Bannockburn Community Council
Minute of Meeting
04 November 2021
Allan Church Community Hall, Bannockburn
Present: A Marshall, T Cattigan, L Jordan, J Leary, L Masterson, I Dawson, D McPhail and
Cllr Margaret Brisley
Apologies: W McEwan
Attendance: Joanne Blair (Minute Taker)
Press: None
Residents: None
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Declarations of Interest- None
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Adoption of previous meeting(s) minutes- Minutes proposed by Lesley and seconded
by Tommy. -
Matters Arising
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Council officer been on site and has listed repairs needed for completion at the
front of the bank – this was damaged last year. Council officer to arrange the
works. -
Canopy at the hub is to be repaired.
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Meeting regarding the cenotaph took place on site with CC volunteer and Council
Officer regarding lighting. CC all agreed to apply for funding through CP fund. -
CC awaiting an update from Council Officer and Cllr MacPherson regarding
Telford Bridge. -
Picnic benches for the top park on order, CC to agree on colour. Tommy to
forward the choices on. -
Funding for planters for history garden has been requested. CC has written to
Council but has yet to receive a response. -
CC to apply to CP for funding regarding signage for the history garden. CC has
received a full breakdown of costs. -
New signage into Bannockburn has started. BCC has been asked to take on
insurance of this. -
Contractor will assist in the hanging of the Christmas lights at the shops.
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Reports- External
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Police Scotland: No report.
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Elected Member:
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Bannockburn Library and Hub Update – The current programme was for a mid-
November handover. Over recent weeks a number of issues have arisen that need
to be addressed. These are a drainage issue and a floor level issue. The design
team are currently working to assess the impact on the cost of the project and as
yet I haven’t been informed of the outcome. The impact on the programme has notbeen confirmed but I am assured that there is unlikely to be a significant delay to
the handover. Cllr Brisley confirmed the revised plan is now mid-November. -
Staff are still having to work at home where possible but officers are working to try
get some people back into offices when they can do so safely. This is a work in
progress at the moment. Systems are being looked at to allow a mixture of face to
face and virtual meetings to get Councillors back to a more normal situation, also.
This would allow those who don’t feel confident going amongst larger groups of
people to have the option to attend either in person or virtually. Safety of all remains
a priority. There has been an outbreak among those working on the bin lorries and
this has caused a delay in some areas in terms of collection. Last I heard, there
were 10 people affected but this can change daily. Cllr Brisley confirmed it is only
emergency tradesmen in the workplace. The council confirmed the restart of CC
meetings, the public can attend but officer’s can’t. -
As you know, a couple of weeks ago the Council changed the Standing Orders for
Community Councils to allow face to face meetings if that what was wanted. You
can however carry on with virtual meetings or a mixture of face to face and virtual.
You can once again decide how you want to meet instead of having to have virtual
meetings. You can also open up your meetings to the public again. -
There have also been some teething problems with the new bin collection rotas.
The officers have been made aware of any problems known by Councillors. This
situation has not been helped by the increase in covid 19 infections among the
workforce. Hopefully this will be resolved soon and the collection rota will start to
work properly. -
There is, as many of you will be aware, a real shortage of carers at the moment. It
is difficult to recruit both for the Council and the private care companies. This is
causing real difficulties in providing care at home and in Residential Homes. From
what I understand, the officers from the Integrated Joint Board who have
responsibility for this area are trying to find solutions. One of these is to relook at
peoples’ packages of care and where they can safely reduce the amount of care
someone gets. Letters will be going out to families affected to make them aware of
the critical situation faced by the Integrated Joint Board. This is not just a Stirling
problem but one for the whole of Scotland and indeed the U.K. -
Areas of Deprivation – Tommy raised the issue of Bannockburn not being
classed along with other parts of the Ward as areas of deprivation. The decision
to categorise an area as deprived takes into account certain factors such as:-
the percentage of unemployment in the community
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the percentage of people on DWP benefits, such as Universal
Credit, Pension Credit -
the percentage of free school meals
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the crime rate
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the percentage of the community with a chronic health condition
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It is not a something that we are happy about and would hope to
reduce. It is not the Council who decide the deprivation indices or
what areas are classed as socially deprived. Within any area,
there are people who are not classed as deprived as well as those
who are. I for one am pleased that the level of deprivation within
the Bannockburn community is not as high as in the other area of
the ward. We, as elected members are all working to try to mitigate
disadvantage whoever it affects within the whole ward. -
Tommy mentioned businesses in the various area and Kilgannon
Motors was the only Bannockburn business. He seem to have
missed some of the other businesses in Bannockburn such as
Morton & Sullivan and P.J Griffin & Sons who both have quite a
few employees. There are many other small businesses in the
area. He also mentioned a problem accessing nursery provision. I
had not been informed of any problem of children not gaining
admission to Bannockburn Nursery. There is also Park Drive
Nursery that Bannockburn children can access. I did check with
the Headteacher at Bannockburn Primary. She assured me after
checking with the Nursery that no child had been refused access.
There had been instances of parents not getting the exact times or
days that they were requesting. There were, however, children
being transported from Cowie to Fallin before the new nursery was
built in Cowie as there were not enough places to accommodate
all the children entitled to a place. . A new school was provided
because the old one was not fit for purpose. Plean got a new
school because the old one burnt down. -
I don't see it as a competition as to which community is most
deprived - we wish to do the best we can to give all people in the
area the best opportunities possible that are within our powers.
Tommy mentioned the investment in the library and the new
community hub as though this is not a good thing due to lost rent
from the shop units. It was not our choice to lose the bank as a
facility for the community. What I certainly didn't want to see was
another take away business, Bookmaker, or beauty salon as there
are a number of those already. We were told that was the only
interest at the time. I am certain that the new facilities at the library
and the New Community hub will be bring benefits to the whole
community. -
All of the communities have problems, from what I am told, in
accessing health care - it is a national problem and not confined to
Ward 7. As stated, it is the percentage of the population with
chronic health conditions that is the measure of deprivation. It is
not the time to access an appointment or whether you see a
doctor or another health professional. It is also outwith the control
of the local authority. -
Upon checking, it seems Bannockburn is classed as a deprived
area.
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City of Culture Bid – Stirling has managed to get on the shortlist of eight for the City
of Culture bid 2023. We are the only Scottish Authority to make the shortlist and
will receive a grant of £40,000 to work up the bid to the next stage. There was a
briefing for members and we were keen to emphasise that this is for the whole
council area and not just Stirling City centre. I pointed out that we are always being
told of the importance of the heritage of the area and was keen to see that the
importance of the coal mining heritage of Bannockburn and the Eastern villages
was not forgotten. This would bring considerable opportunities to the whole area if
we were to be successful. This has been the experience of other areas who have
obtained this status. We also wanted to concentrate on the lasting benefits and not
just those during that year. -
Tommy mentioned residents not getting access to nursery places. Bannockburn
Nursery doesn’t offer 2 year old places but there is access in other areas of ward
7.
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Reports- Internal
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Secretary: Copy of all updates received was passed on to CC members.
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Treasurer: Linda updated the CC members.
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Planning: Update shared with CC members.
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Bannockburn House: No update.
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Community Council Business
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None.
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AOB
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None.
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Residents Forum
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None.
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Date, time and venue of next meeting
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Thursday 2nd December 2021.
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