HELMSDALE

AND DISTRICT COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 4th April 2013 at 7.30pm in the Community Centre Present: Stan Amey (Chairman), Edward Mackay, (Vice-Chair), Barbara Jappy, (Treasurer), Penny Kane (Secretary), Malcolm Bromley, Alison Cowie, Gerry Wood Councillor Deirdre Mackay Guests: Valery George, Community Centre representative and Garry Macmillan Community Bus representative 1. Apologies: Paul Harrington 2. Police report: No police present 3. Village Notice Board: On behalf of the Community Centre, Valery agreed to have 2 notice boards attached to the front of the Community Centre. She will hold the keys. Questions arose re the other village notice boards. The current notice board in the Bridge car park is being replaced by the 2 at the Community Centre and will therefore be removed when the car park area is upgraded. The large notice board opposite the Community Centre will stay until its removal is requested. This was purchased by the Community Council and should be relocated once repainted and not discarded. The notice board in the car park near the Wee Cafe will be left until the upgrade of the statue area and a decision taken then. Penny to inform Claire Bell 4. Community Bus: At the last meeting a member of the public had complained about the cost of taxi fares of 8.00 to ferry him into the village and back as it is a very short distance. Garry, as a member of the Community Bus Committee was invited to see if the community bus could help at all. The price is set by the Highland Council. The bus has only a section 19 permit and in order to run a service this would have to be changed to a section 22 permit. This would mean the bus running the route regularly, whether customers were using it or not. As the bus relies on volunteers to run it this was not thought to be feasible. Also when the bus was set up, it was agreed that it would not take business from the existing taxi service. It would be possible for people requiring lifts to join the lunch club held at the Community Centre on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The bus ride is free and lunch costs 3.50. It would also give people an opportunity to do some shopping. 5. Approval of Minutes of March meeting: Proposed by Malcolm, seconded by Alison 6. Matters Arising: We must try to avoid having meetings on Monday evenings as Barbara works until 8pm. It was agreed to continue having the meetings at 7pm 7. Councillors Report: A new Head Teacher has been appointed to Golspie School. Mark Evans has previously been Deputy Head at Peterhead Academy. His appointment will bring stability to the school Port Gower: the traffic delays continue. Deirdre is trying to get the repairs expedited as the delays are unacceptable in a main trunk route. The Dementia Centre being run at the community Centre is doing very well and the model will be rolled out over Sutherland

8. Treasurers report: Current account: 992.77, including 200 for micro grants. There is 1 more application as the Tennis Club did not take the grant allocated last month, from Loth and Helmsdale Flower Show for 250.00 to pay for flowers, bulbs, compost etc. They also request 200 from council funds. A micro grant of 200 was granted as that was all the money until June. The request for further funds was denied and Penny to write to the Chair of the Flower Show to say there is no automatic awarding of grants and formal requests must be made. The money the Council receives in a grant from the Highland Council is to pay admin costs and no regular payments to any particular group have ever been agreed. Accounts need to be audited in time for AGM by end June. Council agreed to ask Lynne Murray to do. 9. Development Officers Report: Development officer not present 10. Helmsdale Environment Improvements: Barbara agreed to be the representative in decisions re the interpretation boards Specifications re material being used for paving etc will be addressed Alison has spoken to the football club about the suggested improvements in the statue area and they have no objections Stan wrote to the Baxters and Robert Mackay re the improvements to the Bridge car park and invited comments by tonights meeting. There have been none 11. A.O.B.: a) Malcolm reported damage to the parapet of the bridge at Kilpheder at previous meetings, no action taken to repair as yet. Barbara to deal b) Alison reported that the brown signage at Green Park overgrown and needs clearing c) Stan: A request has been made for a skip to collect garden rubbish n the spring, however it was felt that this would fill with all sorts of household rubbish. There is a skip at the Brora recycling/ rubbish area for garden rubbish d) Stan: The disabled loo will not flush and the door will not close. Barbara to report e) Stan: Has received an anonymous letter complaining about the untidy state if the industrial sites at Glebe Terrace. This is private property and there is no action the Community Council can take. No response can be made as the letter was anonymous. If rats have been seen there the correspondent can report directly to environmental health. f) Penny: A complaint has been made about the green lanes up at Gartymore being blocked by gorse and generally overgrown. This is because they are seldom used. The byways probably belong to the crofters and any clearing would be up to them g) Stan: The abandoned part of the A9 up from Navidale is becoming overgrown with gorse and this needs cutting to allow people to walk up there. Barbara to deal h) Stan: Received an invitation to visit HMS Sutherland on Sunday 28th April. Penny +1 to go and let Phil Tomalin know i) Garry Macmillan asked for a crash barrier at Port Gower to protect/replace the wall which is often damaged. Deirdre says this has been put to Transerve and is a work in progress j) Penny asked Deirdre to report to the relevant person the filthy state of Wick Castle which has no rubbish bins and rubbish left lying everywhere. Meeting closed at 8.10pm Date and time of next meeting: Thursday 2nd May 2013 at 7pm