Minutes subject to approval at the next meeting Community Council Chair Clerk Patrick Fordyce Josie McMillan Annsbrae Rockfield Burrafirth Haroldswick Unst,

Unst, Shetland 0 Tel: 01957 711554 Email: [email protected]

Minutes of the meeting held on Monday 7th December 2020 at 6.30 pm using WebEx Phone Conferencing

Present: Patrick Fordyce, Chair Claire Priest, Vice Chair Caroline Hunter John Peterson Janice Priest Hazel Spence Gordon Thomson Ryan Thomson, Councillor (ex-officio)

Attending: Frances Browne, Community Involvement and Development Officer Michael Duncan, Community Council Liaison Officer Colin Clark, Shetland Community Benefit Fund Josie McMillan, Clerk

01/12/20 Apologies David Cooper Julie Thomson PC Angela Manson Duncan Anderson, North Isles Councillor (ex-officio) Alec Priest, North Isles Councillor (ex-officio)

02/12/20 Minutes from the Last Meeting The minutes from the meeting held on Monday 26th October 2020 were proposed by Claire and seconded by Gordon.

03/12/20 Declaration of Interest Janice declared an interest in agenda item 07/12/20.2 Application for donations. Hazel and Gordon declared an interest in agenda item 07/12/20.3 and 01/12/20.4 Application for donations. Claire declared an interest in agenda item 07/12/20 Health Centre G.P. Vacancies. Frances declared an interest in agenda item 11/12/20.1 and 11/12/20.2 Unadopted Roads.

04/12/20 Matters Arising from last minutes There were no matters arising.

05/12/20 Shetland Community Benefit Fund (SCBF), Colin Clark Chris Bunyan was not able to attend the meeting, due to illness. Colin Clark, who is one of the directors, attended on behalf of SCBF. Mr Bunyan emailed to say that SCBF’s main interests is in Minutes subject to approval at the next meeting

promoting the principle of sharing community benefit throughout Shetland. They do not necessarily expect similar agreements as Viking, but look for all communities to benefit to some degree. Colin said SCBF had spoken to Energy Isles. Money will start coming in from Viking at the beginning of the year, this will be used for the benefit of all the Shetland community. There was a discussion about Unst Community Council’s views on how the Energy Isles Community Benefit money should be distributed. UCC councillors believe that funds should be disbursed in a similar manner as the Viking Energy scheme. The 3 North Isles Community Councils would a greater share of the funds than the other 15 Community Councils further from the windfarm. The Energy Isles liaison group, which incldes members from the three North Isles, has to agree on how the Community Benefit Fund is disbursed. Gordon said that the next meeting of Energy Isles will be in January, he said that the first payments from Energy Isles would be when/if construction starts so might be a while yet. Patrick thanked Colin for attending,

06/12/20 Wild Skies Shetland (WSS) Patrick said that the WSS report had been circulated to all members prior to the last meeting. He invited Catriona and Jane to give an update. Catriona gave a brief outline of how the company was set up two and a half years ago. It has recently changed from being a limited company to a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO). This new status makes it easier to apply for funding, and the group had intended to apply for charitable status ever since they were first formed. There are 7 directors, 5 of whom are Unst based. Jane explained that WSS plans are to establish an interpretative trail, with 14 viewing sites. The plan is to have audio benches at some of the sites, enabling you to hear stories, music and information. Jane and Catriona had met with a representative from the National Trust for , and they are happy to host interpretative sites as long as they blend in, and subject to them being consulted about final plans. They also meet informally with representatives from the Shetland Space Centre. WSS may benefit from the Space Centre depending on their plans. Jane explained that architect briefs had to be submitted by today. WSS has applied for Crown Estate funding and had got through the first stage of this.

07/12/20 Health Centre G. P. Vacancies Caroline explained that the Unst Community Health Support Group had written to Kirsty Brightwell, the NHS Shetland Medical Director. She said that the health board are continuing to pursue the idea of 'joy hub' doctors on a rolling basis and have made no moves to advertise for the permanent position. The UCHSG still have reservations that this will be a good solution for Unst (particularly since the terms and conditions for JoyGPs have recently changed). NHS Shetland are currently carrying out a Clinical Care Strategy, to devise a 10-year plan. Caroline have attended one of the workshops, but said it was very specialist - lots of medical professionals discussing things that she had minimal knowledge of! Caroline has been sent a link to a community engagement tool but is concerned that the 7 active members of the UCHSG are the only members of the community who even know about this, so unsure that they are actually 'engaging communities' in their consultation. It was agreed that Patrick will write to Ms Brightwell expressing the Community Council’s concerns and asking why these vacancies have not been advertised.

08/12/20 Unst Partnership (UP) Update. Gordon said that the shop is still doing well and also selling a lot of items online. The next skip day is the beginning of February. UP has applied to the Crown Estate for funding, so should hear about this after the 14th December 2020.

09/12/20 Community Involvement Update Frances said that the Community Conversation online event had taken place and the information gathered would be fed back from the Council shortly. She will report back to the next UCC meeting

Minutes subject to approval at the next meeting

on the themes that came up. Frances said that she has been working with Wild Skies Shetland on funding options and also local businesses. 10/12/20 Applications for Planning There were no applications for planning.

