DRAFT MINUTES – Subject to approval at the January meeting
GULBERWICK, QUARFF & CUNNINGSBURGH COMMUNITY COUNCIL
MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON TUESDAY 8th DECEMBER 2020 VIA ZOOM VIDEO CONFERENCING AT 7.30PM
A. THE CIRCULAR CALLING THE MEETING WAS HELD AS READ.
B. PRESENT Mrs L Johnston Mr C Clark Mrs M Davis
EX OFFICIO Mr R McGregor Mr G Smith
IN ATTENDANCE Mrs K Geddes Mrs A Arnett Beatrice Wishart MSP
CHAIRPERSON Ms A Garrick-Wright
APOLOGIES Mr S Flaws Mr M Duncan Mr E MacPherson Mr R Skinley Mr C Smith
NOT PRESENT Mr A Duncan Mrs S Wishart Mr S Douglas Mr P Campbell Ms A Hawick
Information – due to the Covid-19 Virus pandemic meetings are being held online.
C. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
Cllr R McGregor declared an interest in Item 8 as he was involved in the campaign before he became an SIC Councillor. He also declared an interest in Item 6 Planning due to his role on the Planning Committee but there are no applications to consider this month.
Ms A Garrick-Wright declared an interest in the grant application from the Cunningsburgh Under 5s as her children are in the group.
D. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON TUESDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2020
The minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 3 November were approved on the motion of Mrs M Davis and seconded by Ms A Garrick-Wright.
1. VISIT FROM BEATRICE WISHART MSP
Ms Wishart explained that with Covid-19 still being an issue for communities and impacting the way she could speak to and support her constituents she is grateful to Community Councils who are willing for her to use their meetings as a listening exercise. As well as finding out what measures had been put in place to support people in Gulberwick, Quarff and Cunningsburgh during the past eight months, she also wanted to find out what issues the community still had to see where she may be able to help.
Each community councillor as well as the clerk all spoke through what had been put in place, what had worked and what hadn’t and expressed concern about how people will cope in the new year. Money will be tighter and mental health issues may come more to the fore.
There was general agreement on how good it was to see how Shetlanders can come together in a crisis and the SIC Councillors were also praised for their role supporting the efforts of the Community Council. The fact that the financial aid came out so quickly was also brilliant and meant that support could get out in the early stages of lockdown.
ACTION: Keep in touch with Ms Wishart to pass relevant info/requests for help on, and Ms Wishart also agreed to feedback ideas which she had seen work in other areas of the country. ---Ms Wishart left 8pm ---
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DRAFT MINUTES – Subject to approval at the January meeting
2. MATTERS ARISING FROM MINUTE
1. Radicle Road in Quarff
Residents were in touch last month about the degradation of the road in Quarff. Residents say that it has been in a bad state for a number of years but it has deteriorated greatly now, meaning it is very unsafe to walk on when you meet traffic – the verges on both sides have deteriorated into the ditches meaning there is no safe place to stand.
An email was received from Neil Hutchison, SIC Road Engineer on November 18th explaining that several years ago there were initial proposals to widen the road and provide a passing place but attempts to acquire the land were unsuccessful. Since then, the Council has approved a medium- term financial plan that requires all capital monies to be spent on the maintenance of existing assets and not on the provision of new assets such as the work required on this road. There have been a few exceptions to the ‘no new assets’ rule but these require business cases to be created which clearly show the value for Shetlanders and the Council – only safety related works such as traffic calming and safety barriers have been able to show value and the type of project required for the Radicle Road is unlikely to be passed.
Members did feel that the issues with the road did come under safety-related works due to the danger to pedestrians and to cars going off the road when trying to pass each other – there is such a distance between places for vehicles to pass and the state of the road means the edges are dangerous for both pedestrians and vehicles.
ACTION: Clerk to contact Director of Infrastructure John Smith to raise the issue. Cllr R McGregor to be copied in to correspondence to enable him to support.
2. Bremmer to Longwell Road
The clerk had been asked to contact SIC Roads to find out if a solution used for the Cullister road in Sandwick would be a suitable option for this road. Various staff at the department explained that the stones needed at the side of the road between Bremmer to Longwell were needed for drainage as well as to support the road and is the only solution suitable within budget.
3. Dog Fouling in Gulberwick
After complaints of dog fouling in the Setter area of Gulberwick especially Environmental Health have been patrolling the area but have not found any evidence on their visits.
