Burntisland Community
Council
Minutes of Meeting held
in the Burgh Chambers
On
Present
A MacDonald (Chair)
R Smith (Vice Chair)
T Hailey, M Douglas,
Councillor S Leslie, Councillor R
Edwards, Councillor G Kay
Sergeant E Potter.
1 Apologies
for Absence
G Lowe, C Dewar,
R Blanchard, H Leuchars, Gordon Ritchie, Aneris Grant, Ken Halley (Locality
Manager).
2 Minutes
of previous meeting (
In view of
attendances at this and the December meeting it was agreed to defer approval of
the Minutes until the February meeting.
3 Notification of Community Concerns for discussion under 'AOB' item11
The following were noted and included for discussion if time permits:-
1 Environment & amenities
2 Site for new school
3 Potholes in roads
4 Grit bins
5 Graveyard access
4 Police Report – Sgt E Potter.
There had been very few incidents to report over the Christmas and New
Year period. Fife Constabulary is now deploying a Community Engagement Model,
as a result of which a Community Officer (PC Keith Gibb) will be allocated to
cover Kinghorn, Burntisland and Auchtertool. Posters and leaflets will be
distributed. Community Councils will be represented at meetings, with the first
being at the Toll Centre on 1st February at
5 Locality Manager’s Report
The Locality Manager had submitted a monthly report which was presented
to the Council as follows:-
Severe Weather
See update below from Stuart Nichol, Executive Director -
Environment & Development Services.
Salt, Sand and Grit supplies
§
Salt deliveries arrived as expected on
the 6th and 7th January. 440 tonnes were received and a further 500 tonnes are
expected tomorrow.
§
Unless there is a significant change
in the weather forecast over the next few days we expect this supply to enable us
to maintain current provision until Monday 11th January.
§
We continue to treat most A and B
class roads and bus routes to schools with salt. Other priority roads and
footways are being treated with sand to help stretch salt supplies as far as
possible.
§
We are in daily contact with the
Scottish Government and other local authorities to try and secure further
deliveries of salt for next week. Every possible avenue is being investigated.
§
The quarries are now open again
following the festive break so new supplies of sand and grit have been
received. We need approximately 750 tonnes to fill all of Fife’s grit bins.
Stock is now replenished and it is expected all bins will be refilled by Monday
11th January.
§
It is important to note that salt is
not considered as effective when the temperature falls below minus 6 so care is
still required even on treated roads.
Action taken
§
Priority is still being given to
routes 1 and 2. This includes routes to schools.
§
Additional priority has now been
placed on:
-
Filling Grit Bins. All Fife’s 3000 grit bins will be
restocked in the next few days.
-
Clearing footpaths and pavements and keeping recycling
centres open. Transportation will be sending out additional teams from today to
make best use of the sand and grit available. Staff from community services,
facilities and environmental services is now part of the team. Street Sweeping
staff for example are filling up grit bins and salting and clearing footpaths
and recycling centres.
-
Keeping schools open - ensuring paths and roads are
clear. Paths were cleared by janitorial staff. Playgrounds have been gritted
wherever possible and strict protocols have been put in place to manage
closures. Today - 98% of schools were open. Four of Fife’s 186 schools were closed.
Any system problems - for example heating - are being fast-tracked.
-
Keeping critical services moving - ensuring access for
critical care services and those supporting the most vulnerable. Social Work
has obtained a number of 4x4 vehicles, from other council services and the Fife
Coast and Countryside Trust, to keep home carers mobile. Day centre staff has
activated a phone service to ensure service users have food and heating and to
help make arrangements for someone to visit if necessary. Other services such
as meals on wheels and residential care are all working as normal.
-
Managing waste - providing alternatives where bin
collection is impossible. Temporary refuse collection points have been
introduced with 1280 new containers and skips. Press releases are going out to
tell people they can use brown bins instead of general refuse bins. Street
Sweeping staff has also joined the refuse collection teams to help with areas
that are difficult to access.
§
Over 130 transportation staff is
working directly on managing the impact of the severe weather on roads and
pathways.
§
Staff from community services and
facilities who are unable to carry out their normal duties, roofers for
example, have now also been redeployed to work in local communities and under the
direction of the transportation service.
