Local parent and Community Counsellor Fiona Halliday wished to start a support group in Kirknewton for parents and carers of children with additional support needs.  She recognised that parents and carers can experience high levels of isolation, and thought that a regular group would help people to meet and share experiences.  She noticed that Thursday 1st Feb is also “Time to Talk Day”, a day that encourages open exchange and talking to reduce isolation for people suffering mental health issues.

The Kirknewton Christmas Family Fair and BBQ was a great success, raising over £1500 for local community organisations.

The Kirknewton Community Development Trust wanted to do something slightly different with the annual event, making it less about craft stalls and more about family friendly Christmas activities.  They also put less into publicity and more into entertainment with an additional marquee, a magician (three shows), snow machine, BookBugs, Mini and Me, Scout games, face painters, balloon makers, local choirs and the Kirknewton Primary School Brass band.  Santa was also there for the whole duration, giving out 100 books to young people.

The Gala Committee are running their own whisky night for Burn’s Night.  It takes place in the Kirknewton Pub on Friday 26th January from 7.30pm

Tickets are £10 for 6 x 25ml measures of whisky.

Tickets are available from the Inn, Kirknewton or contact the Gala through their facebook page.

Michael Crosbie, who runs the Boxcir group in the village, will be starting a running group on Satuday 27th January.
It will be , primarily , aimed at beginner to intermediate runners.
The initial plan is to run, jog, walk or power walk 5 full laps of Kirknewton park on Saturday, Monday and Thursday mornings at approximately 9am.
If interested , just turn up on morning or check out his facebook here

The first set of minutes for the new Kirknewton Community Council are now available here.

Minutes will be made available once they are approved – these minutes are from the December meeting that took place on Tuesday 12th December, agreed at the January meeting which took place at the Green Room on Tuesday 9th January

The list of the new Kirknewton Community Council members can be found here..  This is the page you can see all Council minutes in the future.  You can approach them individually or e mail infokirknewton@gmail.com

The December minutes cover PC Alan Murrays crime report and a variety of items the new Community Council hope to get up to speed on in this new year.

West Lothian Councillors Stuart Borrowman (Independent), Willie Boyle (SNP), Harry Cartmill (Labour), Pauline Clark (SNP), Tom Kerr (Conservative), Dom McGuire (Labour) and David Tait (SNP) on the West Lothian Council Development Management Committee have all voted against the Fauch Hill windfarm development based on landscape and visual objection put forward by the West Lothian Council planners.  The only major objector was Edinburgh Airport, potentially concerned it may affect their flightpaths over the area.  

This decision, in light of devastating Council cuts, also means Kirknewton loses £80,000 a year in a “best in Scotland” Community Ownership model, West Calder and Harburn lose the same and the wider West Lothian lose a similar amount of community benefit.  In Kirknewton alone the minimum socio-economic impact could mean the loss of three full time equivalent jobs in the community and support for several businesses and volunteer groups.  This also puts staff support for supporting the Community Development Plan, running events such as Fireworks and the Christmas Family Fair, our youth projects/youth club and the housing for the elderly all in jeopardy unless funding is found beyond July 2018.

West Lothian Council Planning had commissioned their own independent report on visual impact, as Scottish National Heritage did not raise an objection, but they had not conducted a report on socio-economic impact for the communities to help balance the Development Committees decision.  Indeed some members of the Committee didn’t seem to fully understand that socio-economic impact is now important at Council level when deciding such matters, nor the unique best deal in Scotland investment package that was on the table for the communities of West Lothian.

In an independent survey, which asked about the location of the windfarm, 43% of the total sample of respondents from the Kirknewton Community Council area expressed some measure of support for the proposal compared to 9% that expressed some measure of opposition.  The rest were ‘neutral’.  Results were similar in West Calder.  The elected Kirknewton Community Council put that view forward to councillors in support of the wind farm. The West Calder Community Council seem to have ignored the results of the community survey nor seem to have discussed the findings at their meeting.  Despite that, planners deemed the survey presented by Kirknewton as evidence of majority community support to be ‘inconclusive’ – despite the methodology being a key part of West Lothian Council’s own adopted Community Engagement Toolkit and their own recent consultation on council cuts.

This is the second time West Lothian councillors have voted against the majority community view on the Fauch Hill windfarm, community empowerment and direct community funds to help support the work of community groups in Kirknewton and West Calder.  It’s also led to Kirknewton staff having to withdraw their time to support West Lothian bodies in tourism, social enterprise and European funding for community groups and rural business so they can concentrate on looking for alternative funding steams for the Kirknewton community.

Tony Foster, CEO of Kirknewton Community Development Trust, said, “It’s not an unexpected decision but a sad one, seeing as some of the Councillors have visited Kirknewton to see the good work we have done and want to do similar things in their own area.  They know it’s impossible and potentially devastating for our community to continue without core funding.  Also some of the Councillors and objectors already benefit from windfarms, some guided by initial advice from members of the Kirknewton Community Development Trust.  We’ve also done quite a bit of work on infrastructure and promoting the outskirts of the Pentland Park as it is largely unexplored, so more people can enjoy the view and maintain businesses there or create additional employment.  That support will not be there without ongoing core funding.”

“This windfarm was without government subsidy, promoted Scottish Government targets on  carbon reduction, community ownership of renewables, engagement and empowerment and was for the needs of the many, not the few.”