Ballycastle and the ECOSAL ATLANTIS Project

You are cordially invited to attend a meeting to hear about the Ecosal-Atlantis Project and to meet others in the Cumbria, N Ireland and Scotland areas who have an interest in traditional salt making and the culture of salt.

To be held on

Monday 1st July

at

Solway Coast Discovery Centre

Liddell Street 
Silloth-on-Solway 
Cumbria CA7 4DD

2pm to 4pm

Please pass this information on to anyone you think might benefit from hearing about the proposed UK Salt Network.

RSVP to Andrew Fielding   aandafieldingltd@gmail.com     

For more information call 07749765203

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

A team from Bournemouth University have been working with partners in Portugal, Spain and France for the last 3 years to prepare background information to inform a salt network and to establish an Atlantic Route of Traditional Salt Making.

The team have been meeting with people along the UK's Atlantic coast and gathering archaeological and historical data about where salt has been made along the coastline. Our EU partners aim to support the traditional practices of salinas, whilst our UK route is focused more on archaeology, historical sites, food, ceramics and cultural activities based on salt which can add to local, regional and national tourism and sustainable tourism and economic development. To do this we intend to create a Community Interest Company to act as a co-ordinating body to promote these aims on behalf of the wider salt heritage community across the UK and develop the Traditional Salt Route of the Atlantic Coast.

The 16 page leaflet describing the UK Salt network can be found on the Ecosal web site.

http://ecosal-atlantis.ua.pt/index.php?q=content/salt-network-uk-proposed-part-ecosal-atlantis-route

http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/applied-sciences/research/ecosal-atlantis//index.html

http://www.youtube.com/user/halenffrind/videos?flow=grid&view=0

I look forward to meeting you at the Solway Coast AONB Discovery Centre on Monday 1st July and describing the project and the exciting future for salt heritage. Further local group meetings will be arranged specifically for Scotland and N Ireland as the project develops.

-- 
Andrew Fielding

A&A Fielding Ltd

http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/applied-sciences/research/ecosal-atlantis//index.html

http://www.youtube.com/user/halenffrind/videos?flow=grid&view=0

30 May  - Cheshire, Merseyside and Lancashire cluster - Middlewich Town Hall, Cheshire

11 June - SW cluster - Helston Museum, Cornwall

14 June - Southern cluster - Bournemouth University, Dorset

1 July   - Cumbria, N Ireland and Scotland  - Solway Coast AONB Discovery centre, Silloth, Cumbria

TBC - Wales - Anglesey Sea Salt Company, Brynsciencyn, Anglesey

TBC - The East Coast - Heritage Lincolnshire, Heckington, Lincs

Rathlin Ferry Saga - When Have Nots Can Have Yachts

Back in August 2012, the Pensions Ombudsman produced a report on a death in service benefit owed to the widow of a deceased crew member who'd been employed by Rathlin Island Ferry Limited [RIFL]; it included the following statement by Stewarts Solicitors:

"I regret that my [RIFL] clients are unable to discharge this sum at this time and my instructions are to raise discussions with the deceased’s solicitors in an effort to agree terms of payment."

Ciaran O Driscoll, a RIFL director, published a tender for a new yacht, dated 27 March 2013. Here is a snippet:

"Construction and Supply of new GRP sailing vessel.

Tenders are sought for the construction and supply of a new GRP sailing vessel of 15 to 17 metre in length, less than 2 metre draught, of 4/5 berths to accommodate 10/12 sailors. ..


The price guide for the tender is €175k to €230k. Please note that this tender invitation is subject to the receipt of grant aid support."

What does the Department of Regional Development (DRD) think of this development? We know that DRD returned £91,682 to the RIFL accounts for 2010/11 and an unspecified amount for 2011/12 which enabled the company to make a profit of £34,123. The amount returned for the recent two year period would appear to be of the order of £200,000. Has the RIFL director decided to take the returned claw-back funds and splash-out on a new £150,000 to £200,000 yacht instead of honouring the debt to the widow promptly and in full?

Could DRD not have done the decent thing by assuming responsibility for the payment of the debt in full? The email correspondence in June 2008 clearly shows that DRD officials were intimately involved in the transfer arrangements between the former and the new operator. Could and should our elected representatives and independent members of the DRD Departmental Board have done more to hold DRD to account?

Rathlin Ferry Saga and the Pensions Ombudsman 3

A Delicate Matter

Ciaran O'Driscoll, a RIFL director, and Danny Kennedy, DRD minister 2011-

Northern Ireland Assembly exchange 6 November 2012:

Mr Storey: Has he had any discussions with Rathlin Ferries Ltd about that issue, given that it was in the ombudsman's report back in August 2012?

Mr Kennedy: I am grateful to the Member for his supplementary.  He will realise that this is a somewhat delicate matter and that I am not at liberty to go into substantial detail.  I understand that discussions are ongoing between my Department and the operators, and I hope that we can get the matter resolved.

