February 2018 minutes
ARDENTINNY COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Minute of meeting held February 2018 at Ardentinny Village Hal
Present, Neil Robinson, Eileen Connell, Malcolm Bartley, David Marshall, Bill Tierney.
Representatives, P.C Donald McKay, Agnes Harvey, Councillor Alan Reid.
Apologies, Marian Norris, David McKenzie, Sue Morris, Aidan Doherty, Councillors Yvonne McNeilly and Gordon Blair
Others, Dougie Menzies, Jim Robinson, Clair Tierney, Vicky Fairley, David McDowall
Neil Robinson thanked everyone for attending and asked if there were any Declarations of Interest. Bill had an interest in a planning application. It was unanimously agreed that it would not be necessary for him to leave the room when this item came up.
Police Report
P.C. McKay reported that there had been 7 incidents resulting in one crime report involving livestock worrying. 3 sheep in the nursery field were found dead attacked and killed. A further 4 were found. Although there was no sign of injury, it was thought that shock would be the cause of death. Enquiries are ongoing.
The livestock worrying campaign began on 1st February and will continue for 4 months. Several organisations are working together to highlight this and will be displayed on the noticeboard.
Suspicious individuals in silver transit vans containing generators, saws etc. SK67 DGE and SK17 3BZ have been seen in the area It as advised that people do not buy any items from them as they are not guaranteed to be legal.
It was raised that there appears to be several individuals driving too fast through the village. PC McKay advised that perhaps arranging a speed limit check could be done to determine the level of speeds through the village.
Minute of December meeting.
Neil asked if all had read the minute and had any amendments.
Proposed. Val Kennedy Accepted Bill Tierney
Matters arising from minute
Emergency Plan. As there have been several changes to the plan it has taken a bit longer to adapt. A notice had been displayed on the noticeboard asking for people to come forward to be included in the plan. No-one has come forward. Neil stressed that the more people on the emergency plan the more robust it would be. Previously the emergency place was the village hall and we need clarification whether the hall management group are in agreement and how access will be arranged. It was agreed that, for the present the Emergency Pack would be kept in the container at the hall.
Roads. To be dealt with in councillors report.
Heritage Trail. Meetings along the shore villages are being held to give people information on how this project is developing and give the opportunity for them to give their opinions and ideas.
Treasurer’s Report
Malcolm has been in touch with the bank to ask that statements arrive on the month that they pertain to. He has not yet had an answer.
Income. Nil
Expenditure £42.50 (Dog Fouling sign)
Balance as of 9th Jan 2018 £2224.77
A letter was received from Scotways outlining their guidelines for future funding.
Correspondence
All correspondence received has been passed to community councillors. No relevant communications required to be further discussed
National Park Report
David was unable to attend but sent this short report.
It has been very quiet in the NP for the last few weeks – next major event will be the site visit and hearing to consider a fresh application for the proposed gold mine at Cononish near Tyndrum. This will be on 27th February.
Forestry Report
Sue Morris was unable to attend but sent a report
Update from me for Ardentinny.
A few trees came down due to the weight of snow on the branches. These have been dealt with but please let me know if there are any more tree issues.
We have started very very initial discussions about trying to connect our toilet block to the mains water supply. We are going to work away on this to see how feasible this is. As and when we know more we are going to get in contact with any local residents/ walled garden/ etc to see if they want to be connected at the same time. But progress on this will be slow as it is a job as and when we have a bit of spare capacity.
Councillor’s Report
Alan, Gordon and Eileen met with Nigel Potts for a site visit regarding the state of the roads and in response to several emails and photos sent highlighting places of concern. Nigel Potts responded after the meeting as follows.
Apologies for the delay in responding and below are my comments on the points discussed.
Potholes – We will continue, with a combination of cold and hot applied materials, with pothole repairs over the next few weeks when resources allow as hopefully you can understand we are very stretched at the moment with similar and worse conditions over most of our network.
