ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD ON 13th APRIL 2011
AT KIRKCOLM VILLAGE HALL
PRESENT: – Scott Baillie, Carrie White, Elly Baker, Matt Halliday, Ros Surtees, Ian Morral, Karl Jackson-Barnes.
APOLOGIES: – Malcolm Baker, Iain Dick.
IN ATTENDANCE: – Kevin Wylie (Police), John Dougan (Councillor), Margot Nicol (PTA), Margaret Baillie (Resident), Louise Cochran (PC), Dan Palmer (Free Press).
The minutes of the last meeting were verified by Matt Halliday and seconded by Elly Baker.
POLICE BUSINESS
There was a breach of the peace and assault in Kirkcolm at the start of March for which one person was charged.
There have been several reports of youngsters playing ‘Chap door run’ on Main Street at the start of April. Any recurrence is to be reported to PC Wylie.
Ros Surtees reported that there had a burglary from the building site at The Lossatt. Kevin Wylie was unaware of this being reported and is going to look into the matter. Any suspicious vehicles/activities should be reported to the police.
The police dog display is available again this year but in limited availability on a first come first served basis so we need to inform him if we require them for gala day or not as soon as possible.
MATTERS ARISING
School Heating: – The school is still awaiting planning and a start date for the new heating system. Margot Nicol will check with Gillian Dickson for a progress report.
Bus Review: – There were 520 responses to the SWESTRANS bus review from the public. Karl Jackson-Barnes will make follow up enquiries to find the results. It was reported that the 16:45 bus does not go up to Bayview (the only bus in the day that doesn’t) and that this is causing problems for some villagers. John Dougan will enquire as to why and if the current arrangements can be changed.
Speed Signs: – There is still no progress with the speed signs. Scott Baillie will chase this up AGAIN and will copy the 3 local councillors into any communication.
Glenapp Windfarm: – There will be a meeting in the Village Hall on the 23rd May with Scottish Power re the proposed Windfarm.
Village Hall Maintenance: – Dumfries and Galloway council are being unhelpful and reluctant to proceed with repairs or even a site visit to the hall. John Dougan was shown all the faults at the end of the meeting and will push for a visit. Councillor Dougan will also approach Criminal Justice about getting the supper room redecorated.
CHAIRMANS REPORT
Scott Baillie read out his annual Chairman’s report. Copy attached Appendix 1.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Carrie White delivered the annual treasurer’s report. Copy Attached as Appendix 2, and suggests that we change banks due to ongoing problems with our current one, experiences with Clydesdale Bank for the Windfarm account led to a decision to move our other accounts to them. There are 6 unsettled invoices from the Free Press adverts for Gala 2010 and while these remain unpaid the gala made a loss in the region of £23. Carrie also resigned from the position of Treasurer due to her new young family but she hopes to remain as a councillor. Matt Halliday offered thanks to Carrie on behalf of the community council for all her hard work.
FINANCIAL PROTOCOLS
To access funding from various bodies it may be possible that the community council will have to make changes to it’s constitution. It was decided to postpone this discussion until a later date when Malcolm Baker is available to take part. Either at the next meeting or an EGM if there is a time limit.
RE-ELECTION OF OFFICE BEARERS AND COUNCILLORS
| Office
|
Holder | Proposer | Seconder |
Chair |
Scott Baillie | R Surtees | M Halliday |
| Vice Chair | Elly Baker | S Baillie | C White |
| Secretary | Malcolm Baker | M Halliday | R Surtees |
| Treasurer | Ian Morral | E Baker | M Halliday |
| Councillor | Matt Halliday | R Surtees | S Baillie |
| Councillor | Ros Surtees | C White | E Baker |
| Councillor | Carrie White | M Halliday | S Baillie |
| Councillor | Mary Milroy ** | S Baillie | R Surtees |
| Co-opt New Councillor * | Ian Morral | S Baillie | R Surtees |
| Co-opt New Councillor * | Karl Jackson-Barnes | M Halliday | R Surtees |
* Co-opted as non voting members
** Mary was proposed, seconded and voted in in-absentia and her wishes as to whether she continues as a councillor, will have to be confirmed with her.
All candidates were voted in. It is agreed that Fiona Halliday will be approached to have her co-opted onto the council at the next meeting.
GALA DAY
A meeting will be held at 6:30 pm on Tuesday 19th April in the Blue Peter to discuss and make arrangements for this year’s gala. It was suggested that Peggy Wallace be asked to open the gala and the Ryan Centre have been booked provisionally
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Kirkcolm Primary School: – Scott Baillie will be co-opted onto the Parent Council as a representative of the community council.
Concerns were raised about the cap on the number of pupils at the primary school which may see some future Kirkcolm pupils having to go to Leswalt. A decision is due to be made on the 30th April. Matt Halliday will liase with representatives of the parent council to provide assistance from the community council as and when required.
PTA: – Margot Nicol thanked everyone who attended for their support of the Race Night where £1160 was raised.
