March 2024 Minutes

Item

Action

PART 1: WELCOME AND PROCEDURES

Introduction, Apologies and Meeting Procedures

JK welcomed everyone to the March business meeting and gave apologies

from John Watson, David Moore and Chiara Fingland.

Recording/Conflict of Interest

JK advised that the meeting was being recorded for the purposes of minutes taking and asked if there were likely to be any conflict of interest. He stated

that MM would refrain from any discussion around CCDT, unless this was regarding a joint project.

Minutes of the previous meeting

Copies of the February minutes were circulated prior to the meeting. They were adopted by DS and seconded by MM.

Matters Arising from the previous minutes.

No matter arising

Report from Police

There was no representative present from Police Scotland, but a report had been submitted. JK read out the report. There were no questions raised.

5. Special Items

Outcome from Stirling Council budget 2024/2025

There was no Ward Councillor present at the meeting, although Councillor Maxwell had sent in his apologies. He had submitted a report on the

afternoon of the meeting, so not everyone had had the chance to read it before the meeting. JK read out the report. The main points were:

·       Councillor Maxwell was glad that none of the extreme options sug- gested for SC budget had made the final list of proposals.

·       He stated that he thought none of the Councillors had wanted to close any libraries. He had raised a question to confirm that none of the 3 proposed budgets (Labour/Conservative, SNP and Green/Independent) would result in library closures.

·       The Councillors voted to approve the Labour/Conservative motion, which closed the budget with no increase in council tax (utilising an ad- ditional £2.9m provided by Scottish Government), “Policy” budget cuts options where Councillors could have significant input amounting to

£2.4m, “Business as usual” savings options which fell within the remit of Officers to manage, amounting to £5.5m, an increase in various fees and charges of £155k and £4.9m from reserves.

·       There was also the removal of rates relief for empty buildings, which would bring in an additional £500k.

·       Officers put forward significant savings generated by improvements on how the Council handled Children in Care, amounting to £775k, £400k of which was due to reducing the number of children in external resi- dential care, with more children being looked after in foster homes in the Stirling area.

·       3 other major savings were proposed - offering staff extra unpaid leave, the option to move to a 4-day working week and a reduction in admin- istrative and business support staff numbers. Additionally, money had been put into the fund for voluntary severance. The background papers provided by Officers made it plain that achieving the staff reductions they proposed was key and that failure to achieve these reductions would see SC potentially exceed its budget by £60k/ month in October.

·       Locally, SC support for McLaren Leisure Centre was cut by £26k and there were a number of cuts in support for various community groups, charities and events.

·       Locally, the issue of the C60 bus was of concern with cessation of the service due at the end of the month. Officers had been working hard on this and further information was imminent. There was to be another council meeting where Councillor Maxwell would raise the issue of the C60 bus, and another colleague would be raising the issue of the In- terim Fishery permit system and its implications, such as the inability to buy a permit for local waters other than online.

There was a discussion about the fact that no Ward Councillor had been present at the meeting , as the information included in the report was so important. It was agreed that the Ward Councillor present at the next meeting should be requested to discuss the budget in more detail.

Callander Primary School – planning application – new information

Request that Ward Councillor present at next meeting should discuss the budget in more detail

JK advised that five further concerns had been submitted to SC planning. SC have produced a 186-page report which did not address any of the concerns raised. JK will insist that CCC is invited to the next planning meeting.

RJ advised that the planning committee of the NP was due to meet in April. The public were welcome to attend the meeting. If anyone wished to give a presentation, they could submit a request to the NP to do so. JK advised he would put together a summary of the 128 concerns, to present at the meeting.

MM suggested getting McLaren Leisure Centre involved as, in order to build the new Primary School, builders would need access to the grounds and sports fields and this would mean these would be out of use for some time. RJ stated that the meeting would be advertised locally.

St Kessog’s update

LG submitted a written update on St Kessog’s. The main points were:

·       He had received information from ‘a credible source’ that the building would soon be put up for sale by SC.

·       LG stated that CCC should sent a letter to SC to ask for an update on their plans for the building, as it was important to get information on whom they plan to sell the building to and what it would be used for.

