30-04-05 EKCC Meeting Notes
Thursday's EKCC meeting was, by recent standards, a calm and orderly event which ran to just a snippet over two hours.
The minutes of the last meeting were approved (without being read). The draft constituion was adopted without amendment and copies are to be made available in local Post Offices and shops.
The vacant position for a councillor for Saddell and Peninver is to be advertised and anyone in those areas is invited to put their name forward. The option of an additional seat for Carradale was raised and will be taken under advisement.
The netx tranch of funding for projects from the Windfarm Trust is due for distribution and an advert has been placed in the Courier inviting applications. Whilst it was agreed to retain the existing community representatives on the Windfarm Trust it was also noted that to encourage a wider range of people from the community would be good. The EKWFT officers were then appointed:
Chairperson: Shelagh Galbraith
Secretary: Geoff Page
Treasurer: Stuart Irvine
There were no licensing or planning matters to discuss. The final draft of the Local Plan is being made available for consultation, with local exhibitions. (GoatNote: It is also available online and on CD Rom.)
Parking problems in Tormor and elsewhere in the village was discussed with it being noted that there were 19 cars parked in the Tormor carpark, some doubly preventing access, and that some spaces are being occupied by trailers. Parking at Woodside is similarly difficult and it was noted that the recycling bins are taking up at least four spaces there.
A discussion ensued as to whether there was anywhere else that the bins could be located without occupying valuable parking space. Forest Enterprise have turned down a request to site them by the Play Park carpark and the village hall was also thought unsuitable, partly due to distance from the village centre. The issue of the bottle bank currently absent from the harbour carpark was also raised although there was no information on when it might return. It was noted that smaller bottle-banks are at the Woodside carpark.
The state of the ground behind the War Memorial was raised. This area is very overgrown and it would be good to clear it. The landowner has no objection and it was agreed to try to get volunteers from the community to help with the work. Funding for expenses may be available from the Windfarm Trust.
The state of the signposts about the various walks in the village was raised. Many of these are broken or in need of other repair and it was remarked that perhaps new signs could be sourced of more robust and long-lasting materials.
The condition of the Play Park was then discussed. This is also in rather poor repair. Whilst the play equipment itself is fine the need for a lick of paint is apparent. The football pitch needs work and one of the goalposts is down. Apparently a woman in a Landrover was found using the pitch as an off-road course recently! (As a Landrover enthusiast himself the Goat deplores this irresponsible behaviour.) It was suggested that a gate across the entrance would deter inappropriate vehiclular access (locked with keys to appropriate people/groups). Local volunteers were invited to help with cleaning up the play park and football pitch area.
Publoic access to council documents was raised. The previous Secretary had hoped to make these available by way of a filing cabinet in the village hall. Concern was raised by the new Secretary that documents might go missing unless controlled access could be assured. He offered to give access to any documents in his possession. (GoatNote: We will happily scan documents and make them available on the internet if this would be of any assistance.)
The Bay Road is to be repaired thanks to the Tourist Promotion Group. The water board have continued to ignore requests for them to maintain it, as was originally agreed.
The Camera Club announced that the darkroom is now available for public use at the Network Centre. This was part-funded by a grant from the Windfarm Trust.
A letter from Lakeland Marine supports the Councils confirmation of money to repair and improve the pier and harbour. In the letter they confirm their commitment to cod farming in the area to the north of Carradale and stated that they expect this to provide 15 new local jobs.
The Kintyre Way, a new long-distance path, will pass through Carradale and it was hoped to raise the profile of the village. The path runs from Tarbert to Southen, criss-crossing Kintyre.
This next meeting will be a standard EKCC meeting to be immediately followed by the East Kintyre Windfarm Trust AGM at which will be discussed the applications for funding. It was noted that no EKCC AGM is required this year as A & B Council consider the meeting that followed the election results to be sufficient. The meeting was closed a few minutes after 9pm.
The next meeting will be on 2 June 2005 at 7pm in the village hall.
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