AGM 2023
ARDENTINNY COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING
www.ardentinnycc.co.uk
Minutes of the AGM held on 6 June 2023 at Ardentinny Village Hall at 7.00p.m.
Present: John Brint (Convener) Mark Rowthorn (Secretary), Bill Tierney (Treasurer), Keith Wood, Helen West, Brian Hillesdon and Danielle Markey.
Public: Dee Robinson, Elsbeth Brint, David McDowall, Jim Urquhart, Jean Urquhart, Neil Robinson, Dougie Menzies, William Sinclair.
1 Welcome and introductions
JB thanked everyone for attending and welcomed Councillor William Sinclair (Lib Dem) he then introduced the new community council to the meeting.
2 Apologies
Received from Councillor Gordon Blair, Councillor Yvonne McNeilly, Eddie McGunnigal (Police), Iain Shonny Paterson (National Parks), Julie McAlpine (FLS), Nik Cox (FLS), Steve Gillen (FLS), Bill Williamson, and Anna Williamson,
Note: No Apologies received from A&BC and Ardentinny Outdoor Centre
3 Declaration of Interest
No declarations of interest declared.
4 Minutes of last AGM
The minutes of the last meeting had been made available on the various notice boards, the Ardentinny Community Council (ACC) website and all those on the Community Council email list had received a copy. A few hard copies were made available in the hall for information.
JB asked whether anyone had any comments, issues or matters arising regarding the minutes: None were made.
JB asked for a proposer and seconder that the minutes be accepted.
Proposed: Mark Rowthorn Seconded: Bill Tierney
5 Matters Arising
There were no matters arising from the previous minutes
6 Treasurers Report
A detailed breakdown of the financial activity (01-04-22 to 31-03-23) was presented by the treasurer, Bill Tierney (BT) stated that overall, the balance was up slightly on the previous year. Over the year grants and contributions had been received from Argyll & Bute Council (A&BC) and from Ardentinny Renewables Trust (ART). The ACC are still legally required to fund a cleaner for the public toilets however there is a possibility of a jointly funded arrangement together with the Village Hall. However, it will still be necessary to seek financial assistance from ART. Further spending will be incurred during the next year on an updated ACC web site and extra Defibrillators around the village. The ACC will need to seek additional funding from grants
Expenditure £1,610.55
Income £1,999.80
Bank Balance on 31st March 2023 £3,314.23
BT informed the meeting that the ACC is trying to open a new bank account due to the inability to carry out internet banking with the existing account but this is proving problematic due to the limitation on accounts that are available for Community Councils. This matter is ongoing. BT went on explain that he will also be standing down as Treasurer and that Keith Wood would be taking over, this would be his last Treasurers Report. JB thanked him for all his hard work as Treasurer.
Proposed: John Brint Seconded: Brian Hillesdon
7 Convener’s Report
During the course of last year, the previous Community Council stood down, and a new Ardentinny Community Council was elected with ultimately 7 members on the team. The inauguration of the new community council took place in January 2023.
The first activity that the new Community Council (CC) undertook was a Residents Survey. This was conducted so that the new council better understood the issues that the local community wanted us to tackle. There was a 40% return from the community which has provided the CC with a robust mandate to prioritise the issues that have been identified.
The 3 main Community Positives were:
Location
Friendliness of the people
Community Spirit
The 5 main Community Issues identified were:
Improve roads
Management of Beach Camping Area
Pedestrian Safety - Hotel Corner
Pedestrian Safety - Generally
Litterbins
The ACC had carried out a Risk Assessment based on the Consequences of harm that each item may represent and also the Likelihood of the consequence happening. This resulted in a ranking of the Harm Potential for each item. While some of the items weren't identified by many people, they did carry a risk of injury, harm or even fatality and are being addressed to reduce the risk or mitigate the consequences in some way. The 3 main Risk items were identified as:
Pedestrian Safety both at Hotel Corner and generally
Fire Safety at the Beach Camping Area
Potential Drinking Water contamination
Further Items were also identified as key issues to address which were as follows:
Ardentinny Community Emergency Plan - The CC has completed and issued a revised Emergency Plan for the village, this has been distributed to residents via our email list and made available as a hard copy in the Ardentinny Village Hall. Copies were also provided to the Civil Contingencies Unit at Argyll & Bute Council, Forestry and Land Scotland Ardentinny Outdoor Centre and the Village Hall Management Team.
