MEETING HELD AT 7:30PM ON WEDNESDAY 8th FEBRUARY 2012
IN THE SUPPER ROOM AT THE KIRKCOLM VILLAGE HALL
PRESENT: – Scott Baillie (Chair), Matt Halliday, Ian Morral (Treasurer), Malcolm Baker (Sec.), Carrie White, Elly Baker, Fiona Halliday, Karl Jackson-Barnes, Ros Surtees
APOLOGIES: – Mary Milroy, John Dougan (Cllr),
Margaret Baillie (Welfare Committee).
IN ATTENDANCE: – Sgt. John Murdoch (Police), Ian Dick (Cllr),
Willie Scobie (Cllr), Margot Nicol (Resident), Andy Nicol (Resident), Cameron Ritchie (Free Press), Louise Cochran (Parent Council).
The minutes of the last meeting were verified by Matt Halliday and seconded by Ian Morral
POLICE BUSINESS
Sgt. John Murdoch attended in place of Kevin Wyllie who is on leave. Sgt. Murdoch informed us that there have been no issues to report other than one of the parties involved in ‘neighbour problems’ at Bay View had moved away from the area and he believes that problems emanating from there should now be resolved.
MATTERS ARISING
Shop & Post Office – There has been no progress to date with one known interested party since the last meeting, our intermediary was asked if she could establish the current situation. There have been reports that other parties have been interested in contacting the owners/agents of the property to obtain information and possibly register their interest, however, they have been unable to find a contact to take matters further. A possibility of obtaining contact information later in the month was identified, and it was agreed to hold a special meeting of the Community Council on the 29th February. This meeting will probably be held in the Village Hall – to be confirmed when the Agenda is issued.
Speed Signs – Cllr Wyllie said that he had arranged to append the Kirkcolm proposal to that of Minigaff. Indications are that Funding may be found in the 2012/2013 financial year. Malcolm Baker has received a document from Jane Bridge (DGFirst) informing the Community Council that –
ROADS, NEIGHBOURHOOD & CONTRACTED SERVICES:
THE DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY COUNCIL
(A718 MAIN STREET, KIRKCOLM)
(20 MILES PER HOUR SPEED LIMIT)
ORDER 2011
‘An order is being promoted in respect of the above proposal as shown detailed on the attached plan (No. TM/W/01/137A) and Notice which will be advertised in the local press on 09 February 2012.’etc. etc.
The Community Council is being consulted on the proposal, and we are being asked to reply by the 08 March 2012.
All present agreed that we strongly support the proposal, and we ask that the period of operation include the Nursery hours. Malcolm Baker to respond.
Lighting in Fishers Lane – Linda Felli of Scottish Water has informed us that Ross Ritchie of Leslie MWH (contractors for the sewage project) has agreed a method – acceptable to them and the Council – to connect the lights to a new power supply and to turn the heads to shine on Fishers Lane at the end of March when they commence work in that area. The Community Council express their gratitude to Councillors Ian Dick and Willie Scobie for their efforts in pursuing this matter, and our sincere thanks to Scottish Power and Leslie MWH for agreeing to carry out this work for the Village.
Village Hall Repairs – Repairs to the external rendering have been progressing, but the work has been done to part of the walls because of the electrical wires near the building. It appears that they requested the electricity be turned off for safety only to be informed that this would require cutting off the power for the whole village. The power company would arrange to isolate the hall, but that this would be done for only one day, however, this is not enough time for the work to be done. Once again we have an impasse. Cllr Scobie offered to pursue the matter. The windows to the left side of the hall have been repaired and replaced.
Electricity Outages – Scottish Power appear to have responded positively to the actions of the Power Outage meetings instigated by
Mr. B Miller and Cllr Scobie. The two meetings were very well attended with Scottish Power attended the second meeting where they accepted that their record was unacceptable to everyone having acknowledged a minimum of 34 cuts for many people in the area (they also admitting that their monitoring equipment was out of action for some time making them unable to asses the true magnitude of the outages). Scottish Power volunteered to initiate the compensation of residents based on payments of £27 for residents least affected and £54 for those having had four cuts of three hours in the past 12 months. Compensation is still an outstanding issue involving compensation for additional losses and costs, these issues still to be adequately addressed. There are still issues relating to help for the vulnerable and the issue of ‘Duty Of Care’. The Council said that they had contacted the Community Council during the outages, however this did not happen. Considerable work needs to be done to improve communications between Power companies, Social Services, Councils NHS etc to handle these situations more effectively.
Gritting – Gritting of the School Bus route, including Secondary routes has been agreed, however, there is some confusion as to whether these measures have been activated yet. There have been reports that gritting has not been done in some of the areas agreed. The Parents Council thanked the Community Council for its support. Cllr. Ian Dick offered to follow up with this.
- WINDFARM
Glen Ap Windfarm proposals have been redrafted to take account of the Bird activity etc. It is now anticipated that the number of turbines will be halved to 17 or so. Scottish Power Renewables gave us an update but thought it unwise to attend a meeting of the Community Council until their plans are more stable.
The management of the North Rhins Windfarm funds has been passed from Solway Heritage to the Council. It is not anticipated that this should cause any changes in the short term.
- WIG BAY
Things are progressing but a little slower than anticipated. The Rangers are a little concerned that they may not spend all the funds before the end of the year and asked if the Community Council would accept the funds to take the project to its conclusion. It was agreed that this should be no problem for the Community Council.
- CONSTITUTION
The secretary suggested that the co-opted members had become an essential resource in managing the workload generated by our activities. This should be reflected in a modification to our constitution to increase the number of Councillors from 7 to 9.
Mr Baker agreed to present the proposed constitution to the AGM in April.
- ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Gala – It was agreed that the Gala committee should start meeting again, and that it was time to contact Utilities for sponsorship.
A meeting of the Gala committee was called for Monday 20th Feb at 7:30 pm Location to be confirmed.
Location Of New Hospital at Dumfries – The have been some publications suggesting that the new hospital is to be located to the east of Dumfries. Cllr Scobie said that there were several sites under consideration and agreed that we write to the NHS, in particular to the new Chief Exec. Geoff Hays to voice our opinions, and not to forget to ask for assurances that our Stranraer facilities be included in their considerations to ensure that an acceptable service level is developed and maintained for A&E services and for Maternity cover. Current Maternity cover is during the day, however most babies arrive during the night! It was also suggested that we invite him to a future Community Council meeting.
Remembrance Wreath – Again we raised the issue of the Community Council taking over the wreath. Louise Cochran, a church elder, said she was not aware of any request to the community council to take this on. She suggested that a contribution from the Community Council would be welcome, but they have no plans to surrender their role in providing the wreath.
MEETING CLOSES
NEXT MEETING WILL BE THE AGM ON THE 11TH APRIL