adopted minutes of meeting held on 19 June 2024
KILLEARN COMMUNITY COUNCIL
MINUTES OF THE AGM HELD ON 19 June 2024
Members present Elizabeth Jones (chair), Fiona Rennie, Andrew Donaldson, Michael
Bowdidge, Hilary McGregor, Calum McLean, Heidi Bryce.
Apologies Susie Clarke, Lachlan Mackenzie, Rev Stuart Sharp, Police
Scotland, Doug Ashworth, Jessie-Anne Malcolm (NHS Forth
Valley),
In attendance Cllr Paul Henke, Jim Ptolomey (KCC Planning Consultant)
17 members of the public,
Emily Semple (Minute Secretary)
How to contact us Go to www.killearncc.org.uk and click on the contact button.
MINUTES OF LAST AGM
The minutes of the AGM held on 15 June 2022 were accepted as a true record of the
meeting, moved by Fiona Rennie and seconded by Andrew Donaldson.
Noted for the record that there was no AGM in 2023 due to the Council elections.
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
The Chair presented the Annual Report for the year 2023/2024. The Annual Report is
attached to the minutes.
TREASURER’S REPORT
The accounts for the year 2023/2024 were presented to the meeting. The Audited Accounts
are attached to the minutes.
Andrew Donaldson expressed thanks to Iain Somerville for auditing this year's accounts.
ELECTION OF OFFICE BEARERS
Elizabeth Jones was re-elected as Chair of the Council, proposed by Fiona Rennie and
seconded by Hilary MacGregor.
Fiona Rennie was re-elected as Vice Chair of the Council, proposed by Andrew Donaldson
and seconded by Hilary MacGregor.
Fiona Rennie was re-elected as Secretary of the Council, proposed by Elizabeth Jones and
seconded by Andrew Donaldson.
Andrew Donaldson was re-elected as Treasurer, proposed by Fiona Rennie and seconded
by Elizabeth Jones.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
It was agreed the next KCC AGM would be held on 18 June 2025.
adopted minutes of meeting held on 19 June 2024
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REPORTS
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT, YEAR ENDING JUNE 2024
We were fortunate to have one new member and two new co-opted members this year, so
we were delighted to welcome Michael Bowdidge, Susie Clarke and Calum McLean.
Michael has taken up the mantle of lead for the local place plan, Susie will be involving
herself in matters affecting young people, along with Heidi Bryce, while Calum has taken
on the remit of road concerns.
We also sadly had a resignation; Caroline Carrick has resigned from the committee but will
continue all her work with active travel with KCFC. We would like to thank Caroline for all
she did on KCC and we look forward to working alongside her in future.
We also had the retirement of Christine Bauwens, our minute secretary, after ten years of
fantastic work turning our meetings into intelligible English. We thank her for all her brilliant
work, and wish her well with her free time.
And we extend a warm welcome to Emily Semple as our new minute secretary, and greatly
look forward to working with her.
In planning matters, the CALA development is now well underway, and conversations
continue with both CALA and Stirling council regarding safe path access from the site to
the village. This includes an undertaking to repair the pavement on Station Road, but this
remains an ongoing discussion as although the work is agreed, it has not yet commenced.
Jim Ptolomy, as our planning associate, has attended Stirling Council planning panels on
behalf of Killearn residents for many years, as well as giving us expert and sensible advice
on all planning matters relating to the village.
Jim steps down from this role in June, and he has all our thanks for his unfailing help and
guidance over the years. His friendly advice and good sense will be much missed.
The potential Stirling Council budget cuts was a significant concern at the end of 2023, with
several rural community councils coming together to campaign on behalf of issues
disproportionately affecting rural communities. Our major concerns of reduction in bus
service, and in nursery provision, did not come to pass on this occasion, and the opportunity
to collaborate with colleagues was an unlooked-for bonus of the process.
We continue to receive monthly crime reports from the local police, although their staffing
levels mean they are seldom able to join in person.
Fraud has continued to feature in these reports, and we were thankful to Fiona Rennie, for
a presentation on online security, building a strong password, and generally having a high
level of awareness.
The Local Place Plan is an ongoing project, designed to inform us, and therefore Stirling
Council, about the feelings of Killearn residents towards their village. A survey has been
circulated online (and with paper copies), and an engagement event is planned this month,
with possibly another in the autumn. The results will be formed into a report, which will be
submitted to Stirling Council but will hopefully also allow us, as a community, to think about
changes we would like to see.
As with all attempts to gauge village opinion, our biggest challenge is reaching the widest
possible demographic. This applies to all we do at KCC, hence the decision to retain the
hybrid meeting format, with a zoom link for those who prefer not to attend in person.
We also hope to make some changes to the way in which our meetings are advertised in
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the next term, to ensure that everyone who wishes can have a say in what is discussed,
and feel as involved as they wish to be.
I would like to say a huge thank you to the whole KCC committee, Fiona Rennie, Andrew
Donaldson, Hilary McGregor, Heidi Bryce, Michael Bowdidge, Susie Clarke and Calum
McLean for all their sterling support over the year, and we look forward to meeting up again
in September.
Elizabeth Jones KCC chair
TREASURER’S REPORT 2023-2024
We began the financial year with a balance of £727.70.
Income during the year was from our annual grant from Stirling Council of £879.87 and
£11.29 from interest on the bank account.
Most expenditure was in the form of administration costs totalling £759.60. This included
the usual expenses for secretary fees, ICO registration and other minor expenses. Despite
reducing the length of time we book the Village Hall Garden Room for as a meeting venue,
this still represents a major expenditure at £271.00 for the year. We are using this venue
in order to offer hybrid meetings where people can attend the meeting either in person at
the Garden room or online. Despite the additional costs of providing hybrid meetings, we
intend to continue doing so as we believe it maximises attendance at meetings and allows
people to attend who might otherwise be unable to do so. Improving the reach of the
Community Council as far as possible remains an important aim.
We also continued to support the community in other ways. Once again, we supported the
Christmas lights on the lampposts on Balfron Road in an attempt to bring a little cheer
during the dark winter months. Our contribution was £102.46 towards the total cost of
£802.46, with the remainder being made up with the usual generous contributions from
KCFC and Killearn Trust, and also this year by an especially generous donation from
Killearn Beer Festival. We are grateful to all these groups for their support, without which
the lights would not be possible.
We also supported gifts of Easter cards and chocolates, where nursery children delivered
the gifts to some of the elderly residents of the area. This very worthy venture linked the
two extremes of the age spectrum in the area together excellently, and was well received.
This financial year also saw the start of the development of our Local Place Plan (LPP),
which incurred costs for publicity and running the survey. We are working on the LPP along
with KCFC and Killearn Trust, and we are again grateful to both bodies for their contribution
to these costs, reducing our own expenditure.
Total expenditure on the Easter gifts and our share of LPP development amounted to
£266.90.
This left us with a closing bank balance of £370.90, and taking outstanding income and
outgoings into account, this represents funds of £530.90. As such, we continue to operate
at a loss, and with further expenditure on LPP development anticipated in the coming year,
we are likely to face some difficult decisions about what we will be able to support in future.
adopted minutes of meeting held on 19 June 2024
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Finally, I express thanks to Iain Somerville who has once again generously supplied both
time and expertise to audit our accounts this year.
Andrew Donaldson, KCC treasurer
-Meeting Close