08-03-08 Council Commentary and Quayside Capers

There was another well-attended meeting of the East Kintyre Community Council last Thursday evening, with a record attendance of no less than three Argyll & Bute Councillors!

Councillors John McAlpine and Anne Horn were present for Kintyre and the Islands, and Donald Kelly for South Kintyre.

The first topic raised was the on-going parking shenanigans down at the quay. Workers from the council had been there recently to renew the road markings for the turning circle for the bus and, whilst there, had been approached by an individual to re-paint the lines along the roadside. Unbeknown to them these were unauthorised road markings but they duly re-painted them. It is now down to the Council to lift or paint-over them. It will be interesting to note how long it takes them to rectify this problem.
The issue of residents parking bays down at the Quay has been referred to the Council but may take in excess of a year before anything is actually done, as it will require a traffic order passing.

The state of the road down to Brackley Cemetary and the parking area there has been cause for concern for some time. Tony Lambert of Argyll & Bute Council has agreed to an on-site meeting to discuss what can be done to improve matters. More details of this in due course.

The expected speaker for the Kintyre Way failed to materialise. It is hoped this can be re-arranged for a later meeting.

The treasurer was unable to attend but sent a report which the chairperson went through. It would appear that finances are in good shape. Some discussion was made as to involving a third independant signitory to cheques but general concensus seemed to be that this was an unnecessary complication, and that the proposed signitory is also the community council's auditor and so hardly independant.

Marcus Adams spoke out in support of the council, saying how people would not have voted for them had they not considered them trustworthy.

It was noted that the position of Minutes Secretary was still vacant and if anyone knew of someone suitable they should contact the council.
Community Composting was next and the subject of some lively debate. It was noted that there is to be a crack-down on fly-tipping (perhaps something the council's contractors should take note of). Members of the community have been warned by the Environment Warden that they face a fine of Ł50 if they continued to dump garden cuttings in the area by the entrance to Tosh's Park.

Several people spoke out to say that this had been common practice for perhaps as long as fifty years, and that garden waste rapidly composts down. It seems the Council had received an anonymous letter of complaint.

Perhaps another example of mischief-making by person or persons un-named? Debate continued with general concensus being that community composting was a good plan if somewhere could be found to do it.
The state of the B842 was raised, with concern over the number of trees that have fallen across it recently and the continued lack of gritting. It was established that it is Argyll & Bute Council's responsibility to ensure the road is passable yet this task often falls to local residents who are neither insured nor remunerated for this valuable work. The council has powers to force landowners to maintain their land but this does not extend to Crown Property.
Councillor McAlpine stated that the B842 north of Carradale was considered by the Council to be a category 3 route, of little priority. Residents pointed out that more people are using this road to get to Tarbert and beyond, and that a number of children from the village were now using it as their route to school. There are two children from Carradale attending Skipness Primary School, two more attending Tarbert Primary School, and three attending Tarbert Academy, with other children from further up the road also attending Skipness and Tarbert schools.

[GoatNote: Note also that parents of children choosing to send their children to these schools are obliged to fund it themselves, with no assistance at all from the Council.]

On the subject of gritting, it was remarked that the Council's gritter/snowplough recently broke down in Grogport, blocking the road for several hours. Residents had noted that not only did the road appear untreated but that the vehicle was not carrying any grit!

A resident had contacted the Council to ask why the grit heaps at strategic points had not been maintained, and was told that the Council feels they are a waste of time.

Also raised was the condition the road was being left in by contractors renewing the water main to Brackley. The road is often left covered with mud and safety barriers blown into the road. The contractors themselves seem casual about site safety and it was also remarked that they drive their van at excessive speeds through the village.

Anyone who feels that the Council's assessment of the importance of the B842 is wrong is invited to write to Councillor McAlpine or any of the other councillors and state their case.
Moving on to Planning, there was nothing to discuss.

Correspondence: Letters had been received about the Wildcat Survey, a Health Newsletter, notes of a SEPA seminar, Scotways Newsletter will be featuring the Kintyre Way later in the year, and a piece on youth shelters.

Any Other Business: The issue of the Ireland ferry is back with the Scottish Executive. A resident remarked that he felt the curcular chair at the memorial garden may be repairable, and sought permission to uplift it for work, which was duly granted. It was also noted that contractors renewing street lighting cables were treating the flower beds badly, leaving signs laying on them as well as the general state of the pavement reinstatements.

Mr Oman asked the question of how long it had been since the Community Council had submitted minutes to Argyll & Bute Council? The chair replied that it had been the previous week, and that minutes of all community council meeting had been sent to the Council. Mr Oman stated that he had been led to believe it was July of last year. The chair suggested that Mr Oman had been speaking to the wrong person and referred him to Alison Younger at the Council. Councillor Paterson commented wryly on this attempt at 'mischief making'.
Moving on to post delivery it was remarked how deliveries to the village are becoming later and later, and that outbound post from the village is being collected later than stated and as a consequence missing the mail transport to Glasgow, not leaving Campbeltown until the next day. In effect, Carradale's first class mail is being treated as second class.

Discussion ensued with the concensus appearing to be that the post is arriving at Campbeltown later in the morning than before. It then needs to be sorted before going out for deliver. A resident noted how a Christmas card posted on 18 December was not delivered until 2 March this year.

Cllr Page stated that a notice would be going into the Campbeltown Courier advising that applications for grant funding from the East Kintyre Windfarm Trust should be submitted by 28 March 2008 in order than they could be considered for the next tranch of grants.

Finally, the next meeting of the East Kintyre Community Council would be on Thursday, 3 April 2008, at 7pm in Carradale village hall.

Click HERE to comment to this blog entry.
(C)Copyright The Carradale Goat 2010