March 2023 Minutes

Fintry Community Council Approved Minutes

8^th March 2023

19:30

Menzies Hall

 

• Present/apologies for absence:

 

 

• Declaration of interest in any items of business

 

• Approval of Minutes of last meeting:

Approved

 

 Councillor’s Report

There was no Councillor Report this month

 

• Police Report - report submitted

 

 

 

Livestock worrying

 

What are livestock attacks and worrying?

Livestock attacks and worrying is the phrase used when a dog attacks or worries livestock animals in rural and farmland areas.

 

This crime usually takes place in the countryside and is a particular problem when dogs, even those that are well trained, are off their leads or are roaming without an owner or person in charge with them. In doing so, they often scare or attack livestock animals.

 

Whilst many owners are unaware of the impact their dogs are having on livestock, it is their responsibility to ensure attacks and worrying don't happen. They should ensure their dog doesn't disturb or attack these animals, otherwise there are consequences under the law if it does occur.

 

Reporting livestock attacks and worrying

Call 999 if the crime is ongoing and animals are being injured. To report a crime which isn't ongoing call 101.

 

Livestock attacks and worrying and the law

The Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2021 came into force on 5 November 2021 to tackle the issue of out of controls dogs attacking and worrying livestock.

 

Under this law, the term "livestock" is wide ranging and includes cattle, sheep, goats, swine (pigs/boars), horses, camelids (alpacas/lamas), ostriches, farmed deer, enclosed game birds or poultry.

 

Bogus workmen.

With the better weather forthcoming bogus workmen can use this in order to target homes for work on the house (gutters, driveways etc) and/or gardens. Please be aware of this and see the below guidance.

 

How can I protect myself from doorstep crime?

 

• Be on guard if someone turns up

 

• Keep front and back doors

 

• Use the door viewer or nearby window when answering the

 

• Fit a door chain or bar – use it and keep it on when talking to callers at the

 

• If you’re not sure, don’t answer the

 

• Don’t feel embarrassed - genuine callers expect you to be

 

• Only let callers in if they have an appointment and you have confirmed they are

 

• Always ask for identification badges of anyone you answer the door to, but don’t rely on Identity cards can be faked – phone the company to verify their identity.

 

• Some companies offer a password Ask your utility providers if this can be used and if you have a password with a company make sure the caller uses it.

 

• Never let people try to persuade you to let them into your home even if they are asking for help – they may not be If someone is persistent, ask them to call at another time and arrange for a friend or family member to be with you.

Treasurer’s Report

Treasurer’s Report March 2023

 

1. General Fund Account

The current balance is £9,190. We have received £325 from Stirling Council for their Let’s Get Together Grant Fund.

 

 

Spend from this grant is now complete

 

The remaining spend on this grant will be used for the Community Garden project for this summer.

 

2. Foundation Fund

The current balance is £26,592.

The current budget and spend to date are shown below.

 

An individual grant was voted on and approved for £250 to the Brownies for equipment Grant application received for a travel grant for £250

Grant Application received from the Outdoor bowling green for the coronation Celebrations

£500 voted on and approved

The travel and the tuition fee grant criteria were voted on and approved these grants will be advertised in the near future

 

Resilience Update

All Scotland’s resilience Emergency Plans have been activated tonight due to the expected weather Stirling Council has been on.

The Community Development Team have asked the resilience to do interview regarding Community resilience this month.

The flood forum meeting was cancelled due to illness will be rescheduled in march.

The Resilience team purchased 200 coffees from Courtyard Café for warm spaces initiative Two more grant applications have gone in for Hardship.

Loch Lomond Fishers trust will now be completed for the end of March 2023

The church resilience path works will be being carried out this year by Stirling Council.

The resilience team had a question-and-answer workshop/ field trip at Knockraich with representatives from Australia, Iceland Met Office, Demark Sepa, Sweden Sepa, Strathclyde University, Sepa Scottish flood forum, River Track and Loch Lomond Fisheries trust on Tuesday to discuss how our community deliveries its emergency plan and resilience it was very successful we did a walk round inspecting our river gauges etc

Planning

Formation of forest track at land 770m west of gartgarron filters, Denny Road, Fintry Formation of forest tract at land 1.2km east of town head farm, Fintry

Formation of forest track at land 2.3km south west of gartcarron filters, Denny Road, Fintry Formation of forest track at land 880m south of little bin, Carron valley forest. Fintry

Formation of forest track land 450m north of little bin at carron valley north forest, Denny Road Fintry

Houses Cashel House the community Council have written a letter of support for the planning appeal.

