Fossoway and District Community Council
Minutes of AGM
7th May 2019 7.30pm
To be approved.
1. Attending: Community Cllrs: Sarah Bruce-Jones, Angus Cheape, Trudy Duffy, Graham Pye and Rob Young; P&K Cllrs Mike Barnacle, Callum Purves and Richard Watters; Nine Members of the Public.
Apologies: P&K Cllr Willie Robertson; CCllr Carol Farquhar.
2. Minutes: Minutes of the 2018 AGM meeting were read, approved, and signed off.
3. Chair’s Report:
The elected members of the Community Council are as follows:
• Angus Cheape
• Graham Pye
• Trudy Duffy
• Carol Farquhar
• Sarah Bruce Jones
• Robert Young
During this year the following CC members have retired or resigned:
• Jennifer Donachie
• Cameron Brown
Tam O’Carroll has been an associate member for the last six months covering the period of consultation around the closure of Blairingone School, but has now left the CC.
I would like to thank all for their support.
Earlier this year we had to scramble for CC members, as the number of elected CC members fell under the legal threshold. I would like to remind the community that we are now involved in a number of community initiatives and without the support of the community – which can include doing a stint on the CC – we cannot carry out these initiatives. This November we will have formal CC elections and I urge you to come forward to stand. There is an urgent requirement for more Community Councillors, especially from Rumbling Bridge and from Carnbo, which have currently no representation in the CC. Our work relies on members of the community who have their ears to the ground.
The Community Council has had another very busy year with eleven scheduled meetings, additional meetings and a large volume of correspondence.
• Police Service: Last meeting we had a visit from a local police officer. This was after a considerable time without seeing an officer. We hope to get an officer present for more meetings. We get most of the relevant information from the Commander’s Bulletin and from Perth and Kinross Community Watch.
• Blairingone War Memorial: I can only repeat what I said in the last AGM: it is now one of the longest running items on our agenda, although there has been some small movement this year in that there has been an opinion from a mason that the monument can be moved, and also the landowner has received planning permission for an additional entrance from the road which has released the funds to pay for the move.
• A977 Mitigation Measures: After a community consultation process, PKC has drawn up plans for hard measures (such as road re-alignment) in Blairingone and Crook of Devon. These roadworks are currently underway but are delayed. Time and again this CC is alerted to dangerous practices on the A977 (and the A91), mostly related to the speed with which motorists drive through our villages. However, I must mention that I found that on the two public consultation days about mitigation measures on the A977, which were well advertised, the public turnout was disappointing.
• Blairingone School: Perth and Kinross Council have made the decision to close Blairingone Primary School, taking effect this summer holiday. Our elected members have campaigned to keep the school open but to no avail. What was particularly appalling was that the casting vote was made by two unelected church representatives. The CC petitioned the members of the Life Long Learning committee the week before the vote. If it had been up to the elected committee members, the school would have stayed open. There were no contact details for the religious representatives and there was no means of contacting them. I personally find that appalling; the CC has now written to Richard Lochhead asking him to call in the decision. Meanwhile, an elected member has taken a motion to the Council proposing a change to the voting rights of unelected members of the LLLC. He was seconded by one of our local elected members. The Council has now decided to ban the religious representatives from voting on the LLLC.
• Networking: The CC have been involved in several other organisations. Angus Cheape sits on the Kinross-shire Fund Committee; Trudy attends the Kinross-shire Forum, which has been looking into transport issues in the county. We hope to report on a recent survey done in one of the next meetings. Trudy is also on the Kinross-shire Local Action Plan, which has recently disbursed £50,000 to local initiatives to combat inequalities. Graham attends meetings of TRACKS and Carol attends the Kinross-shire Sports Hub. Members of the CC have also been involved in the local Bloom groups.
• Fossoway Community Council Benefit Fund: This fund has been established through the Rumbling Bridge Hydro Scheme. It was a legal requirement that the community should be given a windfall linked to the annual output of the scheme. This means that there is the sum of £5,000 available every year to be given out in small grants to community organisations in the CC’s area. A small committee consisting of John Wheatley and Jim Duffy, sometimes assisted by Sandy Morrison make the decisions. Trudy is the link to the CC and does the administration for this fund. So far the benefit fund has granted two applications: one to Penneys Wood for interpretation boards and benches, and one to the Fossoway Gathering to help resurrect this annual day. One application has been rejected.
