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KILMADOCK COMMUNITY COUNCIL
MINUTE OF MEETING HELD ON 18 SEPTEMBER 2023 AT 7.00PM
IN THE INFORMATION CENTRE, DOUNE.
Present : Tony Farrant (Chair), Rowena Drowley, Sue Sedgwick, Ken Russell, Elizabeth
Wallace, Neil Fergusson (Development Officer), Cllr. Elaine Watterson
Apologies for absence : Alison McAlpine, Alistair Sutherland, David Harding, Wallis Scott;
David Clark (Minute Secretary).
Tony Farrant (Chair) noted that Jim McGroarty had resigned from the Community Council which
left the possibility for two co-opted members.
1. Approval of Minute
The minute of the meeting held on 14 August 2023 was approved, proposed by Ken
Russell, seconded by Sue Sedgwick
2. Chair’s Report
a) Missing signage for the new car-park on the A84 and lack of apparent planning
permission for the new fence in the same place. He is waiting for a reply from Stirling
Council.
b) Trees for Babies, an initiative from TreeLink Stirling whereby any new parent or the
parent of a pre-school child can apply for a free tree to plant in their garden to
celebrate the birth.
c) Dementia Café in Doune – would the KCC be interested in this, where would it
meet, where does the funding come from etc. Cllr. Elaine Watterson, in her capacity
of Older People’s Champion, indicated that it would be run by the Dunblane
Dementia Café to begin with. She also said that an email had been sent to the KDT
about the café but it doesn’t appear to have arrived. It was agreed that the Chair and
Rowena Drowley would attend a meeting at the Braeport Centre in Dunblane, that
the Dunblane Chair would be invited to the next meeting of the KCC along with the
Convenor of the KDT..
3. Police Report.
13 August to 9 September 2023, compiled by Constable Donald King
a) Antisocial Behaviour
On 25/08/23 a disturbance took place with 3 persons fighting in public. All three
persons were traced and charged with threatening and abusive behaviour due to the
numerous members of the public who contacted Police alarmed by their actions.
b) Road Safety
On 25/08/23 an RTC occurred on Main Street, Doune involving 3 vehicles. Officers
attended and after enquiry one driver was charged with dangerous driving.
c) Theft
On the evening 27/08/23 an attempt was made to break into a motor car in Doune by
smashing the window. the same evening the padlocks on a garage in Doune were
cut. This allowed entry but no items within were stole despite being of value.
Enquiries are continuing.
On 03/09/23 a fraud occurred whereby a member of the public received a message
pretending to be from their daughter claiming that her phone was broken. After a
number of messages back and forth they have asked for money to pay an urgent bill.
cont. overleaf
Police report cont.
The money was sent before they realised it was not their daughter. Enquiries are
continuing.
d) Community Engagement and Reassurance
On 05/09/23 a report was received regarding males acting suspiciously in the area
of Doune Primary School. Police attended and made a search of the area with no
race of the males. The staff at the School were spoken to with the identity of the
males being unknown. We have requested extra attention in the area.
4. Councillor’s report
Cllr. Watterson again stressed that there is no room for manoeuvre in Stirling Council’s
budget and that the council would be concentrating finance on the services that they
have to provide. The Chair asked about the ‘Big Conversation’, an initiative by SC held in
the Library in Doune 13/09/23, and billed as a drop in event about ways that SC could
save money. General consensus was that it was pointless as SC had already decided
the budget.
5. Treasurer’s Report
Elizabeth Wallace has taken over the Treasurer’s post after the resignation of previous
treasurer Jim McGroarty
EW brought us up to date with KCC finances.
There is £9495.80 in the bank of which £8089.09 is restricted.
6. Secretary’s report.
No report from Secretary but TF did report that an application to the WFT has been made
for funding for extra Christmas lights.
7. Development Officer.
Neil Fergusson has now received the assessment for installing solar panels on the Moray
Park pavilion. The next stage will be pursuing quotes from potential installers.
8. Roads
a) Traffic Calming Measures in Balkerach Street.
