Maxton & Mertoun Community Council Minutes of the Meeting held on 28th February 2008

MAXTON and MERTOUN COMMUNITY COUNCIL

MINUTES of the MEETING held at Maxton Village Hall on 28th February 2008

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

In Attendance: Councillor Len Wyse,

Apologies: None

Members of the Public Present: 1

Chairperson: Andrew welcomed all present, he apologised for the lack of meetings recently (November 2007 there was a mix-up over the key to the hall and January’s meeting was cancelled as a result of bad weather and members being on holiday). He hopes we can now get underway again and move forward with developing the Community Councils input into consultations and any community matters that are of concern to the area covered by Maxton and Mertoun CC.

Community Police Officers Report: NONE

Minutes of the Meeting Held on 25th October 2007:
These minutes have been read and passed as a correct representation of the meeting:
Proposed by: Isobel Veitch
Seconded by: Penny Harvey

Matters Arising from the Minute of 25th October 2007:
· The letter of resignation from Vera Holbrook from the CC has been noted, Andrew has dealt with this. A new member has been identified who lives out-with the village the Secretary has agreed to provide the person with copies of past minutes and a copy of the Constitution for their consideration.
· Speed through the village appears to be on the increase particularly when there are very few cars parked on the street. Some of the worst offenders are SB Councils Lorries and large trucks, a number of residents have expressed concerns about this increase and the lack of any attempt by the local authority to either rectify this or acknowledge the villagers concerns.
· Concerns that had been expressed about the vibration caused by traffic through Maxton Village causing damage to the foundations of properties appears to be unfounded, the secretary has recently taken a copy of an article from a property clinic which dealt with this concern, copies of the article was circulated at the meeting.
· No attempt appears to being made to remedy the fault in the road which causes flooding in moderate to heavy rain, this matter has been under discussion by a number of residents over the past three years but no solution has been forthcoming… the CC will approach the council again.

ACTION POINT: secretary to attend to latter point

Treasurers Report:
· The account remains fairly static apart from the payments made for the hire of Maxton Village Hall and the interest added to the account.
· It was agreed that we should purchase cartridges for the secretary’s printer as many of the reports she receives are electronically from SBC etc, paper for both everyday use and a better quality paper for the proposed Newsletter (both paper should be recycled to ensure we are supporting the environment where possible) and stamps.
· A suggestion was made that we consider the planting of slow growing Fir Trees to be placed in the Maxton and Mertoun CC area in consultation with the community which will act as a Christmas tree at the appropriate time, the Community Council will look into battery operated lights for the tree (one tree per community)

ACTION POINTS:
· Secretary to purchase admin supplies and submit receipt to Treasurer.
· Chairperson will over the coming month consider the most appropriate trees and arrange for discussions with the community on a) if they are wanted and b) suitable sites for the trees.

Correspondence:
Some correspondence is out of date it was agreed not to include them in the list, those that needed to be replied to have been attended to. The following list will be discussed and allocated to the appropriate CC Member to respond to.
a) Notice of the following SBC Meetings, Education Executive, Executive, Scrutiny, Development and Building Control, Planning and Building Standards, Scottish Borders Council, these were circulated prior to the meeting where appropriate.
b) Information, Leaflets and Posters reference the Campaign against Dog Fouling
c) Communities Scotland (Scottish Centre for Regeneration)
d) NHS Borders consultation document on the Future of Day Services and Day Hospitals for Older People in the Borders.
e) Borders Drug & Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) Action Plan 2007-08
f) SBC letter reference meeting… Communicating the Council’s Budget and Spending Priorities for 2008/09
g) SBC communication reference Community Councils and Data Protection Laws.
h) Lothian and Borders Police Board, letter reference possible recruits for their Custody Visiting Scheme
i) Scottish Health Council ‘Connect Newsletter’ (distributed in the village information hut)
j) Digital Change Over information and newsletter
k) Consultation Document reference SBC School Changes

Councillor Len Wyse’s Report:
Len apologies for his lateness to the meeting, he had been held up with another meetings, he felt he had little to report to the meeting as we appear to have covered a number of matters already through the agenda. He was able to report that:
· There are now 5 agency wardens to deal with the new Dog Fouling Campaign and he urged members of the public to report anyone allowing their animals to foul in public places. As a community Council we have received a number of complaints lately of dog fouling, mostly on the lane leading to the church, which is most distressing for people who have to step to one side to let a car pass them on the lane. We also received a complaint from a member of the community at the West End of the village where on two occasions a dog had fouled on the pavement (the owner of the dog appears to have come back latter and removed the offending fouling) Len suggested we as a community become more vigilant in identifying regular offenders, if we feel we cannot tackle them ourselves then make a note of approximately what time they walk their anima/s and report this on the free phone number 0800 376 1030 and report the offence and suspected offender, a dog warden will then be in the vicinity at approximately that time in the following few days. Borders Council is determined to make this scheme work, but cannot do so without the help of the public.
· Len reported that the Scottish Borders Council Budget had now gone through all the discussion phases and has now been passed.
· He was also able to report that the fears recently raised in the press that there will be teachers made redundant to meet the council’s requirements seem to be solved; it looks as though redundancies numbers will be met by retirement etc..

Report of Meetings attended by CC Members:
NONE

Concerns Raised by Public:
NONE

A.O.C.B.
Newspaper cutting regards the positioning of Speed/Safety Cameras from April 2008 and the change to the law about them having to be painted yellow, or visible from 60m (200ft), and no longer have to be sited only where there is a history of road accidents. This will require a major rethink on behalf of the police who continue to say the village does not warrant cameras or other forms of traffic calming as no accidents have taken place. Anyone requiring a copy of this cutting should contact the secretary. It was also noted that the recent ‘Mr Smiley’ was set for a 30 miles per hour through Maxton Village; does someone know something we don’t know?

Apologies for the next meeting were given in advance by Penny Harvey and Ann Collie.

DATE, TIME and VENUE for next meeting:

Date: 27th March 2008
Time: 7.00pm
Venue Maxton Village Hall