·       LG had sent an article to the Ben Ledi View, in order to get as many people from the community involved as possible. He felt it was important to get as much information as possible out to the commu- nity, such as having a presentation on the history of the building, reach- ing out to local businesses to raise awareness and perhaps having a ‘Go Fund Me’ page to save St Kessog’s.

JK was due to attend a Teams meeting on Thursday 21st March at 4pm with Steve MacDonald from SC. LG suggested putting something in writing to SC prior to the meeting.

There was a discussion about being proactive in the process. TC advised that there was already a sub group in place. He suggested there should be a 2- pronged response – firstly, how could the CC represent the community and secondly, could this be an opportunity to rally the community to look at alternative uses for the building, such as possibly opening the public toilets again.

6. Questions from Members of the public

JK will attend the meeting and present a summary of the main concerns

There were no questions from the public

7. Local Place Plan

CF had sent her apologies prior to the meeting. JK summarised the main points of her report.

There was a joint meeting between CCC and CCDT which was thought to be a good collaborative meeting and both organisations were keen to work together. They had discussed the LPP and prioritised their four top projects. Each project would be explored by a sub-group, consisting of a CCC member, a

CCDT member and a member of the public - ideally someone with an interest

in or knowledge of the subject. Updates and information would be published in Callander Connect, BLV and online, as relevant.

·       The Pedestrian Bridge (from the East end of the town up to the education campus) -JK from CC, Toby Klisky from CCDT and Alistair Wylie to take for- ward.

·       Safe access to schools – the new Primary School development could not be reached safely by pedestrians from the North side of the river. In bad weather, the Creep became impassable and the pavement on the A81 was too narrow and not suitable for buggies or wheelchairs – DS/RM from CCC, Paul Prescott from CCDT and a community member (not yet confirmed) to take forward.

·       The Meadows – an upgraded landscape was needed for the centre of the town. RW from CCC, DM from CCDT and a community member (not yet confirmed) to take forward

·       Our High Street – a revamp was needed for many of the buildings in Main Street, (Transport Scotland were promising to fix the pavements soon - ac- tual dates awaited) - MM from CCC (also with Callander Enterprise knowledge), Mark Griffiths from CCDT, and Mark Nicols of Ancaster Square Coffee Lounge was proposed.

.

8.  Citizen of the Year (CotY) 2023

There were 3 nominations for the Citizen of the Year 2023. They were:

1.      An individual who worked at the Recycling Centre in Callander, for the good work he had done in helping to reorganise it. He received 1 nomi- nation from the public.

2.      An individual received 2 nominations from the public for the work she had done in updating the children’s play area at the Primary School.

3.      Richard Johnson received 4 nominations from the public for the work he has done in organising the Callander Christmas lights, the Senior Citizens’ Christmas dinner and other charity work.

RJ was advised he had been awarded Callander Citizen of the Year award 2023. He wanted to thank everyone for the award and said that it was not only he who had done it all – he had been helped throughout by his wife.

9.  Reports from Office Bearers.

Chair’s report

The CCC surgeries were now up and running at Callander Connect. CCs had been present and received 2 visitors at the first drop-in session and 1 visitor at the second drop in. JK said it was better to deal with smaller numbers rather than a queue of people. There were several points raised at the drop-in sessions:

1.      Did the CCDT holiday home have an allocated parking space? – no, there was no need to have one.

2.      There were concerns raised about the new booking system for the re- cycling plant. MM advised that she had met a local resident who had highlighted issues the booking system has caused in Fife and who had agreed to liaise with Councillor Earl to provide feedback to SC.

3.      Potholes on Pearl Street - this was passed to DS.

4.      Meadows car park concerns.

5.      Motor home issues.

There then followed a discussion on motor home issues - DS and MM will dis- cuss how to take things forward.

Planning Report

Report had been circulated by JK. There were 8 new planning applications, 5 of which involved trees. JK had no other comments to make. There was a question raised about the Care Home application in Callander that had been made some time before. This was not thought to have been taken forward. JK will check on this.