Ro Drowley (RD) has been in touch with SC about the traffic calming measures
along Balkerach Street. Their reply that ‘in the terms of the Council’s position on
the matter, our position is that we will not remove the speed cushions unless there
is agreement from the School Parent Council/School. To this end, a Roads Officer
wrote to the school parent council and the head teacher setting out the various
options regarding the potential removal. To date no response has been received’.
They have offered to pick the matter up again and liaise with the school on it and
they are also happy to chat with the CC at a mutually agreeable time.
Action: Ro Drowley
b) Damaged speed bump reported and made safe the following day by SC.
c) Zebra/Pelican Crossing. At the Big Conversation meeting a member of the public
asked about a pelican crossing to replace the zebra crossing along Main Street,
particularly now that Doune is about to loose the Crossing Lady.
Action: Ro Drowley
Tony Farrant also reported that there were police doing speed checks on the traffic along
Balkerach Street this morning.
9. Villages
Sue Sedgwick reported as follows
a) Extra Litter Bin on the corner of Castlehill Court and Main Street.
Sue Sedgwick (SS) has been in touch with SC but they have decided that there is
no need for an extra bin
b) Damaged fencing in the Main Car Park.
This comes the auspices of the Housing Department and they will visit the site
c) Parking of vehicles in the entrance to the Main Car Park.
This is causing some major problems with the entrance/exit to the car park as the
entrance is not wide enough to allow safe passage. Although these vehicles are
parked out with parking spaces and the car park belongs to SC they say that this
problem is one of Community Safety and should be reported to the police. The
suggestion was made that SC should enforce the rules of the car park, that are on
a notice erected by them, by a visit from a Traffic Warden. Action: Sue Sedgwick
d) Street Cleaning and Weeds
When asked about these Cllr. Watterson said that this was unlikely to happen as
there is no money in the budget for regular cleaning. The weeds would not be
dealt with because SC, for environmental reasons, has decided to stop using
weed killer. It was pointed out that the weeds around the War Memorial had been
dealt with by the council, or their contractors, by weed killer.
e) East Church
This has been vandalised again.
10. Planning : Nothing of significance to report
11. CAFD: No report
12. KDT.
Ken Russell reported that the Information Centre was seeing an increase in
customers and that a new post office trainee had begun work on a probationary basis.
13. Woodland Group
Ro Drowley reported that the Family Fun Day had been very well attended and enjoyed.
In the interests of bio-diversity it is intended to create, under the tutelage of Nick Cooke,
Environmentalist, an area within the woods to encourage butterflies, moths and other
beneficial creatures. The work would start as soon as possible.
14. Toilets
There has been no flooding from the toilets lately however the taps are being left on
wasting both water and electricity. Suggestion has been made that taps that
automatically turn off should be fitted. Action : David Harding
An application would be made to the WFT 3 year fund next year to cover the cost of
approximately £9000pa. for running the toilets.
15. Bridge
Ken Russell reported that the changeover of Editors had gone slightly awry but any
problems had now been smoothed out
16. Forestry.
The Chair reported that Medoc were clearing up the remains of the fallen trees by the
Bridge of Teith.
17. Remembrance Sunday
Alison McAlpine reported in her absence that it is all in hand.
AOB.
!) Enquiries to Stirling Council
Sue Sedgwick finds it very long-winded to have to go through Stephen Bly for every
single query. Admittedly some answer come back very quickly but if the query is not
answered, or understood, to satisfaction it becomes quite difficult and time consuming to
constantly have to reinstate the query. Ro Drowley agreed. At Cllr. Watterson’s
suggestion Tony Farrant (Chair) to arrange a meeting with Stephen Bly.
Action: Tony Farrant
2) Elizabeth Wallace suggested that yellow lines needed at the end of both Moray Street
and Queen Street to prevent parking right to the corners with Main Street.
Next Meeting:
7.00pm on Monday 9th October at the Information Centre, Doune
Closure:
There being no other business the meeting closed at 8.30pm