MINUTES OF A GENERAL MEETING OF DORNOCH COMMUNITY COUNCIL HELD ON 21st JAN 2015 AT 7.00PM IN COUNCIL CHAMBERS, DORNOCH

PRESENT Yvonne Ross (Chair) Judi Sutherland William Hamilton Annabel Murray Graeme Ross Willie Melville Peter Fairgrieve Jimmy Melville Lesley Conner Cllr. Jim McGillivray Cllr. Graham Phillips

Action 1 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

None.

2 GARRY CAMERON, TEMP. WARD MANAGER

Garry Cameron introduced himself to the members, as a temporary replacement for Phil Tomalin who is on secondment to a new post. A more permanent solution will be put in place soon. GC highlighted to the members that there has been a request for succession of the lease of common good land for the Dornoch Caravan Park to the Macrae family members.

Invite GC along to the next meeting to discuss Town Emergency Planning, and also LC to run through the Common Good Accounts.

3 ACHLEY QUARRY

The members welcomed Dafydd Jones, Area Planning Manager to the meeting. DJ gave a further update on progress since the last meeting. There have been some onsite meetings with the owner, where outstanding issues were discussed and particular information requested. They could at the time retrieve some information, but not all, and have been given until the end of January to present it. It was noted that the evidence may not be much use in current time, as already out of date – it is more important to get a hold of the current situation and move forward.

Sepa have also been on site. There have been 2 site walkovers, and Planning believe that the owners are committed to improve, and understand that Planning must regulate things going forward.

JS asked whether the issues the Dornoch quarry are Highland wide, DJ could not confirm this, but did stress that the issues here have been highlighted to others. Conditions are possibly weaker in historical ongoing quarries. The failings are not within the application process, but with the follow up monitoring.

YR highlighted that at the time of the last renewal, there were assurances that stipulations would be adhered to – this did not happen. Will future monitoring be better? DJ – in his opinion yes, due to the new Enforcement Team who will be dedicated to this going forward, and local Planning who have their own responsibilities also.

With reference to this application – it refers to material generated from within the site only. There has been no indication that materials would come from elsewhere.

Dave Hill raised the point that previous agreements were for circa 4000 tonnes, equalling 20 tonnes/2 lorries a week. There appears to be much more movement than this. It was suggested that permission should be extremely carefully worded when stating amounts (ie. 10 lorries per day etc), as can be misleading.

DJ confirmed it is up to the Community Council to consider and make comment on the current application as it stands. He confirmed the timeline is for the length of the quarry itself (2021) and no longer.

DJ back on site early February.

The members thanked Mr Jones for his attendance.

4 POLICE MATTERS

Pc Angus Morrison attended the meeting and gave a run through of the incidents over the last month, which included 1 assault, 2 vandalisms, and a variety of driving offences.

The members asked about the use of Dornoch Police Station – J McGillivray confirmed that according to Inspector Beeston, Dornoch is still a working station, and will continue to be. It was noted that in the recent spell of bad weather resulting in lengthy power cuts in the area, the Police Station had power through a generator when the rest of the town had none, and access would have proved very useful. It was agreed to feed this back through the Town Emergency Planning discussions.

YR highlighted difficulties in obtaining traffic cones for street closures (New Year).

5 MINUTES OF LAST MEETING & MATTERS ARISING

Amendments to previous minutes – A Murray was in attendance, W Hamilton gave apologies.

The minutes of the last meeting were then read and taken as a true record. Proposed G Ross Seconded P Fairgrieve

Roses – still no update. No other matters arising which are not already on the agenda.

6 TREASURERS REPORT

Balance on the Community Council Account - £2,849.72.

Payments due and cheques signed for – W A Geddes, Brora – Christmas trees £175.00 Hardware Shop, Dornoch – Remembrance Day Wreath - £25.00 Calico – Website annual charge - £24.00 (hold this until JS looks into posting our JS minutes online elsewhere). 7 PATHWAYS

Tree down in Earls Cross Wood, still accessible. Contact Peter, Sutherland Estates. LC

The stone dyke from Burghfield to North Street. J McGillivray advised that North Highland College will be paying to repair this.