11/12/20 Unadopted Roads 11/12/20.1 Frances Gazey, Gardie Road, Haroldswick The application for the unadopted road in to Gardie was approved. The road is 92 metres and paid at a rate of £2 per metre, up to £184. This will be paid once receipted invoices are sent to the Clerk. 11/12/20.2 Frances Gazey, Housten Road, Haroldswick The application for the unadopted road in to Housten was approved. The road is 106 metres and paid at a rate of £1 per metre, up to £106. This will be paid once receipted invoices are sent to the Clerk. 11/12/20.3 Linda Thomson, Prestegaard, The application for the unadopted road to Prestegaard was approved. The road is 50 metres and paid at a rate of £2 per metre, up to £100. This will be paid once receipted invoices are sent to the Clerk.

12/12/20 Application for Donations 12/12/20.1 SWI, Bairns Christmas It was agreed to give a donation of £420 towards the costs of the bairns Christmas party presents. 12/12/20.2 Uyeasound Hall Committee, Bairns Christmas It was agreed to give a donation of £120 towards the costs of the bairns Christmas party presents. 12/12/20.3 Unst Badminton Association It was agreed to give a donation of £100 towards the costs of PPE, hand sanitiser and disinfectant. 12/12/20.4 Unst Junior Badminton Association It was agreed to give a donation of £100 towards the costs of PPE, hand sanitiser and disinfectant. 12/12/20.5 1st Unst Brownies It was agreed to give a donation of £100 towards the cost of giving the Brownies craft and wellbeing parcels for Christmas. 12/12/20.6 St John’s Church It was agreed to provide a grant of £200 towards the costs of buying speakers for the Church.

13/12/20 Correspondence 13/12/20.1 Zetrans Active Travel Strategy Consultation – closes 11th December 2020 The Community Council has been asking for a pavement from Nikkavord Lea to the School, Leisure Centre and Health Centre for many years, at least 40, and there has been no progress with this. It is still on the SIC list. So, members felt that this would happen to any suggestion they put forward. Michael encouraged the Community Council to put in suggestions. He said Zetrans need to draw up a local strategy and there is funding available for developing this. Caroline said that she uses this road regularly with the school bairns so she would phone Robina Barton at Zetrans. The link to the consultation will be put on the Facebook page as well as the consultation is open to everyone.

13/12/20.2 UCC Meeting Dates 2021 The proposed dates were circulated before the meeting. These have been set for every 6 weeks, with a shorter gap in March. The dates are January 18th, March 1st, March 29th, May 10th, June 21st, August 2nd, September 13, October 25th and December 6th.

13/12/20.3 BT Payphone Removal Consultation BT has written to the Council saying it has continually reviewed the demand for its payphones and they have identified 21 public payphones in Shetland that aren’t being used enough. They are therefore proposing to remove them under a consultation process. There are three payphones listed in Unst that are on the proposed list for removal. Two of these have no average usage per month.

Minutes subject to approval at the next meeting

These are the one at the rear of the old medical centre, Saxavord and the one on Setters Hill Estate. The phone box at the west side in Uyeasound has an average of two calls per month. BT has advised that it wishes to remove payphones on the basis that overall use of them has declined by over 90 per cent in the last decade and the need to provide payphones for use in emergency situations is diminishing all the time, with at least 98 per cent of the UK having mobile coverage. There was a discussion, and it was agreed that the Community Council should write and object about the removal of the payphone in Uyeasound as it is being used on a regular basis. Mobile coverage in Unst is patchy for some networks, local residents are aware of this, but visitors often don’t know. If someone does not have a landline phone or access to a mobile phone, a payphone is essential for them. Patrick agreed to write about this. Consultation finishes on the 17th December 2020.

13/12/20.4 Communication/Social Media The Community Council will use social media to send out information.

14/12/20 Community Council Finances There had been no expenditure since the last meeting.

15/12/20 A.O.C.B. 15/12/20.1 Police Report PC Amanda Mason emailed a report before the meeting. She said there had been 2 incidents reported in Unst this past month. Advice was given to all parties involved.

15/12/20.2 Shetland Space Centre (SSC) Ryan was asked if the planning permission for SSC had been submitted. He said that it hadn’t. Patrick said that Elizabeth Johnson had spoken to him and said that they are waiting on the results of a Soil Assessment which had been submitted to the Council.

15/12/20.3 Thank you letters It was agreed to write thank you letters to the people who delivered medicine during the restrictions. And to all the shops for their delivery service and also the Post Office. Everyone was grateful to the service all these people and businesses provided to the community.

15/12/20.4 Meeting Format There was a discussion about the format of future meetings, and whether UCC should revert to face to face meetings. Michael said that SIC officials were still working from home. He said that two Community Councils had already tried face to face meetings, but they hadn’t worked well for people trying to attend remotely. It had been difficult to participate in the meetings and hear what was being discussed. Patrick asked members to email the clerk with their meeting preferences.

16/12/20 Date of next meeting The next meeting is set for Monday 18th January 2021. Format to be decided nearer the time.

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