Minutes of Meetingon Wednesday 2Nd September 2015 Held In
1
Minutes of Meetingon Wednesday 2nd September 2015 held in
Nether Currie Primary School
Present –Christopher Balfour - Jack Cairns- Jean Cairns - Barbara Chambers
Emily Deuchars - Mark Hutchison -Ann Ireland – Ian Ireland – Sheila Nicol
Rachel Nicolson – Peter Young.
- Apologies – Jo Walton
Mark welcomed everyone to the Meeting .
- Minutes of Meeting held on 3rd June 2015.
Minutes were approved by Jack Cairns and seconded by Ian Ireland.
- Matters Arising from3rd June 2015Meeting.
Item 6) It was decided not to hold a Teddy Bear’s Picnic due to insufficient interest.
Item 7) Provision of a Board Walk is still in hand. This is unlikely to be provided
before next year at the earliest.
Additional fruit trees are still awaited.
A metre strip of grass is now being cut next to the path when the regular
mowing takes place.
The burned out bin in the Children’s Play Area is still being pursued.
Installation of an Information Board is ongoing – see Item 5 on Agenda.
- Dogs in Children’s Play Area.
Mark gave a report of a confrontation that Val had with a member of the public who was exercising his dog inside the restricted Children’s Play Area
Ann also reported a similar problem when the woman in question replied “ there were no children in the Play area so I can bring my dog in”
In each of these cases verbal abuse was received from the dog owners.
It was agreed that little can be done about this other than rely on dog owners to carry out their Civic duty by obeying the rules and signs.
The gates to the Play Area are being left open on a number of occasions and it was agreed to pursue the installation of self-closing gates again.
One of the “Please Close the Gate “ signs has disappearedfrom the gate.
4a. Update on Flooding Problem
Mark reported that 26 Parks in Edinburgh require some kind of Flood Prevention work. At the moment the first 12 on the list either have work in progress or in hand. Muir Wood Park is number 13 on the list which means we will be next to be considered. There is no time scale for this but at least we are on the list.
- Design of Proposed Information Board.
Some drawings and pictures of what could be included in the Wildlife Information board were circulated for discussion. It was thought that a design similar to the History Board would be most suitable.
Ian to continue discussions with Craig re Grant application from the Neighbourhood Projects for the provision of this board.
- Events etc. Update.
Ian read out from a report that Jo had left in her absence.
The Foraging event was unlikely to run due to lack of numbers.
The Batwalk and Minecraft days had good numbers but there was still space on the Family Bushcraft event.
Jo suggested that we could apply for funding to run an Easter event or Teddy Bear’s Picnic and include other activities along with these ie story-telling etc.
Jo is very keen to upgrade the equipment in the Children’s Play area and has put forward proposals to Myparkscotland to promote a fundraising appeal.
She would like to put out a questionnaire regarding what type of equipment would be desired and also have a Community session to show what is available/wished for. This could be arranged for later this year.
All of those present were very supportive of these ideas.
7. AOCB
a) Bees Mark gave a brief talk on the plight of bees , how their numbers were
declining due to loss of habitat in the countryside and possibly some virus
attacking them.
b) At the close of the meeting Sheila Nicol advised us that this would be the last
meeting she would be attending as she was retiring in October.
She has been Head Teacher at Nether Currie Primary School for over 17 years.
The Friends Group thanked her for her excellent involvement over the years and
for encouraging the children to participate in the Meetings.
We wished her all the best for a long and happy retirement and said that we were
sorry to see her go.
- Date of Next Meeting.
The next Meeting will be held in Nether Currie Primary School on
Wednesday 2nd December 2015 at 6.45pm.