Download or view in pdf format
Buchlyvie Community Council
Minutes of the Buchlyvie Community Council meeting held in Buchlyvie Village Hall on 8 February 2024 at 7.30pm
- Present: Jessica Langford (Chair)
Margaret Bennie (Vice Chair) Emily Hillock (Planning) Emily McLennan (Treasurer) Alison Moffat (Secretary) Eilidh Weir
Apologies: PC Matt McCammon (Community police officer)
In attendance: Gerry McGarvey, Councillor
Minutes: Maureen Burnside
Residents: 18 residents attended the meeting
2. Declarations of Interest
Emily McLennan declared her interest in item 9(d) on the agenda (Community Council application for FEL Seed Funding) as an employee of Forth Environment Link.
3. Adoption of Minutes of the last meeting
The Minutes of the previous meeting of the Community Council held on 5th December 2023 were proposed by Margaret Bennie and seconded by Alan Turner and were agreed as an accurate record of the proceedings.
4. Resignation of Jo Edwards
It was noted that Jo Edwards had resigned as a member of the Community Council with effect from 22 December 2023. Jessica Langford thanked her for her contribution to the Community Council and wished her all the best.
5. Co-option of new Member: Alison Moffat
Jessica Langford commented that with Jo Edwards’ resignation, the Community Council was not quorate. However, she was pleased to be able to tell the meeting that Alison Moffat had put herself forward to join the Community Council. Her appointment was proposed by Eilidh Weir and seconded by Emily McLennan and when put to a vote was carried unanimously.
Jessica welcomed Alison to the Community Council.
6. Election of Interim Secretary
It was noted that Alison Moffat had volunteered to be the Secretary to the Community Council and on being put to a vote this was carried unanimously.
7. Matters Arising from the Minutes and Actions
- Parking in the bus stop by the shop – PC Matt McCammon has been speaking to people parking in the bus stop and it is believed that this is having an
Discussion turned to the removal of the indent for the bus stop at the bottom of the village, as part of traffic calming measures. This has resulted in buses, including school buses, stopping in the main road. This in turn has had the effect of traffic either being held up or cars overtaking in a dangerous manner, with children at risk while alighting from the bus. There was also discussion on the traffic calming policy. Cllr. McGarvey suggested that a bullet point of suggested actions be sent to him and he will move this forward.
Jim Hillock suggested that consideration also be given to adding double yellow lines at the top of Station Road to prevent people parking inconsiderately while running into the shop.
Action: a bullet point list of concerns be sent to Cllr. McGarvey.
- Community Council Updates
- Chair’s Report: Jessica Langford confirmed that the matters she wished to raise would be covered elsewhere in the agenda.
- Treasurer’s Report: Emily McLennan Bank account:
Income: £1634.80 CLLD grant 15/12/23 Cheques written:
Website £100.80
Hall hire £20
Minute taker: £40
Table tennis table £379.98
Youth Scotland membership Youth Café: £165
Current balance: £3779.66
CLLD Fund: as noted at the last Community Council meeting we have been awarded £3,269.60 for a pilot Youth Café project of 10 sessions until March 2025.
Planning Report: Jim Hillock confirmed that there were no matters to raise.
9. Community Council Business:
- Youth Café: Jessica Langford thanked everyone involved for their support. The Youth Café is to start on with a free taster and registration session on Friday 19th Child Protection training has been provided by Youth Scotland who are also providing insurance. Gillian Grey has been recruited to run the café. She used to live in the village and is very experienced, so Jessica is very excited to have her on board.
- Big Conversation: Margaret Bennie reported that Stirling Council’s proposed cuts to services such as schools, nurseries, libraries, public toilets, end of road bin collections, village halls, community centres, road maintenance and buses have been met with anger and dismay by rural communities.
Strathard Community Council arranged for all of the local Community Councils to get together and fight the proposed cuts across these services as they thought that the rural communities were being hit the most, especially with the proposed bus service cuts.
Despite the impact statements from the local communities regarding the cuts, most seem to have fallen on deaf ears and some of the cuts will go ahead, despite our efforts, in the next Stirling Council budget to be fixed on 29 February.
Val Brand noted that on 23rd November a formal complaint had been made to Stirling Council on the format of the Council survey. In particular a question had been asked as to whether an Equality and Socio-Economic Assessment had been carried out.
David Hooper, the Head of Transport, had confirmed that each of the options had had an assessment with a scoring mechanism being used to identify any propos ed bus cuts. On the unreliability of the local bus services, Mr Hopper had noted he recognised the community’s concerns but that the pandemic had had an effect. Val Brand was unhappy with this reply as we’re talking about McGill’s service record over the last 18 months.
Cllr McGarvey responded by saying that he agreed the Big Conversation had not been handled as well as it might and that lessons had been learned. Val Brand’s input had been enormously helpful. He recognised that people were very concerned but he wanted to reassure everyone as much as possible – there is no agenda to penalise rural communities. He knows how important buses are to rural communities and stressed that everything had been put out for consultation as possible proposals, no decisions had been made at the time the Big Conversation was started. Hard decisions do have to be made as there is a funding shortfall of over £18.5m, but he wanted to reassure everyone that these decisions would be made with every sensitivity to the human cost of the decisions, trying to protect the poorest and most vulnerable.
