MEETING
24-02-04

PRESENT

R.Robinson, A.Scobbie, R.Lee, A.Irvine, L.McLean, J.McCarry, D.McCarry, M.McNeill.

IN ATTENDANCE

G.Matchett. Clacks District Councillor, J.Leeds. Housing Officer Clacks Council, J.Harley. Head Teacher Banchory Primary School.

WELCOME AND APOLOGIES
The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and apologies were received from L. Gow, P.C.Holden

JOHN HARLEY`S REPORT
The Council welcomed J.Harley who had come to the meeting to give us a report on the progress of the new Community extension presently being built at Banchory Primary School he told us that the Clacks Architect had because of the lack of funding and space at the school, had decided to convert the existing Utility room and an open space next to it into Community room plus crèche for the use of any group in the community. The present costing was put between £41,000 and £50,000.It was sprung on Mr Harley with 1 weeks notice that the work would start in the first week of Jan 04 and the projected time of completion was 12 weeks round about the Easter break.
He was hoping that if the rooms were independent of the school that the Community Council would like to be involved with the running of the rooms with them taking over the power of setting lets and supervisory capacity. The Council could also be Key holders of the rooms therefore it could in reality be independently run outwith school authority.
The Community council thought that it was best to set up a working party to look into the possibility of all the groups (cubs, scouts, B.B. etc) in the community wanting to use the rooms. Mr Harley explained that the new rooms will only have the basic furnishing and the crèche would needs toys, books and games. He might be able to get 1 computer with an access to the Internet. Alec Scobbie would try and find out if any of his contacts would be able to give funding for the Community rooms project. Since there were 3 Community Councillors in the immediate vicinity of Banchory the chairman did not see any difficulty of getting volunteer Key holders if the Community Council decides to participate in the project
He suggested that a meeting be set up with Mr Harley, Mr Hay and the Council to iron out any pitfalls.
George Matchett recommended caution on immediately accepting the running of the Community rooms since there are a lot of hidden costs and Liabilities involved with letting out buildings. Insurance, Fire regulations, Public Liability to name a few also we would have to look into the crèche regulations concerning who would run the crèche and what qualifications and police checks they would need.
It was thought we would consider the situation after a meeting had been arranged with Mr Hay.
George thought that this situation might not be something that the Clackmannan Council would like to consider because it might set precedents that they later regretted


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PC HOLDENS REPORT
P.C Holden was still off on sick leave therefore no police report this month again. It was commented on by the Community Council that surely some sort of substitute should be in place for community police officers that are absent for this length of time, the chairman will bring it up at his next meeting with Inspector Miller.

JACKIE LEEDS
Jackie informed the council that there was little change in the situation concerning the delph pond
Community Councillor A.Scobbie informed us that there had been a mix up with the tenders put out in Dec and new tenders had to be submitted and that S.Dawson the engineer is just seeing them at the moment so he does not think there will be any further progress until mid March.
Jackie enquired about the state of the safety fence at the delph pond since she had to get the firm that erected it to put it back up as it had fell or was pulled down a few weeks ago she was informed that it was down again she would inform the contractor to fix it as soon as possible A.Scobbie warned that if anything happened while the fence was down he would take the clacks Council to task for their negligence.
The new litter bins and dog poo bins that are going to be erected down at Carseveiw and Newmills are at the planning stage so it should not be much longer until they are installed.
Linda Mclean and Donna McCarry ask Jackie about the black smoke mark that goes up the side of the block of flats at 115-125 probably caused by children burning rubbish Jackie would look into it
Jackie ask the residents if they are finding the Land Services clean up on Mondays an advantage but they had not notice much but had seen the men at there litter cleaning D.McCarry also let it be known that she was taking her turn in her close cleaning rota system but other residents in the close were not Jackie said that the close cleaning rota system was being monitored as best as could be done but would mention the subject to the Land Services Management Officer
Community Councillors L.McLean and D.McCarry had several complaints about the language and uncooperative attitude of the road sweeper (the man was named but not included in the minutes.} The lollipop lady at the school crossing had to chastise the same road sweeper about his bad language in front of the children she was crossing, but he answered her that it was nothing they would not hear in their own homes, at one point one of the primary pupil had commented to him about his swearing, his uncooperative attitude was also said to cause concern since if he was ask to clear up certain types of rubbish he would not, saying it was not part of his job description but would not pass it on to the appropriate person he also kept moving rubbish left out for special uplifts, back towards the stairwells thus the rubbish was not lifted by the health and Safety since it was not at exact location specified and it was a danger laying about the stairways.
D.Reid had dealt with this sort of complaint before but it is now as bad as ever again so it was decided that the secretary should send a letter of complaint to D.Reid about the road sweepers bad language and unhelpful attitude.
The issue of the rubbish bins not being emptied at the very bottom close was brought up, the bins for blocks further up the Estate were moved into position for uplift by the road sweepers, why not theirs, Jackie explained it was an old agreement by previous Councils that the bins would be put in position but it never incorporated the bottom block who have to position there bins at the kerb across the far end of the car parking area.
Community Councillor A.Irvine ask Jackie about why no Blue Boxes at Blackgrange at this point Councillor Matchett intervened as he thought he was more informed to answer the question than Jackie. He said that Blackgrange would be getting the Blue Boxes since the whole of Clackmannanshire in the future will be incorporated into the New Waste Disposal Management there will be alternate weekly uplifts of all types of rubbish over the county but it will take time and careful planning.
Since new methods of re-cycling will have to be introduce not just in Clackmannanshire but also over the whole country. The days of the landfill sites are over and now that the license for the landfill site at Black Devon is not being renewed so there will be no landfill sites in Clackmannanshire any more, plus the Council will have to replace 1.1/2 Metres of topsoil at Black Devon to get it back to it’s original condition at great expense to the Council so it is inevitable that recycling methods will have to be introduced. The biggest problem is to get rid of non-biodegradable material that when buried will never disappear from the environment



