Issue - meetings

Public Entertainment Licences

By- Elections

The Area Governance Manager advised she did not have any figures on the by-elections but thought that there would be no contested Community Councils in the Bute & Cowal Area.  She further advised that there will be a by-election for Kilfinan Community Council later in the year.

Training

Iain McNaughton and Sue Minns asked about the training being offered to Community Councils and the Area Governance Manager advised a report was being prepared at the moment but it looked like the training would focus on:-

         i.            Panning

       ii.            Governance

      iii.            IT/Social Media

     iv.            Community Engagement

Councillor Attendance

Iain McNaughton expressed his concerns about Councillors attending Community Council meetings and asked if the Members could set up a rota to attend.

Iain McNaughton asked for the School Catchment areas to be kept on the agenda until after the review.

Ken Barr asked about integration of the Fire Service/Police etc and was advised that it was regarding shared premises.

Mutual Communication between LACPG/ Council Officers/ Caucus Community Councils as and when necessary.

School Catchment Areas. – Maggie McLay, Education Service

New Event Licence /PPSL. – Charles Reppke, Governance & Law

Roads Issues – Capital Programme. – Callum Robertson, Roads & Amenity Services

New Event Licence /PPSL.

The Head of Governance and Law spoke on the changes to the Public Entertainment Licences advising that a licence is required in relation to the following classes of entertainment if the event has payments of money or money’s worth from members of the public.

a.      Concerts

b.      Theatrical performances

c.      Fairgrounds

d.      Circuses

e.      Leisure centres with audience accommodation

f.        Dancing, discotheques or roller disco

g.      Ice rinks with audience accommodation

h.      Boxing, wrestling, judo or similar presentations

i.         Snooker or billiard halls

j.         Amusement arcades

k.       Video shows

He further explained that if an Occasional Liquor Licence is required then a Public Entertainment Licence is not also needed. 

Mr Reppke also spoke on the charging policy for the Public Entertainment Licence and explained that the following will be put to the Council at their next meeting.

No fee should be charged for a free to enter event if the event is organised by a formally constituted voluntary or charitable organisation on the basis that this exemption from payment of a fee only applying if the following criteria are met (i) there is no admission charge or fee; (ii) no charge for use of any of the facilities provided by the event organiser; and (iii) no donations are made towards the cost of running the event;

If entry to an event held by a voluntary or charitable organisation is not free there is no fee for the first 2 events held per year by the organisation with subsequent events held in the same year being charged a reduced fee of £40 per event.

Roads Issues – Capital Programme

The Roads Performance Manager spoke on the progress to date in the Capital reconstruction programme and expenditure vs budget.  He explained what works had been done to date and what will be progressed in the coming months.  He further spoke on the new bus shelters at Glenbranter. 

Iain McNaughton asked if somebody from the Roads Department could come to the Caucus of Community Council meetings to discuss items that were going on in the area.

School Catchment Areas

Iain McNaughton asked if there could be a review of the school catchment areas in particular regards to Strone and North Bute.  Iain explained about a stretch of road with 60 houses that is felt should be part of the Strone catchment and Councillor Strong explained that Ardbeg’s catchment should be North Bute. 

The Group agreed the Admin Assistant for School Support would report back to Iain McNaughton on the individual school catchment areas and update the Area Governance Manager on the requirements for these to be in place and the mechanism to make changes to them.

Mutual Communication between LACPG/ Council Officers/ Caucus Community Councils as and when necessary.

Iain McNaughton advised that having the Area Governance Officer at the last Caucus meeting was very productive and asked that Officers be invited along to the meetings to discuss individual items.  The Area Governance Manager advised that it would depend on Officer’s time constraints advising the Caucus to contact her in the first instance and she would see what could be done.