MEETING HELD AT 7:15PM ON WEDNESDAY 15-04-15
IN THE SUPPER ROOM AT THE KIRKCOLM VILLAGE HALL
PRESENT: -Malcolm Baker (Chair) Ian Morral (Secretary & Treasurer) Sara McCulloch (Vice Chair) Carrie White KCC Member
ATTENDING:- Elaine McGregor (Nursery) Iain Dick (Councillor) Bobby McKie (Kirkcolm Bowling Club) Willie Scobie (Councillor) Jeni Grover (Church) Fiona Halliday (Welfare Committee) Gillian Garrett (Welfare Committee) Susan Irons (Parent Council) Jinette Cochrane (Resident) Mary Gibson (WRI) Wilma Swan (Resident) Tommy Cochrane (Resident) Andy Nicol (Resident)
APOLOGIES:- Ros Surtees, Margaret Baillie, Margot Nicol, Police Scotland.
Police Business. No attendence and sent the message of nothing to report.
1 Chairpersons Report.
“For the last six years Scott Baillie has been our chair. During this time he did a tremendous amount for our community in a great variety of areas. He devoted a considerable portion of his personal time doing what we members considered to be an amazing job. Unfortunately, he has had to step down due to increased pressures on his time due to changes to his work. Having read the new constitution, it appears that he would have had to stand down anyway, because the maximum period in office is 6 years for the Chair.
I would like to take this opportunity to offer thanks to Scott for all the time, effort, commitment and skills he contributed to our community.
This is only my second time in the chair, so most of what happened occurred on Scott’s watch:-
Wind Farms-An area in which I was involved.
Greencotes North Rhins. -Greencotes became the new owners taking over from AES. This led to a few difficult and confusing times where attempts were made to change the agreement for the distribution of community funds.
Without going into too much detail, the proposed changes (which would have greatly reduced the money by more than half for KCC) were withdrawn when Greencotes re-instated the status quo.
The documents to be used for the application arrived at the end of January, my personal circumstances prevented me from dealing with them for some time, but they have now been submitted and I hope to receive the funds shortly.
Labrax-PNE submitted their application last year and the application was fully supported by KCC with no known opponents. At a subsequent meeting we discovered that there were some dissenters in our parish. The application was withdrawn last October because the planners refused to accept additional information requested by a statutory body. The application has since been re-submitted and again supported by KCC but this time we indicated that were aware of only four persons who were against the development.
Glen App- I received a copy of the modified Environment Statement prepared by Scottish Renewables for the Ayr Planning Dept’ (apparently they do accept modifications which had been requested) and they hope to progress the planning application to a sucessful conclusion.
Both Labrax and Glen App windfarms could provide community funds of £20,000 per annum each.
Gala Day-
Again we had a very successful gala day. It was estimated that 400 cars used our car park during the afternoon. Sadly, this year there were some troubling incidents. One of the vendors sold items that were not believed to be on the items specified for sale, these items-spray paints and plastic sprays- were used to spray graffiti on the school buildings. This was not only an embarrassment to KCC, members of KCC and other volunteers spent many hours trying to remove the damage but with limited success.
We also had a flare up problem with a flare up on the barbecue that led to some smoke damage and the need to turn off the smoke alarms. It turned out the purchase of some low cost burgers had a very high fat content. This fat overwhelmed the barbecue and led to the flame up.
Lessons have been learned and action will be taken to prevent any re-occurences.
In Brief- We dealt with a number of issues throughout the year:-
408 Bus service, changes were made without consultation.
Recycling, introduced without adequate consultation.
A complaint made to D&G about lack of consultation-still not adequately dealt with by D&G.
KCC property storage-Resolved with the help of the shop.
Fishers Lane flooding-Resolved with the digging of a drainage ditch.
Xmas lights -vandalism of new tree lights. Help still required to prevent this from happening again.
Shop & PO closure-Shop now re-opened, PO still progressing.
Panto’-A successful evening that was well attended.
Finally as I mentioned earlier, I chaired the last meeting of the CC. The turnout was less than disappointing, three community councillors and representatives of the Bowling Club. Debate becomes meaningless with so few people trying to plan and make decisions, for the Gala day for instance.
The community council cannot continue without a greater level of support. I also discovered that my hearing difficulties make it next to impossible for me to continue to act as chair. I will try my best for the short term in order to distribute this years community fund from North Rhins. I have decided that I need to ‘Retire’ from the CC before my next birthday, so I need someone to take over by then to manage next years funding.”
