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Was there anything that changed your mind or will you still be voting against it next week?

Wasn't asked but a,good question.

Thank you for your observation, OCG, and also to Willsy. That was totally resolved after the meeting when I had a good chat with the Chairman. He’s clearly under a lot of pressure and perhaps my use of the term “sales pitch” in relation to the start of his statement wasn’t the best choice when I was just trying to suggest that there was no urgent need to “sell” the benefits of a battery farm to the people who were there. I was more concerned about finding out how much money was involved, what the implications for the club were if this is delayed or refused, what the club’s precise role is and what the mechanics of the whole project were. I think we are now a fair bit further on in understanding what we had previously perceived to be “Caley Thistle’s battery farm worth a ‘seven figure sum’ to the club.”

Fer fecks Don - put a review of the Airdrie game on pronto. Imho it is as crucial to remain in the Championship this season. Why the feck did I choose to follow ICT and Everton. At least the Battery Farm in Albert Dock is almost finished.

Chairman said that ultimate aim is to make the club self sustaining. Stressed that club now owns all the ground surrounding the stadium and intend to use some of the money as “seed capital” to take planned projects forward , which would generate income on an ongoing basis.

The example you give of Academy Street is one where there is a huge amount of public interest, being one of the main streets of the highland capital. 5% of a former golf course on the outskirts isn’t really of the same strategic importance to the council, is it?

Yeah but the board shouldn’t be pursuing this and should be focusing instead on traditional football matters and cutting the wage bill further. Wait what, £3.4m?!

Our cinch Championship home match against Raith Rovers will now take place on Friday 19th April, 7:45pm kick-off. The match has been selected by BBC Scotland for Live Coverage.

When Caley and Thistle were going through the merger big numbers like this 3.4 million were repeatedly mentioned to woo the fans to get what they required . Funny how these promises fade once the chairman gets what’s needed . Sack S.G and that annually will save a hell of a lot of money.Funny how the club can continuously pay huge wages to someone that has been nothing but a disaster for the club. Or am I missing something ? Surely if you’re running on losses you look at where you can save money . So what does the club benefit having this CEO ?

ICT Community Development ARE the Trust, and not two separate entities. Scroll to the bottom of the trust website - https://www.icttrust.org.uk/ - and click on Articles of Association, for confirmation. Then you can come back again with a new story on how this is all working in your head.

Can you not just get that info down your local boozer?

All of the media coverage, the trusts own website, and the planning application make it sound like its the trusts project managed by Craig Masterson. Happy to be corrected if you want to highlight where this outlines its not the trusts. Yeah. Indeed. That is possible - speculate to accumulate and all that jazz. But the chairman has said twice now that the debt will be cleared. So I think it seems reasonable to surmise that the debt is a priority. And if it is, then my question is legitimate.

The IRA application is not independent of the club as it is being made in the Community Development Department's name (not in the name of the Trust). As the club state in the material for the battery application, the Trust will be a direct beneficiary of the funding the battery farm will deliver, in terms of having use of the new Hub, not through having money paid directly to it. In that sense it's not a benefit in terms of direct funding but a benefit in terms of having a facility to use. This is still a valid community benefit in planning policy terms. In terms of the club's finances, the club doesn't have to wipe all of its debt before it invests in new facilities. Investing in new facilities can ultimately ensure the club climbs out of debt by providing the basis for developing sustainable new income streams.

Independant of the club, the trust have done a brilliant job securing the long term lease plus funding and grants to take the project this far. Feel free to pick the bones out of the fag packet financial figures I have posted previously which are broadly in sync with what Gardiner said last night. As of May 2022 the club were under water circa -£1.3M. Gardiner said the burn rate in the championship is £700K-£900K a season. So the accounts to May 2023 will likely show the club are roughly -£2M in the red. Project that through to May 2024 (-£2.7M) and May 2025 (-£3.4M) and I think it becomes a legitimate question: how much of this £3.4M being injected into the club will find its way to the trust?

It easy to think up questions on hindsight of course. But out of interest, did you manage to tease out any additional information on how the asset was valued, who valued it, or who the buyers are?

Interesting that people are disputing the benefit to the Community Trust when there is currently a planning application in with the Council - in the ICT Community Development Department's name - for a £700k development at the IRA playing fields. Which certainly won't be followed through if the battery application doesn't get passed.

