APPIN COMMUNITY COUNCIL
www.appincommunitycouncil.co.uk
Minutes of Meeting held on Thursday 30 January 2014 at 7.30 in Appin Village Hall
Present: Alison MacCorquodale, David Craig, Linda MacLeod, Jane Parkin, Councillor Elaine Robertson, PC Stuart Johnston, Andy Burnett and 22 members of the public.
1. Apologies: Paul Zvegintzor, Counillor Louise Glen-Lee.
Alison welcomed everyone to the first meeting of the New Council. She welcomed Jane Parkin, one of our new councillors after the recent elections and mentioned that we were still looking for volunteer to come onto the Community Council – we can have 8 councillors but currently only have 5. Anyone willing to stand please contact Alison or one of the other community councillors.
2. Minutes of the last meeting (28/08/13) were approved and signed.
3. Port Appin Septic Tank / Scottish Water
Andy Burnett, Project Manager for the Port Appin Septic Tank proposals attended the meeting and gave brief overview of the project following public exhibition of their plans in Port Appin Hall the previous evening (wed 29.01.14). They had withdrawn their proposed planning application until after they heard the locals views. They had a very good response the previous evening and were going to review the comments at a meeting in Scottish Water next week. A lively discussion took place where lots of questions were raised. A meeting will be called when plans have been redone for all to see new proposals. This will be in Port Appin Hall in due course when new proposals are to hand. Scale drawings of proposals were requested for that meeting. The estimated cost of current proposal is £175,000 with estimated work time of 14 weeks.
4. Broadband Project – Appin and Lismore
Bob Cornish explained to the meeting about the proposal. The project has been underway for past six weeks. A questionnaire was sent to all houses in the district and information received has been very useful.
There are 300 postal addresses in Appin, 286 telephone lines at the Appin exchange and 215 internet/broadband subscribers. 100 completed forms have been returned. They were asked to enlarge the project and include Lismore (60 properties) so the closing date for forms was extended to the end of January. Appin/Lismore will not be part of the BT rollout of fibre optic broadband which will come as far as Duror in the north and Barcaldine in the south. Funding for the project is available through Community Broadband Scotland and the project has been registered with them. The proposal paperwork to go to Community Broadband Scotland by mid February.
A small local committee has been formed with the Community Trust being the financial body. Along with the Broadband proposal the project/group are also to look ways of improving mobile phone coverage as currently 39% of the community have no mobile phone coverage.
5. Matters Arising
a. A828 Trunk Road
Alison talked about the road improvements currently in progress. The previous work was sub-standard which is now being rectified. A letter from Transport Scotland was read out regarding the proposal of a 50 mph speed limit from the roundabout on the north side of Creagan Bridge to the 40 mph signs at Achnacone dip, following the recent Transport Scotland speed limit review.
b. School Transport/Public Transport
Nothing further at present.
c. Port Appin and Other Council Roads
The road to the School at Lonrudha has been resurfaced during the summer. No other defects were raised.
Penny Counsins asked about the possibility of the area of land currently used for parking by walkers, car sharing, etc at Creagan roundabout near Knock Lodge being formalised and hardcore or similar put down. Elaine Robertson asked who the land owner was and their willingness to allow this. Alison to find out and inform Elaine.
d. Jubilee Bridge
The work has now finished and is open again for use. Alison congratulated Mike Rayworth for all his hard work and Stuart Carmichael and his team of workers for progressing so well despite the awful weather. Mike gave an update on the project and thanked Iain McNicol for initiating prompt payment via the Community Trust. Mike has also arranged for a photo of the bridge to go to the Queen following her generous donation.
6. Correspondence
Due to having no current secretary the list of correspondence received since the last meeting in August was not available. This will hopefully be available for the next meeting.
Letter from Police Scotland re restructuring of Police dated 30/11/13 re closure of Police Offices – Oban to remain open 24/7.
7. Treasurer’s Report
Alison gave apologies; Paul is current treasurer and is on holiday at present so no report was available.
8. Any Other Business
a. Dangerous Tree – Portnacroich. It has been established it is on land owned by Mr Wallace. Stuart MacCracken, Argyll and Bute Council has written to Mr Wallace informing him about the tree otherwise he will be held liable for cost of any property damage, etc. We await the outcome of this letter.
b. Emergency Plan. Alison reported that this was now at the stage for a small committee to be formed to formalise the plan. This would also look at other local plans and use ideas for them plus detailing local volunteers. Notices with details to encourage willing participants to make up the committee will be publicised soon.
c. Debris on Shore near Creagan Inn – Community Council to contact Crown Commissioners and ask them to arrange to remove this from the foreshore again.
d. Community Council Constitution – This has been signed and will be sent to Argyll and Bute for them to complete and return copy.
e. Recycling Scheme – Was due to come into force in Spring 2014 but no information/update on this. Elaine Robertson to investigate.
f. Safer Routes to School – Mike Rayworth reported on this matter. Ongoing.
9. Public Questions
Help with petrol costs – 5p reduction in a litre of petrol for Highland rural areas was raised. Elaine going to look into this as Appin/PA38 was previously mentioned. Ongoing.
10. Date of Next Meeting 24 April 2014 at 7.30 in Appin Hall
Other dates set are 05.06.14 (+AGM), 11/09/14 and 13/11/14.