Public Letter – Cumrye

We have submitted the following public letter on behalf of the people of Cuminestown to Aberdeenshire Councillor and Council Officers:

Dear Sir or Madam,

We write to you on behalf of the communities of Cuminestown, Garmond and Monquhitter Parish. It has come to our attention that the Cumrye Sheltered Housing community in Cuminestown is at threat of closure. The Monquhitter community stand strongly against any plan that would involve the forced eviction of members of our community, or shuttering of this building.

We believe that the shut down of the Cumrye Sheltered Housing is a false economy which will damage our community, the lives of our residents and the methods that have been employed thus far fail to follow Aberdeenshire Council Place Principles. Our community has the right to have a voice in any decisions being made about it, and we believe we have solutions if Council Officers would stop and listen.

Damage to our community

Residents of Cumrye have been members of our community for decades. They are members of most of our social clubs, key volunteers in our community organisations and they are a regular presence at any event. This is not a group of elderly people who have been hived off into a nursing home to live out their final years. Having Cumrye Sheltered Housing accomodation within our village means residents have been able to continue living independently within the area that they call home.

By having the opportunity to live within Cuminestown, residents of Cumrye have been able to remain close to their families. Children living nearby are able to visit grandparents just around the corner from the school. Adult children are able to see their parents regularly, even if they do not have transportation to larger towns. Support between generations is incredibly important and examples are included in the testimonials provided by our community. 

We all know from extensive research in Health Economics and the Sociology of Health that the ability of older or disabled people to be engaged in a supportive community, with strong social ties improves their quality and length of life. To move these residents out of our community would both damage our community and damage their quality of life. In addition, it is a false economy. As you will see in many of the testimonials attached to this document, residents of Cumrye both support our community in many, often unrecorded ways, but our community also supply support to Cumrye residents that would otherwise require hired care-givers by Aberdeenshire Council.

Failure to involve the community

We are disappointed in the way this “consultation” has been carried out – it is effectively a failure to follow Aberdeenshire Council’s own policies around involving the community in economic, social and service decisions. Vulnerable members of our community were served with what is effectively an eviction notice after not realising there was a problem. They have felt that their own response to a survey, which was sold as a way of improving conditions, has doomed them to losing their homes. When the Community Council asked why the community at large was not informed of these meetings, they were told that there was no legal requirement to be consulted. Very few people in our community were aware of these events, so they did not show. The Community Council and Amenities Committee invited council officers to host another meeting in the community and were being fobbed off – until we announced a Public Meeting. It appears our vulnerable community members were easy pickings, until we stood up for them. This is not a good way to run a consultation, or care for our community.

Cumrye is on the chopping block because it does not have the same local amenities as other places. However, it is the fault of the Council for cutting those services to the entire community, not just Cumrye. We do not have an adequate bus service because the Council cut that. We do not have a Dr Surgery because the Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership have not put forward a plan to reopen the Cuminestown Health Centre yet. How can our community grow when the Council appears to be hacking off bits at a time?

Cumrye is on the chopping block because it does not make enough money. We were not warned ahead ot time that the facility was losing money. We were not able to examine the books, and have not received all the information needed to find out what type of situation Cumrye is in. Members of the community have not been provided with information about how much it costs to run Cumrye, what level of vacancy is acceptable to cover running costs, what repair costs are required to upgrade Cumrye and what work has been done to make sure that Cumrye is being filled to its full capacity. Multiple members of the public have recently complained about the failure of the Council to adequately advertise vacancies at Cumrye- their comments are included in testimonials. This entire process has been run with an assumption that these services will be shut down, with very little information given to the residents of Cumrye or Monquhitter in general.

Solutions – Follow the Place-based Policy

Since the announcement that we would be losing members of our community to the bigger towns, there has been quite a lot of distress. This was followed, as it always is in Monquhitter, by creativity and practical solutions. 

We, the community of Monquhitter, are not ready to give up. There are multiple options on the table that can be explored. We are a community, we have resources, skills and talents to solve this issue, if we are only given a chance. According to the Scottish Governments ‘Place based Principles’, 

“We must adopt a more common-sense approach that focuses on what is important: people and communities. To maximise the impact of our combined resources we must work better together. 

