Nov 2022 Minutes

MINUTES

Meeting Monday 7th November 2022 in the Village Club

Final

Members Present : - Julie Hutchison; Grace Edmonds; Kate Ramsden; John Gray; Andrew Thompson; Rob Davies; Eleanor Balfour; Pamela Lee Apologies: Evelyn Macdougall

In attendance: Councillor Rosemary Fraser; M Vass, SCDT; + 4 residents (SC = Stirling Council. CC = Community Council. CDT= Community Devel- opment Trust * Denotes an action)

1. Welcome from the Chair and declarations of Interest

JH welcomed everybody to the November meeting and introduced Councillor Rosemary Fraser.

There were no declarations of interest.

2. Minutes of October meeting and matters arising

The minutes had been circulated to CC members. JG mentioned that his ini- tials were wrong at one point. With this correction the minutes were accepted, proposed by JG seconded by AT

Matters arising: MV asked if there had been any response to the letter regard- ing the closure signs on the A81 which was sent to the MP, MSPs and Carol Beattie. We have not. MV said that we should have at least had a reply from Carol Beattie. GE will chase this up.

A resident had asked about pruning the fruit trees at Park Place. JH contacted Steven Robertson. He will arrange for them to be pruned once his team are finished clearing war memorials.

The school children have been consulted about a new item of play equipment in the park and have voted for a bird’s nest swing.

JH spoke to SC about the bus shelter opposite Ballewan Crescent. The job is out to tender and the shelter should be replaced by March.

JH reported that the toilets are now on SC’s surplus property list, so all fund- ing has been removed. SC would like an asset transfer. This would have to be done via the SCDT, but MV said that they are too busy to take this on. We are annoyed that Killearn and Balfron retained their toilets. JH has emailed SC to say that this is not acceptable. There are no public toilets in the village.

KR has submitted a grant application on behalf of the Warm Places group. We have applied for a grant for the trees to mark the Jubilee.

A resident asked about EV charging points in the village. These were sched- uled for the library car park, but it is not yet ready, and the funding has been used. We have been told that there will be more Government funding availa- ble later. They may still be put in the library car park.

JG reported that there is no further information on the Gladman appeal.

3. Co-option of new member

Ian Boardley is unwell and could not attend the meeting. We will co-opt him next month.

4. Police Report

Constable McNulty sent the report for October Anti-social behaviour:

There have been reports of dogs loose within fields and attacking sheep. Please remember to keep dogs on leads when around livestock as the con- sequences of even chasing sheep can be severe.

A motor home was vandalised at the Queen’s View car park while the occu- pants were inside.

A wilful fire-raising offence has been recorded whereby branches and leaves in a domestic garden were set alight.

Road Traffic:

There have been complaints about anti-social driving in the Kirkhouse car park. Additional patrols were put in place and a young male was charged with driving with only a provisional license, no ‘L ‘plates and no insurance. His friend was charged with causing and permitting the offences. Please remem- ber that car parks are included as roads under the Road Traffic Act.

Theft:

There was an attempted theft from a shed/agricultural building. This suggests that recidivist criminals are once more active in the area. Please remain vigi- lant and report suspicious behaviour to the Police.

5. Roads Update.

The Scottish Government are going to make all residential roads with a 30mph limit 20 mph from next year. As a result, no new traffic calming measures will be put in place in the village until the new speed limits are es- tablished later in the financial year. JH will email Angela McGibbon to remind her about the new houses and to ask about the speed limit on Old Mugdock Road. We will put the new speed proposals in the BVB and on Facebook. RD clarified that the 20mph limit will apply to the whole of Scotland.

AT asked about parking on pavements. This is now illegal in Scotland.

RD asked ~RF if there is any data on the effectiveness of speed limits. She will ask this at a council meeting this week.

EB asked about the 20mph signs that have been left on the A81 following roadworks that were completed in the summer. They are confusing for drivers. It is very difficult to get signs left on roads removed as they belong to contrac- tors not to SC.

Angela McGibbon has funding to improve the driving/parking issues at Old Mugdock Road and Dumbrock Road. She plans to widen the pavement be- tween Dumbrock Road and the Co-op and install bollards at the corner. She suggested providing planters along the edge of the pavement instead of bol-

lards and the CC have agreed to maintain these. JH will contact Angela to say that the residents support this plan.

