Minutes – 19 January 2011
North Kelvin Community Council Minutes
Wednesday 19 January 2011 at 6:30pm
St. Charles School
Present: Dave Beavan (DB) (Chair); Janet Andrews (JA); Ken Andrew (KA) (Vice-Chair); Gordon Barnes (GB) (Website); Peter Blackshaw (PB) (Secretary); Kevin Edgar (KE); Liz Edgar (LE); Councillor Jim MacKechnie (JMacK); Jane Morgan (JM) (Planning Officer); Douglas Peacock (DP); Kate Wooding (KW) (Treasurer); Kirsty Davidson (KD) (Minute Secretary)
In attendance: PC Nicola Ferris (NF); Pauline Regan, Aspire (PR); PC Nicholas Robertson (NR)
1. Minutes of previous meeting and matters arising
DB welcomed everyone to the first meeting of 2011 and wished everyone a happy new year.
JMacK noted a minor correction on page two of the previous minutes. At the end of paragraph six it should read ‘officers’ rather than ‘Planning Committee’. The minutes of the November meeting were approved by KA and seconded by PB.
2. Police Report
PC Nicholas Robertson (NR) explained that his colleague, PC Nicola Ferris (NF) and himself were the new beat cops for the area and they would be attending future meetings.
NR provided the crime figures for the period 16 November 2010-16 January 2011. There were – 7 bicycle thefts from closes; 4 attempted thefts of motor vehicles (awaiting scene of crime results); 1 theft of a motor vehicle (vehicle recovered with limited damage); 1 mugging on Queen Margaret Drive, there are now more foot patrols in the area as a result (no detection); 7 house break-ins – 3 were an intent to steal and at 4 property was stolen (awaiting scene of crime results) and various road traffic offences.
PB raised the issue of bulk uplift items that have not been collected, being thrown around by students in the early hours. The issue of student behaviour had been raised at the November meeting and PC Ross Whyte (RW) was going to see if PC Fraser Reid (FR) could go and speak to the students again. NR said he would follow this up.
Action: NR to see whether the students can be given another talk on behaving in the local community.
DB suggested that Police presence could be increased in the area, in the early hours of the morning at weekends. This would make the students feel the area was being watched and may curb bad behaviour.
JA reported that she had seen 3 youths checking out properties in Oban Court, looking at which ones had burglar alarms. NR said behaviour like this should be reported to the Police straight away, as they can send a car and try to apprehend the suspects. If they are found to have a weapon on them, they can be arrested on the spot.
PB also reported that the burnt out motorbike at the Old Mill on the River Kelvin was still present. NR said he would report this to the Cleansing Department at the Council, for them to arrange removal and suggested the Community Council do the same.
Action: NR and PB to report the burnt out motorbike to the Cleansing Department.
PB informed the Police about cars speeding up Oban Drive at 9am on weekdays, late school run. NR said he would be able to take a look early next week, to see for himself.
Action: NR to investigate speeding up Oban Drive during the school run.
3. Report from Aspire
Pauline Regan (PR) said she works as a Team Leader for Aspire, based at their Queen Margaret Drive Unit. PR said she had approached PB as she felt Aspire should have a presence at the Community Council meetings to discuss issues, so there was a flow of information both ways.
PR explained the Unit on Queen Margaret Drive provides emergency accommodation to 18 homeless people and operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
PR said the Unit has good contact with the local Police, who come in regularly asking about the occupants. They try to be proactive and there is CCTV in the building and on the front steps.
PR explained that the Hamish Allan Centre send referrals to the Unit for any vacancies they have, but the Unit has the option to refuse if they feel they can not cope with a referrals specific needs. PR said the Unit works with various support services. PR said residents are meant to stay for up to 5 days, but unfortunately with the shortage in housing they can stay for longer, the average stay is 2 months.
LE said in the last few months there has no longer been a problem in closes, but she has seen a few people asking for money in the street, not aggressively, but it is disconcerting. PR said she would feed this back to the occupants in the monthly occupancy meetings the Unit holds. PR said the Unit do report inappropriate behaviour of the occupants to the Police.
PR reported bulk rubbish in the back lane behind the Unit (Clouston Street Lane). JMacK said the uplift schedule was not back to normal yet due to the bad weather. Council cleansing staff had to be taken off their usual duty to grit the roads, but the schedule is getting back to normal now.
PR thanked everyone for the opportunity to attend the meeting and said she plans to come to meetings ever few months. DB thanked PR for attending.