Roads

DS and RM have dealt with 186 complaints, 6 of which have been completed in the last month. Things were not moving at the moment as SC were awaiting details on the new budget.

Secretary

MM highlighted the following:

·       CCC had received about 150 emails and the secretary had responded to 70.

·        A list of assets had been sent to SC for insurance purposes

·       There had been an article submitted to the Ben Ledi View.

·       MM has identified an existing URL that will allow direct access to the CCC pages on InCallander website.

·       A local Primary School pupil set up a petition about the possible closure of Callander Library and received 180 pupil signatures. MM passed the petition to SC and the girl received a reply from the Thriving Communities group and the Head of Libraries with which she was delighted.

·       MM had sent videos of surface water flooding at Ancaster Rd and

Bracklin Road to SC and an engineer had been sent out to look at the

DS/MM to meet to agree how to take things forward.

JK to check previous applications

issues and made proposals for improvements. These have been sent to Callander Flood Group for comments, which have been returned to SC. SC were taking drain and gulley clearance back in-house to provide an improved service.

·       There had been a few applications to the BoD Fund including one from CYP for a contribution towards analysis of the mortar as they were suffering from rendering issues on the front and back of the building.

·       Funding had also been given to McLaren Leisure Centre as a contribution towards pruning the Community Apple Orchard.

·       A member of the public highlighted the Forest and Land Scotland report Callander Strategy Woods Management. MM will send the link to the report.

National Park

RJ discussed the NP’s Local Development Plan (LDP) which covered all the communities within the NP. Previously the plan covered 5 years , but it now covered a 10-year period. Any new planning applications needed to comply with the policies included in the plan, therefore, it was important to get the policies right. RJ stated that some of the communities hadn’t responded well to consultations and the NP were keen to find out the reasons why. The LDP was such an important document and it was key that communities were involved. NP was keen to find out from CCC how the local community wanted to see the consultation done. LG proposed that a sub-group be set up to take this forward and this was seconded by RM.

AOCB

MM to send round link to

Callander

Strategy Woods

Management

Report

JK to discuss with CF about setting

up a group to

take things forward

Gardening Competition

OW discussed CCC sponsoring the Best Garden competition again this year. Last year DK escorted the judges round the gardens and he agreed to do it again this year. He suggested that FK might be willing to be judge of the gardens and she agreed. OW was to let the Horticultural Society know that CCC would support the event again this year.

OW to let the horticultural society know that the CC will sponsor the event.

Moving of AGM to May

The AGM will be held in May this year, as several CC Councillors had stated that they would be unavailable to attend the meeting in April, due to prior commitments. There was no need to vote on this, as the AGM could take place in either April, May or June 2024.

CCC representative on CCDT

MM asked for a CCC representative to attend the meetings of the CCDT. The meetings are held on the last Tuesday of the month. LG agreed to be the CCC representative.

C60 bus service

RB provided an update on the C60 service which was due to be terminated at the end of the month. SC had not been able to find anyone to take over the

service immediately but hoped to take on the service themselves at the end of

the summer. RB had approached SC about the possibility of giving the service to a contractor for 8 weeks until SC took it over, but this wasn’t taken forward.

JK asked if CCC could do anything about the situation. RB advised that the main issue was lack of money to run the service.

DATE OF THE NEXT MEETING

The next meeting will be on Monday, 15^th. April 2024 at 7.00 pm in CYP, Bridgend, Callander.

POST-MEETING APPENDIX

Below is an extract from an Email sent by Marilyn Moore, Interim Secretary, Callander Community Council to John Kennedy, Interim Chair of Callander Community Council about John Watson (John W) resigning as Treasurer.

Marilyn Moore 19 Mar 2024, 00:04 to Callander Community Council

Hi John,

At our CCC meeting yesterday evening I have realised we did not mention that John W has resigned as treasurer of CCC, although he is remaining a councillor. We will need to take nominations and vote for an interim treasurer at the next meeting. In his email, he also sent his apologies for not being able to attend March's meeting……..

Many thanks Marilyn