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Minutes of Meeting 07 February 2011
THE ROYAL BURGH OF WICK
COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Minutes of Meeting held in the Mowat Room, Assembly Rooms, Wick
At 7.00pm
OnMonday 7 FEBRUARY 2011
1. Welcome and Apologies
The chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Garry Macleod (GM) is to attend as an associate member representing East End Boys Club. Mary Thain (MT) will no longer be attending as the Wick High School (WHS) representative but hopes that someone else will attend in her place at future meetings. Apologies are noted as above.
2. Minutes of the meeting Monday 10 January
Proposed by Geraldine Durrand (GD) and seconded by Joanna Coghill (JC)
3. Matters Arising
Laurel Bush (LB) pointed out that in section 5, ‘Highland Councillor’s report’, it should state that the draft consultation paper will go to the Scottish Government for approval from Ministers.
Secretary Gail Ross (GR1) apologised to the meeting for the absence of the minutes and agenda in the library in December. She explained that there had been a mix up with the e-mail lists when she merged the new members. This has now been rectified.
4. Police Report
There were no police present when this item came up on the agenda but the representative arrived when item 6 was being discussed. The Chair postponed the reading of the correspondence to allow the Police Report to go ahead.
Inspector Angus MacInnes (IAM) informed the meeting that vandalism was still a major problem in the town but the detection rate had increased and 54 historical crimes have been solved, 10 of these have been decrimed and reclassified as accidental damage, this means the victims can rest assured that they have not been victims of vandalism, just an accident. He appealed to members of the public to come forward with any information they have, whether it’s deemed unimportant or it happened a long time ago.
Northern Constabulary (NC) carried out test purchasing of licensed premises in Caithness and five of those tested failed. They were then re-tested and they passed. IAM told the meeting that if they failed a second time then a report is sent to the Procurator Fiscal.
Regarding the speeding on Thurso Road; there have been checks and some motorists have been caught. The safety camera van has been placed on the Castletown and Watten road. Speeding on the road to Tesco continues to be a problem but a car will continue to be placed there as a deterrent. Some ‘boy racers’ were reported at the weekend and there were four offences recorded. Checks are also being carried out at the Harbour Quay. These will become more frequent as the nights continue to get lighter.
Andrew Mackay (AM) from the Norseman Hotel reported that the ‘boy racer’ problem was especially troublesome for him and his business as cars congregated in and abused the public car park in front of the hotel. He told the meeting that it was affecting his trade, with many visitors unwilling to return because of the noise and danger. He said that Highland Council (HC) seemed unwilling or unable to do anything about it and asked IAM what could be done.
A discussion followed about the merits of closing off the car park, clamping down on the drivers, CCTV coverage and traffic calming. The meeting agreed that the possibility of cutting down some trees at the fountain on the other side of the river to enable the CCTV to view the car park was an option that can be looked into. At this point in the meeting, David Stark (DS1) said he was trained in CCTV operation.
HC are unable to close off the car park because it’s for public usage and sleeping policemen were also ruled out. IAM told the meeting that the police will continue to target anti social drivers and Chair Coreen Campbell (CC) assured the meeting that Wick Community Council (WCC) are fully behind all their endeavours.
Garry Robertson (GR2) asked why there was no pedestrian crossing from Dunnets Garage to The Lunch Box and if people had to cross three roads in order to get across safely? CC informed the meeting that this issue was brought up when the crossings were being installed and it would have been too expensive because of the sequencing of the traffic lights.
5. Highland Councillor’s Report
Councillor Graeme Smith (GS) informed the meeting that he did not speak for the administration and that the last month had been spent discussing the budget, mainly behind closed doors. There was to be a full HC meeting with public discussion on Thursday 10th February but council officials were doing the best they could. LB asked if the new WHS build was to be on the agenda, GS confirmed this.
Ward manager David Sutherland (DS2) then told the meeting he would like to clarify the difference between HC officials and councillors; councillors are elected representatives who make policy and officials are the employees who follow it. LB then asked if councillors have other people to advise them apart from the officials. GS told the meeting that there weren’t really any other sources of advice on policy.
6. Correspondence
HC – (e-mail) from the Ward managers informing of a joint ward forum on Tuesday 8th March in the Park Hotel, Thurso at 7pm
HC – Bill and reminder for tea in the WCC meetings
CVG – newsletter
HC – Alison Clark, policy officer with a letter to say that due to the HC starting a new contract with Fujitsu, they now have 7000 PC’s available to community groups. Contact if interested.
LB – prepared statement on WCC sub-groups, are they sub-groups or sub-committees? Is there a difference between the two as he has seen most of the groups being referred to as both? CC told the meeting that although some of the sub-groups had the word committee in their name, they were strictly speaking, still groups. GR2 said she thought there was a distinction to be made between a group and a committee; a group was an organisation people were willing to help with, a committee sat round a table and made decisions. CC asked the meeting whether or not it was willing to adopt LB’s suggestion of calling them ‘partner groups’. This was not adopted by the meeting.