Mr Skinley was able to report via email that he had been in touch with Billy Mycock from Environmental Health: “They have conducted patrols through the village but obviously catching someone “in the act” is really difficult. What they will do is use the stencils they have to spray “pick it up” messages on the road surface and see how that goes. If necessary they are happy to conduct further patrols if the problem persists so he and I will remain in touch periodically to see how things are going.”
Members agreed that if the patrols do not work there is the possibility of a Community Council campaign like the successful one which Sandwick CC did this summer.
ACTION: Mr Skinner to stay in contact with Environmental Health. Community Council to explore a campaign next year if required.
4. Wooden Walkway near Gulberwick Hall
SIC Roads said this will be completed before Christmas – it needs to be made safer as it becomes very slippery in wet or cold weather.
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DRAFT MINUTES – Subject to approval at the January meeting
5. Salt and Grit Box at Heathery Park
A resident in Heathery Park was worried their carers would not be able to support them during the winter months due to the lack of salt and grit near their house. Cllr R McGregor was able to request this and the bin is now in place. Members expressed thanks to all elected members as they have been so supportive of the Community Council on all matters and this was just one example of the positive changes they had managed to put in place for the community.
6. Provision of Milk in Schools
The EU subsidy which helped pay for milk in schools at break time has been lost and neither the UK or Scottish Governments were willing to pay the shortfall meaning no milk was available in schools. Cllr G Smith was able to report that after a lot of work to change things in Shetland to allow parents to pay extra to cover the shortfall, at the last minute the news came in that the Scottish Government had agreed to pay if the money does not come in from Westminster. As a result, milk has been available for bairns in Shetland schools since December 1st. Members thanked Cllr G Smith for all the hard work he had done to progress the issue in Shetland.
7. Overgrown Path between Central and North Heathery Park, Gulberwick
The clerk is trying to establish ownership of the path in the hope that the Community Justice Team can clear it when the weather improves.
ACTION: Clerk to report back at next meeting.
8. Gulberwick Beach Gate
The clerk spoke to the landowner who says that not much work needs to be done to fix the gate but that heat may be required to loosen the bolts to do the work. She is to take a photo and distribute amongst members in the hope that someone can do the work or know someone else who can.
ACTION: Clerk to take photo of broken gate and email it to members.
3. POLICE REPORT
The October report was emailed to members before the meeting. Winter road safety advice was issued and details from the Performance Against Local Policing Plan 2020/1 were published, comparing figures from April to November with the same period last year.
With the effects of Covid-19 skewing figures somewhat there was discussion around some of the more worrying figures. While checks on licensed premises, vandalism, speeding, breach of the peace type offences and the number of common assaults were all considerably down, domestic abuse cases were up and slightly more people were detected for drink/drug driving (nine up to 13) and drug offences were also up by six to 84.
Councillors didn’t have the expertise to pick apart the story behind all the data, but did agree that the mental health of Shetland as a whole will have been affected by Covid-19 and figures for the rest of the year will perhaps give a clearer picture on the long-term effects of the pandemic.
The report also indicated that there have been five incidents recorded for our community council area since the last report had been published but no detail was given on the nature of the incidents. More detail was given for Lerwick, with 242 incidents recorded there. ‘Covid tickets’ made up 24 of these. Five people were charged with having no MOT in Lerwick.
ACTION: Clerk to share details of the winter safety campaign on the Facebook page.
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DRAFT MINUTES – Subject to approval at the January meeting
4. FINANCIAL MONITORING REPORT
The clerk gave details of the finance:
The bank statement on December 8th reads £8942.19
Outgoings since the last meeting outside our usual monthly outgoings are: £678.50 for the road grant in Quarff, a total of £1,493.05 paid out to local shops on receipt of the Covid grocery vouchers they redeemed and £104.72 in backpay to the clerk.
The Community Council receives £12,923 in total from the SIC.
£7,001.85 has been spent so far (wages, broadband, laminating pouches, stamps, accountancy fees, Covid-admin, a £10 overspend in the Covid-relief and including the payment for the road grant materials agreed in September of £678.50 – up £164.32 from the quote)
The projected spend is £2,270.87 (wages, broadband, internet security, web hosting, VAS membership etc).
Current spend and projected spend totals £9,362.72 leaving £3,650.28
A community council can retain £1,000 of the core grant balance without justification or adjustment to the next year’s core grant so they have a buffer for any increases in subscription or IT costs or any last-minute grants which come in.
This means there is £2,650.28 to spend on grants for the remainder of the year.
The Rotary Club has been in touch to say that due to Covid-19 they are not awarding £100 to Community Councils this year. Usually, the sum is awarded annually to go towards supporting Christmas events in the community for senior citizens.