- Village Place Plan “Imagining Buchlyvie 2034”: Emily McLennan reminded the meeting that in 2016 Anne Winther had prepared a Community Action Plan after consultation with the village. The Community Council is now applying for a seed grant to update this Plan, after consultation with the village. Anne Winther has agreed that if the grant application is successful she will revisit the 2016 Plan with a view to identifying new and collective priorities for the next ten
As these priorities will form the basis for grant funding and community projects in the future it is important to reach a good cross section of the residents of the village. Cllr. McGarvey highlighted the importance of this Plan as it will inform matters such as housing, education and medical provision. And it can also highlight issues around roads etc. He noted that both Gartmore and Drymen have prepared such plans.
Emily advised that she will know if the application has been successful within the next week.
- FEL Grant Application: Emily advised that an application had been made for an FEL seed grant, funded by the Scottish Government, to upgrade the planters around the village through the Eco Church
- Handrail to steps to Village Hall: Jessica Langford advised that funding is now available for this work. In addition Stirling Council has agreed to repair the steps in the new fiscal The handrail will be installed after the steps are fixed. After discussion, it was resolved and voted that the Community Council will take on the license to look after and maintain the handrails after the work had been completed.
- Burngreen planters: Margaret Bennie reminded everyone that Scott Brown, our former minister, had applied for a grant after lockdown to improve the area at the Burngreen by the bus stop at the bottom of the village.
It was designed with large and small wooden half barrels, with individuals from the
village “adopting” a barrel and undertaking to look after that barrel. The six large barrels contain rowan trees as well as bulbs and plants that the “adoptees” have planted. As the trees are now a lot taller the worry is that the roots might destroy the wooden barrels. With this in mind, the plan, if everyone is in agreement, is that the trees be removed from the barrels and replanted to the rear of the school. They will replace some of the trees planted by the children when the school was renovated and the Health Centre was built, which have since died.
Margaret Sparks and the Eco Church Group are applying for a grant to buy more compost, seeds and plants for all of the community tubs around the village, Burngreen, bus stop, Village Hall and the Health Centre.
Margaret advised that the plan is, over the next month or so, to arrange two tidy up Burngreen days, most likely Saturdays or Sundays when we can all get together, each do their planters and pull out weeds around the area. With the grant money, plants, bulbs and compost will be available for use on these days, or bring your own. Tea, coffee and cake will be served too.
Margaret also noted that she had updated the list of who is responsible for what barrels, and there needed to be a plan for ongoing maintenance after the work days. There was concern about disruption to the existing bulbs and plants in the planters when the rowan trees are removed but it was agreed that the trees had to be moved before spring, and that the disruption would be kept to the minimum.
The suggestions made by Margaret were all approved.
- Community Council - how it works: Jessica advised that some people new to the village had asked her how the Community Council worked and she thought it might be helpful to give a brief overview.
- There are a minimum of six meetings each year, with plans to extend this to seven. The number of meetings is determined by Stirling Council, related to the number of people in the village and surrounding area.
- The Community Council is a voice for the village, to improve the village and take any problems to Stirling Council.
- It is a statutory body, with a formal role in the Planning system which is taken seriously by Stirling Council.
- The community itself has a role in informing and directing the Community
- It can access resources that Stirling Council can’t.
- Village car parking: Jim Hillock advised that he believed that there is a shortage of parking spaces within the village and that this is affecting businesses in the There is “dead ground” behind the benches and planters in the Burngreen area which is owned by Stirling Council. He suggested that this be turned into a car park to improve parking for residents and to assist the village businesses.
Cllr. McGarvey suggested that this could be addressed by way of a Community Asset Transfer or a Community Right to Buy.
The residents present at the meeting gave Jim their backing to investigate this
proposition.
Action: Jim Hillock is to investigate the feasibility of turning the ground into a car park and bring this back to the next meeting.
- Elected Members Update
Cllr. McGarvey advised that Stirling Council was going to make decisions for the 2024/5 budget that would be made in good faith in the best interests of the community.
Nevertheless, there were hard decisions to be made that would impact the village.
11. AOB
There was no AOB
12. Residents’ Forum
- A resident reported that there was flooding on the main road beside the West End Garage caused by a blocked drain. This was causing drivers to swerve out into oncoming Action. Jessica checking drain and speaking to local residents before reporting to Stirling Council.
- A question was asked as to who to contact if you had a query about the enforcement of planning. This relates to the condition to put in passing places on the single track road which was attached to the planning consent at Mains of Buc hlyvie/Rachels Farm. These passing places haven’t yet been formed.
Action: details of the issue should be sent to the Planning Department at Stirling Council, for the attention of the Enforcement Team, with a copy to Cllr. McGarvey and the Community Council.
Emily McLennan noted that there was flooding on the path to the Playpark/Multicourt. There is also damage to the surface of the Playpark. It was thought that the cause might be the blocking of the burn.
Action: the Community Council should contact Land Services, citing parents’
concerns and possible Health and Safety issues.
There being no further business the meeting was declared closed.
The next meeting is at 7.30pm on Thursday 25 April 2024.