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Cornton Community Council minutes Meeting Wednesday 29th November 2023
Present Apologies
Charles Russell (Int Chair/Planning) CR Patricia McCormick (CAPP) Shona Cullen (Secretary) SC
Rose Curley (Treasurer) RC Sarah Jane Welsh (CC) SJW Anna Johnstone (CC) AJ Crispin Bennett (CC) Councillor Susan McGill
Chris Burns (Stirling Council) CB Amanda Namey (Resident) Caroline Stewart (Minute taker)
1. Apologies
CR opened and welcomed everyone to the November meeting. Apologies were received from PM. Sharon McQuillan submitted her resignation from the community council as of the 30th October 2023. Due to Sharon’s resignation the community council only has 6 elected
members which is below the constitution’s requirement of 7. This was discussed later in the meeting.
2. Declaration of Interests
CR asked if there were likely to be any conflict of interest during the meeting, nothing was declared.
3. Minutes of the previous meeting
AJ queried the Aug/Sept minutes being proposed by AJ and seconded by SJW neither had any recollection of this. Chris Burns suggested that moving forward it would be good practice to take a vote on any matters discussed for the purposes of record keeping. CB asked for the comments that had been attributed to him to be removed as they were
incorrect. AJ asked for clarification on the sentence around the “closure of centres”. The August and September minutes were proposed by RC but not seconded therefore it was agreed they would roll over to the next meeting.
4. Business arising from Minutes.
CR has received a request from Stirling Albion FC/Foundation to offer a day out at Forthbank on 16th December to 40 local children/adults. The day will involve fun and games, then attendance at the Stirling Albion match. The date conflicts with the Kids Christmas party in Cornton. It was agreed that electronic flyers would be send to Chris Burns to distribute to the school and add to the SC website with CR being the main point of contact to monitor interest.
5. Interim Chair Statement
Due to the resignation of Sharon McQuillan the Community Council now only has 6 elected members which is below the minimum requirement of 7. CR advised that they have 3 months to co-op to try and increase numbers back up to at least 7.
6. Co-option process for new volunteers/members to join Cornton Community Council
CR has sent an email round about the Co-op process. AJ asked how the Community Council can progress the co-op of PMc. CR has sent the flowchart around with the steps that would need to be followed. This states that anyone who wishes to be co-opted onto the community council is required to attend for 3 consecutive meetings. It was agreed that paperwork will be passed to PMc to complete before the next meeting. Information will be put on the SC website as the opportunity must be advertised for at least 2 weeks before anyone can be co-opted. The Community Council are then required to notify SC when the vote will take place. CR proposed some dates for the process.
- 1st December to get the advert The advert will be put in the shop and Chris Burns will also advertise through the SC website. N
- Nomination form will be available from 14th December and the nomination of the co-op option will take place in January 2024.
- New forms will be sent to SC on 8th January and SC will then check
- Notification will be sent to CC members by 16th January and the next meeting with be on 31st The process will be delay due to the Christmas holidays. CR asked for a vote on the proposed timeframe and there was a show of hands with 5 people in favour of going forward with the plan.
7. New Cornton Community Council email and website domain
CR advised that the Community Council have a new domain that belongs directly to them. The domain has 2 separate email addresses linked to it. The hope is over the next few months that the Community Council can look at developing their own website. CR has carried out research into the cost this would involve. He advised that the cost is £80 for the domain registration as well as 2 email addresses, one of the email addresses is for Cornton Connect and the other is for the Secretary of the Community Council. The domain registration costs £20 a year and CR feels the next step would be to build a website. He has conducted some research into the websites used by other community councils including Bridge of Allan and Gargunnock and advised that they all use the same layout. From the research he has carried out CR advised the cost for a small website would be £389 which would cover the design fee and this is a place where the community council minutes, accounts etc could be uploaded. There would also be a £400 a year admin fee.
8. Reports
- Police
No report received.
b) Interim Chair
CR has received an email from Recykabike about various programmes they are running. They have also offered 3 free bikes to Cornton Primary school.
c) Secretary
SC has been in touch with McGill’s regarding issues with the local bus service. She has made
contact via phone, email, and letter with no response. SC will send another letter to McGill’s. CB advised to include Robert Cluse from Stirling Council in any correspondence.
d) Treasurer
RC provided a paper statement detailing the balance on the account. RC has been in touch with the bank requesting a bank card as well as a cheque book but has been told that this needs to be put to the board for approval. CR advised that there is an application made for a bank debit card and mandated the vote with 4 being in favour of this. CR will make a mandate letter for RC to pass to the bank. CR also advised that 2 community councils have made compensation claims against the Bank of Scotland. It was agreed that SC will put together all the information needed to make a claim prior to the January meeting. SC can help with this if required. Chris Burns will also share the information on now to make a claim with CAPP.
e) SC Elected Councillor
Susan McGill gave an update for SC. The provost has resigned which has triggered a bi election in Bridge of Allan and Dunblane. There are ongoing budget issues and even though there is a deficit in the current budget there will be the need for SC to produce a balanced budget.
This led on to a conversation about the request for someone to attend the meeting from
Homeless. This has been an agenda item for tonight’s meeting but the speakers were cancelled due to the length of the agenda. There was disappointment that the speakers were not in attendance as there is a lot of uncertainty about the future of local housing. CR will contact SC homeless again and copy in Chris Burns to arrange another date for the presentation.
f) SC Community Development Notes
The issue of the need for keyholder training and no dates being offered for this were raised with Chris Burns. Chris advised that there is no date but the matter is in hand. Chris discussed the UK Shared Prosperity Fund through the UK Levelling up Fund this will be coming out soon. Chris advised that he was unable to share the release date but there is likely to be a short application window. SC can provide support with community council applications to the fund. He also spoke
about the possibility of using the fund to support the development of the playpark at Etive Place and he will distribute information about a successful project in Cardonald.
g) Local School/Nursery
The local school/nursery were unable to send anyone to the meeting but they are keen to be involved and the feedback that they provided to CR is that “we need each other”.
9. Community Resident Voice
This will be the opportunity for residents to voice their opinions. CR will move this further up the agenda so that members of the community can come to the meeting and raise their views and then leave if they wish before other business. There was a discussion about other community groups that could be invited to future meetings including Cornton Vale, Community Café, Baptist Church and CAPP.
The next meeting will take at Cornton Community centre om Wednesday 31st January at 7pm.