MEETING CLOSES – NEXT MEETING WILL TAKE PLACE ON WEDNESDAY 8TH JUNE.
APPENDIX 1 – CHAIRMANS REPORT APRIL 2011
The year began with the re-election of members, Chair Scott Baillie, Vice Chair Elly Baker, Secretary Matt Halliday, Treasurer Carrie White, Elected members Ros Surtees, Mary Milroy and Jennifer Miller.
The early part of the year was quieter than normal with few issues to attend to.
We had a Gala meeting where options were discussed for last year’s event, due to works going on at the school. It was decided at the meeting in June to postpone the Gala until September to allow for the work to be finished. This switch of dates did not impact too greatly on the Gala, although monies brought in on the day were down.
The lifeboat crew, who were going to man the burger stall failed to turn up due to a call out, but John and Carrie White stepped in, along with a few other dedicated helpers to make sure we did not go hungry.
A new football tournament was held for local Primary schools and proved to be a huge success. This will now be an annual event.
Gala will be on 2nd July this year.
Jennifer Miller tended her resignation from the community council in September. Matt Halliday stepped down as secretary but filled the vacancy left by Jennifer. Malcolm Baker was appointed as our new secretary.
In January we finally received the funding from the Community benefits fund from the wind farm and were able to proceed with three projects.
Project 1, was a new PA system and disco lights for the village hall, This is a portable PA system that can be used for the Gala and the switching on of the Christmas lights. This has been purchased and can be seen on the stage tonight.
Project 2. The bowling club approached the community council with a request for a new lawnmower and spreader, this was approved and will be purchased soon.
Project 3 was for a refurbishment of the supper room in the village hall, new tables, which we have purchased, new chairs and blinds for all the windows. This is ongoing and we hope to have a painting party in the near future to paint the supper room.
Moving into the year and the frost weather started to appear. The subject of Grit bins was brought up and it was established that the provision of these within the village was inadequate. The community council with some help from their local councillors managed to have an extra one installed and the existing one refilled as necessary.
Gritting of Church Road was also an issue at this time and after communications with the roads department we managed to have this gritted.
With the frosty weather, our thoughts turned to Christmas and the switching on of the lights. The church singers joined us again this year to make it another fantastic night. Last year was the last that the council will put up our lights free of charge and have estimated that it will cost in the region of £2800.00 this year. We are looking for alternative funding sources.
Scottish Water/Biwater Leslie attended our December meeting and gave a presentation on the works to be carried out in regards to the new pumping station and how it will affect Kirkcolm. We will see some disruption to traffic as the work progresses from Stranraer towards Kirkcolm, but should see a better sewage system once these works are finished. They are also working with the community council regarding the Gala day and have assured us that no works will take place in the vicinity of the school until after Gala day. We are also hopeful of some funding towards the event from them.
Other business during the year.
Mr McCracken retired from the school as head teacher and Gillian Dickson was appointed as his replacement. The community council helped to organise a send off for ‘Sir’ as he was affectionately known in the school. A short speech was made by Scott Baillie, thanking Mr McCracken for his contribution to the community over the years and a lovely personalised cake was purchased by the community council.
Our concerns were made in February regarding a possible cut in the bus service in the community. We believe that a reduction in service would greatly hamper those residents who depend on it. We will continue to monitor the situation and fight any cut backs in service.
We have been busy chasing various departments within the council to have urgent repairs carried out to the village hall, to date they have sorted the flooding problem in the disabled parking bay, but are passing the blame for the other repairs around. We will continue to follow this up.
There will be a litter picking day on the 28th April at 13:00 hours in conjunction with the school.
Burns Supper
A Burns supper was held this year for the first time, although not a community council event, this proved to be very popular. This event was attended by around 40 people and it is hoped to expand this next year.
This concludes my report and I would like to thank everyone for their support over the past year.
APPENDIX 2 – TREASURERS REPORT – Page 7
Treasurers Report
- Start of the year balance of the 2 bank accounts
- Premier account – £4,177.88
- Current account – £1,452.30
- Community council had ringed fenced £1500 for refurbishment of the supper room. This work is still is in progress – more painting material and carpet is to be purchased which is what the £1500 is for some of this money will be contributed by the wind farm grant
- In the autumn last year (2009) the community council agreed to contribute £1500 towards the refurbishment of the hall. This money will be paid once the work has been signed off as satisfactory. This has not been done yet as we are not happy with the work completed in the hall.
- So for the coming year the community council is committed to spending £3000 for the refurbishment work.
- Total Income for year beginning April 2010 end March 2011 – £5,758.38
This includes the following
- Council grants – £687.50
- Total gala income before expenditure
- Total Christmas light income before expenditure
- Donation from Tommy Cochran
- Hire of the Gazebos
- Disco 60,70,80
- Burns Night
- Total expenditure for year beginning April 2010 end March 2011 – £3,988.73
- Income Less expenditure – £1,769.65
- Closing balance of the 2 bank accounts
- Premier account – £4,177.88
- Current account – £3,221.95