All of the Covid grant money has been spent. The report and detail of spending required by Highlands and Islands Enterprise has been completed. Going forward food, fuel and mental health were deemed to be priorities. Mrs Arnett said she would email contact details for Changeworks Home Energy and Partnership Liaison Officer (Shetland) Tiffany Rollo in case there are fuel schemes we can access or advice we can use. Members also agreed to accept an offer of torches from SIC Road Safety Officer Elaine Skinley to be distributed amongst school children in the area.
A £500 grant has been awarded for Covid-relief as a result of an application administered by VAS. Members agreed that this should be spent on purchasing vouchers from local shops to be used by people in the community who require extra support. This will be easier to administer than GQ&C CC vouchers. Members agreed to support another application for further funds for the continuation of the hot food scheme supported by Mackenzie’s. The clerk is to revisit the projects she had worked out in conjunction with local charities. Though they are not valid for the initial fund, there may be other funds they are eligible for or the Community Council may be able to support through their grant scheme.
ACTION: Clerk to purchase grocery vouchers when the £500 grant comes in and to apply for further money for the hot food scheme if Mackenzie’s are still able to run the project. She is also to contact schools and liaise with Mrs Skinley to distribute torches and to revisit some of the projects which were not eligible for the SCF when they change the grant conditions. Mrs Arnett to share contact details for Ms Rollo with the clerk.
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DRAFT MINUTES – Subject to approval at the January meeting
5. GRANT APPLICATIONS
Two groups applied for funding. Both organisations met the grant conditions and both were awarded funds.
Cunningsburgh School Parent Council were awarded £500 towards purchasing and building a shed to store outdoor resources. The full amount requested was not awarded but members decided that if funds were left over at the end of the financial year they may award more.
The Cunningsburgh Under 5s were awarded £100 towards an event they are holding as an alternative to their usual Christmas party.
ACTION: Clerk to contact groups to share the news and the grant conditions and transfer the money to their accounts.
6. PLANNING
No grant applications were received this month. Executive Manager – Planning, Ian McDiarmid emailed on December 8th with an update on the backlog of planning applications. He said:
“Based on the allocations list from last week, the oldest planning application waiting on allocation was made valid on 26 August. There were more recent applications allocated to officers which were identified as being time sensitive, e.g. prior notifications, as well as 4 allocated to Yvonne Goudie who is back working for us one day a week. That meant that there were 63 in the queue. Pre-applications are standing at 24 no. in the queue, but we are at the point when people are appreciating the backlog and are just starting to put applications in.”
Mr McDiarmid also said they are also looking to do an online Developers’ Workshops in January. These will probably be shorter and more targeted versions of the previous Workshops, and will be possibly held over several days. More detail will be released when they are available.
7. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT FARES 2020 (CLOSING 20/12/20)
ZetTrans has launched a public survey to inform a review of public transport fares. The email accompanying it was read and noted and the page where the consultation can be found was looked over. Cllr R McGregor encouraged folk to push for free bus travel for all if they agreed with his view that this would be a good idea. Cllr G Smith cautioned against pushing for this without having a clear idea where the money to fund it would come from as he said that the SIC would struggle to do so in the current climate. The issue was discussed and it was decided that members could put their own views forward if they so wished. People who do not currently use the buses have also been encouraged to complete the survey as ZetTrans would like to hear why people are not using the bus.
ACTION: Members are to complete the consultation if they have strong views or have had representations from members of the public.
8. CAMPAIGN FOR REDUCED SPEED LIMITS DUE TO SPEEDING IN THE COMMUNITY
The issues with speeding, overtaking and road safety in general were discussed and members agreed that they still felt that it was enough of an issue in Quarff especially, but also Cunningsburgh, to see if anything could be done. A temporary reduction in the speed limit for the Sound Brae, the main road above Gulberwick to the Black Gaet and the stretch of road into Gulberwick past the Trebister Loch has been introduced for 18 months and members agreed to see if the same experiment could be tried in Cunningsburgh and Quarff. They also discussed whether solid white lines to stop overtaking in Quarff would be more beneficial than the red hatching. Cllr G Smith said that driver behaviour is a big part of the problem and a speed limit is only effective if people pay attention to it. It also needs to be enforced. Cllr R McGregor agreed but wanted to try any small step which may make the road safer.
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DRAFT MINUTES – Subject to approval at the January meeting
ACTION: Clerk to write asking for a temporary reduction in speed limit for Cunningsburgh and Quarff. Email to be addressed to SIC Executive Manager – Roads Dave Coupe, SIC Traffic and Road Safety Engineer, Colin Gair, SIC Chair of Environment and Transport, Cllr Ryan Thomson, SIC Director of Infrastructure, John Smith and SIC Transport Policy and Projects Officer, Robina Barton. Cllrs G Smith and R McGregor to be copied in.
