Minutes of the Tarves Community Council Meeting held on Tuesday 24^th October 2000

at 7.30pm in the Tarves School Library

Present:

Sam Andrew, Gordon Brown, Bob Davidson, Ros Deane, Councillor Paul Johnston, Alison Leith, Linda Mackie, Ian Massie, Dick Reville, Innes Stephen, Colin Taylor, John Thomson, Muriel Thomson

Apologies:

Donnie Chisholm

Paul welcomed the meeting. On confirming everyone had already seen notification of the Community Council election results Paul moved on to electing a Chairperson. For future information the results were as follows:

Ian Massie 122, John Thomson 117, Linda Mackie 111, Muriel Thomson 107, Colin Taylor 105, Bob Davidson 101, Dick Reville 99, Sam Andrew 94, Gordon Brown 93, Donnie Chisholm 87, Ros Deane 87 and Innes Stephen 86.

The unsuccessful candidates were:

Jenny Wagstaff 84, Glenison Foster-Axten 61, Ann Bradley 55 and Barry Cook 41.

Nominations

The following nominations took place:

Innes was nominated Chairperson by Sam and seconded by John.

John was nominated Vice-Chairperson by Innes and seconded by Sam.

Ros was nominated Treasurer by Linda and seconded by John.

Muriel declined the nomination of Secretary by John owing to personal commitments. After much discussion it was agreed to have two secretarial posts - one council secretary and one minute secretary. Linda agreed to take on the role of council secretary which would require dealing with council correspondence, but did state she may have to give the post up at a later date owing to future commitments.

The vacancy of minute secretary will be offered to Jenny Wagstaff and Glenison Foster-Axten before being advertised locally, if neither of them wish to take up the position. It was agreed that the minute secretary would receive £ 20.00 per meeting plus expenses for postage, ink etc. Details regarding minute distribution will be discussed with the minute secretary.

General Information

Innes advised the meeting of the following points:

• The Community Council represents a cross-section of the community who meet to discuss/deal with local issues.
• Meetings take place in the library, which is booked from 7.30-9.00pm on the third Tuesday of each month (during term time).
• Notification of all Community Council dates will be displayed in the noticeboards five days prior to each meeting.
• Notification will be made to Formartine Area Education Office of all Community Council member details.
• The bank account signatories are Ros, Innes, John and Linda will replace Glenison.
• On production of receipts the Chairperson and Secretary will be reimbursed for postage, ink etc. Ros will purchase stamps for the next meeting.
• There may be additional meetings to attend on behalf of the council but, unfortunately, no expenses can be paid for these. Innes requested that members keep a record of all expenses ie. postage, mileage, time etc. in case, in future years, Aberdeenshire Council require such information for the possibility of additional funding.
• Opportunities for available training for all Community Council members will be discussed at a later date.
• Community Council information and minutes are stored in a box file in the church. Agendas can be collected from the file two days prior to a meeting and minutes will be left in the file for collection by each member. Any business you wish to be included on the Agenda must be with either Innes or Linda five days prior to a meeting.
• Contrary to the Community Council constitution members of the public are permitted to speak at council meetings.

The following people will represent the council on the following groups:

T.R.D.A. - Donnie, Colin and Muriel

Amenity Group - Sam and Gordon

Community Council Forum - Innes

Formartine Partnership - Innes and John

Community Safety Group - Bob

Education Forum - Muriel

Ellon Network Development - Linda

Innes and Dick will attend the next Community Council Forum and Bus Forum in Turriff on 01^st November.

Ros will confirm with the bus company as to whether or not there is still a bus service operating between Barthol Chapel and Turriff on Monday mornings.

At the next meeting of the Community Safety Group Bob will raise the ongoing problems with lack of lighting along the path in Braiklay Park and the condition of the path, in addition to ongoing problems of accidents/near accidents at Braiklay Crossroads. It was felt that any problems regarding either of these should be reported to Innes, Linda or Bob. It was also agreed that an article be placed in the church magazine and village noticeboards asking everyone to report any accidents/near accidents occurring at Braiklay Crossroads. Paul stressed that Aberdeenshire Council needed as much detailed information from the public in order to perceive what the real problem was at the Crossroads.

