Minutes of Meeting of Tuesday 19th March 2019 Cambuslang Institute 7.30- 9.00pm Present John Bachtler, Chair Dave Sutton Michelle Farmer, Vice-Chair David Thomson David Porter, Secretary Linda Wallace Hilda Allison Clare Williamson Robert Allison Stewart Walker Donald MacDonald In Attendance Apologies PC Thomas McEwan (Police Scotland) Brian Fisher, Treasurer PC Scott Anderson (Police Scotland) Hamish Allan Alison Park Sub Group (FoHWCP) Amy Davison Rhonda Leith, SLC CPE Suzy Quinn Jacqueline Queen, SLC CPE Cllr. John Bradley Brian Law, SLC-YFCL Cllr. Ann LeBlond Jacqueline Smyth, Resident Cllr. Margaret Walker Alice Wallace, Minutes Secretary Clare Haughey MSP James Kelly MSP Elizabeth Whyte, Resident 1. Welcome The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked the representatives from SLC’s Community Participation and Empowerment (CPE) team for attending. The Chair proposed that, as usual, the police report (item 5) be given first. The Chair also proposed that, after that, the CPE team would give their presentation (item 10). 2. Apologies Noted above. 3. Minutes of Meeting on 19th February 2019 There were no corrections. Approval of the minutes was proposed by D Sutton, seconded by S Walker. 1 4. Matters arising Residents’ Parking Permit Zone (RPPZ) Proposal and Park and Ride Study J Bachtler summarised the recent correspondence with SLC on the RPPZ proposal which indicated that nothing had changed since the last CCC meeting. D Porter noted that SLC Roads Safety Forum (Committee) has been assigned responsibility for overseeing the RPPZ proposals for locations throughout SL including Cambuslang. Cllr M Walker is a member. The Forum met on 15 January 2019 and the discussions on RPPZs were reported to a second meeting held on 12 March 2019. The discussion was mainly on the purpose and justification of RPPZs, the criteria that should be used to determine where to introduce them, and alternative solutions. Consideration was also given whether fees should be charged for parking permits and what level these might be set at. D Porter commented that no decisions appeared to be made at the meeting and the committee were still considering the pros and cons of introducing RPPZs. L Wallace commented that the criteria in the minutes from the meeting were very confusing and that there had been no specific discussion on the pros and cons of particular RPPZs, specifically the one being consulted on around Cambuslang Railway Station where there are concerns about displacement. D Porter raised concerns that the possible £10 cost for a parking permit suggested at the committee meeting seemed very low. J Bachtler acknowledged concerns and said that there would have to be a formal consultation by the committee if they were going to introduce an RPPZ scheme in Cambuslang. D Sutton attended a consultation on 21 February 2019 held by the Park and Ride consultants AECOM who are in the process of finalising their report. He provided a short note on the main points discussed which is attached as Appendix 1. J Bachtler reported that he had just received the final draft of the study from the consultants for comments with the request that these are sent by 3 April 2019. Action: J Bachtler will circulate the draft to CCC members, collate comments and send an appropriate response to AECOM on behalf of CCC. Mobile phone base-station adjacent to St Bride’s Primary School Following a further sharply-worded email to Mono Consultants, copied to CTIL’s (Vodafone-Telefonica) Community Engagement Department, CTIL made contact and confirmed that an audit of radiation around the school will be conducted if requested by the school’s administration. C TIL declined to hold a public meeting and said that they provided full information to the public in a series of publications they had produced. These were emailed to CCC. This information has now been passed to St Bride’s Head Teacher who has responsibility for deciding any course of action the school wishes to take. 2 Community Council cooperation and related survey In conjunction with Halfway CC, a survey form has been sent out to all SL CCs which will be used to gauge their opinions on these matters. The Chair took the CCC members attending through the survey point-by-point, and recorded the consensus view on each question. Action: J Bachtler will finalise and submit CCC’s agreed views on the survey, and then collate and analyse the responses from all SL CCs who decide to participate. Dawn Homes (Somervell area) planning application (not on agenda list) D Sutton has been reviewing the information online regarding the planning application for housing construction on the old Hoover site which local residents in the Somervell area are objecting to. He would now like to have further discussions with the residents to plan next steps. Action – D Porter to email D Sutton contact details of the Somervell residents who attended last month’s CCC meeting. 