Community Council Thursday 14 June 2018 Buchlyvie Village Hall Minutes of the Meeting.

Present Ian Bremner (Chair), Bill Keeping (Treasurer), Bill McCreath (Secretary), Alison McGilvray (Planning Representative) and Debbie Pirie

In attendance Ian Denvir, Council, PC Scott Craigie and 4 members of the public.

1 Apologies Carolyn Manson, Simon Rourke, Anne Winther and Councillor Alistair Birrell

2 Minutes of last meeting on 19 April 2018 Valerie Brand pointed out that there were no Minutes for Buchlyvie and a number of other community councils for 2018 on the Stirling Council web site. Bill McCreath said that they had been sent to the Council. Action: Ian Denvir to investigate and report back. The Minutes of the last meeting were approved by Bill K and seconded by Ian Bremner.

3 Matters arising 3 Giant Hogweed It was noted that the Council had sprayed some roadside hogweed, Ian was still in touch with SNH about ways to compel private owners of land to take action and Anne had posted an update with pictures of hogweed from the railway line on Buchlyvie Banter and asked for people to report other locations. It was agreed that the problem was increasing throughout the area and we needed to increase our efforts to help eradicate it. Action: All 5 Police report: Bill McC said he had not had a reply to his email on 11 February 2018 to Sergeant Matheson 12 Declaring prejudicial interests: It had been suggested by Anne that we should adopt the recommendation of the Community Council Review requiring councillors to declare any prejudicial interests in the business to be discussed (eg planning) at the start of each meeting, prior to it becoming a statutory requirement. This was agreed. Proposed by Bill K and seconded by Debbie.

4 Treasurer's Report There had been no activity in the account since the last meeting. Current net assets were £2,122.93.

5 Police Report PC Scott Craigie said that he and his colleague, PC Gary Martin, were aware that police attendance at some community council meetings had been an issue and their aim was to attend at least two meetings a year in Buchlyvie.

Under the heading, Road Safety, the written Police report referred to instances of vehicles speeding through the village. PC Craigie said that extending the 20mph speed limit for built up areas was being introduced in various parts of . He explained that if accidents occurred with no injuries or damage, the Police would not come out. He stressed the importance of reporting suspicious activity to the Police at Station at [email protected] In response to a query from PC Craigie, Bill K explained again how an incident of vandalism at the Church on 24 December 2017 had been reported to the Police but had not been included later in the Police Report.

6 Correspondence The Secretary, Bill McC, had emailed correspondence, including copies of the Community News Sheet, details of an event at the Smith and an NHS Forum meeting, to members.

Margaret Sparkes had written on behalf of the WRI highlighting that on several occaisions when they had meetings in the hall, random parking of cars near the entrance was making it difficult for older members to pass through particularly if carrying things for a given meeting. She wondered if there should be space for cars with disabled stickers by the Hall entrance in the car park. It was agreed that this request was not within the remit of the BCC. Action: Bill McCreath to reply and suggest to Margaret that she contact the Hall Management Committee.

7 Roads Ian Bremner received copies of the current Road Works Programme at the recent Forum meeting in Balfron. These are circulated and monitored. The council put out information about overnight closures on the A811 at the beginning of June (for maintenance work and carriage way patching) on the Notice Board and posted details on Buchlyvie Banter. Action: Secretary to place the new Road Works Programme on the village Notice Board.

8 Planning Stirling Council are introducing changes in the way they handle and determine planning applications. An online toolbox, to provide information on the process, will become effective from 11 June. Briefing sessions will be arranged for community council members.

Stirling Council has approved the Stirling Local Development Plan 2018. The site South of Fisher Place in Buchlyvie for 15 houses is scheduled to be in Phase 1 (2015/2022) subject to resolving the site access. There is a sign in the window at Brown the Butchers that the takeaway will open soon but there is nothing on the Stirling Council website in response to their comments last summer. The second application for a house east of Ballochneck has been withdrawn.

Disposal of waste ground behind 49/55 Main Street As agreed at the last meeting, Alison had submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Stirling Council in relation to transactions about the disposal of this waste ground. A reply is expected by 29 June. The four questions asked were: 1. When did the Estates and/or the Planning departments first start discussions with the owner of the adjacent Rob Roy site? 2. Why was due process (and informing the Community Council) not followed when disposing of the Council land? 3. Was the land offered on the open market? 4. How much did the sale of the land achieve? Three house development behind 45/55 Main Street Councillor Lambie acknowledged at the last meeting that he had failed to submit a referral for the development to the Planning Panel and the application had been approved. It had been agreed that Alison would prepare a formal complaint about the way the planning process had worked. However, as the issues were related and one of our objectives was to secure some of the funds from the sale of the Council land for the community, she explained that she was waiting for the reply from the FOI request before drafting the Complaint. It was agreed that this approach made sense. Action: Alison to circulate to members 1. the response from the Compliance Team at the Council and 2. Draft formal complaint.

9 Community Council Review As part of the review of the scope and governance of community councils in Scotland, members had been asked to participate in regional workshops and to complete an on line survey. Ian and Bill K had also attended a second conference on community councils organised by Stirling Council. Ian Denvir explained that new governance arrangements resulting from this work should be in place for forthcoming elections to commu‐ nity councils in the autumn. He also outlined plans to involve community councils in greater decision making.

10 Buchlyvie Inn Simon was unable to attend the meeting but had sent a report. The event at the pub on 3 June had been very successful, with approximately 50 – 60 calling in during the afternoon. 49 people had completed questionnaires and these are being collated. The Pub working group continue to attract new members and work to progress matters – the amended forms to set up the CIC are in Companies House and there will be a date for a meeting to amend the BCA constitution.

11 Imagining Buchlyvie 2026 A Connecting Communities meeting was planned for 15 June in the Buchlyvie Inn. Copies of Imagining Buchlyvie 2016 were circulated. It was proposed by Bill K and seconded by Ian B that these should be adopted as the Buchlyvie plan. Ian Denvir suggested that we might wish to update and review the priorities allocated to the specific projects. Action: Alison to make minor amendments to the text and consult with other members about reviewing/updating priorities.

12 Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund As agreed at the last meeting, information about the Fund had been included in the Summer Community Council Report in the Buchlyvie Bulletin. With a focus on supporting innovative projects to improve the visitor experience, some members said it could assist the development of tourism in the area while others felt it might be more relevant for areas where tourism was already well established.

13 AOB Buses Valerie Brand, local campaigner, had asked for this subject to be added to the Agenda. In her introduction she said that, with the exception of CC, she had been disappointed by the lack of response to rural transport issues raised by her from other community councils (including Buchlyvie) and elected councillors.

In the Forth and Endrick ward the B12 is the only access route to Stirling and is the main rural link between Stirling and . There is no B12 Sunday service between Balfron and Stirling. This lack of access means that people cannot visit friends in hospital or in care homes, socialise or shop in Stirling on a Sunday. Since the route in the evening was changed some years ago to go via (which has no direct links with Forth and Endrick villages) there has been a decline in usage. It adds significantly to the journey and there is no pick up in Dumbarton Road in Stirling.

Valerie had also been in touch with Stirling Council about the possibility of using City Deal funding to improve rural access. She considered public transport was a key issue for the rural areas and hoped that community councils would keep it mind and raise it at every opportunity with the bus company and elected officials.

Democracy Matters Anne Winther is on the local democracy working group for Scottish Rural Action and had circulated information about a Scottish Government consultation on local democracy to members. It was agreed that we should ask her for further information.

14 Date of next Meeting Thursday 9 August, 2018 in the Village Hall at 7.30 pm