Earlsburn have asked for a letter of support for their extension from FCC the only issues we had were in relation to the peat bogs we have had confirmation that that Earlsburn are investing in regeneration programme peat bogs for this area the planning application for these works have been approved

Earlsburn wind farm – Consultation under Section 36 of the electricity act (1989) for formation of extension to Earlsburn wind farm. Scottish office.

Ogilvie Development have had a request from local residents to ensure that land concerned be removed from the local Plan. C.C checked with the planning department this morning to see if they had news as the Scottish government had received an appeal not as yet last date for submissions was the 6^th March 2023.

Drummarnock wind farm proposal from wind 2 north of north third. IR will arrange meeting.

 

Roads/Paths

The repairs to Kippen Road at the bottom of Culcreuch Avenue has been caried out along with the pot holes at the cross

Surveys are being carried out by all Scottish councils to change all 30mph roads to 20mph Stirling Council has increased its roads repairs budget this year by 79 %

Footpath to be created from the church to the Denny Road end IR will take this forward Traffic Survey – Will be advertised in the near future.

 

Correspondence

Correspondence received from a member of the public regarding the Criteria of the student travel grant Sw to respond advising details.

Planned care waiting times from engage forth valley – MM will engage

Correspondence received from a member of the public was passed to police for their information. The community council will not be responding to this letter.

Grant application received from bowling green – see finance

A.O.B.

Surveys have been returned and huge thanks to the community for being involved. We had only 4 responses in relation to the questioner regarding evening classes Local place plan responses will go to the LPP group which will start June 2023 Community Council elections will take place in April 2023

 

Nursery Budget Cuts –

This a speech that was given by the Parents Council nursery representee on behalf of the parents to our local councillors due to the recent Stirling Council budget cuts

 

Hello, my name is Mairead Cameron. I am here tonight on International Women’s Day to represent the parents of Fintry. Not just the parents though, this affects everyone in Fintry.

 

So, what are the facts here…

Stirling Council, with your backing Cllr McGarvey, agreed to reduce the hours of Fintry nursery from 8am to 6pm to 9am to 3pm. There was no consultation with us your constituents. This will result in the reduction of one member of staff. Our senior early years educator. Parents will no longer be able to pay for extra hours to enable them to work. This is all for an £11,000* a year saving. This will have a major impact on families in Fintry who rely on the nursery to provide all day care so they can continue to work. It will also have an impact to the wider community with Fintry as it will now be seen as less attractive for families to move here.

 

So, let’s look at the facts here…

 

• The capacity of the nursery is 16 The intake for this coming August prior to this cut was for 15 children to attend the nursery.
• Fintry Nursery was awarded just last week with 5 stars and the vast majority of parents have indicated that they are very satisfied with the care they received from this 5 Star nursery.
• In Fintry we are sorely lacking early years We have only one provider in the village, she only does 4 days and I know she is looking to wind down towards retirement.

 

We surveyed the parents of Fintry to understand their childcare needs – something Stirling Council & Education services should have done before approving this budget.

• 93% of our families have two working They are both employed so need full day cover. They travel long distances with Stirling, Forth Valley Royal, Glasgow & Edinburgh being 30 mins to 1hr away.

 

• 90% said that the changes would affect their employability and ability to progress in their careers. And on what is International Women’s Day we all know that this will have a more significant effect on women over men.
• 66% of the children currently at the nursery are collected after 5pm – there is a need for these hours in our village.
• To keep working, parents will need to look elsewhere for 52% of current parents will be unable to send their children to Fintry Nursery this coming august. Pulling children out of their existing routine will have a negative impact on their children. You are not supporting the rights of these children.

• For prospective parents, who currently don’t send their children to Fintry but were planning to send them. 76% of those parents said they would not send their child to

Fintry Nursery. You’re looking at the numbers for the coming years dropping to about 4 kids. This marries with the numbers we had pre the 1140 hours provision.

 

So, I ask…

 

• Where do these children go? Balfron, Killearn, Arnprior are pretty much at Taking places in these nurseries is a false economy. You still need to pay for these children and you take away places from locals to those nurseries.
• How do children get to these nurseries?
• Do we drive them? That’s just for the privileged amongst us who have What about the environmental impact of these 30 miles a day trek back and forth?

