We hope to lease the land from FCS under the National Forestry Land Scheme. Before the lease could be confirmed, we had to prove to FCS that we have community support for the project. FCS advised us that this meant balloting all the potential beneficiaries of the project – all the residents of Mull and Iona. We did this using Electoral Reform Services as a totally independent body. To be deemed successful, the ballot had to meet the following criteria:
- 50% turnout rate
- a simple majority of those voting to be in favour
On Friday March 9th 2012, Electoral Reform Services confirmed the result of the ballot which is below:
Total Yes Votes 1650
Total No votes 53
Total blank votes 2
Total Turnout 1705
Percentage of votes in favour 96.7%
Percentage of electoral roll in favour 70.6%
This result is a tremendous indication of the support for the Garmony Hydro project – thank you everyone who voted and to the many volunteers who worked so hard to promote the ballot and make it such a success.
The ballot was conducted by post, with papers delivered by Royal Mail on Wednesday 15th February 2012.The ballot papers included an information sheet, a voting slip and a prepaid return envelop.