4. Councillor’s Report
JMacK said the lamp standards on Sanda Street and Clouston Street have been inspected and are in a poor condition. JMacK said in the next 3 weeks analysis will be carried out on their durability and they may need to be replaced, though this would be a last resort. The minimum action taken would be repainting and this has been budgeted for in the next budget.
JMacK reported that New City Vision’s Ideas Day had taken place on 14 January and Nick Wright (NW) got some helpful information for incorporation into the plans, which are to be displayed next month.
JMacK noted there was a lamp out at the steps at the end of Kelvinside Gardens East, which was still out, so he would follow this up. JM reported that the steps themselves were really crumbly due to the recent bad weather. JMacK said he would investigate.
Action: JMacK to investigate the condition of the steps.
JMacK reported that the one-way system to alleviate the problems outside St. Charles School was nearing the top of the list. The Council will now send out a letter to local residents sounding them out about the plans. JM said she intends to contact the Head teacher to ask for parents to be given a reminder about the informal one-way system. PB to write to the Head teacher as well, on behalf of the Community Council.
Action: PB to write to the Head Teacher of St. Charles School about the informal one-way system.
JMacK reported there had been a request for two hot food van licences on match days at Firhill. It was agreed the Community Council would object to this request, as there is adequate provision within the football ground and the local area.
Action: PB to write objecting to the licence request.
JMacK said the Council has been looking at how to make savings in the budget. The forecast had been to save 52.7 million in 2011/12 and to make an additional saving of 48.7 million in 2012/13. The figure for 2011/12 has been reduced slightly as the Council plans to save 7 million by voluntary redundancy, so the forecast for 2011/12 was now to save 45.7 million.
JMacK explained that the Council expected the Scottish Government to cut funding by 2.6%, but instead it was cut by 3.6%. This means the Council has to make an additional saving of 12.8 million for 2011/12, bringing the total savings required up to 58.5 million. JMacK said the Council has finalised cuts of 39.5 million, but needs to look at ways to cut another 19 million from the budget.
5. Discussion on Licensing Applications
PB confirmed that he had written on behalf of the Community Council objecting to the Tesco alcohol licence request.
DB postponed the discussion of a procedure for dealing with licence requests that are received outside of meetings until the March meeting. It was agreed if there was a request made before the March meeting that PB considered contentious then this should be dealt with via email.
Action: PB to add ‘Discussion on Licensing Applications’ to March’s agenda.
6. Planning Officer’s Report
JM said there was nothing of note on the planning lists.
JM reported that a planning application had been submitted for the property on Kelvinside Gardens East. JM said she saw no reason to object, as the new house will be built on the same footprint, will be the same height as the original house and will be built from similar materials.
JM explained that the Scottish Government were willing to make the proposed Clouston Street development part of their mediation pilot, but it would have been facilitation rather than mediation. Approval was required from both the Council and the developer and the developer rejected this opportunity.
7. Information – website
GB said he would reconvene the website sub-group to deal with issues relating to the new website and then feedback at Community Council meetings.
GB circulated information to everyone about the new Community Council email accounts. GB said he wants proactive use of the website and more material added, but it will be neutral, just providing the bare facts to the local community on issues they should be made aware of.
DB thanked GB for all his work on the new website.
8. Treasurer’s Report
KW reported the account balance is £1,320.16.
9. Correspondence
PB said George Mitchell (GM) had contacted him about the clean up of Oban lane. DB said he would follow-up with GM.
Action: DB to contact GM about the clean up.
PB reported receiving emails from Guide Dogs for the Blind and the Dog’s Trust about advertising on the website. It was agreed that these should be forwarded to GB for discussion at the website sub-group meeting.
Action: PB to forward the emails to GB. GB and the website sub-group to discuss a policy for dealing with these types of requests.
10. AOCB
KW provided a brief summary of New City Vision’s Ideas Day on 14 January.
There were approximately 50 people at the event, 4 of which were in favour of the development. KW said the main focus of the day was the open space part of the proposed development.
KW said there were lots of questions during the Q&A session and there was a general feeling of a lack of time for this part of the day. KW said that there were about 20-25 people left after the Q&A session for participation in group-work. The general mood was for the 80/20 split between development and open space to be reversed, but there was an awareness of a need for some form of compromise, such as completing a run of housing on an existing street.
KW explained the plans would be displayed during a drop-in session on 12 February. PB confirmed Nick Wright (NW) has been invited to February’s Community Council meeting. It was agreed that this meeting should be advertised on the website, a press release issued and that a bigger venue would be required, as members of the public will be keen to attend.
Action: GB to advertise February’s meeting on the website once the venue is confirmed. KW agreed to prepare a press release and find a larger venue.
Next meeting: 16 February 2011 @ 6.30pm, St. Charles School
