MINUTES OF STRATHBLANE COMMUNITY COUNCIL 2nd Draft Monday 3rd October 2011 in the school Members Present: - Margaret Vass, Alan Hutton, Willie Oswald, Marian Lever, John Gray, Richard Arnold, Philip Graves, Fiona Murray, Elspeth Posnett. In attendance: - Cllr Colin O’Brien, PC David McNally & Gordon Ash SCDT. + 18 members of the community. (SC = Stirling Council. CC = Community Council. CDT= Community Development Trust * Denotes an action) 1. Welcome from Chair and apologies: Margaret welcomed all to the meeting . Apology received from Mike McNulty 2. Conflict of interest for noting: - there were no conflicts to note. 3. Minutes of August meeting: Approved WO and seconded EP. 4. Matters Arising – None. 5. Police Report – from PC David McNally The past month had been relatively quiet. There had been a car theft from Campsie Dene Road and a break in and theft from a car at Mugdock S. Lodge car park. Do not leave valuables in cars and certainly not in view. Drug users detained at Mugdock Park. Attempted break in at Carbeth Inn and door at Netherblane vandalized. Scams included “Council Workmen” requesting access to rear garden while accomplice stole elderly resident’s handbag, and a leaflet deliverer abandoning his task to steal a bike and ride off (cursing a pursuer in an foreign language!). Beware of bogus callers! Issues raised with PC McN. Were the ongoing problems with the quarry and mud on the road and the extremely slow progress of a roadsweeper to remove the mud. This was going to give rise to an accident with drivers’ dangerous overtaking. This has been necessitated by the lack of a wheel wash which was a requirement of the planning consent. WO would take this up again with SC Planning Dept, Lynn Currie is in charge of enforcement. JG also advised that SEPA, based in Greenock is looking into the quarry issues and possible contamination worries in respect of loads coming in or out. AH also raised the poor condition of the water track to Killearn after Cantywherry cottage, which was nearly impassable due to timber operations and mud. Ah to contact Scottish Water and Duntreath Estate. 6. Strathblanefield Community Action Plan – from Margaret Vass. An article written by MV about this issue had, for some reason, not been published in the recent issue of the Blane. It is attached to this minute (Appendix 1). She went on to give the flavour of some of the ideas for the presentation the 1 CC and CDT had discussed regarding a “wish list of help” that we would request of the Community Planning Partnership. The key issue was that, in common with the majority of residents of the village we wished to ensure that its character was maintained. The CC and CDT still had a huge amount of work to do for the as yet incomplete proposals for this presentation which it would give to the Community Planning Partnership on some yet-to-be-defined date in October. Once proposals had been finalized they would be placed on the website prior to the meeting. It was commented from the floor that an unamended version of the CAP was still being shown on the website. It was agreed this would be amended. 7. Health and Social Care Issues – from Marian Lever. The NHS Forth Valley Annual Review will take place on Monday 7 November 2011 in Forth Valley Royal Hospital. It will include a public question and answer session. Members of the community raised several questions, such as the difficulty of public transport access from the western villages. Anyone with questions to add (not about specific patients) should contact Marian Lever and she will try to obtain answers. AH said thtat reassurance was needed re access to Glasgow hospitals since public transport to Larbert was very difficult (4hrs). A letter of reassurance about this had been received by Alan Morris saying that there was no problem about going to Glasgow hospitals as a preference. Ambulances, however, may come from the Stirling area and may not know the route. A copy of this letter would be sent to ML. The reshaping of older peoples’ care was a topic discussed at the recent Rural South West Area Forum. In future access to services should be easier as a team of dedicated workers will operate the receiving service enabling better continuity of services. Other improvements include the provision of a re-enablement programme, a six week period of intensive support and assessment with the aim of enabling as many people as possible to return home from hospital with an appropriate care package, this being most peoples’ preferred option. Its success has meant a reduced demand for long stay residential beds, with the Council purchasing 58 fewer in March 2011 than in March 2010. There will be changes to the shopping service from November 2011. It will now be open to all those over 65 year olds for a fee. The contract for this is with Food Train. Finally concern was expressed about proposed changes to the meals service from February/March next year. The proposal is to purchase a fortnightly frozen meals service. It is not yet clear whether this will apply in Strathblanefield, as a meeting with Council representatives and some of the volunteers before the summer seemed to suggest a local solution might be possible. Feedback on this is needed urgently as a further local meeting will be held in mid October. There are similar concerns in all the local villages as there are good local schemes in operation currently. The forum was told of the intention to continue to support lunch clubs despite the proposed changes. This situation will be closely watched in the meantime. Much discussion followed about worries regarding the proposals which are totally opposed by Cllr O’Brien, who thinks SC may be unaware of the existence of lunch clubs and the good work they do. Personal regular contact is most important for the elderly and 2 vulnerable. He stated that the council was, however, under immense pressure from the Scottish Government to achieve a cumulative saving of £30 million over 3 years so there were pressures an all budgets which officers are charged to investigate for savings. Following their submissions the issue would escalate to become a political matter. Concerns were raised during discussions about the possible poor quality of contractor– supplied meals and that many older people had old inefficient and inadequate freezers. Some may find the use of a microwave difficult. The village needs to campaign to enhance and preserve a service that is the essence of the community. The community had been providing a meals on wheels service provided by volunteers for many years at a current cost of £1.80 per meal. It is hard to see how this could be bettered. Cllr O’Brien will progress feedback from Maureen Dryden re meals on wheels. 8. Emergency Plan – MV said that this was not yet available. Due to non-publication of the CC News in the Blane, community groups would not be aware of the proposed plan. This will delay the finalization of our work to the plan. 9. Financial matters – from Treasurer Fiona Murray. An admin grant had been received of £416.71 and had been banked. The Current account stands at £633.57 and the Gold account at £ 2720.17. 10. Current Planning applications – from Planning Correspondent John Gray a) 11/00582/FUL - New, modern, eco-design house planned for the site opposite Milndavie stables. No comments against the proposals – agreed by CC. b) 11/00548/PPP - 3 houses on ground behind Auchencraig – raised at the last CC meeting. JG and PG met up with client’s agent who claimed they were trying to “enhance” the area. As there are currently no signs of a change to the green belt policy, rejection of the application is expected. JG, assisted by PG will draft CC comments and objections to the proposals. There is a meeting on 11th October at Mugdock re the issue at which CC members are welcome to attend. c) Local Development Plan – The first stage consultations were undertaken by SC a year ago. The CC submitted comments at the time re such issues as where we wanted houses and businesses; what we want protected etc. The plan is going forward to SC for approval or otherwise, with a further consultation period between 24th Oct and 16th Dec this year. This may require additional public meetings with the CC, but dates will be advised. Some items already hinted at which are reassuring e.g. green belt policy to be retained as is; no proposal to change the status of Mugdock to a village; proposal to realign the green belt to the centre of A81 as it rises south out the village at the “devils elbow” so that the adjacent pine woods are out with the green belt. A possibly controversial proposal will be to permit a small number of houses, 50% of which must be “affordable” in the Singh field. A cemetery is also proposed which would define a definite boundary to the village to the east. Cllr O’Brien said that this was now a proposed plan, not a draft plan and the council are being invited to comment on whether this is a fit document to be submitted for consultation, It is hoped that the final submission will occur in March 2012, where after it will be submitted to government. The plan should be available at the library after Thursday 6th October, but can be seen now on the Stirling web site. 3 Other planning issues - parking at the distillery for access to Dumgoyne.