Innes briefly discussed the following correspondence which can be found in the box file:

• A report on the collection of local taxes. Aberdeenshire Council received a clean bill of health from the audit commission regarding their 2.4% figure of uncollected taxes which is the third lowest in Scotland.
• A letter regarding the availability of a rural youth transport grant of £ 1000.00 to be awarded to children requiring transport to a special outing.
• Aberdeenshire Council Budgetary Information from the viewpoint of the Finance Service.
• Formartine Area Plan - this is a specific set of policies outlining acceptable proposals for the Formartine Area.
• An invitation to hold a bonfire beacon to celebrate the millennium on 31^st December. After discussion it was agreed not to take up the offer.
• An invitation from Scottish Gas to attend a conference on fuel poverty and sustainability. After discussion it was agreed not to take up the offer.
• A letter from the New Tourism Marketing Group requesting information on all tourist facilities in the area - Innes will complete and return their form.

Innes received three complaints from dog walkers regarding the poor condition of the gates at the dog walk, as owing to insecure gates dogs are not being contained within the walk. After much discussion it was felt that the smaller of the two gates did not need repairing but the strainer of the larger gate would perhaps need replacing - Ian agreed to see to this and was advised, by Innes, to charge for any expenses. There were questions as to who is responsible for the dog walk and what changes are thought to be in hand - Linda will request someone to discuss these points at the next meeting of the Kirk Session.

Due to weather damage the Zone 98 portacabin is no longer habitable and has temporarily closed. Paul advised the meeting that Oldmeldrum Rotary Club were interested in helping us restart the group and were hoping to find alternative accommodation and someone to take the existing cabin off the site. Meantime accommodation is required to house the contents of the cabin - Paul has an offer from an Oldmeldrum farmer but someone nearer hand would be preferred. It was agreed to hold a meeting between the Community Council (Colin, Ian, John, Linda and Sam), Lucy Gray, Oldmeldrum Rotary, George Hall, Community Education Office and Keith Newton before the next Formartine Area Committee meeting on Tuesday 14^th November. Linda will co-ordinate the meeting and Paul will book the school. The meeting has to ascertain the viability of Zone 98 and it’s future. It is estimated that the provision of suitable permanent accommodation would cost around £ 100,000 which is not feasible for the numbers involved.

Web Group

Seven months ago the Community Council were donated a free computer with internet access by com.com.hollyrood as a means of allowing community access to a computer where otherwise this may not be possible. Due to stipulations enforced by com.com.hollyrood the only building their rules would permit us to house the computer in was the Melvin Hall. However, the meeting was advised of several problems which arose between the Melvin Hall committee and the Community Council during the course of installing computer housing in the hall which finally resulted in a letter from the Melvin Hall committee requesting the removal of the computer housing. Although the council were eager to persevere in attempting to establish the computer within the hall, after much discussion it was felt there was no alternative but to return the computer to com.com.hollyrood - Innes will organize this. It was noted that the council felt the Melvin Hall committee could have been more appreciative of our situation.

The council received a £ 410.00 grant to cover computer training, development of website etc. and it was questioned whether we were justified in keeping the grant upon return of the computer. It was felt that the money was not specifically targeted to the com.com.hollyrood computer and we would use it for development within the website group.

We have received donations of two other computers from Total, which although having no internet access will provide scroll information to the community. One computer is to be housed in the Doctors’ Surgery and a ‘home’ is still to be found for the other one.

Ros reported that the Barthol Chapel Rubble will be reviewed at the end of October.

Bob asked what the situation was in relation to responding to Keith Newton regarding the establishment of Community Councils. Innes reported that a response had been provided by the ‘old’ Community Council in which twelve points were noted. These points are noted in the last set of minutes which have not yet been made available - Innes will distribute these and a copy will be left in the box file in the church for perusal. It was questioned whether it would have been more relevant for the new council to have responded to the correspondence.

It was questioned whether new members should have been contacted by someone regarding the date and time of their first committee meeting. After discussion Paul reported that it is not the responsibility of Aberdeenshire Council to advise new members of council meetings but that this was the responsibility of the old committee.

It was questioned whether we could bring the time of the meetings forward to 7.00pm instead of 7.30pm in order to save rushing things through to be finished by 9.00pm. On the whole this was acceptable but owing to other commitments Innes may find it difficult to arrive for 7.00pm so the 7.30pm start will remain.

The next meeting of the Community Council will be on Tuesday 21^st November 2000 at 7.30pm in the School Library.

Minutes written by Muriel Thomson on 26^th October 2000.