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Cornton Community Council minutes
Meeting Wednesday 26th July 2023, 7pm, Cornton Community Centre Present Apologies
Jackie McKecnnie (Chair) Kate Fleming (CAPP)
Shona Cullen (Secretary) Chris Burns (SC) Anna Johnnstone (CC) Sarah Jane Welsh (CC)
Robert Kemp Mary Brown (Vice Chair)
Rose Curley (Treasurer) Julie Arrol (CAPP) Charles Russell (Planning)
Patricia McCormick (CAPP) Crispin Bennett (CC) Sharon McQuillian (CC)
Josh Capes (Police Scotland, community police officer) Caroline Stewart (Minute taker)
Notes from last meeting.
Shona advised that there had been amendments made to the previous minutes and these have been added on page 3. The minutes and amendments were distributed to everyone. The minutes were proposed by Rose Curley and seconded by Charles Russell
Jackie provided some information that elected community councillors of wards are honorary members and have the right to request copies of the minutes. They can also ask to see copies of draft minutes before approval. It was agreed that minutes should be marked as draft until approved.
Bank account
Rose has sent away the required form to arrange for the community council bank account to be reopened. These were sent to the bank 5 days ago. The time scale given for the account to be
reopened is 10 working days. Jackie’s email address has been given as the point of contact and she has not received any further information yet.
Office bearer’s reports
Jackie asked that any correspondence be sent to the community council email address rather than her personal email. The community council email is corntoncommunitycouncil2023@gmail.com
Shona, Jackie, Rose, Sarah Jane and Charles have been approved as a keyholder for the community centre but needs more information about their responsibilities as well as an induction.
Jackie advised that forms need to be completed to access the community council grant. This funding will be used to cover the cost of the minute taker. Jackie will complete the paperwork and will submit it prior to the deadline on 31st July 2023.
Email from PLUS
The community council have received an email from Susan Fullerton at PLUS. The email has been sent to both Jackie and Hamish and concerns the Asset transfer hub at Cornton Vale Prison. PLUS are keen to get access to the community centre to carry out a consultation with the community which will then be used for an asset transfer. They hope to run the consultation session between 14 and 28 August, however dates are still to be confirmed. PLUS, have had issues booking the community centre and this is the reason they have approached the community council.
There was a discussion around how the community council felt about the request, and it was agreed they should help with access but not be involved in the consultation.
Charles agreed that he would touch base with Susan from PLUS to try and facilitate access. Jackie will forward Charles the email she received from Susan Fullerton.
Charles provided an update on the email he had sent to Jim Thomson regarding issues with paths and pavements around Cornton
- Adamson Place the grass has now been
- School pavement/paths around school no cycle The signage will be put back up stating “end of route”
- Issues with parking on pavements on both Johnstone Avenue and Cornton Road is
- Car parking, cars that are causing an obstruction are a police matter
- Playpark upgrade this is not on Stirling Council list for an Charles advised that the park has 7 key defects. Charlie will take this forward and will ask for a plan of the park’s equipment and for details of the last time a safety check report was carried out.
- Gates – Porter Avenue the automatic system on them is
Police Reports
Jackie went through the Police report prior to PC Capes arriving at the meeting. However, he was able to provide clarification on some of the areas in person.
- Cornton is part of the Castle Ward along with Raploch, Causewayhead, Cambuskenneth, Riverside, Blairlogie and the City Centre. Police Scotland’s focus in these areas is drug dealing, anti-social behaviour and road safety.
- Jackie gave an overview of the main issues in the report over the period 26 June to 26 Over this time there were 5 undetected cases. These were as follows:
- 78/8 July culpable reckless
- 10th July theft
- 13th sexual offence
- 14th fraud undetected
- 21st fraud undetected
There were also an undetected case including a sexual assault on 5th July 2023. The report also outlined that there is limitation in the system used so cases may have been omitted. Over the time period there were 39 calls made about incidents in Cornton, some of the cases may be duplicates, regrading planned shots, road traffic incidents, reported by external agencies or be about other incidents.
