The Royal Burgh of Lochmaben & District Community Council

MINUTES OF MEETING OF

THE ROYAL BURGH OF LOCHMABEN & DISTRICT COMMUNITY COUNCIL

HELD IN THE TOWN HALL

Tuesday 10th January 2017

Present

Pam Linton (PL) Chair

Tony Hancock (TH) Vice Chair

Dug Pettigrew (DP) Treasurer

Edna Allbrooke Member

Ian Vidler (IV) Member

Charles McKerrel (CMck) Member

May McKerrel (MMck) Member

Bob Murray (BM) Co-Opted Member

Stephen Thompson (ST) D&G Councillor

John Morrison Local Resident

Apologies Anne Wyllie , Member, Jim Davidson, Member . Peter Diggle, DGC Councillor, Josh Busley, Deputy Head Boy , Lockerbie Academy

Minutes of the Previous Meeting 5th December 2016

Accepted by PL seconded by IV

Matters arising

Cemetery Sign

TH advised CC members that the 'Old Cemetery Sign' has now been erected.

Pelmets for the windows in the Chamber Room

PD had contacted Louise Matheson DGC who had responded as follows:

"There was no request for pelmets to be included within the brief/scope of work given to Property and Architectural Services at the time this project was commissioned. The project was reported as complete some considerable time ago and the final project cost also reported with the Non-Schools Asset class expenditure. There is currently no budget available to fit pelmets."

Royal Bank of Scotland - Lochmaben High Street, Waste Bin

TH has emailed Biffa who it appears are responsible for the bin asking them to remove it as there appears to be no provision to empty the bin which has become a health hazard, received no response. A complaint was made to DGC via the CCES procedure on the 13th December , a response was received on the 15th December advising that a response would be forthcoming before the 16th January 2017 , TH contacted CCES again and pointed out that the waste bin was overflowing with used fast food packaging and constituted a health hazard, the bin was emptied on the 16th December 2016. Hopes that the bin had been removed for good were premature when a different waste bin turned up two days later.

Lochmaben Paddling Pool, Nethermill Road

A question raised at the previous meeting as to who owned the land in Nethermill Road, which is currently paved over but at one time was a paddling pool.

TH advised that a DGC report from the Annandale and Eskdale Committee dated 2nd October 2007 states :

Section 7.1 Clearly states that DGC owns the land on which the paddling pool is situated .

Section7.4 Which gives details of how DGC acquired the land.

A email has also been received from DGC stating that they do indeed own the land, investigation ongoing.

Tree Felling - The Old Dairy

TH reported that following the decision by CC at the last meeting a response had been forwarded to the Forestry Commission advising that the CC did not agree with the felling of the trees and that annual pruning would offer a better solution to the claim that the trees were too close to a power line.

Councillor Diggle had reported the matter to David Suttie of the Economy, Environment and Infrastructure (EMES) Team advising that he has visited the site and in his opinion the trees simply needed a prune rather than being cut down. The EMES team responded as follows:

"The trees are not subject to any statutory protection currently (i.e. they are not located within a Conversation Area and are not covered by a Tree Preservation Order - TPO). In such circumstances, the Council as planning authority has no focus over the felling of these trees presently.

However, the Council's Landscape Architect is going to visit the site and inspect the trees next week to consider if the serving of a TPO may be appropriate. I will contact you again once I have received his report."

No 30 Lochmaben High Sreet.

Relating to the cavity in the road outside No 30 - this issue has been reported to D&GC

The issue has been fully investigated and the outcome of the issue is : No Action Required - Not a Safety Issue at this time but will continue to monitor.

Currently with very tight budgets the Council has to strictly prioritise repairs to the worst hazardous defects: we will monitor this situation and if there is an opportunity in future we may look to carry out remedial works however with being full and frank it is unlikely in the foreseeable future we will be able to carry out a repair here. Details of the report have been forwarded to John Morrison , who lives at 30 High Street.

Christmas Party

PL thanked CC members for their efforts in helping organise the Senior Citizens Christmas Party, CC members in turn thanked the Chair and her organization skills which ensured that the party was a great success.

Police Report

Meeting attended by PC David Irons

Crime Update

The festive period of 2016 has proved to be one of the least violent in history on a national scale and this is reflected on a local basis also.

Throughout December within Lochmaben area there were little if any significant incidents which required Police involvement.

There have been a number of housebreakings in the region lately, one of the most recent having occurred at a residential address during the late afternoon on Tuesday 3 January 2017, out the outskirts of Brydekirk village. Police enquires are ongoing, however Police are urging members of the public to keep premises, including sheds and outbuildings secured and valuables out of sight.

Please remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity, vehicle or persons(s) to Police, either on 101 or 999 in an emergency. Document any suspicious vehicle registration marks/descriptions and report to Police. We would rather know about any suspicious activity and for it to be false with good intent that not know about it. It is working together with members of the public who remain vigilant within their communities that we are able and detect these types of crimes.

Security surveys can be carried out and crime prevention advice can be given by Police, which is free of charge. Contact can be made with either PC Irons or any officer in Annandale and Eskdale Community Department on 101 or

Significant incidents

Nationally between 02/12/16 and 02/01/17 a total of 19,000 drivers were tested for alcohol and 625 were shown to be over the limit, Of these 46 were as a result of having had a drink the previous night.

Treasurers Report

Report from Treasurer DP as follows:

Christmas Lights fund £2,325.65p

Community Council Fund £8,836.82p

D&G Council Issues

·  No 30 High Street, ST having noted the response from DGC re lack of funds etc to fix the 'rut' will endeavour to find out if this repair could not be carried out when other local installations/repairs are being carried out, it's a question of perusing the issue.

·  PL reported that a lorry had shed part of its load in the High Street, which could have been cause by jarring effect when passing over the rut.

