Minutes of meeting of January 9th
2002
Venue:
Cockburnspath
Primary School, 7pm
Present:
Mr John Hay, Mr Clifford Bertram, Mrs Jane Hood, Mrs
Marnie Magregor, Mrs Jean Virtue, Mr Paul Wheelhouse, Councillor John Elliot
(Duns and District North, SBC)
1
Apologies
1.1
Matt Deeming, Lorna Shand
2
Adoption of Minutes for December 14th
3
Matters Arising from the Minutes of December 14th:
3.1 Outstanding Repairs (Update):
3.1.1 Concrete Street Lights removed from Square - no progress to date, as funds are not available for replacements in current financial year. Action taken due to legal case arising in Aberdeen which has implications for all councils. Estimates that could take up to 132 years to fully replace all street lights within current budget.
3.1.2
Cove -
repairs under way to access road land slip - near completion -
need to try to repair burst field drain which caused initial problem (appears
to have been fixed since then)
Cove - waste water treatment plant about to commence. Concerns raised regarding revised plans submitted to SBC which still show areas of gravel and although other amendments are reflected, this needs addressing. Also telegraph pole for telephony for site has been erected in front of 1 Coastguard Cottages. Not much action that can be taken by Council (Cllr Elliott cited lack of success in past) and suggestion made to contact BT direct or use influence of ESW.
3.2 East Berwickshire Communities - replacing Coastal Villages Forum with Ayton, Reston, Foulden, Lamberton and Mordington being added to original membership of Co'path, Coldingham, St Abbs and Burnmouth)- meeting planned for January 14th at Ayton Bowling Club (7pm) to adopt a constitution, elect office bearers, nominate representatives to the EEBP Forum, nominate representatives to the community grant scheme advisory group, set a date for the advisory panel training workshop and AOB. Members need not be elected community councillors, if others with appropriate skills are available. No volunteers so Lorna Shand and Paul Wheelhouse agreed to represent the Community.
3.3 Queen’s Jubilee Celebrations - committee will be formed and will progress some sort of event as yet to be decided. Jean Virtue will take a lead on this.
3.4 Community Planning Theme Seminars (8th Feb 2002 at Hawick Leisure Centre) - no one available to attend.
3.5 Power Cuts - Chairman set out position regarding improvements to power infrastructure for the Borders area costing £14m. Cockburnspath not explicitly included in first phase, which is of great concern, but should benefit from switching gear on the ring. Sec'y to write to thank Euan Robson for keeping us informed and seek clarification when Co'path may be scheduled for an upgrade if this is known (done 6/2/2002).
3.6 Perrymans
Buses -
following earlier efforts made by Sec'y, John
Hay has also had no success getting hold of Mr Perryman. Mrs Magregor agreed to try to contact him,
in light of having successfully dealt with him in the past.
4
Other Correspondence Received:
4.1
Future
Presentations to be Made:
4.1.1
Perrymans Buses (see above)
4.1.2
Planning Department - regarding community planning and
Structure Plan changes - Alastair Maclean at Duns - Contact not yet made (due
to holiday period), but Alastair Maclean to be contacted regarding coming to
the February meeting. (No reply
received to date).
5
Any Other Business
5.1
Christmas tree arrangements were discussed - problems
with tree being erected this year were discussed. Letter of thanks to be written to Alan Wight of Ecclaw Farm for
his generosity in offering a tree this year.
5.2
Vandalism
/ Youth facilities. Damage
to picnic tables and gate in play area after recent repairs, and to new bus
shelter was discussed. It was agreed
that the Police will have to be called in to see what can be done as things are
getting out of hand. Culprits are
"known" to the community, but we rely on the police to prosecute and
obtain evidence - talking to the children concerned only has short term
benefits and before long vandalism starts again. Discussion of history of youth club in the area (folded due to
lack of parental support). Possibility of using community support funds / the
land fund to get a parcel of land to establish a youth club to alleviate
boredom for local children. Problem
lies in lack of parental support (in supervising the club). Will speak to Wendy Reid at EEBP in Eyemouth
to establish whether this might be supported.
Cllr Elliot suggested that if this failed we could include a statement
on the need for a youth club in the next local plan as a means of obtaining
"planning gain" from any further development at Tollview (for
example).
5.3
No
litter bin as yet on Crofts Road (to make sure included in next
year's spend if possible).
5.4
Salt
box at underpass to Cove has been tipped on its side (west side of
underpass). John Hay to contact SBC for
this to be addressed.
5.5
Icy
roads - lack of gritting a concern given likelihood of poor
weather to come. Budget cuts in this
area are a major worry.
5.6
Tar
being tipped/dumped by Technical services etc. on verge of Pease Bay
Road, while repairs are needed to pot-holes in the area. This , it was suggested, is a ludicrous
waste of resources.
5.7
John Hay highlighted the fact that residents can no
longer dump fridge freezers etc. at civic amenity sites due to European
legislation which requires these to be drained of CFCs and other harmful
substances prior to crushing. No such
facility yet exists anywhere in the UK and councils will be required to store
them for disposal until one exists.
Concern raised about fly-tipping of these in future (e.g at
Penmanshiel?). SBC will increase
charges on the collection of such items to something in the region of £6 per
fridge/freezer (quote from Radio
Borders - Tuesday 5th February 2002) to reflect additional storage
cost.
6
Date for next meeting: Confirm :
Wednesday 13th February 2002
(subsequently
altered to 9th February 2002 to accommodate meeting to discuss
budget cuts by SBC)