2 Treasurers Report.
Ian Morral gave the following report:-
“Last year KCC started with £9035 which now stands at £10,031 over the year there was no unusual expenditure or income so there is an increase of £996 over the year. As Malcolm said we had a very successful Gala the profit on the different incomes were as follows:
Burgers made £463, Raffle £285, Bouncy Castles £20, Treasure Hunt £46, Quiz £54, the 10% of income off the groups and other income came to £161. Costs were £472 so the profit on last years Gala was £457.
Over the years since 2012 since I took over as treasurer we started with £7858 in the bank and as I’ve just said we now have £10,031. Our average yearly annual income increase is £724 which is why at our last meeting I proposed not charging the stallholders the 10% of income this year because we’re doing well and it’s about putting money back into the community. That concludes the Treasurers Report”
3 Re-election of Office Bearers.
Chairman-Malcolm Baker -Proposed by Ian Morral Seconded by Carrie White.
Vice Chair-Sara McCulloch-Proposed by Ian Morral Seconded by Malcolm Baker.
Secretary-Ian Morral-Proposed by Malcolm Baker Seconded by Carrie White.
Treasurer-Ian Morral-Proposed by Malcolm Baker Seconded by Carrie White.
4 Gala Meeting.
There was a debate raised by Gillian Garrett about why the Gala had been moved from the traditional date of the first weekend in July. It was explained that this had all been debated previously at Gala meetings and it was because of clashing with Armed Forces Day, The Highland show, in deference to the head teacher who had requested the school not be used during the school holidays, there were also objections from the PTA. Also the football tournaments which we now run would probably not be as well attended after school had broken up as pupils may be away on holiday and that was why June 13th had been chosen. A date was set for the next Gala meeting of Saturday 18th April at 3pm in the supper room.
5 Notice Board.
It was suggested having a second notice board on the shop wall as it was felt that more people would read the notices. Tommy Cochrane as leaseholder had no objections to this and Ian Morral agreed to seek permission from Peter Joiner the building owner.
AOB.
Sara McCulloch asked Ian Morral why the school blinds, which were damaged during last years Gala day, had not been repaired after the headteacher e-mailed about it. Ian replied that he had not had an e-mail about this and that he suspected that the e-mail had probably gone to Scott Baillie and had been forgotten. Ian said he would follow this up if the head teacher resent the e-mail.
Fiona Halliday told the meeting that the bus was not always calling at the north Main Street bus stop. Malcolm Baker said we really needed dates and times to put in a complaint but we would follow it up.
Bobby Mckie referred to the e-mail he had received from Ian Morral as Secretary explaning why at the meeting when Malcolm Baker was installed as Chairman and the post not offered to Sara McCulloch. (This had been raised at the last KCC meeting when Ian was absent) Ian explained that as he had said in the e-mail reply to Bobby the post of Chair is not there to be offered but that people have to put themselves forward for it. Sara asked why then had Malcolm been offered the post if that were the case. Ian replied that he had not been offered the post but that he (Ian) had asked Malcolm if he was prepared to take the post if no one else came forward. This was knowing that Sara had expressed a view in the past of not being comfortable taking meetings. Bobby repeated what he had said in his e-mail to Ian that he was only asking a question and there was no bitterness involved. Ian replied that that was noted.
There was a lengthy debate about the councils recycling system where it was variously described as shambolic, a badly thought out system and a complete mess. No one present had anything positive to say about the system.
Bobby McKie asked Malcolm Baker if any wind farm benefit had come through yet. Malcolm said he was expecting confirmation very soon and the beneficiary groups would be informed as soon as that happened. Malcolm also said that there may be a larger carry forward of money than expected and consequently all claims could be met including the extra marquee for the Gala.
Mary Gibson asked about getting ‘Sea World’ for the Gala, but she didn’t know where they were from just that they had been at Port William. Gillian Garrett said she would try and find out about it.
Gillian Garrett asked if the potholes in the Church Road car park could be repaired both Willie Scobie and Iain Dick said they would follow that up.
During the meeting Susan Irons said she would come onto the council at the next meeting and was willing to take on the role of secretary and Tommy Cochrane also said he would come onto the council as a member. Both were proposed by Malcolm Baker and seconded by Ian Morral.
Meeting closes.
The next KCC meeting will be on Wednesday 13th May.