May 2021 Minutes

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Polmaise Community Council
Minute of Meeting
Monday 17 May 2021

Zoom meeting

In attendance:

Alex Fraser- Vice Chair
Billy Bruce, Voted on

David Perrie, Associate Council Member
Gayle Jeffrey, Secretary

Karen Perrie, Treasurer
Margaret Brisley, Councillor

Sharon McGrouther, Community Engagement Officer

Apologies:

Kevin Jack, Planning officer (Kevin did attempt to attend the meeting but had technical
issues)

1. Recording of Declarations of Interest

   There were no declarations of interest

2. Adoption of previous meeting(s) minutes - 16 March 20204.

   Karen proposed that the minutes were approved and Kevin seconded it.

3. Matters Arising

   There were not matters arising

4. Reports- External

   1. Police Scotland/Enforcement Officer

      David has met the two community officers.

      There has been vandalism at the food hall which has been reported to the police and
      the investigation has been taken over by the community police.

      There have also been some complaints about drug dealings going on in the
      neighbourhood

   2. Elected Member

      Report to be sent over (Appendix Two)

      • All council staff have been working from home

      • Affected a lot of contract and work could not take place

      • A lot of the money has been diverted to get IT equipment and
        upgrading systems.

      • Grant Douglas from Spen happy to update on projects

         

5. Reports- Internal

   1. Sub Groups

       

      The Bridge that crosses the cycle path in Fallin has been needing repaired since
      February 2020. David had a meeting with Alistair McPherson in July when it was
      chased again. David advised that no one was taking responsibility for the repairs and
      the bridge became unstable and the bridge was closed.

      In March David contacted them and they had looked for funding. The councillors
      emailed also the council also

      Bryan Robertson did send his team a scalding email basically saying that Fallin always
      think Stirling Council have done nothing for them and now they are proving the people
      right.

      David Hopper contacted David apologising for the delay and advised that he had been
      given the task to resolve the issues.

      David Hopper stated it would take a month or so to get it back open.

      A contract has been signed for a company and they are sourcing the material as the
      bridge is listed so the correct material is required to repair the bridge. David has a
      provisional schedule (Appendix Three) and it says the repairs are to start in June
      provisionally. It is going to cost about £70,000 to repair.

      David added that what didn’t help was that Bridge of Allan had a bridge that was fixed
      quickly but David Hopper has been good to his word and has been getting the job
      done.

   2. Chair

      Robert has resigned

   3. Secretary (including correspondence)

Gale advised that there is no report for the meeting as they have been working on the
food hall and have been keeping on top of emails but no community council business
is being done.

David added that projects to upgrade the parks seem to be unfinished and someone
is to come down and check the paths because they don’t think they are wheel chair
friendly

David emailed asking about the parks and when they would be finished and the staff
member advised that he thought they were finished.

David stated that the scope for the parks was supposed to have a fence around it and
there was fences in the photos but they have never been installed he would like to
find out what the spend was as the funding was £45,000 per park.

The path in the park looks like it only had bottoming soil and no top soil.

Sharon advised that she had talked about the funding and thinks that they need extra
funding for the fencing.

David added that all the work that he done has been thrown out. David originally
contacted the manufacturers and had open day for the schools where there was
photos of the parks. In the design that was picked there was no fence but when the
spec was sent over there was a fence. David advised that the council had narrowed
down to two companies for who they wanted to install the park. When things started
Stirling Council stopped coming to the meetings. David advised that the park was
advertised with a fence because the council had added it into the design. He added
that they won the £100,000 for the parks and he feels that the amount that Stirling
Council have got is minuscule to what he could have had.

Margaret is annoyed that David spent so long looking at this for it to be say well we’ll
need to do it again. Instead of people thinking brilliant we have £100,000 of work
being done in the village it does not feel there has been value for money.

Karen had so many people involved with the planning- the Stirling PB was a new
project was not properly informed or prepared for. Sharon advised that they can send
an email to the CC enquires and Margaret is going to follow this up

Billy got a report a few weeks ago that an old lady fell in the park because the ground
was not level.

David added that Chris has tried to get answers he does try.

David added that he would still help with the PB but he is frustrated with the lack of
involvement for the council and that no one from the grounds has even been in the
parks. Sharon stated that this has still been achieved with the hard work of the
community council and the process is flawed but the community came out and voted
which was excellent.

c. Treasurer

Karen- admin grant £16.97
Payment for minute taker £40

£20 for a reef

e. Planning

David stated that there is not anything major happening the big plan still hasn’t started
but the first phase will be small with 5-50 houses

A power storage facilities is going up and they have arranged for another online
consultation meeting Tuesday 25th June at 18:30 going to do a question and answer
session.

