Fossoway and District Community Council
Minutes of AGM
3rd May 2016 7.30pm
To be approved.
1. Attending: CCllrs: Trudy Duffy (Chair), Kevin Borthwick, Angus Cheape, Richard Nesbitt, Graham Pye; Cllrs Mike Barnacle, Dave Cuthbert, Joe Giacopazzi and Willie Robertson; 14 Members of the Public.
Apologies: CCllr Graham Kilby
2. Minutes: Minutes of the 2015 AGM meeting were read, approved, and signed off.
3. Chair’s Report:
The elected members of the Community Council are as follows:-
• Kevin Borthwick
• Angus Cheape
• Trudy Duffy-Wigman
• Graham Kilby
• Graham Pye
• Richard Nesbitt
Sandy Morrison and Alastair Lavery have now retired. Again I wish to express our sincere thanks for their sterling service on the Community Council. Two of our members, Graham Kilby and Richard Nesbitt are new to the Community Council and they have had to hit the ground running.
The Community Council has had another very busy year with eleven scheduled meetings, additional meetings and a large volume of correspondence.
The main issues during the year have been:
• Travellers’ Site at Crook Moss: The majority of the planning conditions have not been met despite frequent representations to the Planning authority by the Community Council, members of the community and all the local councillors. The priority issues for the Community are noise and foul drainage. Some of the residents on site are trying to improve the situation. A second application for three additional pitches has been rejected by Perth and Kinross Council.
• Police Service: Unfortunately we are seeing a police officer attending the meeting less often. A monthly bulletin specific to the area is not produced anymore; we get most of the relevant information from the Commander’s bulletin and from Perth and Kinross Community Watch. We have the impression that rural crime in our area is slightly up.
• Lambhill Site: This application has been refused by the Local Review Body.
• Main Issues Report: We have consulted on the LDP2 MIR.
• City Link Time Table: We are shocked by the lack of co-operation to make sure Kinross is served by adequate public transport. Many of the regular bus services have been withdrawn, making it almost impossible to commute by bus.
• Blairingone War Memorial: Is now one of the longest running items on our agenda. It is unlikely that there will be a quick solution to this.
• Devon Hydro Scheme: The building of the Hydro Scheme is progressing well. We are now at the stage that we are setting up an organisation to distribute the monies generated – the developer’s contribution and the community benefit.
• A977 Mitigation Measures: Councillor Barnacle has been continuing with other councillors, the Community Council and members of the public to call for traffic mitigation measures. The situation was exacerbated earlier this year with the closure of the Forth Road Bridge, a few weeks for all traffic but a longer period for heavy lorries. The police have helped out with extra speed checks but the road has suffered and the road surface has deteriorated. We will continue to put pressure on the authorities and work together with the local members to make the A977 safer for the villages straddling it.
• Boundary Commission: Cllr Cuthbert has worked very hard to get members of the community involved in informing the Boundary Commission on their plans to cut chunks off Kinross-shire. We are awaiting their decision.
• Community Council Members: There is an urgent requirement for more Community Councillors, especially from the village of Carnbo, which has currently no representation in the CC. Our work relies on members of the community who have their ears to the ground.
• Community Initiatives: The CC is taking part in a number of community initiatives: the Emergency Support Centre, to be set up in the hall, Kinross Sports Hub, Crook and Drum in Bloom and perhaps the Best Kept Village competition. It is a wonderful way for members of the community to become involved.
There have been slightly less planning applications in the past year.
Thank you to my fellow 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, Cuthbert, Giacopazzi and Robertson for their significant support and assistance to the CC on numerous matters. Thanks also to our loyal Members of the Public, who support us with their presence, their information and their questions.
4. Secretary’s Report:
Once again it has been a very busy year for the Community Council, as we strive to be as actively involved in as many community issues as possible. This year as it was an election year, a couple of the regular members retired for a well-earned rest, and we welcomed two new members onto the council. I would personally like to thank Sandy Morrison, and Alastair Lavery for all the work they did over the years, and also to welcome the new members Graham Kilby, and Richard Nesbitt to the CC.
In my position as secretary, I have to deal with all the day to day correspondence and phone calls that come our way, and have also attend several meetings throughout the year. As I said in previous years, I have to do my best to handle this as it happens and not let it build up. This year however, at the turn of the year, an illness in the family took priority over most other things going on in my life, and the CC duties were beginning to build up and get on top of me. I have to thank Graham and Trudy who took over the majority of my secretarial role to let me concentrate on more important things. Things are looking positive at the moment on the family front, although it is still early days, and hopefully I will be able to get back in the saddle later in the year.
This year the correspondence has increased significantly since last year, partly due to signing up to Perth and Kinross Community Watch. However these figures are only up to the end of January 2016, when the email transferred to Graham and Trudy, so there are three months missing. Over the past year I have dealt with 1312 (1137 last year) incoming emails, and have sent out 443 (551 last year). Again I have to moan about the 154 (133 last year) spam emails we received. All of which come via the PKC email address and not our own one. Graham has been filtering these so we should in theory get less in the future. I also ran off 2651 prints (2049 last year) for the correspondence, minutes, and agendas etc. again a significant rise. This is a reflection of the increase in correspondence.
The Facebook page has been a great success, where we have been able to post information to keep people up to date with details of events, meetings, minutes etc. As well as being a way of getting in touch with the CC about community issues. Currently we have 154 people who receive our posts, which along with the newsletter and the notice boards, we are engaging with as many people as we can. Graham Kilby has taken over the running of the Facebook page, and I’d like to thank him for that.
As you can see there is quite a lot of work running a Community Council, and during this past few months everyone has had to muck in. However it would be a lot easier if we had a full complement of members. There are still two spaces on the CC, and anyone who wishes to help out would be very welcome.
5. Treasurer’s Report:
This year the CC received no income as the Administrative Grant from PKC of £424.31, which would have topped the CC’s funds up to the maximum £700.00 allowed, was unfortunately paid into the wrong bank account by PKC.
The largest item of the 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 £100.60 was spent on hall rentals.
Last year the CC invested in a Laser Printer, now an asset of the CC which will be passed on to whoever is the secretary. The secretary will no longer be charging the CC on a per print basis, other than for paper, and any other consumables required for the printer will be purchased directly by the CC.
All Community Councillors are allowed to claim for any expenses they incur over the year for travelling to meetings other than normal CC meetings, and also any other incidentals – postage, stationery, etc. This year only a little over £50 has been claimed in expenses. CC members attend a lot of meetings over the year, and should claim for them all – I encourage them to do so.
After all the transactions over the year had been tallied the CC had a closing balance at year end of £56.34. Hopefully next year’s grant will arrive soon!
Approval of the accounts was proposed by Trudy Duffy and seconded by Kevin Borthwick.
6. Confirmation of Office Bearers:
The Office Bearers all resigned from their current posts, and new post holders are as follows:
Trudy Duffy, Chairperson – Proposed: Kevin Borthwick, Seconded: Graham Pye
Kevin Borthwick, Secretary – Proposed: Trudy Duffy, Seconded: Graham Pye
Graham Pye, Treasurer – Proposed: Trudy Duffy, Seconded: Kevin Borthwick
Kevin Data Controller – Proposed: Trudy Duffy, Seconded: Richard Nesbitt
The following posts are not formal offices, so were not covered at the AGM:
Richard Nesbitt, Planning
Graham Pye, Minute Secretary
Richard Nesbitt, Vice Chair
With no other business, the date of the next AGM was set for 2nd May 2017 and the meeting ended at 7.55pm.