8 ROADS

Brannen Terrace – Macdonald Road footpath very ice. Suggest that this is reported to the Service Point when necessary or to the Service Centre on 01349 886603.

Slaughter house – damage to the shed, almost overhanging on Shore Road after recent storms.

Embo Street – gap between the road and very now dangerous and vehicles in danger of tipping.

Serious flooding across the Evelix Road between the Academy and Camore.

9 PLANNING

Response to the Achley application – G Phillips suggested that the members view this as if it were a “new application” and consider it a fresh. After discussed it was agreed to wait until the end of January to see if documentation from the owner is forthcoming as requested. When responding – request a higher bond be considered, and request a timetable of YR/ALL inspections be set, with regular reports back for transparency. Ask that it be documented that this is for onsite material only for the life of the quarry.

10 FUNDING APPLICATION

No applications to consider. NOTE – ESRA have indicated a possible application for the build of a new shed. LC Have requested a slot at the next meeting. (Norman Ross).

11 CORRESPONDENCE

Community Panel survey on the new Highland Council website. YR Embo Trust – update/spend details after their recent funding. Duncan Allan – request for assistance with a project to find the most popular tree in ALL Dornoch. Members to consider – first suggestion of the Weeping Elm in the Royal Golf garden. Winter Resilience Scheme – speak to Colin Mackenzie, Insurance to see how public LC are covered. (see attached)

12 ANY OTHER BUSINESS

J Sutherland Beinn Tharsuinn – reformat of application form. £2014 currently in budget.

Glebe field update – 56 dwarf fruit trees and hedging now planted. Phase 2 – creation of Community Garden plots. Need to know levels of interest, a meeting with refreshments on Saturday at 11am in the Social Club where interested parties can pick up information packs.

For Info – P Tomalin was approached by the developers of the Camore Quarry application, with a view to setting up a liaison group. More details to follow. Some discussion as to whether it is appropriate for Community Council members to be involved in this. G Ross thinks that members should not be part of discussions without a Council Official being present.

It was noted that there may be a re-jig of this application, and if so all those who commented/objected would need to re-submit. It would also appear that there has been an attempt at traffic counting in the area, but this took place at the quietest time of the year – this should be done again in the busier months.

After all the exceptional work and expertise put into the previous objection submitted it is important to keep the original working group of residents informed.

Vodafone extension boosters to be erected on some town buildings, giving 3G. Note DACIC’s involvement in this project.

Possibly looking to tie in with the Dornoch website to upload and display our JS Community Council minutes once approved. Do not send off payment to Calico until this option has been looked at further.

W Melville Keen for cleaning of the roof of the Council Buildings at the Meadows. JMcG Looking for an update on Proncynain Cemetery. J McGillivray will follow up.

P Fairgrieve Asked about the school windfarm being off. It was explained that it is turned off during periods of bad weather/high winds.

J McGillivray National Forest Landscape bid has gone in – hopefully allowing Embo to have their own Common Good Fund. Embo also looking at having run rigs available for community use. Circulated a report on the Dornoch South site. Demolition work to start, with LC decontamination after full clearance. A letter of thanks to go when started.

Y Ross Mast on Burghfield Hotel was off from 14th December, resulting in all local users of Orange/O2/EE being without signal for several weeks on end. It was noted that they required access in to the Burghfield for repair and the hotel was closed. The caretaker was available for access but as he was not the contact Orange had they would not go in. LC/YR A letter of complaint to go to Orange with a copy to Ofcom. A letter to the Burghfield to request that they organise a contingency in the event of this being an issue again. (Donald MacBeath, head of NHC).

D Williams Asked for an update on the parking of cars around the corner of the garage at the end of the Square. This is still an issue and some days can be very busy and hazardous to other drivers. There had been a previous suggestion of the Police Station car park to be used for overspill but this cannot be done. Monitor this issue.

13 DATE OF NEXT MEETING

Next meeting will be held at 7pm on Wednesday 18th February 2015. 2015 Meeting Dates 21/01/15, 18/02/15, 18/03/15, 15/04/15, 20/05/15, 17/06/15 (AGM), July – No Meeting, 19/08/15, 16/09/15, 21/10/15, 18/11/15, 16/12/15