 

Ironically, I read the Stirling’s Children’s Services Plan on Monday. It describes how public bodies, and their partners work together to support children, young people, and their families. One of the key points was “Supporting everyone in your family to have the best opportunity” asking families “What does good family support look like?” I can tell you now it’s not 9am to 3pm.

 

So, let’s look at the financials here…

Kirsty Stanner indicated that these were BAU savings. That the budget gap we’re paying for was “immaterial” or ‘inconsequential’ or that this was a “minor amount”. I can tell you now that this is not inconsequential for the people of Fintry. How deeply did you scrutinise the numbers?

• An £11,000 saving based on the 15 children next year is a saving of £14 (18.80* over 39-week term) per week per child over 52 weeks. Are the children of Fintry and the

money we contribute to society from our jobs not worth £14 per week. Our village pay 100% of its council tax – you are putting our jobs in jeopardy through these cuts.

 

How could we possibly fund this £11,000?

 

• 74% of prospective parents said they were likely or very likely to pay for extra If 74% of those 15 children use an extra day @£38 per day that would be over £16K back to Stirling Council which covers the £11,000.

 

WAS THIS FUNDING CONSIDERED AS PART OF YOUR SUMS?

The Guardian published today that there’s over £90bn of gross value lost to the economy every year due to lack of childcare – did you consider the long-term financial implications for cutting childcare like this.

Finally, I wanted to highlight that we have a privately run wrap around care at the school. A breakfast club so children can start at 8am and an afterschool club where they can stay until 6pm. This is partly funded by Stirling Council grant money via our community council. Did you know this? We as a community identified the need for wrap around care. We worked hard to get this implemented so we can continue to pay our higher than UK average taxes.

 

Anyone who knows me, knows I don’t take kindly to burglars who steal into my house overnight. The way you’ve gone about this reduction in this vital service for Fintry is a robbery. You snuck this changes in under the cover of darkness. But the people of Fintry are just like me. We’ll fight tooth and nail for the services we pay for through our taxes.

It’s unfair on our law abiding, 100% council tax paying rural village.

 

Cllr McGarvey you stated at the meeting that this was “DAMAGE

LIMITATION” – I ask you – WHY FINTRY? What about all the damage you’re causing here? To our jobs, our community. We have been highlighted as a village that can be developed for affordable housing. How can we do this if you’re making it a less attractive place for people to come and live?

 

I implore you all, our council representatives, to work together. Get into a room and sort this out. Not just for this year but for the years to come. The 2011 Public Sectors Equality Duty states that you must consider all individuals when carrying out your duties. You have failed us this week. You would have made thousands on the bin increase, but you chose to target us, a small ‘insignificant’ village to protect your votes.

And, from an Equalities Act 2010 perspective you have failed us women of Fintry who will most likely have to take on the extra hours you’ve stolen from us in the night.

Today we created a petition to have this overturned. We will share this will you in the coming days.

*This data was provided to our community council representative. On the night it was indicated that it may be closer to £29,000. Confirmation of this would be appreciated for accuracy.

 

Comments and questions that came up at the meeting that are not covered above:

• With its five-star Fintry Nursery should be celebrated and held up as an example of exemplary care. Not have funding pulled and resources cut.
• Education services have confirmed that this change in hours will come into effect in August 23 due to the natural turnover of staff at the nursery. Our Sr Educator has moved to Balfron nursery. Her vacancy was not going to be replaced. The person

covering for her on secondment used to work at the nursery last year. She’s an amazing staff member and we really want her to get the role should funding come available.

• Placement requests for Aug 23 have already been put in place. The deadline has passed. Parents whose children start this August have put a placement request in for

Fintry only knowing that their children will get a place there. What happens now? If the other nurseries cannot provide the hours that they need – where do they go? We need a timeline for this, so it does not cause any more stress.

• It has been indicated that there may be money to cover the cuts for this year. It’s not just about this year Its securing Fintry Nursery for the years to come. In rural

villages birth rates fluctuate. Policy needs to be in place so that we’re protected and we’re not under constant threat of budget cuts.

• We were asked by Cllr Fraser if there was feasibility to open all year round in Fintry. We as parent council will survey families for the We need to understand the impact this will have on the three funded days if it’s spread across the year.

 

All councillors agreed they would ask for an emergency budget meeting to reinstate Fintry nursery hours this is due to the fact money has been freed up from other sources. The Community Council asked for representation from Education Services to attend a meeting in April with the parents.

 

Date of next meeting

• 10 May 2023