Agenda and minutes

Venue: Burnett Building, Campbeltown with VC Facility in Housing Meeting Room, Kilmory; Islay Servicepoint, Bowmore; Hill Street, Dunoon and the Marriage Room, Helensburgh

Contact: Lynsey Innis, Senior Area Committee Assistant; Tel: 01546 604338 

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were intimated from:-

 

Cllr Sandy Taylor

Cllr John Armour

June Graham, Argyll and Bute Council

 

2.

Minute of previous Meeting held on 4 November 2014 pdf icon PDF 64 KB

Minutes:

The Minute of the previous meeting held on 4 November 2014 was approved as a true record. 

3.

Progress of Actions

Minutes:

Verina Litster advised that there had still been no response from the Ambulance Service in relation to response times. The ambulance service has dealt with this issue as a Freedom of Information Request, legislated times must be allowed and that once a response had been received, it would be circulated to all partners. 

 

Kathleen Munro advised she was in discussions with Alex Purdie of Fire Scotland in relation to related issues and would discuss qualifications for chimney sweeps, reporting back to the Group.

 

Andrew Hemmings passed on the appreciation of Kintyre Crime Prevention Panel for the £466.08 received for the Beer Mat Campaign.  The beer mats were issued to licensed premises in Campbeltown and Councillor Horn had distributed to guest houses in Tarbert.

 

4.

Budget and Finance Applications

Minutes:

The Clerk advised that there were no Budget and Finance applications received for consideration. 

 

5.

Video Conferencing

Minutes:

Andrew Hemmings expressed concern at how poor the video conferencing service is. It does not always work efficiently or takes a while to connect.  He also suggested that staff could ensure it is set up and in working order prior to start of meeting.

 

Eva MacDonald and Andrew Hemmings stated that a previous meeting they had attended took 40 mins for them to join in by which time they had missed most of the meeting.

 

The clerk will take these comments back to IT as an action point and advised that using the Lync System for meetings was much more effective.

 

Marlene Baillie advised that the Police Office video conferencing could be used as a back-up.

 

6.

Campbeltown CCTV Update

Update by Community Safety Co-Ordinator

Minutes:

Verina Lister advised that the CCTV camera was removed from the Royal Hotel and was to be relocated on the Christian Institute building, which had been identified as the best option for the new location for the camera.  She advised that the process of obtaining permission from Historic Scotland had taken 12 months, but that in December 2014 permission had been granted, and that the project proposals have now been passed to the Contractor to carry out the installation.  She further advised that the original plan requires to be updated to take account of the revised costings and work schedules for installations.  Mrs Litster advised that once costings and dates had been agreed with the Contractor, installation will take place.  

 

7.

Paddle Argyll

Update by Russell Daniels, Paddlesport Development Coordinator, Stramash Social Enterprise

Minutes:

Russell Daniels was not present to update meeting.  The Clerk suggested continuing the item to the next meeting to afford another opportunity for Russell to give his presentation to the Group.  On the basis that the season would have commenced before the next meeting, Peter Howland suggested that a report could be obtained and distributed to the attendees before the next meeting.

 

Peter also advised that after £5000 being allocated to a safety campaign and advice being given at the last meeting about the Safety Posters, he had visited the area and could not locate the signs at Tayinloan.  The Clerk agreed to look into this matter and report back to the Group.

 

8.

Partner Updates & Emerging Trends

Minutes:

 

 

(I)            Police

Chief Inspector Baillie advised that Inspector Tom Harper has now retired. Sergeant Mark Wilson will become Acting Inspector and will be covering the post on a temporary basis.

 

Chief Inspector Baillie also spoke about the proposed merger between L Division and K Division, which comprises of West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, Argyll and Bute and Inverclyde.  The consultation period, which should last 2 months had commenced and Police Scotland were working closely with Community Councils.  She advised that frontline services were not expected to change and that the proposals were seeking to create a more streamlined, effective management structure.  The result of the consultation should be available April/May 2015.

 

Chief Inspector Baillie reported on  various initiatives such as the Festive Safety Campaign, Shop A Dealer Campaign which is going well and giving Police a good intelligence picture and on the road Safety Campaign Which had been publicised recently by the Argyllshire Advertiser.. Funding had been secured for life sized models to be situated outside local schools following a successful pilot in Carradale and Skipness.

 

Campbeltown Grammar has been running a Knife Crime Campaign, Campbeltown Courier will be going to the School on Friday to do an article and picture opportunity.  The Chief Inspector was hopeful that this campaign could be rolled out to all schools.

 

Councillor Horn asked if there had been any incidents following Sunday’s Old Firm Match.  Marlene Baillie advised the police had a robust system in place for Sunday and there was no significant rise in crime, anti social behaviour or domestic violence.

 

(II)           RNLI – no report

 

(III)         Community Development

 

Antonia Baird advised that the Third Sector Grants were now closed and no further applications were being received but that the Health and Wellbeing Network grant fund would open in April. The Community Development Team will be running a Village Hall Event in March 2015.

 

Kintyre Crime Prevention Panel are working with Campbeltown Grammar School to create a Facebook Page. They also have a Bicycle Safety Initiative, looking at children riding bikes without helmets. Andrew Hemmings also advised that the KCPP are looking to re-run the provision of Vulnerable Person Alarms.

 

 

 

 

(IV)        trading standards

 

Kathleen Munro advised that Trading Standards have a role in terms of enforcing Tobacco Legislation with changes to the way tobacco is displayed coming into effect from April 2015.

 

They also carried out a product safety tests on Loom Bands and Food looking products, which can be harmful to young children.

 

A Bike Hire Safety Campaign is been run shortly and Trading Standards would be happy to work with the Kintyre Crime Prevention Panel under their Bicycle Safety Initiative.

 

(V)          COMMUNITY SAFETY

 

Verina’s update was given in Item 6.

 

 

9.

Violent Crime, Disorder & Anti Social Behaviour

Minutes:

Chief Inspector Baillie advised that a robbery reported on at the last meeting that had taken place in Ardrishaig has been found to be less serious and therefore charges had been reduced to theft.  There had been 3 males reported to the  Procurator Fiscal following the attempted murder in Campbeltown.  Both these crimes were now categorised as detected.

 

Common assault, carrying knives/offensive weapons, anti social behaviour, hate crime, domestic violence and house breaking figures have all reduced across the MAKI area and there was a positive picture across the board.

 

Peter Howland asked if the reduction in the Alcohol Limit in December had affected the drink driving figures. Chief Inspector Baillie advised that it was too early to say.

10.

Forthcoming Key Events Diary

Minutes:

No events planned for this period although Peter Howland advised that arrangements were being put in place for an Argyll Armada, Viking Festival in Tarbert  and the Crinan Canal Festival although no dates had been set as yet.  He advised that he would email the dates to the Area Governance Assistant if these were set prior to the next meeting taking place.

 

11.

Any Other Business

Minutes:

Councillor Horn indicated that last week’s severe weather had resulted in lack of road and footpath gritting, particularly on 20th January.  It appeared that where there were grit bins there was no grit in them which may have been as a result of one gritter being broken down and the other being trapped by the icy conditions.  There was a particular issue with lack of grit being provided for use on unadopted roads which had implications for a vulnerable person.

 

Andrew Hemmings stated there had been an issue with the provision of the usual grit piles at Saddell.