9. SHETLAND COMMUNITY BENEFIT FUND UPDATE
The next meeting is not until tomorrow (Wednesday 9th) night so Mr Clark did not have as much to report as he would have liked. He said that they have advertised for an Admin Support who they are hoping to start in the first week of January and they are looking to go from perhaps three to two tiers of applications. Tie One would be up to £500 and Community Councils would be able to administer this on their own. Tier Two for projects over £500 would have to go through the SCBF. There is also some work being done to see whether the SCBF could be involved in the other windfarm projects in Shetland and bring them all under the same umbrella.
Mr MacPherson’s idea for a scheme which could help every Shetland resident with their fuel costs will not be eligible as the fund cannot go towards energy consumption. Members felt that it was ‘mad’ that they will be making money off making electricity but they will not be supporting people who are living in fuel poverty.
ACTION: Mr Clark to say that GQC CC members strongly feel that the SCBF should reconsider the fact that money cannot go towards helping tackle fuel poverty. Mr Clark to email an update to everyone following the meeting.
10. PROJECT IDEAS FOR LOCAL PLACE PLAN
Mr Clark explained that only one new idea had been added since the last meeting – the suggestion of benches in some locations in the community. The clerk had sought more information on where the first suggested location was located and had taken a photo for the group. If other suggestions for areas to put benches came in, they would be added to the project idea. Any other ideas are also welcome though the list is already looking healthy. The group is hoping to meet for a socially distanced coffee to sort through the list in the new year.
ACTION: Ms Garrick-Wright to email the extra ideas she has and Mr Clark to report back any progress at the January meeting.
11. BT PAYPHONE REMOVAL CONSULTATION
A payphone in Quarff and one in Cunningsburgh are on a list of 21 payphones which BT are planning to remove as they are not being used enough. Shetland Islands Council has been asked to feedback on whether the payphones are still needed and have asked Community Councils to help with that. Members felt that the payphone in Quarff specifically is still required as the mobile signal is so poor there, but that the ability to use a payphone in Cunningsburgh is also still needed as not everyone in the community has a phone.
BT shared details of how to adopt phone boxes which are no longer housing working payphones and this is something which the Community Council may look at as a last resort of their views are not listened to and the phones are removed.
ACTION: Clerk to email a response to SIC Development Management stating that they strongly disagree with the removal of the payphones as the community still need them in case a serious road accident happens nearby.
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DRAFT MINUTES – Subject to approval at the January meeting
12. ACTIVE TRAVEL STRATEGY CONSULTATION
The draft Shetland Active Travel Strategy 2020-2025 has now been launched for consultation, seeking the public’s views on walking, cycling and wheeling, including wheelchair use, across the islands.
The email from SIC Transport Policy and Projects Officer Robina Barton said the document reflects input from Community Councils, feedback from a number of community events held earlier this year, and over 400 responses to an online survey, which also provided an insight into changed travel behaviours as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Ms Barton said that an approved strategy will provide a clear and transparent framework within which ZetTrans can best support communities in encouraging more active travel in Shetland, and reducing Shetland's carbon footprint in response to the Climate Emergency.
The consultation can be accessed at https://www.zettrans.org.uk/about/consultations
Members had looked at the document before the meeting and were disappointed that after all the work community councillors had done to provide information on Gulberwick especially, not even one mention was made of the area in the document. They also felt that the work was done over two years ago and more progress should have been made even with Covid-19 slowing things down. They felt the document is too corporate and is not easy to understand, with no actions or SMART targets.
ACTION: Mr C Clark to fill out the consultation on behalf of the Community Council.
13. PLANNING AID SCOTLAND TRAINING AVAILABLE IN THE NEW YEAR
Free online training for community councils and elected members is being provided by Planning Aid Scotland, in collaboration with Zero Waste Scotland, for early next year.
These training events will help participants to understand how the planning system works, in particular how to be engaged and involved in shaping decision-making. It will also provide an introduction to the circular economy as Scotland moves towards its zero -arbon target by 2045. More details and sign up here.
ACTION: Anyone interested in the training to follow the link and sign up.
14. AOCB
There were no issues for this section but the clerk detailed a few issues which she had mistakenly left off Matters Arising. They have been recorded under Agenda Item 2 for ease of understanding despite being discussed at this point in the meeting.
15. DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 12 January 2021.
Meeting Ends – 9.25pm
CHAIR 16. OUTSTANDING ITEMS
None at present
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