions of young people at school and on-line.

Duncan Macinnes, the chairman of the trust, said that the researchers came to help the Trust establish itself and gather information about community development.  Since then, proposals for the development of sports facilities at Kinloch are underway; funding is being sought for a local subsidised taxi service, following a study into the lack of local transport infrastructure; and a community buyout of 1,000 acres of forestry is in the pipeline.

In addition, support totalling £280,000 from the Big Lottery allowed the Trust to buy the filling station at Armadale, which included a house (now being let to local residents) and a garage which has been leased to a local mechanic who will develop its garage services. The aim is to generate a range of sources of income as there is little profit to be made from selling road fuel on its own. The HIE Community Land Unit at Auchtertyre are providing revenue funding for the first year of business operations.
 
There are now two trading companies – Sleat Community Trading Company Ltd owns the petrol station, while Sleat Renewables Ltd will provide the woodchip supply to Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. The Trust already owns enough wood to provide a steady supply for the next year and intends to develop this as a continuing and expanding business.