A. G. M. HELD AT 7:30PM ON WED. 11TH APRIL
IN THE SUPPER ROOM AT THE KIRKCOLM VILLAGE HALL
PRESENT: – Malcolm Baker, Matt Halliday, Fiona Halliday,
Scott Baillie, Ian Morral, Karl Jackson-Barnes,
Ros Surtees, Elly Baker and Carrie White.
APOLOGIES: – Margot Nicol
IN ATTENDANCE: – Willie Scobie – Cllr, Bobby McKie – Kirkcolm Bowling Club, John Dougan – Cllr, Kevin Wyllie – Police, Louise Cochran – Parent Council, Janet McCloud – WAWA, Ian Dick – Cllr, Margaret Bailey – Welfare.
The minutes of the last meeting were verified by Matt Halliday and seconded by Fiona Halliday and accepted with no objections.
POLICE BUSINESS
Not a great deal to report. A person was reported by a member of the public on the 15th February selling beds from the back of a van, police attended and ascertained that nothing illegal was happening. The police were glad to receive the call.
Also on the 15th someone reported a person shooting deer, again everything was found to be in order.
On the 1st March, young persons in cars were stopped; one person was found to be in possession of drugs.
Some fly tipping has been reported in the area – please call 0845 6005701 to report anything suspicious.
MATTERS ARISING
Post Office & Shop – Margaret Baillie was left a message relating to a temporary service, but no contact number was left. There has been no further movement relating to the shop.
Speed Signs – The go-ahead has been received following the consultation process (KCC and Parents Council made positive responses including request for timings to include the nursery) however the latest plans were not consistent with those issued for the consultation. There are a number of concerns relating to the location of the signs. Malcolm Baker to write to Jane Bridge after consultation with Louise Cochran.
Lighting in Fishers Lane – Scottish Water and Leslie/MWH have agreed to do this work when construction starts in Kirkcolm.
Village Hall Repairs – Work has been ongoing, but there is still work outstanding. There has been a lack of communications with the Hall Keeper and neighbours about the timing and sequencing of work. There has been too much disturbance of the neighbours and no notification or discussions to keep them informed. Scott Baillie and Malcolm Baker to contact property services.
CHAIRPERSONS REPORT
A copy of the report has been inserted here.
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT APRIL 2012
I would like to welcome everyone here tonight.
We have once again had a busy year and I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who has helped out in any way, with all the events, without this extra help we would really struggle to achieve our goals.
Office bearers were re elected at the AGM Carrie White stepped down from the post of treasurer, Ian Morral was co-opted on to the council and appointed as treasurer, all other office bearers agreed to carry out their respective posts for another year.
Karl Jackson-Barnes was also co-opted.
Scott Baillie and Malcolm Baker were co-opted on to the School Parent council as Community council representatives.
Glen App and Loch Ree wind farm held an open day to explain the proposed development of the new wind farm, this meeting was well attended by members of the public.
Our Gala Day was held the first week in July and a Quiz and disco opened up the proceedings the week before the main event. The Gala Day was blessed with sunny weather and crowds were up on previous years with stalls reporting record takings on the day. A car treasure hunt brought the Gala events to a close, this was held on a Sunday afternoon and was well attended.
A new feature at last years Gala was a central arena which proved to be popular. We also had the vintage tractors on display.
Fiona Halliday was proposed as a non voting member of the Community Council and this was agreed and accepted by all present.
August saw our first meeting in the newly refurbished supper room, funded by wind farm benefit money and decorated by the criminal justice department.
The ongoing saga of the lighting on Fishers Lane was deal a blow when it was proposed that the Community come up with £2500 to move them across the lane, this news was not received favourably and it was agreed to keep at the council to remedy this situation. Scottish Water has now agreed to do this work, free of charge as part of the new sewage works.
Project were invited for the wind farm benefit funding for 2011/2012 and the following were put forward: The church requested a new cooker to aid with the Easter tea room. WAWA, Wigtownshire Animal Welfare Association asked for help in providing a cattery. Kirkcolm Senior Citizens Welfare Committee put forward plans to take the elderly in the community on a trip to the Giants Causeway. Kirkcolm primary school requested a camcorder that would also be available for use for other groups in the community. The coach of the school football team also asked for new goal posts, nets and football strips. The other funding request was from the community council for infrastructure for the Gala Day in the form of 2 way radio’s, high visibility vests, cable protectors and cool boxes to name a few. Christmas lighting will also be covered by the community council bid. All bids were considered and all with the exception of WAWA were accepted. Fundraising has started to help provide the cattery for WAWA with community members committing time to build one for them, work should start soon.
Karen Morley attended the October meeting to outline plans for improvements to the Wig Bay core path. She said that £10,000 would be available for the project and this was to provide sign’s, bird boxes and some resurfacing of the path. Due to permissions from landowners not going to plan, this project has not happened yet.
Some Kirkcolm residents experienced flooding in October during a spate of heavy rainfall, this was mainly caused by a blocked culvert at the back of Bayview Terrace. Residents at the lower end of Main Street are still waiting on their gardens being reinstated.
November sadly saw the closure of the Village shop and Post Office. The Community Council held a drop in day to gauge the residents reaction to this news and to see what concerns they had. The biggest concerns were the elderly not being able to access their pension accounts and also key cards for electricity. Where to purchase the Free Press was another concern by most.
Members of the community council had meetings with The post office to see what could be done, short term until new owners were found. The biggest stumbling block here was lack of premises to house a post office.
To date, no buyer has been found for the shop, despite one or two interested parties expressing an interest. This could be due to no one knowing the whereabouts of the previous owners or who actually owns the building.
