Statement from Cairnryan Community Council (“CCC”)

[admin]

To date the CCC has taken the view that it is not productive to enter into public debate and argument with the Cairnryan Hall Welfare and Facilities Group (“the Group”). However with the recent passive aggressive comments made on Facebook by one of the Group’s directors, and the prejudicial and bullying behaviour we have faced from the Group, it is perhaps time to set the record straight.

To clarify, the CCC did not want to move its meetings away from the Village Hall, our regular Wednesday night meeting was ousted in favour of the Group’s own Sports Club. We tried to book, but our booking was declined, and we were told we’d have to sublet from the Sports Club. This sub-letting came with a raft of unworkable conditions that were possibly even unfair contract terms, so we decided to hold meetings away from the hall. The Group did then change its evenings to accommodate our meetings, but when we tried to book our meeting from 7pm to 9pm, we were told that a new rule had been put in place that all bookings had to end by 8.30pm. This wasn’t workable for us, and some CCC members felt very uncomfortable using the hall following the persistent obstacles and the number of bullying and passive aggressive comments that had been made, so it was decided to keep meetings away from the hall until the Group stopped attacking us. It appears from the recent comment the Group still wants to attack us passive aggressively.

More recently we requested a booking for a weekly free coffee morning with free bacon roll on Fridays for our local community. This request was declined, and we now see that the Group is offering a pop up café, which we can only assume will be charged for. The Group will say that its kitchen wasn’t registered for use and hasn’t been since it took management of the hall on 1 April 2023. Despite this, the Group still charged us to use the kitchen at the Coronation event last year. The Group could have said that our coffee mornings couldn’t offer bacon rolls until the kitchen was registered, but it didn’t, it took the decision to just decline our booking. This feels like unfair prejudice against members of the CCC.

We have faced a barrage of aggressive behaviour from the Group, and we don’t really know why. We have tried to offer benefit to the community, and we have been blocked. Then we see that the Group sees fit to be able to dictate what activities the CCC should be undertaking for the village with absolutely no discussion with the CCC, as shown in the Group’s Directors’ Report for Spring 2024. More than that, the Group seems to prefer to discredit the CCC around the village. We have tried to build bridges with the Group, but to no avail. We do not wish to enter into an argument or further inflame any dispute with the Group, and we certainly don’t want to follow the Group’s tactic of spreading gossip and misinformation around the village, but we felt that with every story there are two sides, and the CCC’s side should be heard. We very much want a harmonious village with all groups working together. It appears that the Group does not want the same thing, as you can see from the recent comment made by one of its directors.