Minutes of
meeting of 10th January 2006 at Council Chambers, Town House.
Jan Wilson (Chair), Emily Armatage (Treasurer), Irene Pow (Secretary), Norman Lawrie, John Golightly,
David McManus, Effie Renton, Marion Smith, Ruth Moncrieff, John Fraser
Councillor Charles Ingle, Councillor Ann McCarthy, Stewart Cooper (Courier), Helen Paterson (East Lothian News), Anna Faulkner (minute secretary)
Jan started the meeting by wishing everyone a very Happy New Year.
3. Major Items for AOCB – reception for Fraser Spowage
4. Minutes of Tuesday 13th December
4.1 Item 4.4/4.6 These items should have made clear that the proposed amendments to the November minute were agreed.
4.2 Item 6.4: Ann said that the details as stated in the minutes regarding licensing laws are the current ones.
Approval of the minutes was proposed by John G and seconded by Irene.
5. Matters Arising
5.1 Item 5.4 Normandy Memorial Garden: Norman had not been in touch with nor heard from the Bowling Club. He will do this before the next meeting. Action NL
5.2 Item 5.7 Pedestrian Crossing: Norman had written to Colin Baird who replied thanking the CC for their support.
5.3 Item 6.2 Dog bins: A letter had been received from Stuart Pryde stating that 20 bins have been put in place around the town.
5.4 Item 6.7 Briery Bank: Irene had written to Brian Cooper but not received a reply as yet. John G thought that the wall had already been lowered. Norman suggested that the minutes reflected the fact that no-one else felt that there was a major problem with site lines at this junction.
5.5 Item 9.1 Calum Robb/Karate: Irene had written regarding a reception but received no reply. Emily had received a letter from Robert Robb thanking the CC for their support and donation of £500. Jan suggested that the CC could go ahead and organise a reception regardless. Norman pointed out that the spelling of ‘honors’ should be ‘honours’.
5.6 Item 11.1 CC vacancies: One application had been received so far. Emily to place advert in paper this week. Action EA
Last month Norman mentioned the matter of members of the public not attending the meeting and wondered how this could be addressed. Jan had made the suggestion that the public be invited to attend from say 7.30pm to allow for the official business to be dealt with between 7-7.30pm. Norman didn’t want to give the impression that they could not attend the whole meeting. We should suggest that they come for all or part of the meeting. Charles suggested that we perhaps shouldn’t get bogged down with spelling and grammatical errors as part of the meeting – the public do not want to hear this.
6. Councillors Corner
6.1 Seggarsdean Terrace: Charles reported that a sign has been ordered and would be installed asap.
6.2 Athelstaneford: Charles had written to Ray Montgomery re lighting at the village hall – he would keep us informed of the outcome. Action CI
6.3 St Ann’s Place/Church Street: Charles stated that he is due to have a meeting with Brian Cooper and Peter Forsyth on 18th Jan and will raise these concerns with them. Action CI
6.4 Brown Street/George Hotel: Ann said that she had checked on this and the repairs seem to have been done. She also said that it looked like the George Hotel had sorted out their down-pipe.
6.5 Rugby Club/lighting: Marion had brought this up at a previous meeting – she asked if anything had been decided. [omit about this]. Charles said he had been approached by many residents in Langriggs about this matter and had taken it up with Transportation to then find out that it seemed to be under the remit of the Landscape & Countryside Department. He had written to Maree Johnston in this department who has indicated that there are currently no funds to enable this to be undertaken at present. The situation would be reviewed near the end of the financial year – if funds became available then they would consider putting in lighting.
6.6 Templedean: David M asked whether there were any plans to use this building which is currently boarded up. Ann said this was a private property and as such does not come within the ELC’s remit. She had not heard of any relevant planning proposals for the building.
6.7 Gutters: Norman pointed out that the metal gutters in the pavements around the town were in a state of disrepair and made the town look unkempt. He himself has replaced the one outside Gibson’s shop in Market Street. It was generally felt in their current state they were not safe and presented a particular danger to people who were frail or had poor eyesight. Ann assumed that this sort of repair would be covered by the proposals within the traffic scheme. She said that a small sum was soon to become available but was not sure what this would cover. It was suggested that we write to transportation, voicing our concerns about the safety of the guttering/pavements and also request information about what sum of money was to become available and what it was to be used for. Irene would also check on ELC minutes to find out the sum of money concerned. Action IP
7. Police Questions – no police were present at meeting
8. Treasurer’s Report
8.1 Emily handed out the current balance sheet:-
HADDINGTON & DISTRICT COMMUNITY COUNCIL A/C as at 11th January 2006
Last month’s balance £592.97
Income Expenditure
Interest £0.56 Jan Nov exp cheque £28.00
Transfer £700.92 Jan Dec phone exp £28.00
Secretary’s fee (Anna) £40.00
Emily’s phone exp £28.00
Total £1,294.45 £124.00
New balance £1,294.45- £124.00 = £1,170.45
HADDINGTON COMMUNITY COUNCIL FESTIVAL A/C as at 11th January 2006
Last month’s balance £9,929.67
Income Expenditure
Interest £13.85 Fruit Funday (f/d) £29.00
Income from Funday £787.00 Tesco Food f/d £45.07
Float returned £70.00 Folk Club f/d £50.00
Adverts Handbook £110.00 Disco f/d £125.00 *
Adverts £94.00
£84.60
Magician f/d £100.00
Jan Bookers £19.90
Tax £2.77
Transfer to CC a/c £700.92
Donation to Calum Robb £500.00
Donation to Stuart Galloway £50.00
Flowers for Margaret Galloway £9.99 *
Engraving of Sports Plus cup £4.11
Lottery Licence £17.50
Pipe Band Remembrance Day £75.00
Guides Delivery of Handbook £200.00 *
Total £10,910.52 £2,107.86
New balance £10,910.52 - £2,107.86 = £8,802.66
* The cheques with stars along side have not been cashed £200.00
£125.00
£9.99
Bank statement reads £9,137.65
Received:
9.1 Brochure ‘Scottish Health Council News’
9.2 Lib Dem MEP Calendars
9.3 Reminder of AELCC meeting n 1st Feb at 7.30pm in John Muir House (coffee 7pm). Ann Callaghan from Scottish Executive will discuss ‘What can we do to help Community Councils fulfil their role?’
