South Ayrshire village votes to give every home £500 for winter fuel
Residents will also get a free gym membership and TV Licence
Last updated 18th Sep 2024
Residents of a small South Ayrshire village have overwhelmingly backed plans to use windfarm money to help with winter fuel poverty.
Barr Community Council surveyed every household, proposing three potential ways to use the funds.
The questionnaire asked locals for their views on a Winter Fuel Grant that would give every home around £500.
The community council recently pointed out that many residents rely on expensive oil or liquid petroleum gas to heat their homes.
Other options put forward included covering the TV Licences for over 75-year-olds and membership to the Quay Zone leisure centre in nearby Girvan.
Every household
The proposal of a winter fuel grant to every household was the most popular among respondents, with 89 per cent supporting the plan compared to just nine per cent opposed.
Speaking to Clyde 1 Ayrshire, Barr Community Council Chair Tom Walker insisted it was time for the area to see the benefits.
He said: “We’re going to go ahead and talk to the wind farms that provide these funds, to implement this ballot.
“It’s not going to be means tested, it’s something that everyone and every household in the village of Barr will get.”
Covering the cost of over-75s television licenses was the next best supported, with 80 per cent backing the move, and 20 per cent opposed.
The Quay Zone membership was the least popular, but still had a large percentage in favour, with 72 per cent backing the proposal and 25 per cent against it.
“We’re also going to do the over 75s TV Licence and provide membership to the local leisure centre,” Tom added.
While the ballot focused on the proposed uses, it also sought locals’ views on whether they had felt the benefit of the windfarm funds already utilised.
Less than a quarter of village respondents reported that they had found there were ‘tangible benefits’ from the wind farm money.
Opposing voices
While the vast majority backed the fuel grant and, to a lesser extent, gym membership and television licenses, a small number made their total opposition clear.
The tensions between the groups looking to develop Barr Village Hall and those opposed to it was echoed in the report.
One comment stated: “None of these above benefits the Barr Village / Parish as a community, so they do not have the support of this household.
“We see the exercise to be a ploy to spend the community’s money on short-term sops rather than on longer-term needs, such as operational seeding for the community hall after Community Asset Transfer.”
Other comments included: “Funds should be for all ages and members of Barr Community / skip every month /vouchers for shop / subsidised fuel, logs, oil, gas for all in Barr / Quay Zone membership for all who want it.”
Another said: “Negotiate for a turbine for the community of cheaper electricity. The funds are divisive – we should have had a turbine here as the test bed area for South Ayrshire. The main issue in Scotland is fuel poverty, not for those retiring here who have sold elsewhere and have funds.
The last comment stated: “But we really need a mobile phone mast before anything else in the village. The lack of one causes many problems such as smart meters.”