Agenda item
Partners Update
- Meeting of Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands Area Community Planning Group, Wednesday, 6 November 2019 10:00 am (Item 10.)
- View the background to item 10.
Minutes:
Andy
Buntin, Lochgilphead Community Council
Andy Buntin advised that
work around regenerating public areas in Lochgilphead was ongoing and the
application which had been submitted would hopefully be approved soon. It was
hoped that this work would commence at the beginning of the year. Andy noted
that funding of 0.25 million pounds had been awarded from the Small Towns Award
and funding of 1 million pounds had also been awarded by the conservation fund.
It is hoped that this will give Lochgilphead a huge lift and discussions so far
have been very positive.
Andy Buntin advised that
the Community Council have requested 4 additional disabled parking bays,
including ones near the chemist and dentist in Lochgilphead to allow easier
access for disabled people and that the response from the Council and Transport
Scotland has been positive.
Andy Buntin noted that in
conjunction with the Council the Community Council have been looking at vacant
land to develop and there has been positive feedback around this.
Andy Buntin advised that
8 members of the 19th Argyll Scout Group in Lochgilphead had
recently travelled to Malaysia and assisted with building playparks in an
underprivileged area – they will be providing a presentation to the Community
Council on the 11th regarding this.
Councillor
John Armour
Councillor Armour raised concern around the
announcement that CS Wind UK are planning to make redundant 80% of their staff
due to a lack of orders over the next 3-5 months. Councillor Armour met with
the staff and management on Monday and noted that staff had been left
demoralised. It was noted that these are highly skilled workers who could
potentially move out with the area. Councillor Armour advised that he welcomed
the news that the Scottish Government had announced an economic summit for
Campbeltown in November as this could be a potentially dire situation.
Council Armour noted that when comparing the
populations of an area such as Glasgow and Campbeltown the current potential
loss of 90 jobs in Campbeltown would be comparative to approximately 9,000 jobs
in an area the side of Glasgow.
James Barbour joined the meeting
James
Barbour, Chair of the Farmer Buyout Steering Group
James Barbour noted that dairy farmers in Kintyre
had attempted to draw up a business plan to prevent the Creamery from closing
but were unable to find an economically viable option going forward. The
farmers’ interest is currently safe as First Milk have agreed to continue to
collect the milk without charge and process it elsewhere. At present First Milk
have agreed to do this without charge but this could be a possibility in the
future. Staff in the Creamery are currently working their redundancy period.
The Farmer Buyout Steering Group have requested that First Milk ensure that
equipment is kept in working order to ensure that the facility could be
re-opened at short notice and that they retain the Mull of Kintyre cheese
trademark.
The group have also encouraged First Milk to
negotiate with the Scottish Government going forward regarding the facility and
noted that the Scottish Government and local community had been very
supportive. A crowdfunding appeal had attracted £94,500 worth of donations,
this has now been closed and money is being returned to donators.
Councillor
Anne Horn
Councillor Horn advised that 19 organisations have
received awards from the Skipness Community Trust
Community Benefit. Councillor Horn noted that there are currently discussions
ongoing with the Community Housing Associations regarding potential new housing
developments. Councillor Horn advised that roadworks at Darvel
Road were on track and these had been well received. Councillor Horn noted that
Tarbert Life remained busy with visitors.
Antonia
Baird, Community Development Officer
Antonia advised that the Supporting Communities
Fund was still accepting applications until the deadline of 6th
December and encouraged further bids. It was noted that the fund was currently
running with a 40% success rate and the scoring matrix is on the website to see
how applications are scored.
John
Bakes, Southend Community Council
John Bakes advised that over the last 3-4 months
Southend have had mobile phone signal from Vodafone and 02 with a potential
further mast giving signal for EE. John noted that the new Community Hall was busy
and being used regularly. John advised that the Southend Bonfire had attracted
300-400 people and was very successful with no incidents.
Police
Scotland
Police Scotland were unable to provide a verbal
update due to an issue with the VC link. It was noted that a release had been
sent to the press and social media on 5th November 2019 to advise
that front counters of police stations across the MAKI area will operate a
revised schedule from 11th November and be open between 7am to 6pm,
7 days a week.
Following the meeting, the following update was
provided by Inspector Julie McLeish.
Tarbert surgeries - due to concerns raised at the
Community Council about the loss of the local office and lack of visible
policing, a Tarbert police surgery was arranged every
Thursday afternoon in Tarbert Library for 4 weeks.
Officers who attended enjoyed meeting people and
groups who were using the library facilities and 2 members of the public came in
specifically to meet the officer and ask for advice. The officers also
undertook a foot patrol of the Tarbert area. We
are now looking to roll this out to a longer term commitment which is likely to
be alternate weeks as we are doing the same thing in Carradale
so it will be week about and we will keep everyone posted about dates for the
roll out. We would also like to highlight how welcome the library made us
and thank them for their support to do this.
Changes to custody holding and office opening hours
in some police stations - From Monday 11 November 2019 Lochgilphead and
Campbeltown Police Stations will be open to the public from 0700 - 1800 7 days
a week with lunch time closures to allow staff breaks. This has
been the subject of intense evaluation and consultation which has now
resulted in the start date of 11 Nov being identified. Oban office
will remain 24 hour opening and also become the primary custody holding centre
for the area. It has long been the case we have had to confirm the
best area to hold custodies on a case by case basis dependent on a number of
factors anyway but this provides the best model to meet individuals needs when
they are in custody and provides consistent standards of care. There is
still the capacity to bring persons into custody in Lochgilphead and
Campbeltown and that hasn’t changed however when ndividuals
brought into custody require to be held for longer periods or require a
specific level of care Oban is recognised as the primary centre to do this and
will be staffed on that basis.
In relation to the Councillor's concerns about lack
of communication about this CI Baillie has confirmed that all elected members
were initially notified of this on 23rd May when she sent an email out with the
core information and offering to discuss any concerns held and she received 2
responses to this. Although the background work has been going on for
some time it has only recently been confirmed that this will go ahead starting
11 November and Custody Division took the action of sharing and publicising
this information which led to press and social media releases yesterday. I have
the email that was sent out in May if any elected member would wish it to be
resent to them?
Events - Police are involved as usual in the Remembrance
Day parades this Sunday and then we have the Festive parades and events to
follow.
Ian
Brodie, East Kintyre Community Council
Ian Brodie advised that following discussion around
local development plans an invitation was extended to all to attend the East
Kintyre Open Day on 9th November 2019 from 12 noon to 6pm. Ian
advised that presentations and information would be available from a number of
different organisations on a variety of issues.
Ian Brodie advised that the Kintyre Community
Councils and South Kintyre DevelopmentTrust had
joined together to create the Kintyre Renewable Energy Group who will go
forward as one unit to negotiate better deals for South Kintyre with Windfarm
companies.