• Bridge over the Devon: Apart from the annual sum of £5,000, the Rumbling Bridge Hydro has also promised to donate the remainder of the contingency budget to the benefit fund. We have conducted a Community Engagement exercise to find out how this money could be spent and it was clear that replacing the bridge over the River Devon was supported by many from the community. We are working with TRACKS and they are working on plans for two locations, which we hope to present to the community shortly.
• Fossoway Gathering: Another point that came up in the community engagement exercise was the resurrection of the Fossoway Gathering. Many mentioned it as a good day to get the community together. Therefore we have decided to resurrect the Gathering and we are happy to announce that the event will take place on Saturday 25th May (from noon until 5). There is a very good and active group of volunteers working on this including some who had worked to organise the previous gatherings. We hope that the day will be successful and that this may become a bi-annual or even an annual event. Volunteers are very welcome but please do come to support us on the day.
• An important part of the job of the CC is to review planning applications. There have been less of those in the last year. The CC’s role in this is to scrutinise the Local Development Plan and to determine whether a planning application is permitted or contrary to the Development Plan. We also take into account local knowledge, for instance of flooding, access and the removal of trees. We generally do not get involved in planning disputes between neighbours but we review objections made on the application.
• We continue to be involved in the Local Development Plan number 2, which is making its slow way through all the appropriate bodies.
Most of our correspondence is now by email. All the CC members have access to the email system and the Google documents. This works well for us. We have a Facebook page which is a valuable source for accessing information by people in our villages.
Thank you to my fellow Community Councillors for their support and for the very significant efforts they have made in dealing with their portfolios and attending external meetings. Many thanks also to our local Councillors Barnacle, Purves, Robertson and Watters for their significant support and assistance to the CC on numerous matters. Thanks also to our loyal MOPs - Members of the Public, who support us with their presence, their information and their questions..
4. Treasurer’s Report:
This year started well, receiving the Administrative Grant from PKC without any problems, topping the CC’s funds back up to the maximum £700.00 allowed. Online access to the CC’s bank account has continued to make paying the CC’s bills much easier.
A major item of CC expenditure is for rentals of Fossoway and Blairingone primary schools, Carnbo Village Hall and Moubray Hall in Powmill to hold our monthly meetings. A total of £179 was spent on hall rentals.
All Community Councillors are allowed to claim for any expenses they incur over the year for traveling to meetings, other than normal CC meetings, and any other incidentals – postage, stationery, etc. This year £179.68 has been claimed in expenses, a slight improvement over last year’s total of just under £160. CC members attend a lot of meetings over the year, and should claim for all expenses incurred – I encourage them to do so.
The CC banks with the TSB, and I was delighted to finally receive a reply in January to the complaint I entered last July, although they haven’t as yet addressed any of the issues I raised…
After all the transactions over the year have been tallied the CC has a closing balance at year end of £341.33 and I will be applying for this year’s grant once this meeting has approved the accounts.
5. Confirmation of Office Bearers:
The Office Bearers all resigned from their current posts, and new post holders are as follows:
Trudy Duffy, Chairperson – Proposed: Graham Pye, Seconded: Angus Cheape
Sarah Bruce-Jones, Secretary – Proposed: Trudy Duffy, Seconded: Graham Pye
Graham Pye, Treasurer – Proposed: Trudy Duffy, Seconded: Rob Young
Trudy Duffy, Data Controller – Proposed: Graham Pye, Seconded: Sarah Bruce-Jones
Graham Pye, Vice Chair – Proposed: Trudy Duffy, Seconded: Angus Cheape
The following posts are not formal offices, so were not covered at the AGM:
Rob Young: Planning Secretary
Graham Pye: Minutes Secretary
Angus Cheape: Deputy Minutes Secretary
With no other business, the date of the next AGM was set for 5th May 2020 and the meeting ended at 7:46 pm.