There was no mention of drug incidents in the report.
PC Josh Capes came along for part of the meeting and introduced himself and clarified some of the information in the police report he had forwarded prior to the meeting.
There are 3 different types of cases
- Undetected where the investigation is
- Closed where all lines of enquiry have been investigated and the case is now
- Detected where the suspect accused will go to
He also went through how calls are logged through a call management system. All calls received are logged but these can be made up of duplicate calls about the same incident by a range of parties including ambulance, and road traffic as was stated in the report.
There was a discussion about issues around drug dealing locally and the possible lack of reporting due to fear of the repercussions. PC Capes advised that crimes can be reported in several different ways including calling 101, 999 in the case of an emergency or sending an email. If people want to remain anonymous when reporting a crime, they can also call Crimestoppers
PC Capes also clarified the area that himself and his colleague Jackie are responsible for. They cover town centre, Riverside, Raploch, Cornton, Cambuskeenth and Blairlogie.
He also clarified that “planned shots” refer to shots that take place in the farming community where the police are notified in advance.
PC Capes was keen to stress the importance of members of the public reporting crime as Police Scotland can only act on intelligence and Scots law stated that they normally require at least 2 pieces of evidence to prove a crime. He also advised that there may be incidents of drug dealing taking place by Cornton residents in other areas and if this is the case they will be logged against the area where the crime is committed,
The CCC also raised the issues of dangerous dogs and recent incidents locally. PC Capes advised that there are various laws surround this. If the case is recorded under the dangerous dogs act it falls under the jurisdiction of Police Scotland but if it is related to control of dogs this will be passed to the local dog warden.
There was also a discussion about the areas that PC Capes and his colleague cover and how this is managed if they are unavailable. He explained that any incidents would be reported to the police response team if there are no community police available. The community police look over incidents once they return to work to keep up to date with what is happening in their areas.
Planning
Charles advised there was good news to pass on and referred to the recent article in the Daily Record about Stirling Council having a budget of £150,000 to spend on playparks across the council area. Charles also referred to the £700,00 available from the Scottish Government over the next 2 years and was keen that Cornton get a share of this money. He will send the details on this that are available on the Stirling Council website round everyone. Charles advised that he would contact Stirling Council to advise that the community council have had a discussion and would be keen to know how they could use the money to benefit the local area.
Charles also spoke about the Local plan. There is a plan in place for Cornton from 2010/2011 however this has now expired. Charles is in communication with planning at Stirling Council to try and get the current plan updated. The plan that Kate is working on for CAPP will stay with them and they will present their own plan to criteria set out and both plans will join up eventually. There will be a steering group set up further down the line to carry out a consultation once more information is available. Charles advised that the community council need to work with Stirling council to make sure this happens and to get consultants to engage with the community council.
AOB
- Sharon provided an update on the completion to design a new logo for the community council. Posters have been put up with details of the competition and the deadline is 22nd There was a discussion about prizes and possible places to contact such as the safari park, Briarlands and bowling, as well as getting an external person to draw the competition to get some publicity for the community council.
Child Protection Training
Jackie and Shona are attending Child protection training in Bannockburn on 21st August. Jackie advised if anyone else is interest in attending they should let her know.
Road traffic
There is a car that has been parked in Johnstone Avenue for several months and has never moved and is a health and safety issue as it is parked close to a junction. PC Capes clarified the rules around parking. He advised that anything to do with parking on double yellow lines is covered by Stirling Council. Police Scotland have a parking enforcement team. If a car is causing an obstruction and stopping the road moving it would be dealt with by the police, however the law is down to interpretation. He also advised that vehicles can be uplifted by the police if they are classed as abandoned,
The next meeting will take place at Cornton Community centre on Wednesday 30th August at 7pm