BOARHILLS AND DUNINO COMMUNITY COUNCIL NOTES OF MEETING HELD THURSDAY 27 MAY 2021 BY ZOOM Present: Arlene Slaughter, Chair, Helen Raeside, Vice chair, Bobby Simpson (CC), Louise Roger, Councillor John Docherty, Councillor Bill Porteous, Ashley Raeside Apologies: Councillor Linda Holt, Janice Furness, Sybil Scott 1. Welcome by Chair, Arlene Slaughter 2. Declaration of Interest: None 3. Minutes of last meeting (March 25 2021): Accepted MATTERS ARISING: 1. END OF YEAR ACCOUNTS: The accounts to the year end 31 March 2021 have now been completed and checked and signed by Professor Alan Cairns, Boarhills. Many thanks to him for once again giving his time freely.The balance at the year end is £595.78. Fife Council's annual grant application for this year will be open shortly and the chair will apply for it 2. EAST NEUK COMMUNITY FORUM MEETING 7 APRIL 2021 Arlene attended this zoom meeting whereby the following was discussed: a) Gillian Duncan of East Neuk First Responders (FR)raised the issues they were having with both Fife Council Falls Team and Scottish Ambulance. They have approached both many times to offer their assistance but have met with opposition. FR are being contacted by not local relatives whose East Neuk elderly family member has fallen . They can often reach an elderly fall well in advance of the other services who can take hours. They have invested in hoist equipment but have now been advised by Fife Council (FC) that the council's liability insurance cannot cover them. Scottish Ambulance refuse to engage with FR nor call them in the event of a 999 call. Again the ambulance service is often taking far longer to attend. Councillor Linda Holt to ask for meeting with Fife Executive and Gillian Duncan to address issues. Community council will also write to both FC and Scottish Ambulance to support FR plea, as suggested by Councillors Porteous and Docherty b) John Docherty raised road signage problems in Fife and will ask FC once again for action c)Simon Baldwin of Destination Digital spoke re the successful superfast broadband project in Cupar and how this could be brought to the East Neuk which has very poor speeds. Following meeting, Arlene sent an email on behalf of CC to request that Fife Council apply to Levelling Up Fund, set up by Westminster government, whereby £22 million is available for local councils, deadline is June 2021. Arlene received email from Simon on 11/05/21 to advise that he had submitted business case to FC, requesting a joint area committee meeting between councillors across NE Fife. Still to be arranged as per Councillors Docherty and Porteous. d)National Park (NP)Suggestion for East Neuk: Councillor Bill Porteous raised this and invited John Mayhew of Scottish National Parks Strategy to talk to forum. John spoke about advantages to areas within a NP including tourism sustainability, increased jobs, economic hospitality advantages to businesses. At present, there is only 2 NP in Scotland, the Cairngorms and Loch Lomond and Trossachs. Strong campaign by Scottish Borders and Galloway area to the Scottish Government for the set up of NP status in these areas but no success yet. To set up one in the East Neuk will undoubtedly face same hurdles. Disadvantages to local communities including local house prices increase, roads become more clogged up and increase in holiday home ownership with locals being unable to compete e) Recycling Centres: Councillor Docherty raised problem of elderly people with no computers, being unable to book slots online and the limited opening hours offered. There has been a motion put forward to Councillor Ross Vettriano to sort these issues. 3. TRANSITION CYCLE PATH MEETING, 18 MAY 2021, ON M/TEAMs The Vice Chair, Helen, attended this meeting. The minutes are available on the Transition website. Www.transitionsta.org Their 5 year plan for the project is soon running out so will be extended. At present they are concentrating on Fairmont to St Andrews stretch but problems occur due to problems getting written confirmation from landowners 4. BOARHILLS NOTICE BOARD The noticeboard at Boarhills is now in need of a revamp, as requested by Bobby. Louise questioned whether a revamp was necessary but Bobby and Helen agreed that it was looking in poor condition. Danny Slaughter has sanded down the metal windows and has now painted them first coat in grey hammerite paint, supplied by Arlene and Danny. Bobby has offered to powerwash the oak to see how it comes up. Arlene suggested getting something to cover internal boards as they are not looking great. Louise stressed that the oak frame should not be painted etc and left natural. She suggested contacting Peter Kushner, the original craftsman of the noticeboard. Bobby advised there is a split in the oak. CC will attend to revamp. Thanks to Louise for spring clean on Friday. 