Interview: Chair Agnes Rennie (History and Work)

I’m Agnes Rennie. I chair the board of, uh, Galson Estate Trust, and I live in Galson village, which, coincidentally, is right in the middle of Galson Estate.

The idea of the trust, um, probably was first raised about seven years ago, and a steering group was set up, uh, following an initial exploratory meeting. And, uh, a group of volunteers took that steering group forward. Um, after the first couple of years, uh, we were fortunate to get money from the, the lottery which, uh, part funded a, a development officer who worked with the steering group to do that initial work, and, uh, in 2005 the trust was formally established, elections took place, um trustees, board members were, were appointed, and then in January 2007 the land was purchased for the community. And so, uh, from that date onwards Galson Estate, all 56,000 acres, have been owned by the, by the community.

It’s a large estate in terms of landmass, but most of the townships all run along the coast, and we’re talking about 22 townships. So we have all the townships in that area of North Lewis from Port of Ness in the north to Upper Barvas in the south, not including the area known as Cross Skigersta, which is actually owned, uh, by the government, and has been owned by the government since just shortly after the First World War, when the land was purchased to establish new holdings for, uh, ex-servicemen.

The board of, of the urras (trust) are entirely volunteers and, um, in the absence of a, of a full-time manager have taken the role of policy makers at board level and also, uh, managers, shared managers of, of the trust. Um, but we also have, um, two full-time members of staff, one uh, who is our trust ranger, uh, another girl who is, um, a development officer whose job is centred around carbon efficiency, um, carbon reduction and energy efficiency through the community. And we have a part-time administrator and we have two other part-time staff who work at a recycling plant, uh, which we run on behalf of the local authority. Um, but that’s, that’s a good balance probably, but I don’t think we ever intended that, uh, the board would have to continue to have this, uh, this responsibility for so long, but, uh, we certainly hope that that will not be – will not have to continue for too long.

The trust is involved in a number of initiatives. Um, as I mentioned, we have, um, a ranger. Her work, um, involves environmental awareness raising, but also, um, safeguarding the environment of, of the trust area. She works with schools, works with crofters, and, uh, works with visitors to the area. It’s, um, it’s been a very, very good post and it’s one that’s constantly evolving, and one that we consider to be very important, uh, in the role that the, that the community trust has.

Um, our Powerdown officer, um, is, is looking at, at projects which encompass carbon reduction within the community and also energy efficiency across buildings. Again she is involved in a number of projects with, with, um, schools. She’s involved with, with, um, a number of community groups, and she’s um – a very interesting project that she’s participated in, indeed has, has started, is a series of markets which have – last year ran through the autumn and the winter, and helped, encouraged both producers of vegetables and, and fruits and other food products, and also local, local shoppers to, to buy locally.