Maxton & Mertoun Community Council - Minutes of the Meeting of 25th October 2007

MAXTON and MERTOUN COMMUNITY COUNCIL

MINUTES of the MEETING held at Maxton Village Hall on 25th October 2007

Present:
Andrew Leitch Chairperson, Trudy Leitch, Penny Harvey, Ann Collie, Isobel Veitch

In Attendance: Councillor Len Wyse,

Apologies: PC Duncan Begg,

Members of the Public Present: 2

Chairperson: Andrew welcomed all present and to the start of Maxton and Mertoun Community Council's second year of meetings, our first full year as a group. He reminded everyone that a list of the years meetings have been included with CC members minutes and posted on the web-site as well as various other locations.

Community Police Report:
There was no report available as Duncan is on holiday, he anticipated a colleague would try to attend should work commitments allow, also if there were policing issues to be discussed reference the Community Council’s area.

Councillor Wyse’s Report:
Len apologised in advance for having to leave early from Maxton and Mertoun Community Council meeting due to having to attend the AGM of St Boswells Community Council on behalf of a colleague.

Items he presented for discussion were:
· Local Area Plan , a draft of the document has been sent out to all Community Councils they have 12 weeks to make comments/objections, however he emphasised that nothing new could now be added to the document, we are at this stage only able to make comment on the existing document (opportunity was provided earlier in the process for additions and concerns related to the proposals for each Community Council Area).
Action Point: The Chairperson has agreed to read the document and provide any comments to the next CC Meeting in November although from the initial document (which all members read) there appears to be nothing in the proposed plan affecting the Maxton and Mertoun area.
· Campaign on Dog Fouling, this was accepted as possibly one of the most talked about and emotive issues for many people within our communities and one which the Local Authority is trying to address. It has been acknowledged that designated disposal bins do have a place in the effort to limit the fouling of public places, but these are only used by already responsible dog owners and are susceptible to overflow their capacity in some areas resulting in bags being left at the side of them, which is not acceptable. In an effort to increase the reduction in irresponsible dog owners SBC has increased the number of Dog Wardens they employ. They will be available to all Council Areas, but to ensure the best use of these Wardens it has been suggested that the public contact the council should they regularly see an owner allowing their dog to foul and not remove it and take it to either their home or the nearest bin. By giving approximate times of day etc a Warden can be allocated to the area reported, if caught they can impose a Ł40 fixed penalty fine on the owner, this fine will not result as a registered criminal offence, however, no payment of the fine will result in a court appearance and that will be registered as a criminal offence. Len pointed out that there is in fact only one area that dogs can foul without incurring a fine, on agricultural land, this excludes woodland areas. He would like to actively encourage residents to be aware of those regularly allowing their dogs to foul areas used by the public as it causes so much distress to many people.
· Membership of the new City Region Committee’s, even though he recognises these are causing concern to many people, SBC feels it is better to be involved in discussions that may affect our region than not to be involved to this aim they have appointed Councillors Caroline Riddle-Carr to deal with issues related to Social/Social Care and Vicky Davidson will have as her remit Planning/Industrial issues.
· Grass cutting of verges and play park still an issue, dates provided to Len by John Trojan to Jason Hedley do not correspond to dated monitored by villagers of Maxton, they agree the grass was cut on the 10th September but was not done again until the 3rd October, (not the 22nd September as claimed). There has been no further cutting done at the time of this meeting 25th October, in the last two months weather cannot be blamed for this lapse of attention to the village grass cutting as the weather has been perfectly good enough to carry-out this level of verge maintenance.

Minutes of Previous Meeting 30th August 2007:
Proposed as a correct record by: Penny Harvey
Seconded by: Isobel Veitch

Notes of AGM 27th September 2007:
Proposed as a correct record by: Trudy Leitch
Seconded by: Isobel Veitch

Matters Arising from the Minutes of 30th August 2007:
Vera raised the issue of not letting the 30 mile limit for Maxton village slip off the agenda, she has recently had discussions with a number of people who have been involved in campaigns to reduce speed in areas where older properties have no buffer (garden ground) between housing and busy roads as well as vulnerable residents. They have included information from Ministry of Transport ‘Impact surface damage’ reports, which indicate the level of damage that heavy vehicles and consistent higher speeds causing damage to properties which do not have suitable foundations to withstand this constant flow of traffic. Andrew thanked Vera for this input and all agreed if the relevant information could be gathered it would be a useful additional argument to add to our discussions with SBC and the Police.

Action Point: Vera has agreed to try and access this information for the next meeting.

Correspondence:
a) Notice of the following SBC Meetings, Education Executive, Executive, Scrutiny, Development and Building Control, were circulated prior to the meeting where appropriate.
b) NHS Better Health Better Care consultation
c) Copy of letter Colm McKee, SBC Planning Officer
d) NHS Food Nutrition & Health Strategy – for Health Care Settings’ Engagement Document.
e) Information on accessing SBC Planning and Economic Developments Community Benefits Toolkit for Commercial Windfarms.
f) SBC Planning and Economic Development’s information on accessing planning applications
g) Information on Antisocial Behaviour Seminar 21/11/07
h) Information on new facilities for Border Women’s Aid in Galashiels
i) Scottish Borders Elder Voice October Newsletter ( to apply for membership)
j) SBC information reference Scrutiny Panel work Programme for 2008

Treasurers Report:
Treasurer reported little change in the accounts from the previous report, but has received an invoice from the Village Hall which has charged for a meeting we held at the Maxton Church, Treasurer will arrange for this to be altered and then pay the invoice.

How to Raise Public Awareness of Mertoun and Maxton Community Council
A number of ideas were discussed including the use of announcements in the Church Newsletter if and when appropriate, however it was agreed that a maximum of a double sided A4 sheet Newsletter, similar to the one sponsored by Newtown St Boswells Community Council would be more appropriate and produced bi-monthly staring it is anticipated by end of February 2008. All members are asked to provide information they feel is relevant as well as up-dates of recent discussions, consultations etc from the Community Council Minutes (in brief and of relevance to the community). Penny Harvey and Ann Collie have agreed to collate this information, could those who wish to contribute (including residents of the CC area) hand the information to Ann or Penny before the end of January 2008.

Distribution was discussed, it was felt with the aid of people who have already offered to pass out information on behalf of the CC and CC members we will cover all areas.

Report of Meetings attended by CC Members: NONE

Concerns Raised by Public: NONE

A.O.C.B. NONE

DATE, TIME and VENUE for next meeting:

Date: 29th November 2007
Time: 7.00pm
Venue Maxton Village Hall