Once again I have taken on the job of organising the Raffle and Tombola. We are hoping for a dry sunny day for our local Roberton Show.   The Show has been very successful in the past and we hope it will continue.  With the help of a small committee we will try and do our best to keep it up and running for many more years.

We have made up some wonderful hampers for the raffle with the very kind and generous donations from the people of the valley. I hope you will be able to help again this year by donating grocery items and bottles 

We also need volunteers to help with all the events on the day. Please contact me either at Highchesters Farm or telephone 01450 373474.

The meeting opened with the Annual General Meeting.  Robert Francombe was elected Chairman and John Hepburn is Vice Chairman.  Both the Secretary and Treasurer will retire as soon as replacements are found.  The Community Councillors remain as last year.

Not much has happened over the last couple of months. A new strategic plan for SE Scotland has been approved recently. This doesn’t change much but ABO and SBC had to be allowed to send in their comments.

There is a meeting on 10th September in Selkirk where ABO, SBC and the MOD are going to discuss the MOD issues and whether the whole appeal should be put on hold.

Only people and groups who had sent in objections to the Reporter were invited to attend. This included the Community Council. This issue is complicated so a barrister will appear at this meeting to argue that the appeal should not be delayed (or sisted).

We all thought that work on the site would start soon once SSE had met the conditions attached to the consent. SBC has been dealing with the conditions.

Condition 15 prevented SSE from starting work on the site until works required to the B711 and minor works to adjoining land had been carried out. The work done in the spring on the B711 and land next to it did not seem to have been finished.  Everyone therefore assumed that Condition 15 had not yet been met and that work on the site hadn’t started. SSE needed to start work or their five year permission dated 27th August 2008 would have lapsed.   SBC have decided that this condition had been met and as a result SSE has done some work somewhere on the site.

The Gardener’s Forum once again will be organising the Harvest Supper in the Forman Hall after the Harvest Thanksgiving service which is at 6.00 pm on Sunday 6th October. This will be the fourth year since we re-launched this Valley tradition. It is a great informal evening and probably the best value-for-money event for miles around.

All are welcome, including friends, family and guests, so let’s make it a record turnout this year!  Please spread the word to ensure that everybody has the date firmly on their calendars.