5. QUERY REGARDING BOARHILLS VILLAGE PARKING ISSUES Following Louise Roger's recent email to CC, it was discussed in length regarding parking, mainly by visitors using the Fife Coastal path, whereby cars are left for hours and cause problems for agricultural lorries etc. Louise asked whether floating signs could be used at times when the harvest is on etc. Councillor Docherty suggested CC write to Leslie Craig at Fife Council. Chair to write 6. FREE COVID RAPID FLOW LATERAL TESTS Arlene wanted to bring to everyone's attention that the above can be ordered free online at www.gov.uk and delivered to your door within 2 days. Very easy to do and results available within 30 minutes 7. POLICE SCOTLAND REPORT Report received for end April 2021, from Community Police Officers Chris Stecka and Robert Wallace. 8 phone calls from Boarhills and Dunino area, 0 crimes recorded. Community speed checks being carried out regularly now, with 2 drivers given warning after speeding on B9131 at Beley Bridge and 1 driver being reported to Procurator Fiscal. Operation still ongoing regarding stopping drug dealing in East Neuk 8. RESPONSE FROM FIFE COUNCIL TRANSPORT Following email to FC transport dept, Arlene received email advising FC would be looking at the CC suggestions for the various issues of speeding at Dunino, Beley Bridge and Boarhills junction and that further speeding reduction measures, including installation of a 40mph gateway or flashing speed signs will be considered as part of their Area Roads Programme Scheme for this financial year. Also to be included the road entrance to Dunino church/Balkaithly. Following previous CC meeting, we contacted Alan Maclean, Lead Consumer Sustainable Traffic and Travel at FC, to highlight various road issues in our area. He has responded by advising that his team will be looking into the feasibility of establishing a “green network” whereby solutions are sought for walkers and cyclists to feel safe and comfortable using our road network. This includes review of speed limits on minor roads. Councillor Porteous has talked again to Crispin Haynes re cycle paths in our area 9. WAR MEMORIAL BOARHILLS Remembering the late Bruce Low's wish to have a more fitting memorial to those from the Boarhills area, who gave their lives in the world wars, and conflicts since, we discussed the feasibility of doing this. At the moment, there is a plaque in Dunino Church and a framed list of names in the village hall at Boarhills. CC would like to hear the community's thoughts. 10. REQUESTED DONATION FOR BOARHILLS VILLAGE HALL Louise advised that other CC have donated money to their village halls due to no income during the covid lockdown period. She suggested that the CC could give a donation in lieu of village hall hire which we have not had to pay this past year. Bobby and Helen both asked how much funds the village hall had currently and Louise advised approx £6000. A vote was taken and the CC committee decided against a donation, preferring to concentrate on revamping the noticeboard and other projects as we do not have a great deal of funds at present. 11. QUERY REGARDING CC COMMENTING ON PLANNING APPLICATION(PA) Ashley Raeside of Shepherd's Cottage, Dunino raised the question of why a comment by the CC regarding her husband's PA for a large barn had not been minuted and what the procedure was. The chair advised her that the PA had appeared post March 2021 CC meeting and that like all PA for this area, the Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Sybil Scott receive weekly notification by Fife Development Central of submitted in that week. The PA was discussed, albeit not with Helen due to conflict of interest. Another barn owned by the Raesides, used since September 2020 for storage of potatoes with very loud ventilation fans,had caused noise issues day and night for neighbours, with Fife Council Environmental noise complaint dept involved. The neighbours asked for the CC to comment on the planning application to relay their concerns about yet another potential noise problem as the new barn is also to be used for potato storage. There was also a concern about the size of the barn and light issues. The chair reminded Mrs Raeside that the community council exists to serve its community residents in this way. It is noted that the Raeside's planning application has since been passed The Chair closed the meeting, thanking everyone for attending and their input We would like to remind the community that if they wish to attend community council meetings on zoom that it is courtesy to at least identify oneself at the start of the meeting and not remain anonymous until you wish to raise an issue NEXT CC MEETING SCHEDULED FOR THURSDAY 19 AUGUST 2021, 5.30PM, ZOOM DETAILS TO BE ADVISED, UNLESS WE ARE ALLOWED TO HOLD IN VILLAGE HALL.