Seen a post about houses in Frost but they don’t know where. Maureen had posted it
something to do with an entry to country living, it look like it will be = 4 and 5
bedrooms detached houses. Margaret had already responded and are having an
online doddle pool. She added that the last housing assessment showed that they did
not need 4-5 bedroom but needed small houses and bungalows. There is an element
of affordable housing going into it. Sometimes reach agreement that if there is local
parks nearby, they put a contribution of the equivalent amount into the local park

25% should be social housing/ affordable housing but that means for sale and not for
rent.

1. Community Council Business (Community issues brought to the attention of the
   Community Council for debate and to agree/vote on actions that are in the interests of
   the community)

   1. Resignation and Appointment of Chairman. Co-option - Appointment of Co-opted

      Resignation of Robert; Sharon has not had anything given to her regarding his
      resignation but as he has moved out-with the village he is unable to stay in the
      Community Council. Alex advised that Robert has said it has been sent in but Sharon
      has not received anything. Someone will speak to Robert to get him to email Sharon.

      Karen stated that they should just carry on the way they are until the AGM this means
      Alex will be acting chair. All were in agreement with this.

      Appoint William “Billy” Bruce as a community council member he completed the form
      in March so he is eligible to be voted on in June.

      Gayle, Alex and Karen voted him in. Billy is a new member of the community council.
      Billy cannot vote as long as he is a co-opted member

      Gayle stated that they need to advertise for new members.

      Sharon advised that they are only allowed so many co-opted members so some will
      need to become a full member. To become a full member they need to attend a
      minimal of three meetings over a six month period or they can be voted in at the AGM.

      Sharon suggested that the next meeting agenda should have this on it Next meeting
      have it on the agenda and decide how you are going to do it

      Could put something in the Fallin conversation to help to find funding- something that
      is going through everyone’s door. Plan for the community trust and the community
      council to run together

2. AOB (Any items that Community Councillors wish to raise that are not an agenda item)

   1. Anti-social behaviour.

      David advised that he has emailed the councillors regarding anti-social behaviour
      and Maureen replied and is dealing with this.

      David also sent an email to the councillors and the police community officers who have
      advised that they are having extra patrols until 8pm at night. It is the only resources
      available.

      They have asked about CCTV up at the church as someone in the flats has been dealing
      drugs but the police have advised that unless they become more visible in that area
      or there is names and reports there is nothing they can do.

      Received and email from Scottish fire service and there has 16 cases of fire raising in
      Fallin

      A lot of people have had enough but it is a police issue

      Billy added that the worst of it has happened in the past year but it has happened
      before the police patrols

      People should be reporting to 101 but some people are fed up with it and not wanting
      to call 101 as nothing getting done about.

      The graffiti has been cleaned off the notice board but it was a “non-event” so David is
      assuming they would respond faster if it was serious

      People need to report it to build up a cases so they can pick up a regular pattern

      New Community Officer are in place but the community don’t know who they are so
      they need to make themselves known to the community.

   2. Notice boards - vandalism - price quote

      David has got some Perspex at work but he will need a tin of varnish for about £15 and
      will need to remake the sticker

      Margaret advised that you can get community grants for their sort of things

      David added that originally they wanted to move they notice board but they need to
      put an application in for moving it.

      All agreed that David gets the tin of varnish for the notice board. And will bring back
      quote for the cost of moving it next week.

   3. Food Market

      Food hall has been running in the church hall running for a year now and they have
      given out 3000 food parcels. They have been there every Wednesday. During the
      Christmas period they gave Christmas gifts to every child and donated a hamper by
      Kevin and his family.

      They have £848 left which should allow them to run for another 4-5 weeks but they
      are hoping to still do deliveries the footfall is slowing down so they may need to think
      about closing.

      Would be good if they could honour the volunteers

      Church hall have said to have free reign and gave the keys but now that things are
      opening up they are moving to the Alpha Centre to continue for the last few weeks.

      Margaret added that furlough scheme starting to rundown in June and she worries
      that once things start to cut back they might find people becoming unemployed

      Karen added that Stirling food is still open so they could collect from there and deliver
      to those who need.

      Alex thanked everyone.

   4. Residents Forum (opportunity for residents to raise any issues)

No resident present at the meeting. Opening up to the public for the next meeting.
Someone to let Gary from Spen know about the meeting

Next Meeting: June 21st – open to public delay AGM a month July