Dec 2021 Minutes | Stirling Council

Trossachs Community Council Minutes: Thursday 9^th December 2021 in the Village Hall

Participating: Robert Bryder (RB), Crispin Hoult (CH), Gene Maxwell (GM), Chris Mitchell (CM), Sue Morris (SM)

Apologies: Penny Tindle (PT), Cllr Tweed, Roger Drapper & Police

Item	Content	Action
1. 2.	Introductions: CH chaired the meeting and thanked all for coming. Approval of minutes: November meeting minutes were proposed by GM and seconded by RB.
3.	Matters Arising: a) The New Village Map project received a third and final comparative quote from Harveys. This was almost double the ones from Fourpoint and Helen Stirling and the TCC approved the Map group to select one of the former suppliers for full financial support. CH to inform Hilary Robertson. b) The licensing concerns The Byre pub and management have had no additional queries or concerns raised by TCC or community and until so is not a TCC matter. c) CH updated that the next meeting regarding the Achray West seasonal transport hub (car park and shuttle bus point) took place on 2 December as part of the Strathard and Trossachs VMG (Visitor Management Group). There is no news on the further planning and development of the transport hub, but that NP officials were still working to a 2022 season implementation. The NP have approved funding for a “Strathard and Trossachs” strategic plan - whilst much of the recently completed Strathard Place Plan will feed into this, there is therefore the opportunity for the funding to focus on needs of the Trossachs. CH to forward minutes from the VMG to TCC members. d) Thanks were given to GM for sourcing and raising the village tree with associated lights, and sourcing lights for CM’s woodland location. Total spend £154.78 to be passed to the Treasurer.	CH CH GM
4.	Stirling Councillor’s update: - Cllr Tweed had sent apologies for attendance due to ill health. However, following the resilience issues from power, landline, mobile and broadband supply and connection reliability (and associated communication) there is an online survey to contribute to. A wider resilience discussion followed with the following points: · This was unusual in all forms of communication being unavailable But highlighted dependency of groups, authorities and utilities in use of technology like SMS · Local resilience group will review again options to have a generator available at the Village Hall	RB

	· Other solutions like the availability of a Satellite Phone within Stirling Council for isolated communities in emergencies (no 999 for fire, ambulance or mountain rescue without a long car journey for signal is a valid concern) · BT/Open Reach to be called to TCC meeting to explain current and future resilience plans. Cllr Earl has local contacts. · Explore how services and utilities could use the Notice Board as a common platform for written updates when usual forms of communication are not available.	ME
5.	Specific Items: a) Roads: No issues. A note of support for Stirling Council in rapidly dealing with trees and reopening and making safe roads during the night of Storm Arwen and in quick response the next day. b) Finance: No report this month. c) Planning Matters: No planning matters to note. d) Community Policing: Report provided, although called to several incidents on the area, and provision of support through Storm Arwen, they were stood down or found no incident at all but one: On 5/12/21 concerns were raised regarding the driving manner of a vehicle travelling on A821 near to Brig O’Turk. Officers stopped the vehicle and checked that everything was in order . e) Bye-Laws & Camping: No report – awaiting final season report (PT). f) Broadband: The recent outages with the community broadband have almost all been due to BT/Open Reach and backhaul power and fibre breaks. However, speaking with local Broadway engineers, we now also know that the backhaul capacity is being increased from 600Mbs to 2Gbs, which should help with peak time congestion on the network – and also some redundancy in supply. g) School update : Currently there are plumbers, electricians and joiners on-site completing the accessible and public toilet facilities at The School and linking up hot water and heating systems. Once works are complete it will be a TCT funding and capacity issue to determine opening hours and cleaning, staffing to provide a toilet facility.	PT
6.	Correspondence: a) (verbal from SM) update from FaLS on forest access and issues following Storm Arwen. Due to the widespread damage, difficulty with accessing areas and making safe roads and routes the message remains that the forest routes are closed. Once resident access and main forest roads are open, core paths, NCN etc will be tackled. It will take some time. The Three Lochs Forest Drive regrading will now happen in February. The new carpark extension at Ben A’an is open as of 10 December.
7.	AOB: a) None.
8.	Next Meeting: The next meeting will be on Thursday 10^th February in the Hall.