6. Library Update - Margaret Vass

When MV last reported it was proving difficult to source electricity for the li- brary. A contract has now been signed, but this has caused some delay. Con- struction should have been complete last week but is now due to complete at the end of November. Once the building is handed over, a lease should be signed and then fit out by SC should start. All interior materials have been ordered and are ready. Organising the utilities could still cause delay and dis- cussions are ongoing and with Scottish Water and BT Openreach. There is no date yet for internet connection.

The primary school children have buried a time capsule on the site.

There is no date yet for the official opening of the library, but MV thinks the building might open for the library service prior to the formal opening.

Thomas Graham Library Ltd is currently in discussion with SC about the op- eration of the library as the current agreement makes them wholly responsible for electricity costs. In view of escalating electricity costs, they are asking SC to contribute. SC proposes a Library Council composed of members of the Council, representatives from Thomas Graham Library Ltd, the SCDT, the li- brarians and two members of the community. There is also a proposal to have a community group to manage the library and MV asked if the CC would be interested in having a representative on this group.

There is a full planting scheme for the exterior of the library. JH thanked MV for her report.

AT reported that he has been working with Strathclyde University regarding running Lifelong Learning courses in the library. He is hoping to include a sur- vey in the BVB to see what residents would be interested in.

7. Christmas Tree.

We have been considering whether we can go back to our lighting event this year with Covid still an issue. The members decided that we should go ahead and, as the Wind Ensemble is not available, GE said she would ask if the Crooners could lead some carol singing. She has not yet done this but will ask this week. GE will also ask the Co-op about donating mince pies as they have done in the past. JH will contact Duff Trees to ask if they can deliver the tree for the weekend of 3rdf December and we plan to switch on the lights on Fri- day December 9th at 6.30pm

8. Elected Member’s Report - Councillor Rosemary Fraser

RF is on the Integrated Joint Board, which deals with Social Care. She asked if we could promote an initiative to encourage residents to volunteer to train to be part of an internal care team at SC. We can promote this in the BVB.

Marie Lucey had given some useful briefings to SC about the bridge repairs. The Branshogle bridge should be opening soon, but the Catterburn bridge will not be ready until next year. The council officers are pushing to have both

bridges open as soon as possible. SC needs to have a programme in place to repair or replace bridges before they collapse. RF is pressing for this.

JG mentioned that it is impossible to get an update about the bridges on the SC website. RF will report this.

9. Planning and Licensing

Local Place Plans. We intend to have a joint meeting with the SCDT about this. JG has emailed SC regarding promised training. GE has sent a letter re- garding Planning Democracy to the MP and MSPs.

22/00295/PPP: demolition of existing livery buildings and erection of 5 dwell- ing houses. Bankend House Strathblane. JG reported that this has gone to the local review board. It has a very wide remit and JG will ask that the CC is included in any site visit.

22/00642/FUL: Extension of dwelling house including new terrace and change of use of Green Belt land to garden ground. The CC will support this applica- tion. A resident asked if we could add a condition that the extra land cannot be divided from the garden in future.

22/00603/PPP: erection of single storey dwelling house, garden ground of Leddriegreen Lodge, Campsie Road Strathblane. The CC decided at the last meeting that we had no objection to this, but we have since been made aware of concerns of neighbours. The members agreed that JG will respond accord- ingly, saying that planning permission in principle is not suitable for this site.

22/00682FUL and 22/00683/FUL: This is a re-application and the CC will not object.

RD asked if the CLDP is in process. RF said that this will happen next year. JG has asked for support in this process but has had no response from SC. RF is trying to get support in place to allow communities to have their own place plans. The SCVDT and the CC will liaise on our plan.

JG said that all new CC members used to have a day of training on planning, but this seems to be no longer available. It is important to make our wishes known to the planners before he LDP is formalised.

JG attended a Planning Democracy workshop AT said that it would be useful to work alongside Planning Democracy on our Place Plan.

RD asked RF to find out about the Southwest Forums which were very useful but have disappeared since the lockdown. MV said that SC is appointing an officer to support rural areas.

10. Finance

Current Account - £2802.62 Instant Saver - £1374.22

EM noted that we had 40p interest this month instead of the previous 1p