Oh do share lol

Hah, good one. Nah, not really. Nothing that was said last night was new to anyone who has followed the details with the exception of the £3.4M figure that captivated the audience. It was interesting Morrison seemed to stop and quickly move on when asked to reveal who the buyers were - that could have turned into an uncomfortable moment given the rumours circulating the cities drinking establishments about who the buyers are.

I think the chairman's slightly aggressive response to Charles Banbermans question probably put people off? Tbh I think folk were respectful and were listening carefully and taking everything in? I think there may be further questions when/if meeting goes against us next week? Mainly how do they get accounts passed whilst we wait on result of ScotGov appeal and how will club be funded to keep going until then? Decent turnout and probably would have been more if more notice

The opening presentation set the tone as expected. Big pitch on the upsides of BESS, dismissed all concerns with some odd and weak examples, made the council the villains and implied there is a vendetta behind why this has faced some resistance. I was surprised at how personal they made that. The club want to stick with this tactic, stay on the attack, and have everyone pepper councillors mailboxes. The early drop of the £3.4M number certainly wooed the crowd. From then on, I thought the room was surprisingly partisan. Case in point being the boo'ing and heckling of the councillor which was embarrasing.

Can we open a vape shop at the battery farm?

It is, but worrying about where the money will come from in 4 years time compared to worrying about how we will pay the wages and suppliers this month?! I guess the idea is that we get 4 more attempts at getting back to the only league where we are viable as a full time club, and in the absence of a major new investment in that time, we then have to cut costs accordingly.

If the club are already >£2M under water as estimated, and they have at least one more season in the championship, that’s nearly £3M torched before May 2025. That doesn’t leave much wiggle room for investments and trust donations.

Your planning application wouldn’t be packed full of rhetoric that implies much of the financial benefits from your garage will provide a significant uplift for a local charity.

I can apply for planning permission for an extension to my house with the intention of selling it at a profit. I don’t need to disclose that in the application and I’m not being misleading. In the case of this project, the highland economy will still benefit from the project over its life, both from the facility itself and from the club and its offshoots spending the proceeds. It’s all just well written in a way to talk up the benefits, what else would you expect an applicant to do?

Deliberately vague and couched in language aimed at clearly giving the impression that the community trust will benefit quite directly and in a significant and non-trivial way. The reality outlined tonight is that the trust is at the mercy of the club, its debt, operating losses, and the car park investments. How about the other claim in the planning docs: “As a community owned project, the development will directly contribute to the local Highland economy over its life" Ok. Now we know it’s to be sold immediately - this claim is also misleading.

Thanks for the feedback lightlamp2, That's a shocking example using the Broomhill game as one example, what did they expect? If we had played either of the old firm away there would be no complaints as Buckie Thistle made a lot from their game against Celtic did. I am sure that the Buckie Thistle board will use their money more wisely than our club has done. On saying that I hope it works out for our club of we are fecked!

Yes. They said: “A significant proportion of the financial benefits accrued from the development will be managed through the ICTFC Community Development Trust. " This is in the same planning document where they stated categorically that the club owned the land (they admitted tonight they do not). More honest mistakes I am sure.

I have to say that I feel a good deal more positive about the whole business, now that some vital information is in the public domain following tonight’s meeting. The absolute game changer is that the sum involved is £3.4M or, as the Chairman put it “seven Ryan Christies”. However that figure could in part be a little vulnerable, especially if planning is delayed. And we were also told that there’s going to be some kind of “Caley Thistle Battery Farm Company” that will sell interests to concerns on the industry and these deals. The club has a 40 year lease on the land, which appears to be owned by Messrs Cameron and Sutherland. There was a lot of stuff making the point about how beneficial battery farms are and how low planning risk this is. I’m not sure what value that approach is so late in the day but I gather that everyone on the club’s mailing list will be getting an email with Councillors’ addresses for lobbying purposes. As far as I can see, the situation is that if it goes through in the 14th, then the £3.4M is pretty well in the bag. And if it doesn’t, all is not necessarily lost because there’s optimism that an appeal to the Scottish Government would be successful, but at some cost. Specifically, that could take 6-9 months, a perhaps modest slice of the £3.4M might be lost, there would be significant cash flow challenges and the accounts, which have been delayed until the end of May, would be expected to show a less favourable “going concern” status from the auditor. However I also note that, with echoes of the £900K of 1995/96, KCs now seem to be mobilised so I suppose disappearance into the legal morass can’t be discounted. I did venture to suggest that if the Council tie themselves in knots… they could always pay the £3.4M from the Commob Good Fund.

