Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and general introductions were made. 

Apologies for absence were intimated on behalf of

Councillor Anne Horn                           

Kate McAulay, NHS                            

David Jardine, Forest Enterprise       

Joanna Peebles, Scottish Water        

Rod Buchanan, ACHA                        

Jim Malcolm, Dunadd Community Council

Andy Buntin, Lochgilphead Community Council

Lynda Syed, Furnace Community Council and Argyll Voluntary Action (AVA)

Leonard MacNeill, West Lochfyne Community Council

The Minute of the Mid Argyll Partnership meeting held on 11 March 2015 was approved as a correct record. 

The Area Governance Officer informed the Partnership that it hadn’t been possible for reports outlining how the Council consults with Communities and the Council’s Website Policy to be brought to this meeting but confirmed that these would be brought to the next meeting of the Partnership. 

The Chair advised that he had advised Leonard MacNeill of West Lochfyne Community Council of the appointment of a consultant to conduct a survey with a view to the repair of the Tullochgorm War Memorial.  He advised that the Partnership would be kept up to date on future progress.   

Update by Chair

The Chair provided a brief update in relation to the workshop, which had taken place earlier in the day.  He advised that although there had been poor attendance, the discussions which had taken place had been positive and had given Members an opportunity to share experiences.  Councillor Taylor advised that it had been identified that the local community would benefit from additional support from the Council in relation to Community Development.  Mr Kent and Mrs Smyth agreed that the workshop had been beneficial in changing the focus of Mid Argyll Partnership to make it more about strategic planning and assisting communities to feed into the SOA Local. 

Update by Emergency Planning Officer

The Council’s Emergency Planning Officer provided an update in relation to the Community Resilience Plans.  She advised that throughout Argyll and Bute there have been 73% of Resilience Plans completed.  Talking specifically about the Mid Argyll area she advised that to date there are 8 completed plans, 6 of which from Community Councils and 2 are island based.  She explained that there are another 5 in progress and that the team were keeping an eye on the other communities who have yet to make their intentions clear, although she did stress that all communities were different and not all wished to make a Resilience Plan. 

Ms Keeley spoke of the Community and Business Resilience Event and a telephone exercise which had recently been run.  She explained the desire to run both again with a view to engaging more communities.

Ms Keeley explained that going forward her team were actively encouraging the progression of plans and encouraging Community Council’s to use the team as a point of contact. 

Discussion was had in relation to the poor attendance at the event and during the exercise with Mr Kent advising that the reason South Knapdale Community Council had failed to engage in the telephone exercise was due to communication issues.  Ms Keeley explained that she had received a lot of feedback which had cited communication issues as the main reason for not completing Resilience Plans.

The Chair, asked Ms Keeley to provide more information on the Community and Business Resilience Event.  Ms Keeley advised that events had been held in the major towns within Argyll and Bute and had been attended by partners such as Police Scotland, Fire Scotland and SSE.  She also advised that a direct email invite had been issued to all Community Council’s within the areas and that social media had been used to advertise the events.  Ms Keeley expressed her disappointment at the poor turnout, but advised that the team were currently looking at ways in which to encourage better attendance. 

The Chair thanked Ms Keeley for the information provided.   

Update by representative from Police Scotland

Inspector Julie McLeish of Police Scotland introduced herself to the Partners and advised that she had recently taken over the role, which encompassed the Mid Argyll and Kintyre areas.  She explained that this was her first time attending the Partnership and as such had no presentation to give, but was hoping for some guidance on the things that Partners would be most interested to hear about at future meetings. 

The Chair advised that local community Police Officers routinely attended the Community Council meetings and provided an update in terms of local issues.  He advised that Partners may be interested in trend information.  Both Mr Kent and Mrs Smyth agreed that trend information may be useful, and enquired as to the situation with the amalgamation of the K and L Divisions.  Inspector McLeish confirmed that the amalgamation would not affect “on the ground policing.” 

The Chair thanked Inspector McLeish for the information provided.  

Feedback from Community Councils

Mary Smyth enquired whether there was some way in which young persons who leave school with little or no higher qualifications, could link in to local education without the need to leave the area.  In specific she felt there was a missing link for those who left school with no highers but then within a year of 2 wanted to obtain these qualifications and whether this was possible.  The Area Governance Officer suggested that this may be something that could be picked up at the ACPG meeting on 13 May 2015 in terms of feedback from the Group on this outcome. 

The Chair outlined the Council’s commitment to modern apprentiships and spoke of the incentive for Community Council’s to sign up to the idea of passing a percentage of community benefits from windfarm monies to a central pot within Argyll and Bute for educational purposes and potential apprenticship schemes.  He explained that in some areas this is actively happening with monies being passed to organisations such as ALIEnergy; the GRAB Trust and Argyll Countryside Trust.  He explained that this is one area which he hopes to embrace in terms of bringing a report to a future meeting of the Partnership.  

Feedback from Community Councils

The Chair spoke of the Scottish Government incentive GIRFEC (Getting It Right For Every Child) with the implementation of free school meals for every child in Primaries 1 to 3 and also the additional pre-school hours.  He made mention of the impact that the Young Children’s Act may have in terms of the Single Outcome Agreement, and advised that this may be a topic for a future meeting.  

Councillor MacMillan outlined the ways in which he keeps in touch with the Community.  He also explained his use of the Council’s Portal system, which is used for logging service complaints, such as pot holes.

Ben Tustin advised that at present SEPA are working well within the community with a full schedule of work.  He advised that he routinely speaks with a number of Community Councils, but advised that he was happy to address any particular issues that communites may have, and would be happy to attend local Community Council meetings. 

The Community Development Officer advised of Community Action Plan training, which is scheduled to take place on Thursday 2 July 2015.  She advised that she will be issuing invites to Community Council’s in the near future. 

In the absence of attendance from Lochgilphead Community Council, the Chair advsied that a representative had attended the workshop earlier in the day and that  the Community Council are committed to engaging in the progress of the SOA and the SOA Local.

The Chair also advised that the problems with erosion on the Furnace shore line, as outlined previously by the representative from Furnace Community Council,  was being addressed by both the Council and Scottish Water, who were in agreement to reinstate and implement coastal protection measures. 

Outcome 1:  The economy is diverse and thriving and;

Outcome 5:  People live active, healthier and independent lives

It was noted that the themes for the next meeting would be:-

Outcome 1:  The economy is diverse and thriving; and

Outcome 5:  People live active, healthier and independent lives

Decision

The Partnership agreed to discuss Outcomes 1 and 5 at their respective Community Council meetings, and bring back to the next meeting of the Partnership ideas which could benefit the local community. 

The Partnership discussed proposed meeting dates going forward with a view to aligning the meetings of MAP to facilitate discussions around outcomes which would feed into the Area Community Planning Group. 

Decision:

The Partnership agreed to hold future Mid Argyll Partnership meetings on the following dates;  Wednesday 29 July 2015; Wednesday 28 October 2015 and Wednesday 27 January 2016.  

Members of the Partnership were asked to nominate and agree the Chair and Vice Chair of the Partnership.

The Area Governance Officer indicated that although not present today, Lynda Syed of Furnace Community Council and AVA had indicated that if nominated for either role, she would be happy to accept.

Councillor MacMillan suggested that due to the lack of Partners present, it would be better to postpone the appointments until the next meeting of the Partnership.  The Chair noted that he would not be present at the next meeting, but suggested that Ms Syed be invited to take the Chair for the meeting on 29 July 2015 with a view to appointing a Chair and Vice Chair at this time.

With no one being otherwise minded, this became the decision of the Partnership.