KIRKCOLM COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD AT
7:30PM ON WEDNESDAY 13 FEBRUARY IN THE
SUPPER ROOM AT KIRKCOLM VILLAGE HALL
PRESENT: – S Baillie, Ian Morral R Surtees, C White,
M Baker,
APOLOGIES: – M Nichol, M Baillie, I Dick.
IN ATTENDANCE: -M McCutcheon – Councillor,
L Cochran – Parents Council, K Jackson-Barnes – Resident,
B McKie – Bowling Club, K Wylie – Police,
J McLeod- Resident.
The minutes of the last meeting were verified by Ros Surtees and seconded by Ian Morral.
POLICE BUSINESS- K Wylie made a short statement reporting two scams to beware of, one where someone had sold a car via Autotrader and had had a scam email saying payment had been made via PayPal which was not the case and another where someone had hacked into a PPI website and managed to get a customer of the site to pay them a fee.
The only other thing to report was a driver was stopped and arrested for drink driving before Christmas and the same driver was stopped again after Christmas.
Kevin also said he had heard that there had been problems with drivers stopping on the zig zag lines when dropping children off at the school and asked if any help was needed. Louise Cochran replied for the Parent Council saying that 20mph signs and new zig zags were to be installed soon and that the school wanted to educate parents and monitor the situation first and take police action later, if necessary.
1 KCC SECRETARY Scott Baillie informed the meeting that Ian Morral had come forward and offered to take up the post of secretary following Malcolm Bakers wish to stand down. This was proposed by Ros Surtees and seconded by Scott Baillie.
This leaves the post of Treasurer vacant, Ian Morral said he was happy to fulfill both roles on a temporary basis but would like to be free of the treasurers responsibilities prior to the Gala.
2 GALA DAY Scott Baillie told the meeting that a Gala meeting had been called but apart from the CC members only two people turned up. Another meeting has been called for Saturday 16th Feb’ between 2-4 pm in the Blue Peter where it is hoped to recruit volunteers. It was pointed out that as the CC consists of only four members and getting the marquees delivered to the school from the hall, erecting them, then taking them down and returning them to the hall would be impossible without help. Therefore if help is not forthcoming the Gala may not go ahead this year. A date had been provisionally set as the 29th June but this had been found to clash with Armed Forces day and also the Loch Ryan Pipe Band would not be available on that date so the 22nd of June is now the preferred date as the head teacher would prefer the gala to take place before the school closes for the summer holidays. Carrie White suggested contacting the groups who use the Gala for fund raising not only by email but by telephone as well, Ros Surtees offered to help with this task. Bobbie McKie offered to help and said he could probably get some more help from the Bowling Club and Councillor McCutcheon also offered to help.
3 HALL GABLE END Scott Ballie reported that water is still getting inside the hall due to the external repairs still not being done. Ian Morral said that Willie Scobie had followed this up from the previous CC meeting and had now got Scottish power and D&G Council talking to each other to try to find a way forward.
4 CULVERT Ian Morral reported that he had followed up from the last meeting and had been in touch with Keith Gillespie, who had been in charge of the culvert works. Regarding the concerns over the size of the top tray grid he stated that the installation met CIRIA guidelines. Where the hedging had been removed to allow the work to be carried out will be replanted in order to prevent children from gaining access to the culvert.
5 SCHOOL PARKING Louise Cochran reported that when the new signs and zig zag lines are installed, hopefully in the near future, the 20MPH limit will apply from 08.30 to 09.30 11.15 to 11.45 and 14.30 to 15.30 and the parking restrictions would be from 08.30 to 15.30 Ian Morral stated that he had followed up from the last meeting asking for some common sense regarding the road surface being repaired prior to the new zig zag lines being laid. Colin Forbes (D&G) has said that there are two departments involved with this work, one responsible for the road surface and the other responsible for the laying of the zig zag lines. The road surface is listed for repair but not until next year so he is trying to get that work bought forward so the new zig zag lines can be laid onto a sound road surface. If necessary the zig zag work can be delayed until the road surface is repaired without affecting the 20 MPH signage installation.
6 BUS STOPS Scott Baillie stated that following this issue at the last CC meeting Councillor McCutcheon had spoken to Kings, who run the bus service, and the bus driver had been told that the 408 Kirkcolm service is a ‘Hail &Ride service so the bus can be stopped anywhere that is safe.
Scott also reported a new ‘Ring and Ride’ bus service which will run, for a trial period, from Ardwell Shop via Kirkcolm to Stranraer. This service will run starting on 18th February on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays with bookings being made the day before on Friday, Tuesday and Thursday respectively. Booking are made on 08452 709000 calls charged at local rate a timetable will be put on the KCC website and in the notice board.
7 WINDFARM FUNDING Malcolm Baker told the meeting that he’s still waiting to hear about this and that the amount we will get is unconfirmed. He said we should have news within two weeks but if this is not the case he will chase this up. The issue of ownership of ‘windfarm’ goods was mentioned and Malcolm stated that it had been understood that any purchases belonged to the Community Council but that in fact the CC act as facilitators and once any goods are handed over that ends any CC liability. Ian Morral confirmed this saying he had checked this with Wendy Jesson.
8 DUKE OF EDINBURGH AWARD SCHEME
It was discussed how we could make use of these volunteers. Scott Baillie asked if the ‘Wig Bay Project’ was still live, Ian Morral said it was and would start once the rangers/core paths representatives got in touch unless he got in touch with them sooner. Carrie White asked if we would like them to come and give us a talk about what they could possibly do to help, Scott asked if Carrie could organise this.
9 GRITTING OF THE BUS ROUTE Louise Cochran said the route, including the loop, was a primary route and should be being gritted. It was questioned whether enough grit was being put down on all of the route and it was asked if people could monitor this.
10 ANY OTHER BUSINESS.
Ros Surtees spoke about producing a community resilience plan, which D&G Council are keen for us to do. This is a plan for how the community would react in an emergency, for example prolonged severe bad weather or prolonged power outages. Ros said that Ian Morral had had a meeting with Steven Wylie and Wendy Jesson from D&G Council on her behalf to ask about the plan and how we could implement this plan. She then proposed that the community council members got together to debate this prior to calling a community meeting. It was agreed to meet and take this project forward.
Janet McCloud said she had met a D&G Council representative who was looking at a former footpath that someone had asked D&G to reopen. No one was sure if this ever was a right of way considering the land is privately owned. Scott Baillie said he would look into this.
Louise Cochran asked if Scott Baillie if he had managed to check the pot holes in and around the village, Scott said he had tried to get out to check but the weather had prevented him from doing so each time but that he would try again.
Bobbie McKie mentioned the Sports Council Awards and asked if the meeting knew of anyone who had excelled at sports in the last year. Some names were proposed and Bobby is to follow this up.
Scott Baillie thanked Malcolm Baker for all the hard work he had done whilst acting as secretary, this was greeted with a round of applause by all present.
Meeting closes. Next meeting 10th April