I received the following brief message from a Stormont MLA on 1 March 2013:

have been informed Rathlin ferry pension issue now resolved

But has it? Has the amount been paid in full? I can see no mention of the issue in the DRD Departmental Board minutes or the DRD Weekly Business Review minutes or in any briefing to the Committee for Regional Development.

Calmac accepted assurances, in an email exchange towards the end of June 2008 involving two DRD officials and a solicitor for the new operator, that the death in service and related provisions were in place.

Calmac email to Stewarts Solicitors [ccDRD] - 23 June 2008

Stewarts Solicitor's email to Calmac - 23 June 2008

DRD email to Calmac - 23 June 2008

Why, apparently, did no one from DRD or from the Department of Finance and Personnel check the documentation? Don't they have a responsibility to ensure that TUPE arrangements are adhered to? Have measures now been put in place to prevent a re-occurrence of such an issue?

Why wasn't the issue resolved during the course of the independent investigations in late 2008?

Also, is it satisfied that the operator has adequate procedures and finance in place to provide for pensions, death in service benefits and redundancies as specified in TUPE communications between this operator and the previous one? .. NALIL 18 November 2008

The new operator delayed for four years before accepting responsibility:

10. On 11 June 2012 Stewarts Solicitors belatedly told my office that there was no scheme in place at the time of Mr McCurdy’s death.  They accepted that Rathlin Island Ferry Ltd were liable for four times Mr McCurdy’s FPS, being a total sum of £101,668.  However, they said:
”I regret that my clients are unable to discharge this sum at this time and my instructions are to raise discussions with the deceased’s solicitors in an effort to agree terms of payment." [Ombudsman's report 1 August 2012]

RIFL's abbreviated accounts for the year ending 31 March 2011 were amended in November 2012 yet there is no mention of this significant additional liability, despite the qualification of the accounts:

"There is a material uncertainty which may cast doubt on the company's ability to continue as a going concern. .. At 31 March 2011, the net liabilities are £264,358"

RIFL's abbreviated accounts for the year ending 31 March 2012 refer to a variation to the DRD-RIFL contract which reduced the DRD clawback and returned £91,682 to the RIFL accounts for 2010/11 and an unspecified amount for 2011/12 which enabled the company to make a profit of £34,123. What was the unspecified amount?

I can find no mention of this variation to the contract in the DRD Departmental Board minutes or in the Weekly Business Review minutes. It would seem that an additional £200,000 plus has been handed over to the operators for 2010/12. Was there a stipulation that Mrs McCurdy would be paid in full? Has the Minister apologised to Mrs McCurdy for the distress she's had to endure?

Minister: "I understand that discussions are ongoing"

These words don't convey the impression of a minister in charge of his department. Why didn't he say, "Discussions are ongoing .."? Is this just another example of the Belfast deficit, of poor governance practice?

If the DRD media centre can provide answers to some or all of these queries I'll add them to this blog.

Giants Causeway World Heritage - An Inspector Calls

The Department of the Environment (DOE) has confirmed Dr Andrej Sovinc, representative of the IUCN, will visit the World Heritage Site following an invitation from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA).

The remit of Dr Sovinc’s visit will be:

- to visit the Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast World Heritage property and meet those responsible for its protection and management;

- to assess the overall state of conservation of the property and its Outstanding Universal Value;

- to provide technical advice on the management of the property and its Outstanding Universal Value; and

- on the basis of the findings, to prepare a joint draft report on the requirement for ensuring the protection of the property’s Outstanding Universal Value.

The February visit sounds more like an inspector calls than a response to an invitation from a Northern Ireland minister. The Department of Culture Media and Sport is the Westminster department which is responsible to UNESCO for the protection of World Heritage Sites across the UK. 

Draft Decision:  36 COM 7C
The World Heritage Committee,
Other conservation issues not reported on at the 36th session under Items 7A and 7B
12. Requests furthermore the State Party of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland to halt the proposed development of a golf resort at the World
Heritage property “Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast” until its potential impact on
the Outstanding Universal Value of the World Heritage property has been assessed. .. LINK

A little background on Andrej Sovinc [pdf file]:

"Ernesto Enkerlin appointed Kathy McKinnon as WCPA Vice-Chair, while in Europe, Andrej Sovinc was appointed as Regional Vice-Chair. 

“Protected Planet”, managed by the United Nations Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) and supported by IUCN and WCPA presents relaunched and repackaged the World Database on Protected Areas in a user friendly internet accessible manner and linked to Google applications. Be sure to check www.protectedplanet.net. 

Trevor Sandwith, Director of IUCN Global Protected Areas Programme was recently elected as Chairman of the  International Academy for Nature Conservation, part of BfN, located on the island of Vilm, Germany. Andrej Sovinc is also on the Council. The Academy provides support and interchange to nature conservation professionals in the European Union countries."

It's a little disconcerting that the Protected Planet folks can't find us on the map!