9.4 Panel news from East Lothian Tenants & Residents panel
9.5 Certificate for 2006 & forms from ELC re Lotteries Act
9.6 Catalogue from Wicksteed (playground equipment) no middle e in equipment!!
Sent out:
9.7 Letter to ELC re reception for Calum Robb (no reply yet)
9.8 Letter to ELC re change of road priorities and poor sight lines at Bolton Road junction (no reply yet)
9.9 Letter to Tonya Shirley re possible joint purchase of bunting between the CC and Nungate Gala & Community Association (no reply yet). Jan said that she has spoken to Janice Young and also that Hallidays will measure the wire when they come to take down the lights – we will then be able to work out how much bunting will be needed.
9.10 Letter to Val Laing re suggestion that she might look after the Inter-town Sports competition.
9.11 Phone call to Claire Dutton re funding for Tourism Leaflets. Claire can organise 50% of the funding – item passed on to Effie. Action ER
9.12 East Lothian Horticultural Society: Jan has received a letter from Ron Pearman asking for help with funding. The society are looking for a sponsor to support them, preferably for the next 4 years. Jan said that it was generally the policy of the CC to give a one-off donation but we could perhaps make an exception in this case. After some discussion it was agreed to donate £150 per year over the next 4 years. Irene to write to them asking when they would need the money and also to write to Lillian to let her know of our decision. Action IP/EA
10. Planning - Norman handed out copies of his recent report.
10.1 Church Street/Nursery proposals: it was thought that we should write to voice our concerns about the increase in numbers at the nursery due to the proposed expansion. It was felt that even a slight increase in numbers would affect the already congested situation in Church Street. Action NL
10.2 Lennox Road/off -street parking: John G asked what this meant exactly. Charles said that the layby is to be extended – this being achieved by taking away a small strip of grass. John asked why this couldn’t be done at Beechwood Road and was it not the policy of ELC not to take away grass!? [Norman looked into this after the meeting and subsequently suggested we make it clear that 4.1m of grass will be removed in order to provide these parking spaces.]
10.3 Former Labour Club proposals: Norman had with him copies of the plans which the councillors had a look at. Some concern was expressed over the fire hazard in the upper flats and the small size of bedrooms which presumably meet statutory minimum requirements. It was agreed that any development needs to put the garden and the surrounding wall into good order, in particular removing buddleia from the wall. Norman will write with these comments. Action NL
11. Local Priorities – discussed at 8.2
12. Tourism
12.1 Doocot: Charles reported that work was progressing with the new roof going on and the pointing and rendering of internal and external walls underway. It was hoped that the work will be completed by end of Feb/mid March. Effie asked if Charles could come to the Tourism meeting at Maitlandfield on 23rd January and give them a full briefing. He agreed to this and said that he would try to arrange a site visit at the same time.
Action CI
12.2 Leaflet: Effie said that an application for funding is being sent to Claire Dutton.
12.3 Tourism AGM: this has been arranged for 26th January 7-7.30pm at the Maitlandfield Hotel. Effie said that numbers attending these meetings had fallen and that she had requested copies of minutes taken – none had been received yet.
12.4 Tourist Office: Norman asked what facilities were being offered at the moment. He said that the crossing lady (Jennifer Mills) got a lot of enquiries from people asking where the tourist office was. Jan said that the Trinity Centre was still open but only at certain times. [omit is it manned.] Effie said that she had a few people who might be able to help out after Easter. She said that some sort of rota system needed to be set up. Jan pointed out that at present we got a lot of help from the staff at the Trinity Centre but that once we moved into the Doocot this help would no longer be available. Charles had said that the Council may be able to provide some help with staffing over the summer months. It was decided that further discussion needed to be undertaken regarding this matter.
13. AOCB
13.1 Fraser Spowage Presentation: Jan asked if the members were agreeable to going ahead and arranging this on our own accord. She also suggested that we include George Angus to acknowledge his work and contribution to the Festival etc. She thought that they could each be given a quaich as a token of our appreciation. These were agreed. It was decided to hold this at the February meeting. – Emily would change dates of the booking from the Jan Festival meeting to the February Festival meeting in the Town House. Action JW/EA
13.2 Craft Fair 11th Feb 10-4pm: Jan said she would need help with this event.
14. Date of next Meeting: Tuesday 14th February 2006 in Council Chambers, Town House at 7.00pm.
15. Date of next Festival Meeting: Tuesday 24th January 2006 in Town House at 7.00pm