GEO MATCHETT C.C.COUNCILLOR

Councillor Matchett thanked the Community Council for the invitation to address them,
The budget cuts from Government made it inevitable that the Council Tax and Water/ waste rates would have to be increased to maintain the quality of services provided by Clackmannan Council, water/ waste rates by 5.15% Council Tax by 4.82% overall increase is 4.90% although still higher than we would like, looking at it against the rest of the Country whose average increase is 5.1% he thought it was reasonable since to keep it lower would mean using emergency funds which in his view was not good housekeeping practices
As informed at the last meeting of the Community Council the financial shortage of £5 million has now been reduced to near enough £1 million
We were also informed that the building up of an emergency fund was a priority with him and he was pleased that it stood at around £1.7 million so that this reserve could be used for the Asbestos crisis at Greenfield which could run into around £500,000 he also commented that he was more than impressed with the response of the staff at Greenfield whose all hands to the pumps attitude to the very unusual situation was highly recommendable
Community Councillor A. Scobbie asked about the situation of CCTV for the Tron Centre Councillor Matchett informed us that as far as he was concerned it was at the top of his list along with the interest of the older members of his ward 18.He assured the Council that it was a measure of his credibility and integrity that the CCTV would be in place at the Tron Shopping centre in the next financial year April04-05 and hopefully the whole area given a well needed facelift not just for the traders but also for the residents who live there.
He informed us he has recently been made Vice Chairman health and social services hopes to meet major issues face on and hopes to have all Housing stock brought up to the levels set out in the 2001 housing act i.e. new kitchens, windows, inside and outside doors and gas central heating he hopes to achieve this by 2015 that to him would be a great achievement the rent in Clackmannanshire work out lower than the average for the whole of Scotland and any money generated from any rent increase would be used on the upkeep and upgrading of the housing stock the chairman interrupted Councillor Matchett here since time was tight and thanked him for a very informed report.

MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

The minutes were handed out and read they were then Proposed by Linda McLean and seconded by A. Scobbie

MATTERS ARISING

Re- L. Gow letter, Lynn was due to come to tonight’s meeting but because of an illness in the family she cannot make it she will attend next to confirm her position about being a Comm. Councillor
Re- M.Mawson letter, she is sorry but because of her ill health she feels that she will have to resign her position as a Community Councillor her letter of resignation will be put forward in the near future.
Community Councillor’s D. and J. McCarry noted the misspelling of their surnames in last month’s minutes apologies were given and the mistake rectified.
The Chairman cleared up the misunderstanding about the unexpected appearance of the Detached Youth Work team he read out the 2 E-mails received, the 1st accepting the Jan meeting invitation at this point the Chairman had been ready to add them to the agenda. The second E-mail he read out told him that because of the absence of members of the team and their heavy work load they could not make it to the Jan meeting but they would attend the Feb meeting he therefore took it that they would not attend.
Re-lighting at Old School court Geo Matchett informed us that the positioning and the strength of light bulbs (70 watt) of the street lighting was up to standard but it would be monitored and the lighting checked at night to see if the lighting is acceptable to current standards.

SECRETARYS CORRESPONDENCE

Re- the naming of the new streets at the new housing development at Cambus. The residents in Cambus have put forward several suggestions so it was thought best to leave it at that.
The naming of the new street at the Muirside development was also brought up and it was thought that A.Scobbie could look into the progress there.
A letter from Elspeth Attwool MEP was handed round to read with leaflets “Speaking up for Scotland”
Correspondence was read out from Kim Mathieson at Admin and legal Services about the 2004 elections of Community Councils
The Secretary read a list of Community Council members received from Clacks Council and most of them have left so it was the agreed that the Chairman would send another copy of the updated Community Council to Clacks but suggested that the C.C.C. only need to look in the Community Website to get the latest updates since he keeps it well updated.

TREASURERS REPORT

No bank statement so no finances this month. The treasurer handed out ink cartridges for R. Lee and L.McLean she also brought in the new Community Council notice Board for us to see it was well received we would have to get in touch with CLACKS council for it to be erected in the Tron council office.

A.O.C.B.

Computer handover Aileen Littlejohn was asked by the chairman when the funds would be released for the new internet link so as to have continued access since the Clacks Council discontinuing their involvement, he was informed that she had no recollection of this agreement but the Chairman referred us to the minutes of the Joint Community meeting on 29th may last year which states that the Annual grant shall be increased to cover 2Computer internet links. We will use the money from our grant to get our 2 Internet links running until the Chairman can get the situation clarified at the next Joint Community meeting.
It was suggested that the Chairman and the Secretary would receive 3 monthly cheques for Broadband internet links, the secretary was not keen on this arrangement since she would be happier if the payment was paid directly to the server. It was agreed that Linda would arrange for internet link at Broadband and get a standing order from the community Council to pay for the monthly link thus the Community Council would become the provider, with the power to cancel or transfer the link on a monthly basis in case either of the internet members leave the Council.
As the Chairman has already established his new internet link he will get in touch with his Server to see if he can get a standing order the same as the Secretary’s if not he will bring a receipt of the 3 Months payment along with an invoice from his Server and the agreement for the Treasurers books, but hopefully he will be able to have the same method of payment as the secretary.
The new premises for Healthy Living Imitative are ready (at old Allan Grant shop) at the Tron Shopping Centre and will be open in April.


There was no other business so the chairman brought the meeting to a close

DATE OF NEXT MEETING

30-03-04