Strathblane Community Council
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MINUTES OF STRATHBLANE COMMUNITY COUNCIL Monday 5th October 2015 in the primary school Final for approval Members Present: - Margaret Vass, Alan Hutton, Richard Arnold, Marian Lever, Avril Keen, Grace Edmonds, John Gray, Willie Oswald, Elspeth Neill, Julie Hutchison, Sue Rand and Rob Davies. In attendance: Cllr Graham Lambie + 7 residents. (SC = Stirling Council. CC = Community Council. CDT= Community Development Trust * Denotes an action) 1. Welcome from the Chair and any apologies – from Margaret Vass MV welcomed all present to the meeting. Apologies- Richard Begg. 2. Declaration of interests – MV reconfirmed her connection with Rural Stirling Housing Association 3. Police report – from PC Spencer Truman. The past month had been relatively quiet with various issues of theft, road safety and anti social behaviour raised. The full details under each heading can be read on-line only in Appendix I at www.strathblanefield.org. PC Truman particularly stressed the dangers of livestock on the road including deer which were now coming down from the hills and four collisions had already occurred. Poor condition of farmers fencing and walls was also an issue with livestock escaping on to the road. It was important for residents to report any shortfalls in animal containment they may see. Allowing livestock on to the road is an offence. He also discussed the issue of domestic abuse and new legislation around this. Residents can approach the police for information on potential partners to find out if they have a past abuse record. If a resident raises an abuse complaint and subsequently rescinds this the Crown can raise a charge notwithstanding and the original “victim” can be called to give evidence – (Clare’s Law) There was good news that David McNally, now Sergeant was back in our area based in Balfron. ML requested more police presence at school start and finish times to control the inconsiderate and dangerous parking in the area of the library which was now the main access point from Kirkburn Road into the school. This matter had been reported at the last three CC meetings. Some parents were parking at times on the pavement in the area, obstructing not only access along the pavements to pushchairs, forcing them on to the road, but also at the point where most of the children cross the road - an accident waiting to happen! The parking restriction markings are now out of date and irrelevant to the existing situation and should be repainted to suit current accesses. PC Truman would see if a letter re parking could be produced and sent home with the children for the attention of their parents. 1 PC Truman also concerned that while people were seeing offences being committed and some are even being discussed on Facebook, they are not being reported. He again reiterated the importance of dialling 101 if anything suspicious is seen. If it is not reported it cannot be dealt with; there is no shame in a mistaken report. A policing consultation meeting which clashed with our last CC meeting had been reported back to us. Two officers will be allocated to our area, specifically as ward officers in a similar way to previous community police officers. There will be school- based police officers at McLaren High and Balfron Community Campus. MV – there was some satisfaction that Police Scotland had taken note of feedback from CC’s and elected members and while it was a fact that the police could not be in attendance at all CC meetings in the area, she requested that there was a police presence at our meetings at least quarterly. Contact on issues to be made using the police generic e-mail address 4. Scottish Water update – from Stewart Smolarek. Final commissioning of the hydro scheme is under way. Full load testing delayed due to a water capacity issue and a two week proving period with both turbines running at separate times, but with probable manned attendance overnight. During this time the banking of the river will be repaired, but the bridge upgrade will not start before proving tests are completed. The go-ahead for the new pathway to the gowk stane road is getting closer! 5. Minutes of September’s meeting and Matters arising. There were no comments on the minutes which were approved by JG and seconded by GE. Matters arising: EN had attended the recent Mugdock management meeting in lieu of JH. There had been discussions on the success of the recent Mugrock concert and the car parking and travelling arrangements which had worked well. While they had recorded 1300 attendees at the event, only 600 had paid for the privilege. Of particular note was that Caulders Garden Centre had raised £4000 from the sale of their cast-iron poppies - £2000 to Poppy Scotland and £2000 to Erskine Hospital. There was some discussion re biomass and green energy and also re Craigend Castle and development of this. The final opportunity for obtaining funds for Craigend Castle seems to rest with The Heritage Lottery Fund, Parks for People.Application form to be completed by Feb 2016. Mugdock Park Committee wants Stirling Council to meet with East Dunbartonshire Council regarding ongoing joint funding. Health and social care integration- GE had attended this. There had been talk about what was being planned. They had to draw up a strategic plan and time very short, but there had been group discussions to glean ideas. Further on-line discussion will take place. There was general agreement among all attendees that the distance to Larbert Hospital from our rural communities made accessing it unsatisfactory. Dementia meeting – ML had attended this. The discussions had ascertained that our village had the highest proportion of any aged over 65, although most in reasonable health. We are looking at ways to make this a dementia-friendly 2 village. There are already a number of residents afflicted with the condition and it may be that given our rural location, the village will have to become more self- supporting of this condition, with training and support being given to those who can and are willing to help. Another meeting was planned for early Dec to draw up plans. Scottish Ambulance Service – a letter has been sent as requested during our last meeting re response times and we await a reply. Care Village at Stirling Community hospital - a meeting regarding will be held at 7.00pm on Wed 18th Nov in the lecture theatre to discuss ideas around this. Heartstart – another training session in the Kirk Rooms forthcoming on 22nd October. Details from [email protected] . Bollards at the deli/convenience store Blanefield – both knocked down and a new proposal is planned whereby the pavement will be marked off in red to show permissible parking area, and one extra-strong bollard will be installed to protect passage at the bus stop. Road markings to discourage parking over private driveways will be painted. 6. Response to Main Issues Report - led by John Gray JG had submitted additional comments which he would like added to the response report drawn up by the CC following its meeting 21st Sept. This document is already on the web site, but is reproduced in Appendix II of this minute and can be read on-line at www.strathblanefield.org.uk The CC had taken the view that there was no support from residents for building in the green belt. The one site (site 106 within the village envelope) which was seen as being a possibility for housing development was seen as being far from ideal, especially in respect of its steeply sloping nature and the difficulty gaining satisfactory road access. There was strong opposition to encouraging more traffic on Old Mugdock Road and Milndavie Road towards the A81 and JG also felt that because of the access problems the development could be seen as being in the village, but not part of it. There was a definite desire to ensure that any development provided the “right” housing for the village- low cost and affordable homes – no more large properties are needed. Apart from the young looking for suitable homes, the elderly who wish to downsize and make their larger homes available would like to do so without the need to leave the village. SR reminded the meeting that if this site which she felt was far from suitable was not developed that still left the problem of where to build. It is essential that land for housing can be released to allow building. The CDT has been charged with exploring ways with the community to buy land more cheaply for low cost housing and there is also discussion taking place on the matter on Facebook. The current LDP (is flawed because it) does not allow for the provision of much- needed affordable and rented housing. 3 MV also raised the failings in the current green belt policy which allowed a new house to be built where a former had been deemed uninhabitable on contrived grounds (wilful degradation). There were no issues around the hutting policy. Subject to the aforegoing, the meeting was happy with the report plus amendments. JG agreed to pull the final report together and submit it on the 8th October. 7. Update from the community pilot. There had been little development here and this item could be postponed until the next meeting. 8. Feedback from the PBB meeting – from RA JH, GE and RA had attended the session run by SC entitled Community Conversation. This was one of a number of such consultations to put forward differing ways of council service provision to find economies by “Service Transformation”.