NMCC 2008-2009 (946-956)

 

PARISH OF NEW MACHAR COMMUNITY COUNCIL

 

Minutes of a Meeting of the Council held on

Thursday, 30th October 2008

 

Members:

 

Mr Mike Taylor  ( Chair 2008-9 &Sec)  [MT]     Mr Alexander Buchan                  [AB]

Mrs Fiona Duncan               (Treasurer) [FD]     Mr Martin Morley, JP                   [MM]

Prof Roy Bridges             (Minute Sec.)   [RB]     Mrs Pamela Young                        [PY]

Mr Gordon Murray                                [GM]    Mr Robert Loughridge                  [RL]

Ms Lyn Lockhart  (co-pted)                     [LL]

 

In attendance ex officio:  Councillors Dr Martin Ford [CllrMF]; Nan Culllinane [CllrNC] and Fergus Hood [CllrFH]

 

Abbreviations: AC = Aberdeenshire Council;  NMCC = Newmachar Community Council

 

Apologies were recorded for:  Ms Lynn Lockhart, Mr Gordon Murray , Mr Robert Loughridge, Mr Martin morley and PC David Calvert

 

In attendance as visitor(s): Ms Annette Holland of Aberdeenshire Council

 

Minutes

            The Provisional Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 25th September were    noted with the following provisos.  Minute 934 (iii, a, b, c) should be revised to read that             the notice of election would appear on 23rd March 2009; the list of candidates would         appear on 22nd June 2009; the election itself would be in early July, preferably 2nd July.  In            (iii e) the number of candidates in both 6. and 7 should read ‘nine.’

 

            The Minutes of the ordinary meeting of 25th September 2008 were approved as a correct            record.

 

946.     Christmas Lights (See Minute 936)

            CllrFH announced that nine new lights had been purchased at a good discounted price from Scotia Animations so that he now had 18 or 20 to dispose.  They would be installed in mid-November at no charge. There were complications over the payment for these and previous purchases but he hoped to sort out the situation by liaising with AC which had             probably received the invoices.

 

947      Police Matters (See Minute 937)

            (i) PC David Calvert could not be present but had sent in a report which noted that       October had been a reasonably quiet month in Newmachar although there had been some    neighbourhood youth behaviour problems.

            (ii) Midnight football tournaments were being organised and it was hoped some             Newmachar teams could take part.

 

948.     Report on Submission to PLI on AWPR (See Minute 935)

            RB reported that he had been called to give evidence on the day before Newmachar’s      submission was scheduled and was therefore a little under prepared.  Nevertheless he had    been very courteously received and had been able to reiterate the points made in the Precognition statement approved by NMCC (Minute  927) and add a few historical        lessons even if he was unable to contradict the Jacobs Engineering computer’s           calculations of traffic flows up to 2027.

 

949.     Community Hall (See Minute 939)

            (i) Vandals had used dog dirt to smear door handles in one incident and AC would be   asked to provide a different kind of bin.  The Hall Notice Board had also been vandalised.

            (ii)  £60k or thereby  had now been accumulated for the New Hall fund and approaches to         grant-giving bodies were in hand.  The Lottery seemed a doubtful source of aid.

           

 

950.     Youth Project (See Minute 940)

            (i) Annette Holland reported a meeting on the previous night with Manson Merchant     present.  There was a desire to use the room for the Breakfast Club but there was a   difficulty about early opening.  Similarly, the Out of School Club would need space once it           was fully established.  NMCC took the view that such uses were proper ones. In any case             the building was owned by AC.  It was agreed to consider the Out of School Club situation       at the next meeting.

            (ii) The planning issue is being dealt with by the councillors who will also endeavour to solve the problem over electricity supplies.

            (iii) Some administrative problems over matters like authorised signatories for bank        accounts were being addressed.

            (iv) Annette is continuing her efforts to meet local children and interest them in the       Centre.  She considered that relatively young children needed to use the Centre as well as       the fully adolescent.

 

951.     Notice Board

            PY’ s offer to look after the NMCC notice board was received with gratitude and            expenditure on a dehumidifier approved.  PY said she would make arrangements with the             Post Office for receipt of notices.

 

952.     Aberdeenshire Council Business (See Minute 942)

            (i) School plans for the Garioch Area were devised in the light of gradings for the quality of         the buildings.  New Machar School was graded ‘C’ and might be upgraded in 2013.  By        2016 only some 40 new pupil places would be needed and so there was no great urgency           about renovations.

            (ii) CllrFH reported on AC’s sustainability policies which included e.g. 2% per annum   energy use reduction in schools and the 30% of waste  being recycled currently to be      increased by the use of an anaerobic digester for food scraps and a collecting scheme for        electrical and electronic equipment.  CllrMF noted the importance of waste minimalisation             if targets were to be achieved.

            (iii)  The 2008 Residents Survey will be reported at the next meeting.

 

 

953.     Election 2009 (See Minute 934 iii as revised above)

            MT reported that no response had as yet been received from the Area Manager.

 

954.     School Bus Accidents

            AB suggested that NMCC should add its weight to the campaign being waged to improve           the safety of pupils using school bus services.  CllrFH said that AC was taking various          initiatives including a DVD to be shown in schools.  New bus contracts would be arranged    in 2010 with safety in mind.

 

955.     Correspondence

            Correspondence from the Road Safety campaign, the Association for the Protection of   Rural Scotland and from AC concerning a Guide to services was noted.

 

956.     Arrangements for November Meeting

            In view of the likely absence of the Chairman and other difficulties, it was agreed to        postpone the ‘November’ meeting to 11th December 2008.

 

 

 

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 2103.

 

The next meeting will be on 11th December 2008