At the December meeting the subject of power outages was discussed due to the unacceptable number of power cuts in the community. Councillors Scobie and Dougan agreed to contact Scottish Power and Alex Ferguson M.S.P. to see what could be done. A group was set up to tackle the problem and a public meeting with Scottish Power was arranged. This was well attended by concerned residents.
This is still ongoing as some residents have had up to seven power cuts in the last week alone. Compensation was agreed for the first cuts and most people should have received this by now.
We had our Christmas lights switch on ceremony at the beginning of December and once again this went down well with all who attended, Santa Claus attended in his new red suit and provided selection boxes for the children. The church choir also sang some carols at the switch on.
February saw us once again discuss speed signs near to the school, there appears to be better news on this now and funding could become available in 2012/2013.
The hall repairs due to be completed in January are still unfinished, despite the exterior of the hall having been painted, without all the render repairs being carried out.
Finally, Glen App and Loch Ree wind farm held another open day to advise of updates in their plans. The original 34 turbines have been reduced to 17 and will be sited further back on the proposed site, this will reduce the visual impact they will have.
Scott Baillie
Chair
Kirkcolm Community Council
End of insert.
TREASURERS REPORT
Ian Morral gave a summary for last year.
| £4187.95
£3053.06
£7241.01 |
1 Start if year: – Halifax Premier
B.O.S. Current
Total
- Due to problems with the B.O.S. a new current account has been opened at the Clydesdale Bank. At the year-end the figures are: –
| £4187.95
£16.80 £4169.89 £109
£8483.64 |
Halifax Premier
B.O.S. Current
Clydesdale
Cash
Total
- Total figures for income and expenditure yet to be finalised.
Credit Union legislation changes enable Community Councils to invest with them. Hopefully we can do this to get a reasonable interest rate and do some good locally providing we have financial safeguards in place. I (Ian Morral) will look into this and report back.
RE-ELECTION OF OFFICE BEARERS
PROPOSED BY SECONDED BY
Malcolm Baker Matt Halliday Chair – Scott Baillie
Ros Surtees Carrie White Treasurer – Ian Morral
Matt Halliday Ian Morral Secretary – Malcolm Baker
Malcolm Baker Scott Baillie Vice Chair – Elly Baker
All members proposed accepted their nominations, and the votes were carried unanimously.
CONSTITUTION
A new constitution was put on the agenda as a means of increasing the number of Councillors from 7 to 9 to reflect the number of current active members including those co-opted over the last two years. This would provide an opportunity for all nine members to stand for election in October and obtain equal voting rights if elected.
Unfortunately, it has been difficult to establish the mechanism to achieve this. This type of activity has not happened in the experience of our support staff at the council. It was finally established that it could be done now at a cost to the council, but the preferred method is to put the proposals to the ‘Periodic Review’ due to start at the end of this year. In view of this Ros Surtees proposed we wait until the Periodic Review to propose the changes. Elly Baker seconded the proposition that was carried unanimously by a vote.
Malcolm Baker to write to the council to have the request considered at the next review.
GALA DAY
The chairperson explained that we have problems with the date originally chosen for this years Gala due to a conflict with the Armed Services Day being held in Stranraer.
A meeting was called for Monday 16th April at 7pm in the supper room to resolve the issues. Malcolm Baker to invite the Gala representatives to attend.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Jubilee Celebrations – Margaret Baillie had looked at the information pack supplied by D&G to assist groups in organising street parties etc. Margaret proposes to hold a street party in the area from and including the Village Hall up to and including the car park off Church Road. There is a lot of support for this and she is organising a group to include PTA, Church and other groups to prepare for the day (Sunday 3rd June). The aim was to target the event for children in the village and she asked the Community Council if they would sponsor the event. Margaret said that they would try to recoup as much of the cost by various fund raising activities. Margaret asked the CC if they would underwrite the event up to £500. Ros Surtees proposed that the CC will cover costs up to £500, Carrie White seconded this and the vote was carried, Matt Halliday abstained.
Recycling – Ros Surtees talked about the level of concern she had found in the community on the effectiveness of recycling in the area. She asked if we could invite someone from the appropriate D&G department to talk to the CC about the subject. She said that she would like to play the part of a bottle; others could be a can and/or a newspaper to be taken through the process accompanied (hopefully) by someone from the Free Press. Two other Community Councillors volunteered to join in to see the process. Ros also asked for a good turnout when the Olympic Torch passes through Stranraer at 6am on the 6th June.
Equipment for the Bowling Club – Bobby McKie asked if the Community Council would provide replacement tables and chairs for the Club. The procedure and timetable for the allocation of funding from Windfarm funds was detailed – Applications for ‘Projects’ need to be submitted to the CC before the 1st August, the CC will assess them and forward successful projects to the D&G management team, and if accepted, funding is provided from the following February (this may be modified to April in the future). Cllr Scobie said that there were a number of alternative sources for funding from D&G that he could try. Bobby also asked if the CC could provide funding for emergency packs for the vulnerable people in the Village. The power outage group had done a lot of work to obtain compensation from Scottish Power and they were trying to get a list of these people to provide them with torches, phones etc. as part of their unfinished work relating to ‘a duty of care’ from Scottish Power. The CC is sympathetic to this activity and thankful to the group for all their efforts in this area. In the discussion that followed, it became clear that there is not a single solution in providing emergency packs that would probably have to be tailored to meet individual needs. It was also pointed out by our Community Resilience Program Advisor – Steven Wylie – at the D&G resilience training meeting in Sun Street on the 23rd February, that D&G had an ongoing project to supply emergency packs to Community Councils for issue to vulnerable persons. If these are found to be unsatisfactory in any way, the CC would consider what it could do to address the issues.
MEETING CLOSES
Next meeting 7:30pm on 13th June