§
These staff have already been
involved in clearing pathways to schools, access to buildings and turning
circles for school buses.
§
The Chief Executive has formally
convened a senior management group to oversee and coordinate the council
response.
Future action
Our priority at the
moment is to respond to the weather conditions. As soon as circumstances
improve we will be carrying out a full review of the Council’s response to
these severe weather conditions. This will help identify the challenges faced,
how well we responded to them and lessons we can learn from the experience.
This will be a public report to the Environment Enterprise and Transportation
Committee on 4 March.
Update on Issues
raised at November Meeting
Palais Steps (Thistle
Street to Manse Lane)
A quote has been requested for fitting the missing section
of hand rail and the work will be carried out in due course.
The overgrown ivy that is over-hanging the wall at this location
has been reported to Community Services and they will have it cut back.
Steps, Back Beach to
Lammerlaws
The fitting of a hand rail at this location is being
progressed.
School Crossing Patrol
(
Awaiting feedback from Education Service on the evaluation
of the location of this
Pedestrian Barriers
outside the Port Bar
I reported at the last meeting there are no plans to provide
barriers at this location and was asked what the criteria is for installing
barriers as there are pedestrian barriers at other locations.
Ian B Smith, Lead
Officer, Traffic Management (Mid-Fife) commented ‘The High Street upgrade works
were designed in compliance with Department for Transport guidance (DfT)
and 'Designing for Streets' which is soon to be issued by Scottish
Government. The Department for Transport
had previously published their guidance and the Scottish version is similar to
the DfT document.
The guidance in designing for Streets aims to reduce the
presence of street clutter and in relation to pedestrian barriers there is now
a presumption against their use. As an example, Kensington High Street in
London has recently been upgraded with the removal of all pedestrian barriers.
There are therefore no proposals to provide pedestrian barriers on High Street,
Burntisland.’
Update on Issues
raised at December Meeting
High Street Road
Repair (2511/09)
This fault was initially reported to Transportation
Service. It was inspected and appeared
to be a burst water pipe therefore it was passed onto Scottish Water. In
the meantime Transportations’ standby service was asked to go out and make safe
so that there was minor disruption to the road.
I have contacted Scottish Water requesting information about
the damage and the repair that was carried out but I am still awaiting their
feedback.
Directional Sign for
Rossend Castle
It was reported that the sign in Lothian Street was pointing
in the wrong direction. This has been
referred to Transportation Service for attention but winter maintenance is the
current priority.
Links Place –
Overflowing Drain
This has been inspected and the problem appears to be that
the down pipe from the flats is blocked at the trap or the connection to the
sewer causing intermittent surcharges when waste is discharged from the
flats. The occupants of the flats are
responsible for the repair and Fife Council will pursue them to rectify the
problem. This may require notices to be
served on all of the occupants of the flats.
Links Place – Wheelie
Bins
Environmental Services have written to the residents of the
flats in Links Place asking that they remove their bins from the kerbside after
they have been serviced.
Broomhill Avenue
Garage Site
The garages on this site have been inspected in response to
the concerns raised about the condition of some of them. One of the garages is in a poor state of
repair and the matter is being addressed.
7 Burgh Buzz – Bill Kirkhope.
The deadline for articles for inclusion in the next issue will be 15th
January.
8 Secretary and Treasurer Reports.
Town Notice Board – delivery has been delayed due to bad weather but
will be progressed as soon as conditions permit.
Fife Council has produced updated guidelines for Community Council Treasurers
and will be organising a Training Day for Treasurers. It was noted that public
liability insurance automatically covers the day to day activities of Community
Councils, but special events still had to be notified separately, with an
additional premium potentially being required.
9. Business carried
forward from previous meetings:
9.1. Burntisland Sports
Group: Gillian Lowe is awaiting details of a
meeting with the Toll Centre Management Committee; she is also collating
further responses to the questionnaire and will prepare a report in due course.
9.2.