I wasn’t there tonight as I’m away for a few days and couldn’t change plans at short notice but, based on the comments from the club Chairman at the last Supporters Trust Meeting, they have plans to use the income to secure future income streams. The main example given was sorting the North Car Park, which will then be used by the workers during the construction of the Red John hydro facility, along with improvements to the Sports Bar.

Was a good meeting. Wasn't as bombastic or titanic as others on the forum were saying. Nobody asked any questions really about other matters. I'll just bullet point a few things If it gets approved we get approximately £3.4 Million lump sum. If it doesn't the club have already hired KC's to take it legal. Which they believe the Scottish Government will approve as they have stated in their national planning framework that battery storage is looked upon favourably. There was a sense of bewilderment as to why we are where we are with the council. Namely one Cllr Oldham who has pulled out this very rarely used protocol as he didn't get the result he wanted. The accounts were delayed because of the battery farm delay. As £3.4M will obviously change it significantly. Possibility of going part time if this all fails. Significant cash flow problem. As one example. We lost money for the Broomhill SC game as they took 2 fans. But we split the gate.

Basics from what I've heard is that if it fails next week then it goes to an appeal cos what the council did wasn't entirely legal apparently

Wonder what the next failed plan will be from Scot Gardiner ? Soon be looking at plan C then plan D as we already have had plan A and more likely Plan B nonsense . Trying to involve fans to save your bacon is laughable . Tonight is going to be very interesting Standing room only tonight if Scot Gardiner was organising the seats . Couldn’t organise a **** up in a brewery let alone a concert .

Week 26 Gringo: 269.50 Jodie Carnie: 255.00 The Caley One: 236.50 CDN Girl: 236.40 Robert: 216.00 Caleyjag: 215.80 Scotty: 213.90 The Mantis: 191.50 MrCaleyjag: 169.30 NOHO: 165.00 Mrs Gringo: 160.50 Caley Braveheart: 133.50 SOS: 100.50 Caley Canary: 87.90 Old Caley Girl: 34.20 Crown Jaggie: Bankrupt IHE: Bankrupt Wyness101: Bankrupt Joonya: Bankrupt 7/19 correct

No, as you have quoted they said a proportion of the benefits would go there. Not all of it. Not even the majority of it. They used a deliberately vague term rather than specifying a number.

It has been well discussed on here that this project is at least a bit controversial. The tight 3/2 vote underlines that. But that’s irrelevant. My point is that Ross Morrison, David Stewart, and others were making false claims tonight. Honest mistake or deliberate malfeasance? Make your own mind up.

I was surprised no one followed through on this. The planning application was all about the trust getting the cash, to spin the "community" benefits of the project. But they basically said tonight: "the club get first dibs on the £3.4M to pay of debt and they will use the remainder to make the club sustainable i.e. the car parks". this again confirmed what was said at the start of Feb - there is no long term cash flow from this for anyone, including the trust. If they are losing £650K-£900K a year in the championship, then if there is no promotion in 2 years, they are back to square one. Very rarely used, but still used occassionally (confirmed by a councillor after the meeting). Bizarre seeing David Stewart of all people riffing on this myth implyingh there is some ICT vendetta here (politician and fibbing ehh). For example from a few months back: https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/breaking-council-orders-work-on-academy-street-plans-to-be-324788/.

£3.4m sounds big, but, at current losses, that will only sustain the club for the next 4 seasons. What happens thereafter?

Further to the above: Each season in the Championship incurs a loss anywhere between £650,000 and £900,000. Season ticket money covers the first two months of the season only. Someone asked if rumour that we only had 3 months money in reserve were true. Chairman laughed and said he wished it was true! if council refuse permission at meeting on 14th, club are very confident that Scottish government will overturn that decision. Trouble is that will take 3-6 months, and we will have serious cash flow issues.

Approximately how many Ryan Christies is that?

Lots of criticism, sniping and still conjecture posted here on the matter yet seems when the opportunity presented some stayed silent.