Apatheldy Given Wake-Up Call

He indicated that his operation has brought, this year, no greater number of groups to Aberfeldy than in previous years, and that the “stag and hen” sector of his customers is just 12% with the total made up of corporate, charity and family customers.
Inspector Dunn advised that the police provision for Aberfeldy reflects the scale of population of the town, and that large increases in the seasonal population “require more infrastructure and that raises the question about how the cost of that would be met”. He urged licensees and commercial operators in the town to meet together and tackle the issue of promoting responsible drinking in all licensed premises.

Long Process

The issue of an alcohol drinking ban in public places enforced by byelaw is soon to be addressed by P&K, informed C’llr Ken Lyall, though “this process would be expected to take some time”.
Vehement expressions were made from the floor of “complete local disgust” with all the agencies and authorities and the “processes” that they are obliged to follow which delay, divert and blunt any timely action on pressing matters. Those administrators and office people dealing with the public do not directly experience the extent of night-time disturbance, degraded environment, heightened anxiety and other stresses visited upon local residents and principally the elderly in the community.
Much of the dissatisfaction was focussed upon the attitude demonstrated by various departments of the local authority. One young local mother, born and grown up in the town, summed it up with “if I could get out of here I would leave, as things are worse now than they have ever been”.

Need to Name Names

Sgt John Watson, Aberfeldy native, schooled and worked as a policeman in the town, maintained that the problems are largely home-grown and, to address them, people must be prepared to name names and stand forward.
Eddie Boyle reinforced this, explaining the procedures followed to issue an Anti Social Behaviour Order (ASBO). He stressed that it was a preventative measure to curtail specified actions, and only if the conditions of the ASBO were broken was there a criminal offence matter for the police to handle. He, too, stressed the need for a complaint procedure to be followed, and for people be prepared to go to court and give witness on oath in front of the sheriff regarding misdemeanours.
Steve McColl of the Palace Hotel (the focus of much open and covert criticism) maintained that increased noise outwith the premises could be traced to the introduction of the smoking ban. He held that 60+ percent of his patrons, being heavy smokers, now exit regularly to the street to smoke. He stressed that he had recently introduced security people to control the doors of what he described as “the busiest pub in town used by locals” (laughter). He reported that he was now meeting weekly with the police to address any issues arising. “We are not perfect, but we are improving,” he asserted.
Inspector Dunn insisted that there should be no noise outside licensed premised after 11 pm and urged everyone to phone if they were troubled by late noise or loud, large and intimidating groups. Pete Syme indicated that his company was obliged to procure the details of everyone who used its business, so if groups were identified as troublesome he could cooperate with the police and follow up the matter.
Steve Thomas of Free Spirit stressed that his, and the other companies, have procedures for ensuring that the visiting groups understand and respect the host community, and he felt that they were now being “slated for bringing tourists into the area”.

Adventure tourism is booming everywhere, he maintained, and the field had become highly competitive with inexpensive packages offered all around the UK and well beyond. He saw that the profile of the groups typically in Aberfeldy were in the age range 28 to 50 and were seeking outdoor activities, a place to eat and a bed for the night and not overindulgence and ‘letting themselve go’.

“...a shabby and tawdry town”
Joe Branston told the meeting that San Francisco Chamber of Commerce has Aberfeldy blacklisted as ‘a shabby and tawdry town’ unworthy of a visit. Five years ago he investigated relocating to the town from the USA and buying a house and a substantial business locally. In view of what he then experienced over a prolonged reconnaissance visit, he decided against it. His letter explaining why was published in Comment. Three recent letters in the last issue, he maintained, were almost identical to the one he had written then. “The town must decide what it wants to be. It has the potential to be a blue ribbon location for classy tourism. Does it want this – or to be the Stag and Hen centre of Scotland?” (prolonged applause).
Inspector Dunn urged that all groups in the community need to pull together to get things done. Pete Syme said that he was contacting businesses in the town to establish whether the adventure groups using the area are welcomed by other Aberfeldy enterprises and to survey where they are not wanted. He indicated that £50,000 was spent by his business alone in the town in the past month and that his sector was responsible for 50 local jobs. In answer to a question, he said that 54% of his clientele came from repeat business, and that last year “he raised over £100,000 for charity”.

Pull Together - Now!

C’llr Ken Lyall responded that, while businesses are important, those who live in the town are more important. There was prolonged discussion of the late licensing situation, after hours and under-age drinking and the lack of facilities for young people. Sgt John Watson insisted that the vast majority of the youth are good, decent kids and that only two or three caused problems, so it is up to the townsfolk to stop the hooligans. Willie Leszke urged passionately that the whole of Aberfeldy needs to pull together and that now is the time to do this.
Ken Allstaff spoke of the widespread alarm at the decline of the town and the related loss of confidence, potential loss of local residents and consequent downturn in property values. He cited the “dubious” local authority procedures surrounding the sale of the former girls hostel at Craigthuill.
On that theme Gavin Dunbar reaffirmed the widely expressed concern of the Community Council that money from that disposed asset - and from others like the town hall and library (soon to be stripped by P&K) - was destined not to return to the town’s benefit, but to be dispersed to ‘general funds’ in Perth.
The motif of the general apathy in the town and the local area was raised again. It was followed by the disclosure that the Community Council received a mere £300 annual grant from the local authority, which was identified as making the lowest grants in Scotland to these local organisations and as clogging any attempts at the local level to bring about improvements of any sort with the dead hand of ‘process’.