Minutes of the Ordinary Meeting of the Burgh of St Monans and Abercrombie Community Council held on Monday 18^th April 2016 at 7.30pm

 

Present:

Peter Copland, George Brown, Bill Buchan, Vic Bland, Peter Peddie, Brenda Allan, Marjory Ashworth, Ena Hughes, Cllr John Docherty, Cllr Donald MacGregor and Cllr Elizabeth Riches.

 

1. Welcome and Apologies

P Copland opened the meeting.

Apologies:  Elaine Porteous, Vicki Salvage, Stuart Tarvit

13 members of the public.

 

2. Declarations of Interest
3. Copland informed the meeting that he would be abstaining from any vote in connection with Item 8 on the agenda, Sea Queen CGF Application

 

3. Matters Arising
4. Water at Rose St. Cllr Doherty received the Scottish Water report after the last CC meeting. Since SW can find no leaks in their systems, then it is up to the CC to decide if any further action is to be taken. This will be dealt with in Item 9
5. Miller Terrace. P. Copland is still waiting to hear about the cost of tarring the track. We are unable to proceed any further with this until we get an idea of cost. Hopefully, the problem of cars running on the grass along side the track will be cured when the track is finally tarred. The council is going to inspect Miller Terrace for double parking/flowerpots on pavements etc.
6. Rusty Road Signs. These are slowly being replaced. Cllr Riches informed us that eventually only galvanized metal will be used.
7. Autumn Club Hall Charges. Cllr MacGregor had a meeting with Paul Vaughan and he was informed that a new charging rate was going to be introduced which may result in up to 80% reduction in charges but these won’t come in until the autumn.
8. Rubbish at Bus Stops and Along the Roadside. Community Payback have been contacted to clear this up and we have been put on a waiting list. However, it seems that FC have been out and done some rubbish collecting. Brenda is going to liaise with Community Payback
9. Bins Left On The Pavement All Week. Brenda has reported this.
10. Serenity Garden. Both seats are in a poor state of repair. George said he was hoping that Community Payback could attend this to. Brenda will investigate.
11. Area Next to Jimmy Braid Garden. Brenda will investigate whether Community Payback can clear an area next to the JB Garden to tidy it up.
12. Beach Clean. Marjory has had no communication from FC regarding a skip for the beach clean. She is going to follow up to get a reply but there are sufficient funds in the account to cover hire of a skip if the need arises.
13. Car Parking Across Driveways. P Copland has had a word with Colin Stirling.
14. MUGA. This is progressing well. The tar is due to go down on Thursday and then it is left for 2 weeks to harden.

 

Previous Minutes Approved:

Proposer:  Vic Bland          Seconded:  Bill Buchan

 

4. Chairman’s Report

Nothing to report

 

5. Secretary’s Report

New Development West of the Manse.  The Council only wanted relatively minor variations to the plans submitted.  The single garages need to comply with the latest measurements and grit bins need to be provided. No discussion took place on timescale.

 

6. Treasurer’s Report

George provided the meeting with 2 Treasurer’s Reports. The first is the normal monthly figures. The only expenditure has been £112 for Pathead. Half of this amount is a carry over from last year and half is for some of the tubs for this year. We have the first donation for the floral display this year.

The second report is the Annual Statement.  George pointed out that the floral display funds have dropped significantly over the past 2 years and something really needs to be done to rectify this.

 

Annual Statement Approved:

Proposed: P. Copland              Seconded: M. Ashworth

 

 

7. Planning

Nothing to Report

 

8. Sea Queen Common Good Fund Application.
9. Copland handed chairmanship over to G. Brown for this item. The Sea Queen Committee requires £1,000 to run Sea Queen Day. There were no objections to this.

 

9. Water at Rose St. Since Scottish Water have decided that it is not their responsibility, the chairman asked for ideas from the members of the CC and members of the public as to how this situation might be resolved. Cllr Doherty said he would bring it up with FC again.

 

10. Public Questions. A member of the public spoke about the 2 FC properties for sale in the village. There is still a lot of disquiet about how the sale of these properties has been handled and he is happy to keep pressing FC for answers to his questions. Cllr Riches offered any assistance so he is going to keep her copied in to emails.

 

11. AOCB.

– Members of the public expressed a great deal of concern over the development at 24 George Terrace. It appears to be much bigger than the original plans and stretching over into land over which the developer has no title. A long and wide-ranging discussion took place covering many aspects of the development including its height and footprint and whether the sloping ground was able to take the weight of a dwelling of that size. Also discussed were the legal issues and ownership. The residents may band together to get legal representation. Cllr Riches has asked the Enforcement officer to visit to determine the height and he will also check on parking spaces. Cllr Doherty asked if there was any deviation on materials used. It was decided that a site visit with the Enforcement Officer should be arranged as soon as possible where residents could explain their concerns.

– There will be a band night with George’s band and Morven, Martin and Mills on Sat 14^th May. Funds raised at this event will go towards the Floral Display.

– West End Beach/Harbour Regeneration Project will soon be going before planning. Holes need to be dug to locate the bedrock

 

• The sea wall behind 20 West End is being undermined. A. Cook from Leven has been asked to intervene. He will need to take a digger across the rocks to make a repair and while he is here he is going to do some work to stabilize the grass West End Beach
• Heritage stuff will be moved to the new container on Tuesday 26^th Meet at 6.30 at the Heritage.
• Braehead Rd sign was removed when the property was painted and never replaced. P. Copland will contact transportation. Other signs appear to be missing as well including King David St at Braehead and Queen Margaret St at Braehead.
• Selling of Village Halls. Cllr MacGregor told the meeting that there were no plans to sell off St Monans Hall. A short discussion followed on the ownership of the hall
• There appears to have been a slip of the cliff face at the caravan site. There is only a very limited amount that can be done about that but it was suggested speaking to Ian Barbour at FC
• Brenda mentioned that she had noticed that a drain into the St Monans Burn at the bridge to the car park had been running hard and gouging out the banking.

 

12. Close and Date of Next Meeting.
13. Copland thanked everybody and closed the meeting. The date of the next meeting will be Monday 16^th May in the Mayview Hotel