Implementation of the Place Principle requires a more integrated, collaborative and participative approach to decisions about services, land and buildings. “

We, the representative and residents of Monquhitter call upon the Housing Services, and our elected representative to sit down with us to discuss the state of Cumrye and the path to a solution which will keep our families, friends and neighbours from being torn away, but allows the council to better use the resources we have here.

Regards,

1. Claire Totton, Secretary on behalf of Monquhitter Amenities, Member of SWI & Cuminestown Art Club,
2. Kathryn Vincent, Chair on behalf of Fyvie, Rothienorman and Monquhitter Community Council, Member of Monquhitter Amenities Committee, Resident of Cuminestown
3. Wendy Strachan, Cuminestown Resident
4. Patricia Fraser, Cuminestown Resident
5. Doreen Sharp, President SWI
6. Pat Taugh, Former Resident, Evergreens Member, SWI
7. Keith Douglas, Cuminestown Resident
8. Annette Duncan, Resident
9. Sandra Gray, Resident
10. Mairi McRobbie, Resident
11. Linda Delves, Cuminestown Resident
12. Faye Chapman, Resident
13. Martin Gladman, Resident
14. Moira Sivewright, Resident
15. Mark Ailing, Resident
16. Morgan Fraser, Resident
17. Diane Smith, Resident
18. Ian Smith, Resident
19. John Cruickshank, Resident of Cuminestown
20. Maureen Cruickshank, Resident of Cuminestown
21. Gwenyth Lowe, Resident Cuminestown
22. Margaret Lowe, Resident
23. Cath Gordon, Resident
24. Violet Urquhart, Garmond Resident
25. Petra Quirie, James Tennant Playing Fields
26. Dionne Reid, Resident
27. Kelly Monkhurst, Resident
28. Rene* Bryce, Resident
29. Peter Bryce, Resident of the Village
30. George Grey, Resident
31. Nadia Soto De G, Resident
32. Mrs J Burrows, Resident
33. Berrie Rigby*, Resident
34. Rosie Rigby, Resident
35. Dereck Thomson, Resident
36. Morag Gavin, Cumrye Resident
37. I Wilson, Cumrye Resident
38. John Elder, Monquhitter Amenities
39. Andrea Duguid, Garmond Resident
40. Stacey Chapman, Resident
41. Carol McDonald, Resident
42. Irene Youngson, Resident
43. Kenneth Youngson, Resident
44. Sarah Robson, Cuminestown Resident
45. Laura Taylor, FRMCC member & Cuminestown Resident
46. Sandra Fraser, Resident
47. Maureen Johnston, Resident
48. Annie Taylor, Resident
49. Albert Reid, Resident
50. Neil Robertson, Resident
51. Alexander Wilson, Resident
52. Jackie Lund, Hairtyme Salon
53. Hayley Andrews, Resident of Cuminestown
54. Moira Thomson, Resident of Cuminestown
55. Amanda Urquhart, Resident of Cuminestown
56. Edith Simpson, Resident of Cuminestown
57. Rhiannon Clark, Resident of Cuminestown
58. Irene Urquhart, Resident of Cuminestown
59. Nicola Clark, Resident of Cuminestown
60. Kaitlinn Higgins, Resident of Cuminestown
61. Owen Anderson, Turriff
62. Kelly Monkhurst, Resident of Cuminestown
63. James Ross, Resident of Cuminestown
64. Melissa Ross, Resident of Cuminestown
65. Joe Ross, Resident of Cuminestown
66. George Fraser, Resident of Cuminestown
67. Jennifer Cockburn, Resident of New Deer
68. Una Gill, Resident of Cuminestown
69. Hamish Gill, Resident of Cuminestown
70. Brandyn Bisset, Resident of Cuminestown
71. Lorna Milne
72. Patrick Milne
73. Joanne Cruickshank, Resident of Cuminestown
74. Maxine Seed, Resident of Cuminestown