Feb 2022 Minutes | Stirling Council

Approved Trossachs Community Council Minutes: Thursday 10^th February 2022 in the Village Hall

Participating: Crispin Hoult (CH), Gene Maxwell (GM), Penny Tindle (PT), Chris Mitchell (CM), Sue Morris (SM), Roger Drapper (RD) & Cllr McDonald (JM)

Apologies: Robert Bryder (RB), Cllr Earl and the Police & Cllr Tweed

Item	Content	Action
1. 2.	Introductions: CH chaired the meeting and thanked all for coming. Approval of minutes: December meeting minutes were proposed by SM and seconded by GM. There followed an update from Robert Thorburn from Open Reach to discuss the pre Christmas outage and Fibre progress. Robert started by explaining (reiterating for those who have heard this many times) that the Trossachs Exchange is one of 50 remaining that has no capacity for reasonable broadband. In addition, the state of the copper cables servicing our landlines is in a poor state of repair in many areas. There are national timescales to replace all copper within 10 years and for the Scottish R100 programme to deliver high-speed broadband fibre-to-the- premises within 2 years in this area. He also confirmed the relationships with Broadway are well defined and as a downstream community on a third-party solution, Open Reach have a clear and understood responsibility for backhaul. The issues of not prioritising the areas most in need (Trossachs) and the policy of spending money on reinforcing an existing infrastructure to be replaced at short timescale (rather than proceeding directly to a new service model) were clearly articulated. Some well-rehearsed answers gave no reassurance priorities would change. The TCC will continue to pursue this with questions on focus and safety considering our vulnerable position from recent weather events, power issues and mobile reliability and popularity with hill users.
3.	Matters Arising: a) The New Village Map project has decided that Fourpoint will undertake the printing of the maps, so they should be able to go ahead. Photos of the dam would be useful and Johnny Miller has been asked to talk about his experiences over the years. b) No update on the transport hub at Achray west.
4.	Stirling Councillor’s update: - the budget is coming with a possible 3% increase in council tax, which can be decided by Stirling Council (SC) art their final meeting before the May elections. A resilience survey was sent out and the need for chainsaws and generators was discussed. It was thought that the Village Hall committee could help to fund one. A wider resilience discussion followed which highlighted dependency of groups, authorities and utilities in use of technology like SMS No solution within Stirling Council for isolated communities in emergencies i.e.no 999 for fire, ambulance or mountain rescue without a long car journey for signal is a valid concern. The fire service went

	round to every household in the village to see if people needed help with food, warmth and light. JM to check gritting routes as the Duke’s Pass seemed to be missed once.
5.	Specific Items: a) Roads: the entrance to the school is being widened and tarmacked, therefore there may be times when deliveries are being made that access is temporarily closed. Otherwise, it is passable. b) Finance: RD contacted Moray Estates re Hydro payment and was reassured it had been paid. £1905 paid in plus £90.93 from SC for administration costs money out to TT £22.50 and £25 for Audit and £64 for RD adding up to to £16336.43. The decision to upgrade the passing places up towards the dam from the school is on hold. c) Planning Matters: No planning matters to note. d) Community Policing: Report provided, concerns about a 6ft medium built male with light spiked hair acting suspiciously around females in the area. Please report if seen. Quad bikes are not allowed on the 3 Lochs Drive and should be reported if seen. e) They will patrol the Ben Aan area more regularly and engage with visitors to encourage better behaviour. During the coming season they will work closely with council enforcement officers to ensure clearway is enforced f) Bye-Laws & Camping: PT will send the final season report to all. The 3 Lochs drive will be regarded at the end of March after the tree removal and open from 1^st April. The Campsite is not open nor are the Rangers for this year appointed. Problems remain tree safety and Drunkie still needs to be cleared. Fishing is allowed and can walk in. SM sent a Forestry update round. g) Broadband: h) School update : Refurbishment work continues. Solar panels will be installed soon.
6.	Correspondence: a) Forth Valley and Lomond Local Action Group is organising a “Learning event” Communities Planning and building cycles paths on 15 ^th Feb at 6pm. a) The Park, Forestry and SC have had a discussion re how to deal with issues a Ben Aan. When the weather is good the numbers soar. The Police will patrol the Ben Aan area more regularly and engage with visitors to encourage better behaviour. During the coming season they will work closely with council enforcement officers to ensure clearway is enforced.
7.	a) AOB: a) SM attended a meeting at Katrine pier about the developments re the steamship, water safety and visitor signage. Works on the road up Loch Katrine have started. b) Loch Katrine Forestry Land Management Plan highlighted their actions over the next few months.
8.	Next Meeting: The next meeting will be on Thursday 10^th March in the Hall.