Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were intimated from:-

Councillor Sandy Taylor

Andrew Hemmings, Kintyre Crime Prevention Panel

The Minute of the previous meeting held on 5 August 2014 was approved as a true record, subject to the following amendment:-

Item 5 – The project being devised between June Graham, Road Safety Officer and Eva MacDonald MBE should be changed to read Road Safety Project.  

The Clerk advised that the safety signage at Tayinloan had now been installed, and the Chair, Councillor Horn advised that the water safety signage had been checked by the Councils Marine Operations Manager, and all was in order.

Mrs Elliott advised that Robert Cowper had contacted the Ambulance Service in relation to response times, and that once a response had been received, it would be circulated to all partners. 

The Clerk advised that she believed that the cheque was in the process of being issued. 

Verbal Update by Road Safety Officer

June Graham, Road Safety Officer, gave an update on the work of the Road Safety Unit in respect of education, training and publicity.  She outlined work going on in pre-school, primary and secondary schools.  June also intimated that there will be changes to the drink drive legislation on the 5^th of December where the drink drive limit is lowering from 80mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood to 50mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood.

Kathleen Munro, Trading Standards Officer provided an update on various Trading Standards initiatives, such as “Door Stop Sales”.  She advised that leaflets were currently available from the Council’s Customer Service Centres and local Police Offices.  Ms Munro also spoke of call-blockers, which had been purchased by Trading Standards with funding that had been received from COSLA.  She advised that by referring vulnerable persons to Trading Standards, these can be supplied free of charge, to stop cold calling.  

Peter Howland of the RNLI advised that this time of year is a relatively quiet period for the RNLI.  Mr Howland advised that there was no planned de-watering of the Crinan Canal at this time.

Alex Purdie of the Scottish Fire and Rescue service outlined various initiatives being run by the Fire Service, these included the Autumn plan which targeted the Bonfire season, with the Community Action Team going round schools in Argyll and Bute and engaging Primary 7 and Secondary 1 pupils in presentations surrounding safety measures around this event.  Mr Purdie spoke of the PR campaign currently being run “Join Scotland’s Fight Against Fire”.  He advised that  there a number of adverts being run on radio and television all over Scotland encouraging people against fire.  Mr Purdie spoke of the “fire guard” initiative.  He advised that if any of the partners were aware of people who had an open fire, they could refer them to the Fire Service, who would then take steps to ensure that a fire guard was provided, and that there was no specific criteria for this.  Discussion surrounding chimney sweeps and relevant qualifications took place, with Ms Munro agreeing to provide details of qualifications to the Clerk. 

By way of statistics, Mr Purdie advised that during the period of 1 July to 31 September 2014, dwelling fires and false alarms had seen an increase whereas the number of grass fires had gone down.  He expressed that this was encouraging considering the time of year and more people are spending time outdoors.    

Again Mr Purdie advised the Forum that work was ongoing regarding Home Safety Visits, with good results.  He invited referrals from the group for this service. 

Sgt Wilson of Police Scotland spoke of the Christmas Road Safety Campaign.  He advised of the new drink drive levels which are due to come into force on 5 December 2014.  He also advised of the significant increase in domestic rapes and stalking offences and as such a publicity campaign was being aired over the festive season. 

Eva MacDonald, MBE of the Kintyre Crime Prevention Panel expressed gratitude to the Forum for the funding for the Beer Mat Campaign.  She advised that the KCPP had donated £50.00 towards the Road Safety Campaign.  She further advised that funding was being sought from East Kintyre Windfarm Trust for domestic abuse alarms. 

Sgt Wilson of Police Scotland updated the group in regards to violent crime.  He advised that there had been no cases of serious assaults in the Mid Argyll area over the last quarter.  Comparing this to the Kintyre area, where there had been 2.  One was a 27 year old male who had been “bottled” at an event in the Victoria Halls in August and the other was a 16 year old boy, who had struck a 17 year old boy in the face with a bottle at a house party. 

Sgt Wilson advised that simple assaults were on a downward trend and that there had been no cases of offensive weapons or violent knife crimes.  He also advised that there had been a reduction in housebreakings, with only 4 being reported.  He advised that 2 had happened to private properties with only small items taken and 2 were in outbuildings. 

Sgt Wilson advised that there had been 3 incidents of hate crime in Campbeltown, 2 of which were carried out by the same person. 

He advised of a robbery, which had occurred where a 27 year old male was forcibly knocked from his bike and the bike had been stolen, but was later found in a field around 1 mile away. 

Sgt Wilson spoke of cases of wilful fire-raising and attempted murder in Campbeltown.  He advised that the investigation into these were still on going and that the lines of enquiry remained open. 

Discussion was had in relation to various craft fayres that were scheduled to take place in the run up to Christmas.  Kathleen Munro advised that there had been a number of events which required to be licensed last year during the festive season.  She requested that Partners notify her of any events in order that they could be checked out.  

The Clerk advised that dates for meetings in 2015 would be circulated by the Senior Area Governance Assistant in due course.