63rd Meeting of the Convention of Perth & Kinross Community Councils

Wednesday 22 September 2010, Ex-Servicemen's Club, 20 Milne Street, Perth

Present: Ted Piner (Dull & Weem), Mary Ferrier (Muthill), Kevin Borthwick (Fossaway), Jim Bradley (Blairgowrie & Rattray, area representative for the Association of Scottish Community Councillors), Angus McKay (Crieff), Neil Gaunt (Blackford)

Officers:

Chairman, Michael Gallagher (Coupar Angus, Ardler & Bendochy)

Vice-chairman & Treasurer, Joe Richardson (Kinross)

Secretary, Stan Bruce (Mid-Atholl, Strathtay and Grandtully)

  1. Apologies: Mike Cheesewright (Pitlochry)
  2. Minutes of the 62nd meeting held on 12th May 2010, proposed as accurate by Joe Richardson, seconded by Stan Bruce. Approved.
  3. Matters arising from the previous minutes:

a)Lack of finances: see item 6a), below

b)Poor planning procedures:

-The Convention will consult with all community councils for examples of failures by Perth & Kinross Council to enforce planning conditions.

-Status of planning objections from community councils: There is general agreement that an objection from a CC should be enough to send a planning application to committee. For example if you have an application with only one person affected and hence only one objector, the local CC should be able to insist that the decision goes to committee.

-The Convention will raise these issues at the next meeting of the Planning Users Forum in November. Minutes will be placed on the Convention’s website –

-Joe suggested that if local people, including CCs, are aware of flooding issues in relation to an application, they should inform PKC.

c)Website: Joe has transferred the website to a new server at a cost of £10 per year including the cost of a new domain name – The new server allows other officers to access and update pages.

  1. Chairman’s report: At the Convention’s request, Perth & Kinross Council is to provide a series of training sessions to enable community councillors to help PKC to carry out public consultations on the Main Issues Report for the new Local Development Plan (the Main Issues Report consists of recommendations for the new Local Development Plan – the forthcoming consultation is the main opportunity for the public and community councils to comment).

Training sessions will be provided in Perth (28 September) and at the Birnam Institute on Thursday 7 October, 6.30pm.

  1. Finance:

Current bank balance £2829.25, including new administration grant from PKC of £604.

  1. Business

a)Annual grants: Administration grant: The Convention will consult with all community councils in Perth and Kinross on the adequacy (or otherwise) of the administration grant. Joe reported that the Council is considering better ways of calculating admin grants to better reflect actual need. For example:

  • Grants may be made proportional to the population
  • CCs may be allowed to use photocopying facilities in libraries
  • The Council may help with travelling costs for attending meetings in Perth
  • The Council will look at hall charges for meetings

b)Website funding: The Convention has assisted Longforgan Community Council to build a community website – We will continue to help any of our members to build a website at no cost using the Weebly system.

c)Newsletters: Kinross CC owns and organises the Kinross Newsletter, covering the whole of Kinross-shire. PKC has started advertising events affecting the community. Kinross CC includes its agenda. There are 3 paid staff and the rest are volunteers. The current circulation is around 2000, generating an income of around £30k. £13k is disbursed to community groups. It’s now a limited company. Crieff and Aberfeldy districts have the ‘The Quair’ and Pitlochry district has ‘News Round North’ both magazines include CC minutes and are delivered free to local households. In addition the ‘Comment’, a privately owned magazine is on sale (£1.00) locally in the Aberfeldy and Pitlochry areas, it also includes CC minutes.

  1. AOCB:
  • Joe – PKC has decided to move social work, the rent office and building control to the new community campus, leaving two town centre buildings empty. Probation and criminal justice will also be moving to the new campus. Joe will forward an email he received from Cllr George Hayton saying that Council services are to be moved.

Concerns:

Joe is concerned that people can go in for a particular reason, but can then go into any part of the campus, mixing with children unchecked. Mary Ferrier expressed concern about people who have been banned from being around children gaining access. Joe suggested that the Council hasn’t adequately considered the dangers.

Moving the rent office and other services is too far for people to go. Public transport isn’t provided.

Jim said the Council has promised full consultation on shifting of Council services, and expressed the view that campuses should be for community activities, not Council services.

Motion: That the Convention opposes the transfer of Council services to community campuses. Proposed – M Gallagher, Seconded – Joe Richardson. Unanimously approved.

  • Model Scheme of Administration: The Council is considering feedback from series of ward meetings with community councils, and will prepare a final report in December. Jim asked about the timetable for the new Model Scheme, including possible boundary changes for CCs. What about 16-year olds joining? What parts of the Model Scheme will be ditched by the Council? Agreed – officers to raise these questions at the forthcoming liaison meeting.
  1. Meeting closed at 9.15pm
  2. The 64th meeting of the Convention will be held on Wednesday 12 January at 7.30 pm at the same venue.

Original signed

Chairman M Gallagher

Hon Secretary S. Bruce

Date