Issue 161 | September 2025

Hello dear Voice readers, it’s the start of September, and time for another issue! After a hectic summer I am appreciating the gentle transition to autumn. And while life mostly continues not to follow the restfulness of the season, a softness around the edges – some much-needed rain, blackberry walks, swallows on the move – is thankfully present.

But with this shift has come another. The busyness of the summer afforded a degree of burying my head in the sand, in terms of the ‘wider world’. But as I have been gathering news for this Voice, my state of semi-ignorance came to an abrupt end. Suddenly I was immersed in shocking realities - Paul Laverty (among hundreds of others) being arrested for conscientious and peaceful protest, ugly scenes of anti-immigration demonstrations, and the apparently realistic suggestion (in mainstream press) that Nigel Farage might feasibly become UK Prime Minister. Was this real? It felt like I had not just been occupied with school holidays for the past couple of months but inhabiting a completely different planet, now just coming to land in an illusory dystopia.

Closer to home, news was coming about a mismanaged community consultation on the future of the island’s only care home, Montrose House.  Or as it now appears, the decision to cut the facility to ten beds had already been made, with the ‘consultation’ (which was attended by many islanders) coming after. This is despite the intention of the Health Integration Joint Board in Ayrshire, as Sally Campbell reports in her piece on the topic, “to build greater capacity in our communities and provide more ways for service users and local people to share their views…to help shape services.”

Next, an announcement of a planning application from Isle of Arran Distilleries to expand the pumping station near Pirnmill. With two distilleries operating now, this will presumably enable them to increase the amount of untreated trade effluent being discharged into the sea. And without thorough testing of the water quality in the surrounding area, the impact of the waste on marine life, which is composed of a mixture of harmful chemicals, is not clear. The application is open for responses until 19^th September, and readers - islanders and visitors - are encouraged to object. Perhaps especially because there are now sustainable alternatives that can be implemented for dealing with trade waste.

With so many seemingly insurmountable issues piling up, it was enough to make me want to retreat ‘underground’ again.  For some time, I sat with the magnitude of these situations, facing the fact that I can’t really do anything to change them, feeling shock and despair, and disabled. But still the questions arose – what am I doing to help? What can I possibly do? Slowly over a few days I realised that many of the issues raised in the articles here were starting to coalesce around the mass lobby of MSPs in Edinburgh later in the month. And it may only be a small part in a huge and intractable set of situations, but I have signed up. So far, none of the MSPs that cover our area have replied to confirm they will meet me. But I hope they do, because from Palestine, to plastics, and the plight of seabirds, to opposing cuts to Montrose House, incinerators in Irvine, and the pollution of the Kilbrannan Sound, there will be a lot to talk about!

In whatever ways you spend your days in the coming weeks, may you also find the peace and gentleness of this autumn with you, Elsa