Corner at Ardentinny Hotel – We will look to have additional SLOW road markings on both approaches as well as new triangular warning road signs. However this work will have to be programmed for the new financial year as we have spent our road sign maintenance budget for this year and we also need to have dry conditions and the resources to lay the road markings which will also be unlikely to happen until the new financial year.
Corner with verge damage about ½ mile north of Stronchullin Farm – We will instruct verge repairs, ditch cleaning and for reflective verge markers to be installed at this location but this will only be on a 6 month timescale so may take a couple of months before we will be able to attend to this. We will also arrange for SLOW road markings and triangular road signs warning of bend ahead to be installed to either side of this corner and again the same constraints will apply for these as for the Ardentinny Hotel corner.
1st passing place North of Strochullin Farm – As discussed any improvement to bring this passing place up to current standards would either require building up the shore or taking part of the field from Stronchullin Farm. Both options are beyond the scope of our revenue maintenance budgets but could be considered as part of a future years Capital Reconstruction program for the C9.
I believe that covered everything we discussed but please get in contact in case I have missed anything.
Neil suggested that the present way of dealing with the potholes is counterproductive as that type of repair only last 1 to 2 days and the squad have to return. If the repairs were done properly there would not be the need for them to come back every few weeks. It was acknowledged that it is a difficult financial time but the present form of repairing is false economy. Neil informed that there is an app which can be used to inform the council of dangerous potholes.
The budget will be decided on February 22nd.
Actual Reality
No report
Shore Collaboration
Most groups/organisations have registered for the Collaboration Calendar which may be helpful in not doubling up on events. A few groups have sent in their sent in their information to be included in the Shore Directory which is almost at completion. Ardentinny and Kilmun Community Councils joined to organise and provide a Festive Lunch which was held in Younger Hall for everyone along the shore. This was a successful day and raised quite a bit of money. £350 of this was donated to Riverbank Surgery toward their Equipment Fund.
It was agreed that a letter is written to the owner of the land where Riverbank Surgery is situated (Health Board) to support Riverbank get the driveway at the back of the building upgraded. All agreed
Delegates Report
CAUCUS. There has been difficulty with the arrangements of these meetings and the Caucus has not met properly for several months. The chair has since resigned but, after a meeting with some community councillors, it was decided that they would ensure that the Caucus continues.
Website. Nothing to report
Amenities Toilets continue to be cleaned etc. by Fiona, Marian and Eileen.
An application has been put in for funding for a new noticeboard. It is possible that we will move forward to the next stage when there will be a vote for who the money will be awarded to. Once the voting begins we will put the information on the website.
CH&CF No meetings since the chair resigned.
Planning A retrospective application has been granted for work at the Ardentinny.
Coulport Relevant communication continues with MoD
Community Updates
Ardentinny Renewables Trust
Dougie reported that Ross has received his first tranche of money and will let the Renewable Trust how much they are entitled to. There should be money from Hydrover at the end of March when it will be a year that their hydro scheme has been operating.
Ardentinny Village Hall. Agnes reported that they took part in the Community Action Plan review. At that meeting they agreed to support the proposal that the village put in an application for the Beautiful Scotland campaign and took part in the Heritage Trail meeting held in the hall. The next hall committee meeting is on 28th March when Agnes will raise the issue of the Emergency Plan and kit. Otherwise it is business as usual at the hall. Eileen reported that the ring main for the sockets is tripping at the junction box. Also, that the 3 historical panels have not been returned. Agnes will chase that up.
Malcolm asked if the hall membership will be reinstated. Agnes explained that, after discussion at a community meeting in October it was decided that the consideration was that all residents are members of the hall and.
Ardentinny Community Trust No report
Ardentinny Conservation & Heritage Group Small jobs continue to be done. It is intended that an informal meeting will be held very soon to move things forward
AOCB None
Date of next meeting 3rd April.