Shell has now recorded 621 days without a loss time incident at
Mossmorran, and 7,252 days at
Exxon Mobil have recorded 5,227 days without a lost time injury. They
were recently awarded an international environmental award for their site-based
educational programmes. Donations to local community groups in the last quarter
amounted to £6,165. The total workforce is currently 302. ExxonMobil have also
invited 70 senior citizens from Burntisland to attend a Burns Lunch at
Mossmorran on 28th January. Christine Dewar agreed to co-ordinate
the distribution of tickets and the pick-up points for the transport provided.
ExxonMobil were also sponsoring a pantomime in
9.3. Review of local
planning applications
Two planning applications were both for single domestic purposes. Tim
pointed out that in due course Burntisland might be impacted by the proposed
retail outlet at the former B&Q site in Kirkcaldy.
9.4. Christmas Lights
Gordon McGregor has carried out a survey of the current condition of the
lights and also the costs of repair, installation and dismantling. The trial
with 2 additional brackets has been successful but some more bulbs were damaged
by the strong winds. We are awaiting confirmation from Fife Council that they
will take over responsibility for the lights in future years.
9.5. Scots Verse
Competition
It has been confirmed with the school that the presentation evening will
be on 22nd January. All trophies and medals have been engraved for
the winners in each of primaries 1 to 6. In the expected absence of the
Chairman, Bob Smith agreed to host the proceedings. Several of the named
memorial trophies will be presented by appropriate family members.
9.6. Burntisland Blooms
More shopkeepers have responded favourably to the project to increase
the number of hanging baskets in the High Street.
9.7. Community Award
2010
It was agreed that the Award would be presented to Helen Barrett on
Friday 5th February, at
9.8
Tim advised that there was no significant change for Burntisland.
10. New
Business:
10.1. Open to Suggestions forum
It was agreed that
a key objective for the Community Council should be to stimulate economic
activity in Burntisland, following on from previous discussion about the
Kirkcaldy Business Improvement District. It was noted that a number of groups
already sought to do that (e.g. 2020, Events, Heritage) but there was sometimes
overlap or a lack of co-ordination. There was no desire to set up an additional
group, but it was agreed that the Community Council should act as a facilitator
for the existing groups. It was also agreed to invite participation from
organisations, businesses and individuals who could contribute to that process
– not by saying what they want, but by saying what they can do. The Chairman
offered as a first step to draw up a list of projects, either active or in the
pipeline, which were related to economic activity.
10.2. Review of
It was noted that
40% of the
10.3. Appointment of Secretary
The Chairman
advised that Gordon Ritchie was likely to stand down not later than February or
March and that a new Secretary would be required. The options were to appoint
an existing member as Secretary or to co-opt a new member and appoint that
person as Secretary. Two people have so far expressed interest in the
Secretary’s role. It was agreed to consider the position in private after the
February meeting. A question arose as to whether a co-opted person could be
appointed as Secretary and the Chairman undertook to check the Scheme for
Community Councils in
Post-meeting note:
The Scheme gives the Community Council the general power to co-opt new members
to fill casual vacancies up to the limit of 14 voting members. Thereafter,
additional members can be co-opted with no voting rights. Only those with
voting rights can hold office as Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary or
Treasurer.
11.0 Any other business:
11.1 Environment & amenities – Peter George
reported on handrails at the Palais steps, Lammerlaws and Haddow Grove; rubbish
dumping at Links Place; and green areas which are the responsibility of Fife
Council. Councillors agreed to follow through.
11.2 Site for new school – Jo Hadoke as Chair of
the School Parent Council asked for the Community Council’s views on the
current proposals for a new school site. Councillors expressed concern that no
arrangements had yet been made for a presentation to be given to the Community
Council by the relevant officials. It was agreed to defer discussion until a
presentation could be arranged, and in the meantime to maintain communication
with the Parent Council, the Toll Centre Management Committee and the Sports
Group.
11.3 Potholes in roads – already discussed
during the Locality Manager’s report.
11.4 Grit bins – already discussed during
discussion on the Locality Manager’s report.
11.5 Graveyard – concern was expressed that over
the Christmas period mourners had been unable to access certain graves because
of barriers which had been erected by Fife Council. Councillors agreed to
follow through.
12 Date of
next meeting
The presentation
of the Community Award will be on Friday 5th February at
The next business
meeting will be on Friday 12th February at