·  ST advises that the lift at the Town Hall has at last been repaired , the spare part has been located (which took 3 months to find)

·  ST enquired if the hedges at the Barras had been trimmed, PL advised not to date, ST advised that DGHP were on the job and the trimming should be attended to soon.

·  ST re cleaning of the Bus Shelter's , not been done but should be attended to shortly.

·  ST offered to find out via DGC legal department who actually owns the land on which the former paddling pool was built. This led to a long in depth discussion regarding the ownership issue. CMck offered to check with the Land Registry regarding land ownership, TH handed over the DGC report which states that DGC own the land, together with a copy of the location plan of the property. ST advised that even if DGC own the land it is on behalf of the people of Lochmaben.

·  PL reported that two signs at the Lochmaben Cemetery had fallen down and needs to be fixed.

·  PL reported a very bad 'pot hole' at Mossvale, needs urgent attention

·  ST reported that the 3 drop drains near the Hospital had been fixed.

·  IV enquired if a traffic mirror could be installed at the entrance from Lochmaben Cemetery to improve road safety.

Speeding Issues

The results of the speed checks carried out at the east and west ends of Lochmaben on the A709 using traffic counters have now been received, disappointingly they are not in the same format as used when the speed checks were carried out recently in Lochmaben High Street. The format supplied reveals 'mean' speeds and 'average' speeds but not actual speeds. A request has been forwarded back to DGC asking for the results to be supplied in the same format as before which will reveal actual speeds and vehicle numbers, a copy of the format was forwarded with the request.

30mph Speed signs - Broomhill Road

There are plans by DGC to move the existing 30mph signs further to the west into Lochmaben on Broomhill Road. Councillor Diggle has responded to Graeme Alison at DGC stating that he can see no reason why the 30mph signs on Broomhill Road should be moved, especially in this time of severe cutbacks. He further stated that he would oppose relocating the signs on the edge of a residents garden that the house overlooks.

The reason for the proposed move of the 30mph are as follows:

At Lochmaben, the speed limit on the U66a at Broomhill Road is some distance into the countryside beyond the edge of the built up area. As part of the proposed overall speed limit for Lochmaben consideration is being given to whether the ext extent of the speed limit on this road can be more closely associated with the start/end of the built-up area, and therefore increase the likelihood of driver understanding of the purpose of the limit. In turn this should hopefully increase the potential for greater compliance with this and other speed limits. The matter you raise will relate to a recent site visit to review potential changes to speed limit extents in this community and a brief discussion I had with a resident there at the times. Any such proposals are dependent on there being a suitable site for the speed limit signs and where there is appropriate visibility towards the signs for approaching drivers.

TH has emailed Graeme Alison requesting that the CC be kept informed of any further development of this proposal .

D&G Development Plan Scheme

TH supplied details of the DGC Development Plan Scheme , 8th Edition and advised that there will be drop-in sessions across the region, those most local to Lochmaben will be Dumfries, Monday 20th February, Annan, Thursday 23rd February and Lockerbie, Thursday 16th March , CC members are urged to attend a drop-in session if possible.

Defibrillator - Lochmaben

A Defibrillator is to be installed at Lochmaben Surgery, with 24 hours access, this has been made possible from joint funding supplied by The Community and Vocational Committee of The Dumfries Rotary Club together with local resident Andrew Boyd. There will also be a training session organised by the Lucky 2BHere Emergency Life Support Training Programme to be held at the Lochmaben Community Centre on 19th January 10.30am to 12.30pm or 2.00pm to 4.00 pm , PL and TH have booked up to attend.

Residents Issues

McCalls Coaches

Following the discussion at the meeting of 5th December TH has emailed the Traffic Commissioner and advised that comments from local residents from the Barras area of Lochmaben paint a very different picture than that given by the Directors of McCalls Coaches and has enquired if it would be possible to set up a meeting in Lochmaben in order that residents can put their case to The Traffic Commissioner.

No 54 High Street

This property has recently been renovated with replacement uPVC windows , the resident has been advised that the window type used are contrary to that required in a conversation area, the statement from DGC is as follows:

The detailing and design of the replacement windows are unsympathetic to the character of the dwelling house and fail to preserve or enhance the character and appearance of Lochmaben Conversation Area.

Initial observations from photographs supplied suggest that there is virtually no difference between the windows previously installed in the house and those which have replaced them, with regard to the windows being uPVC, a recent inspection of the houses in the High Street revealed that over 90% were uPVC. ongoing.

Lochmaben Initiative Report

TH attended the Lochmaben Initiative meeting on the 4th January , details as follows:

·  The Initiative Facebook hits for the Lochmaben CC minutes has risen from 93 to 182 Nov- Dec 2016

·  The Computer mentoring project will commence at the end of January , must likely venue will be Lochmaben Church.

·  The Fitness trail project - there has been a disappointing response from interested parties with regard to forming a steering committee, it was suggested that there may be more success if a public meeting is held.

·  Next joint CC/Initiative Litter Pick to be at the end of February, date to be advised.

·  The damaged Mill Loch sign, has been fixed by Men's Shed.

CLLCT Report

TH attended the CLLCT meeting on the 20thDecember , details as follows:

·  Arrangements have been made to fit flood protection gates at the cottage together with a pumping system.

·  Looking at improving the outbuilding ,i.e. installing electricity , new floor etc, may offer the facility to Men's Shed , but not exclusively, will also need to make the building safe from vandalism.

·  Castlemains footpath , Opening planned for January 17th, opening to be carried out by local resident Hal McGhie, drinks , soup and sausage rolls will be served, all are welcome

·  The CLLCT AGM will be on 21st March at the Church Hall

·  Annual visitors to the Loch estimated at 14,000

Date of next CC meeting Tuesday 7th February 2017