Highlights: Land purchase looking at final details, such as responsibility for boundary fences. CSY are preparing tender documents for the village hall to send out to potential building contractors.
News
OCA/OCA SCIO AGMs, March 4th 2025
Highlights: OCA – Significant progress on winding up OCA to transfer all assets to OCA SCIO. This will be the last OCA AGM.
Meeting minutes OCA SCIO 4.3.25
Committee meeting, March 4th 2025
Highlights: Brief meeting immediately following the AGMs. The committee voted to retain the existing people in the roles of Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary.
Committee meeting, February 5th 2025
Highlights: Work on the village is currently on hold to some degree, pending progress with the land purchase. OCA members met with people that led on the building of Abbey St. Bathans village to compare notes – very productive!
OCA/OCA SCIO AGM announcement RESCHEDULED!
OCA and (technically separate!) OCA SCIO are pleased to invite you to this year’s AGM. Please save the date! Sunday 9th February 2025, 2.00pm in the Village Hall.
Please note the new date: TUESDAY 4TH MARCH 2025, 7.30PM IN THE VILLAGE HALL
EDIT: Due to a combination of circumstances (possibly a clash with school holidays and Six Nations Rugby match) we had very few attendees from the community on the original AGM date. In fact we were not quorate and so could not continue with the meetings. In consultation with those present we have a re-arranged date, which will hopefully be more suitable for lots more community members.
As usual, a summary of the big news of the year will be given and both committees will stand down and be re-elected.
If you are not already, please consider signing up to be a voting community member of the SCIO. This will be necessary in order to vote in the new SCIO committee! You can sign up here.
Committee meeting, January 15th 2025
Highlights: AGM preparations. Latest village hall cost estimates from the QS are much higher than 2 years ago. Approach from here agreed is to approach builders for more reliable cost estimates.
Committee meeting, November 5th 2024
Highlights: All current Trustees of the “old” OCA have now signed and agreed, allowing us to wind up OCA and move fully to OCO SCIO. Our new QS has come back with revised costs for the village hall, which are reduced but still need further input. We have been informed by our solicitor that the land purchase should be tied up before the end of this year.
Committee meeting, September 17th 2024
Highlights: Hall Planning Application submitted and awaiting status from ELC via CSY. Funding discussion with Community Wind Power to be requested to formalise agreements. First construction company made contact with OCA, requesting to be considered for the hall build!
Committee meeting, August 13th 2024
Highlights: Winding up of “old” OCA and moving fully to OCA SCIO is nearing a close. One more trustee signature required. OCA SCIO financial accounts submitted to OSCR. Village hall land purchase details being reviewed.
Village Hall Planning Submitted!
After a lot of time and effort spent, OCA are very happy to announce that the village hall Planning Application has been revamped and resubmitted!
You may already be aware that OCA took the disappointing decision to withdraw our previous Planning Application after some points were raised by East Lothian Council, which needed addressing in detail before our application was likely to proceed. We went back to the drawing boards with CSY, our architects, and went through a formal “pre-Planning Application” with ELC. This gave us a chance to get as clear an idea as possible of what ELC would like to see in a revised plan for our village hall.
Lots of iterations and a Local Place Plan later, and we now have our modified design committed to (electronic) paper. The changes are minor, in that the form and function of the design we all voted on is essentially unchanged. The hall now sits just over a metre further back behind the village green wall; and improved car parking, including an accessible parking space and footpath to the hall, are now formalised in the plans.
You can read the whole (now much more extensive!) document set here. The ELC Planning Application numbers are 24/00747/P and 24/00748/CAC for the new hall build and old hall demolition, respectively.