CC went on to tell the meeting that all sub-groups are completely transparent, the registered charities submit their accounts to OScR, which are then published online, but it is not a statutory need to be registered as a charity. LB stated that they need to conform to a minimum standard of transparency and the WCC allows certain groups to fall below that standard. CC said that OScR are completely satisfied with everything that is submitted to them. CC passed around a prepared statement detailing what each sub-group does and who the office bearers are.
Wendy Campbell (WC) then asked LB what exactly he wants the sub-groups to do that is not being done at the moment? LB replied that the prepared statement went some way to answering his questions. WC then asked why LB doesn’t come on all the sub-groups and he can see firsthand what they all do. LB said he would consider that invitation. CC said that every WCC member joined because they wanted to help and assist the town but why did LB join, he replied that transparency was important to him.
There was an angry exchange between various members, WC left the meeting and CC said that the press attended every meeting and members of the public are always very welcome.
7. Treasurer’s Report
Annual accounts have been submitted.
Accounts –
WCC - cheque banked on 1st Feb for £3197.26
WCC - £18,136.57
Geraldine Durrand (GD) told the chair that a statement for the Paths Project had been sent to her and can this be changed, please?
8. Planning Report
Nothing to report (NTR)
9. Christmas Lights
NTR
10. Wick Paths report
GR2 enquired whether WCC would fund any projects this year? CC informed the meeting that all the money that WCC had in the bank was ring-fenced for matched funding for the town entrances, this meant there is a freeze on all monies to sub-groups. GS suggested she talk to Koreen MacDougall at Caithness Partnership or speak to David Barclay for funding advice.
There will be an EGM on Friday 11th February in Breadalbane House Hotel at 7pm. GR1 to attend on behalf of WCC.
DS2 said that the discretionary fund may be able to help after all other funding avenues have been exhausted.
11. Baskets/HAPPY
There were no statements available for the Wick Flower Baskets Committee (FBC) because they are about to have their AGM and the accounts are being prepared for that. This is to be held on Wednesday 8th February at 7pm in the Assembly Rooms. Plans will be made for the year to come regarding fundraising etc. JC told the meeting that the FBC are dismayed at the negative portrayal in the editor’s letters in the John O Groat Journal and Caithness Courier. They are a hard working group who bring colour and happiness to the town and don’t need knocking in the press from members of the public.
Donna Booth (DB) indicated that she is interested in getting involved with the group.
12. Town Entrances
David Dunnett told the meeting that an address has been found for the new owners of the Homebase site, they will be contacted ASAP regarding the erection of the new town entrance on the A99.
Secretary to e-mail Tannach Community Council to inform them that the town entrance on the A882 is on hold for now.
Mr John Sutherland will now give us a price for 2 installations.
GR2 asked to see the plans; DD will bring them to the next meeting.
13. Wick High School
The consultation goes to committee on Thursday 10th February. It will be situated on the site of the existing school and playing fields, it’s now up to the community to accept the proposals. GS told the meeting that the inclusion of a swimming pool is still subject to local consideration. GR2 said that members of the public were not pleased that the swimming pool and the library were going to close and become part of the school.
There followed a discussion about closing an historical building (Carnegie) and what would become of it if it were left empty.
Both DS2 and GS agreed that the swimming pool and library would be better in the school, this would allow for separate changing rooms for school kids and the public, the library will have better access and be modern; the current building is not fit for purpose. GS said that we cannot afford to be sentimental over a building when we should be looking forward to modernising the community. DS2 said that the HC cannot justify the cost of running two swimming pools less than a mile apart and it isn’t done anywhere else in Highland.
14. Town Centre
Doreen Turner (DT) and WC attended a meeting about the new town centre co-ordinator but as neither of them were present this item will be discussed at the next meeting.
15. AOCB
LB asked if there are any plans to review the community plan? CC said this will be discussed at a future meeting.
DS1 is collating information on kerbs at disabled parking bays, including photographs. CC will lodge officially to Tecs services.
GS told the meeting that there is a requirement for the CHAP saga to be looked into by Audit Scotland; the final report will be out this month. There will be a commission for discussion shortly but he’s not sure when this will be released to the public.
DS1 asked the meeting why the WCC website only showed minutes from October. He was informed that there wasn’t an official WCC website yet but hopefully one will be up and running for the next meeting. GR1 told the meeting that as secretary, she was prepared to set this up and maintain it.
GR1 asked HC why Wick games hall and all weather pitch was not accessible after 1pm on a Sunday? DS2 asked for an e-mail with the details and he will look into it.
16. DONM
Monday 7th MARCH 2011 at 7pm in the Mowat Room Assembly rooms, Wick
Gail Ross Seen and agreed
Secretary/Minute Secretary Coreen Campbell (Chair)
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