Background
To bring Culdees to this point so far has exhausted all my resources. Since my only income is my state pension of £35.88 a week, there was some serious thinking about how to go forward on this less-than shoestring budget: I am of the mind frame that everything is possible and a minor challenge like no money is when inventiveness is called upon: I looked at the buildings and decided that with volunteers the barn adjacent to the house could be transformed into a bunkhouse, to meet the demand for beds by the many hill walkers and Monroe baggers who frequently knocked on the door and asked for accommodation. We opened the Bunkhouse and B&B in April 2003 and at this point of writing we are all most able to pay for the running costs averages £3000!for the whole place, like council tax, insurances, heat fuel, water, electricity, phone bills and food for the volunteers, (The first things which need to be tackled is installing a woodchip boiler and a solar system and an heat exchange system). We even were able to purchase a polytunnel.
I
as founder invested in the land, and at the
moment function as a bank, financing the property for future members at
a
presumably reasonable rate of interest and will be reimbursed over time
until
the loan is paid back. Until then, in order to avoid a ‘feudal Lord and
serfs’
situation which can create resentment, and which could deter competent,
solvent
and informed community seekers, I
will
do my best to make my intentions about this subject very clear and it
needs a
number of bouncing-off ideas-sessions to crystallise my thoughts:
Being
a ‘benign’ owner has had an undesired
side- effect in that sense that people project all kinds of
parental/authority-figure issues onto me and we attract mostly people
with few
skills and limited funds who are, perhaps unconsciously, seeking a
generous
‘parent’ to take care of them and I ended up functioning like a
substitute
mother with a nest of community children to look after, which is not
community!
(having said that, I do not want to generalise, because there are a
number
of long-term
volunteers who have chosen
not to work for money elsewhere but commit themselves to serving this
project and
so far without even receiving pocket money)
Understandably I am not eager to relinquish any
power until or unless others shoulder their load of financial, legal,
maintenance
and other responsibilities. At
the
moment I am liable for any lawsuit or damages and financially
responsible for
maintenance, taxes, insurances with no legal recourse to induce others
to pay a
share of these expenses if there were a dispute.
(In the
If a community member cannot afford the entire
lease
fee at once, he/she can make a down payment and payments over time; If
one of
the long-term volunteers wants to become a member with all the decision
making rights,
how does that to be dealt with? So many hours (minus the ones for food
and
accommodation and their share in the running cost)
are considered a credit
point towards a share? How has the
ratio to be of members who can afford to pay downright their lease with a down-payment and
mortgage member and
earn-credit-as we-go-along members?
I myself have some still-un crystallised ideas
and bounce that off you:
Although I have yet not monitored and
researched everything, I calculated that our estate can provide for the
needs
for a hundred houses (may be even more) for families, singles and
elderly and I
issue one hundred leases. Each leaseholder has one vote.
We start the first stage with, say, twenty
founder-members
who can afford to buy their lease outright (plus those who put money in
a
‘savings account’ until
they have the
right amount, earning them credit points as they go along). With that
amount I
pay off my investments and loans and re-invest the rest in a communal
kitchen/dining room, a community house where people can reside for
their first
–trial-year and a number of family houses-for rent for the same
purpose, and
setting up some income-generating businesses and –most important-
replace the
old, very unsustainable oil fired Aga and boiler
now used for cooking
and heating, install solar panels, wind generators, heat-exchange pumps
and a
sewage composting system, not to forget adapt my diesel fuelled car to
bio
fuel. (how far can
the pounds stretch?) Beside
the paying members, long-term volunteers work alongside them for food
and lodging
in a caravan
After that first year, the members who want to
continue start building their house by builders (our own building
business?!) / help
each other /self
build. The
ones which, after all,
decided that this life/community is not for them, can leave and their
share has
to be freed, which can be paid for by the second-stage incomers, the
settlers.
Those second-wavers pay also their lease
outright. They can move into the vacated communal house or static
caravans and
start their trial year. The money generated by the second wave, is now
used to
pay back the last investments. The
remaining is now used for building more rental houses, continuing
improving the
infrastructure and developing more communal space.
Meanwhile the third-wavers, who do not have the
money to buy their share outright, have been able to organise
themselves
financially and structurally and set up a housing co-op and have used
their
time to apply for funding and grants; they have created credits by
working in
the community and they can now enter the trial-year and live meanwhile
in one
of the rental-houses
until they can move
in their own self-build low-cost house.
My money is now mainly invested in the rental
houses and the rents and income from leases will be my interest and
pension. (Again,
this thought needs further crystallisation).
This interest will
be enough to invest in
something that I call my “Secret Folly”,
and which has been ‘nagging’ me for more than twenty
years. I will
reveal my secret now for the first time and I shout it out: I WANT TO BUILD A CARILLON
IN THE HILLS AND
EVERYDAY AT
(In the
I then want to invite the carillon students to
come each for a month to play on our carillon.)
I envisage that when the village is well on the way to take shape and is independent and self-supporting and does not need my investments anymore (and I have been able to indulge in my folly) and I know that my ‘brief’ has been executed as instructed/inspired, I can relinquish control over the development and donate any profits I made to our Charity which we set-up when we bought Boreland farm. The charity will gradually own everything except the owner-built houses and the founders will get the remaining of the lease back when they move on Newcomers will have to buy their lease for the original price plus inflation. Everyone will own their houses but not the land.
The name of our charity is: The Universal Health and Education Trust and it is a registered Scottish charity; registration number: SC 013443