Raploch Community Council meeting

4^th December 2024

Raploch Community Campus

Present: Barry Hughes (Chair), Susan Currie, Isabella Lowe, Liz Kettrick, Hilary Makhatholela, Gill Christie, Graham Slade, Mary McKinlay

Jeannie Watson, Community Development Officer Stirling Council,

Councillor Susan McGill

C Stewart – Minute taker 

Apologies: Nothing received

1. Welcome, apologies & Conflicts of Interest

No apologies received and no conflicts of interest declared

2. Approval of Minutes

The minutes of the November meeting were accepted and approved 

3.       Co-option of new members

There has been a delay in the co-option of both Gill Christie and Graham Slade. The community council were now able to co-opt the new members and had a vote of the community councillors present. Four were in favour and there were no objections. The community council were happy to welcome the two new community councillors on board

4.       Chair’s Report

• Communication has been received from Stirling Council with details of the dates for festive bin collections. There have been concerns raised about no collection of blue bins for 8 weeks. Councillor McGill checked on the Striling Council website and clarified this is the case depending on the day that the bin is due to be collected.
• An email has been received with an invitation to a carol service tomorrow (5^th December) at 3pm in the Church of the Holy Rude. The service is part of the celebrations for the 900th anniversary of Stirling. The invitation advised that the CC could nominate up to 2 people to attend but it unclear if it is open to the public.
• A local resident has contacted the community council to advise that some of the markers telling the history of Stirling along the Forth have become overgrown and faded. It was agreed that the chair will send a request to Stirling Council CC enquiries

to see if there is any funding or any support to upgrade the area. Jeannie Watson also agreed to arrange a walkaround with Gill Christie. 

• An email has been received from an organisation called News Direct who are a Scottish based research company asking for up to date contact details for the community council. Barry Hughes declared a conflict of interest as he has worked for the organisation in the past and is also a friend of the person who sent the email. He has replied to them clarifying that the information they have on record is accurate. 
• An email has also been received from a member of the public asking about the possibility of getting a Christmas tree in the village square. It was highlighted that this has been discussed before and there were plans to put together a subgroup to take projects like this forward, but this was never taken forward due to a lack of volunteers. It was agreed this will be added to the agenda to the next meeting to be discussed further. Jeannie Watson will do some research into external funding to see if anything is relevant.
• Santa will be visiting Raploch for the third year, it has been agreed he will come on a Tuesday and the church hall will be open with the scouts there to make tea and coffee. This will happen on 17^th December, with time to be confirmed. This will be an opportunity for the community to come together.
• The Youth Café has now started at St Marks on Thursday nights, 27 attended last week. It is open to school pupils from S1 upwards, and support is also being provided from a member of staff from Stirling Council youth services.

5.       Treasurer’s Report

The treasurer advised that the CC are no further forward with opening a new bank account.

There was a discussion about who should be the signatories, and it was felt it should be the Treasurer and Chair. Jeannie Watson agreed to support with pushing the bank account forward and advised it would be useful to have three signatories as they will always need two to sign anything off.  She also highlighted that some banks are now introducing charges for community groups and suggested it may be worthwhile looking at the Co-op as they don’t ask for any charges from community organisations, and this is also the case with credit unions. It was highlighted that no grant has been received from SC. The expenses for minute taking have also not been claimed since the summer. 

6.       Councillor Report

• The budget is an ongoing issue for Stirling Council, and it is anticipated there will be a large shortfall again this year which could be increased further if no funding is provided for additional employer NI contributions. Local council will be told on 12^th December what funding will be available for them so they will have a better idea then of how things will look. The budget will be set on 27^th February 2025.
• The initial consultation for the Big Conversation ended on 17^th November and the children’s version ended in December. The information gathered in the first phase will be analyse and go out for second consultation.
• There are two bi elections taking place in Stirling, one in Stirling East to replace Chris Kane and one in Bannockburn due to the passing on Margaret Brisley.

7.       Police Report

There was a discussion about the best night of the week to have the community council meeting to allow the police to attend. It has been highlighted previously that Wednesday is not the best night for the community police. The chair read out the report provided and it was highlighted that there may be a misprint around number of detected and undetected cases.

8.       Raploch Community Development Plan

Gill Christie wanted to check that everyone was happy with the wording of the draft survey, as she is now able to hand it over for survey monkey and to be printed. It was agreed at the last meeting that the survey would be distributed in the middle of January with the aim that there are completed by the end of February. Gill was keen to get ideas on what would be the best ways to distribute the survey.  There was a discussion about sharing the link on the various local Facebook groups as well as having printed copies available locally. Jeannie Watson will clarify to if SC can offer any support with printing. It was agreed that once the final version of the survey is ready, Gill will email to the CC mailbox and the chair will pass it on. 

Gill also highlighted that Stirling Council have been involved in cutting down the hedge between the development site at the back of the fire station. The hedge is a habitat full of species and she feels it has been mutilated by Stirling Council. Gill has raised her concerns with both Councillors Nunn and Thomson and has also lodged a report on the site with the planning department. Councillor Nunn has advised if there is a review of all hedges cutting it could help with budget cuts. Gill advised that if the site is redesigned and left there are lots of reasons to do this both for biodiversity and flood protection, they could also get a group of volunteers to hand prune the hedge in the future. 

9.       AOCB

• Parking on Glendevon Drive, Jeannie has provided photos of future plans for the areas as various concerns have been raised with regards to parking at the back of the campus. Due to this Stirling Council have agreed to put double yellow lines on the adopted parts. They can only do this in areas that belong to SC. The work will go on the list of jobs for next year. Jeannie Watson advised that Stirling Council need CC agreement before this can be taken forward. It was agreed that the chair will send an email to advise that the CC are happy that this takes place.
• A Local place plan information evening is due to take place on the 15^{th of} Gill Christie advised that at the CC are focusing on the community development plan.
• Councillor McGill recently attended a briefing about local libraries and raised the issue that Raploch library is not staffed. She is awaiting more information on the usage of the library; Councillor McGill will pursue and ask for the presence of a librarian.
• Lights in Sainsburys any update nothing new – Councillor Nunn dealing with.

10. Date and time of next meeting Monday 13^th January will revert to meeting on Monday.