Fish Farms in Loch Long - The new CC has maintained the existing opposition of the residents to the installation of fish farms in Loch Long and the Firth of Clyde. Most recently this has involved opposing the Beinn Reithe application in Loch Long, where we have worked with AFF The Clyde to express our opposition to this National Park installation. If Beinn Reithe goes ahead there, it leaves Ardentinny open to a renewed request by MOWI (previously Dawnfresh) to try for an installation at the south end of our village.
Road Safety in the village - As a result of the resident's survey, we have sent a list of requests for road safety improvements to Argyll & Bute Council Roads Department, with copies to our ward Councillors asking for their support. This has received their support and we will progress this topic going forward.
Road Maintenance - We have successfully requested that potholes were filled on the main road though the village with A&BC Roads department, plus with FLS for the road to the beach.
Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) - We have continued to engage with FLS regarding the Beach area and Car Park. We have made it clear that the residents and the ACC are unhappy with the arrangements of Overnight stays for Motorhomes, lack of rangers to monitor behaviour at the beach in the evenings, with fires and noise.
We have also expressed our disappointment at their policy to charge everyone to use the beach, and would not even consider free parking for the residents.
Reconnect with MOD, Coulport Base - We have managed to re-establish a line of communication with HMNB Clyde. We now have direct phone numbers for the Clyde and Coulport Control Rooms which will give us quicker contact possibilities to the Police on Loch Long in case of a water emergency. We hope to extend this reconnect to include the receival of information of activities at the Base.
Communication to Residents - We have revamped our website and Facebook and created an Instagram account. The email list has been updated for the distribution of the weekly notes, and we are making sure that residents not on social media are able to get hard copies where possible.
Noticeboard - The noticeboard is being refurbished at the Church car park, and we are able to work more closely with the Village Hall Committee to leave information there as well.
Charge Point/Climate Change - We have identified a number of items that are being pursued at present. These include opportunities for tree planting, siting of EV Charge Points and cycle racks in the village.
Fire Hydrants - In response to queries on how regular the fire hydrants are checked; we were able to confirm that they were tested and on a regular basis.
Further Activities included:
Public Toilets - The car park toilets had substantial water damage during a Cold Snap in December 2022. We were able to push the Council to get it reopened in a reasonable time frame, which is appreciated, as they are a well-used facility. It was with sadness that our contract cleaner Angie unexpectedly passed away this
year, and we are now investigating a new cleaning agency in combination with the Village Hall.
Beach Clean - We teamed up with the Ardentinny Heritage and Conservation Group and had a successful beach clean, which saw around 30 people turn out on a wet day to help clean up the shoreline.
CPR Course/Defibrillator - We had a very successful course given by St. John Scotland, with 25 attendees for the CPR/Defib course at the Village Hall. Donations from those attending resulted in £125.00 being given to St. John Scotland.
8 Election of Committee
All of the committee stood down. John Brint (Convener), Mark Rowthorn (Secretary) and Bill Tierney (Treasurer) stood down from their roles in office.
John Brint agreed to continue as Conveyer.
Proposed: Bill Tierney Seconded: Brian Hillesdon
Mark Rowthorn agreed to continue as Secretary.
Proposed: John Brint Seconded: Keith Wood
Keith Wood agreed to be the Treasurer.
Proposed: John Brint Seconded: Brian Hillesdon
Bill Tierney, Helen West, and Brian Hillesdon agreed to continue as Councillors. Danielle Markey also agreed to continue as Councillor (Post meeting).
9 Future Meetings
JB confirmed the date for the next AGM as:
11 June 2024 – 7.00pm AGM followed by Ordinary meeting
documents/community-council-minutes/minutes-acc-agm-6-june-2023.pdf
AGM 2022 minutes
documents/community-council-minutes/minutes-of-acc-agm-tuesday-12th-april-2022.pdf
AGM 2021 minutes