5. Police Report PC Scott Anderson introduced himself as a new community police officer for the area, and PC Thomas McEwan reported the crime statistics for 19 February – 18 March 2019. Type of Crimes No. recorded No. recorded No. recorded 19 Dec 2018 – 15 Jan 2019 16 Jan – 18 Feb 2019 19 Feb – 18 March 2019 Acquisitive 11 10 19 Disorder 6 13 5 Violence 9 9 6 Drugs 5 6 4 Miscellaneous 20 12 18 Total 51 50 52 PC McEwan commented that the acquisitive crimes nearly always occur in the same locations with Morrison’s garage being the most frequent; these have increased by 9 compared to the previous month and this could be due to people being aware of when the security guards change shift. PC McEwan said that the police are trying to work with Morrison’s staff to make the premises more secure, possibly by changing shift patterns. PC McEwan also commented that there have been two housebreaking crimes both of which occurred during the day when people were in the house. He advised people to keep their doors locked even when they are in the house as nowadays burglars rarely break in at night; they are trying doors at various times of the day to see if they are open and taking car keys which are often left near the front door. PC McEwan reported that 3/4 of the drug crimes concerned possession of small quantities that they had been able to intercept many of these using intelligence obtained about certain vehicles. He also commented that miscellaneous crimes include street drinking which they have 3 been proactively stopping before more serious incidents occur. He noted that the ‘miscellaneous’ category also includes fraud which is on the rise throughout Scotland. J Bachtler asked how South Lanarkshire compares to the rest of Scotland in terms of crime rates. PC McEwan said he was not aware of how Cambuslang compared to the rest of Scotland, but he did know that Cambuslang is the second best area in reducing crime in South Lanarkshire. He also noted that Cambuslang West has the lowest crime stats out of the 4 wards in Rutherglen and Cambuslang. J Bachtler mentioned that he had heard Cambuslang has a high rate of youth offending and asked if it was worse than the rest of Scotland. PC Anderson had not seen any data that indicated that Cambuslang was any worse than the rest of Scotland; but he didn’t think the number of youth offences was any higher than expected for the number of children in the area. D Porter asked the officers what their experience has been with amusement arcades. PC McEwan said that there are two in Rutherglen and he has hardly ever had calls to deal with issues there. He said that the police are more concerned with pubs as most crimes occur when there is alcohol involved. L Wallace asked if it was okay for a resident to put posters on cars that are parked in their street if they think they shouldn’t be parked there. PC McEwan said that it wasn’t an offence to do this but it could cause arguments. So if someone was concerned about parking in their street it would be better to contact the Local Council. PC Anderson left contact information and said that if anyone had a concern that wasn’t an emergency they should contact the police on the undernoted email address. [email protected] Committee business 6. Chair’s Correspondence There was no Chair’s correspondence. 7. Secretary’s Report Planning Applications (from weekly notifications) For domestic premises: 4 applications for changes/extensions to houses; and 3 for commercial developments. 1) Formal application for Vodafone-Telefonica mobile phone base-station upgrades (P/19/0298). This has been fully discussed by CCC (see Matter Arising above and previous minutes). 2) Proposal to convert former TSB premises into an amusement arcade (P/19/0315). There has been some concern expressed about this on local, social media. Following discussion on this, it was decided that there are reasonable grounds on which CCC can object. Action: J Bachtler & D Porter to draft and post an objection to this PA to SLC Planning. 4 3) Formal application for East Whitlawburn Housing Redevelopment (P/19/0299). This has been extensively examined by CCC under the Proposed Application Notice (PAN) process. It is worrying, therefore, that no documentation on, or even reference to, CCC’s representations have been included in the information posted on SLC Planning’s website. Action: D Porter to write to SLC Planning pointing out this deficiency. Marches/Parades: None notified. Consultations/Surveys Banking Services - An invitation was received for CCC to express its view on the impact of bank closures in recent years and current access to banking services.