Burntisland Community Council
Minutes of meeting 7.00 pm Friday 11 May 2007
Present
: A MacDonald Chair
D Plant Vice chair
R Blanchard Secretary
Mrs S McGregor Mr G McGregor
Mrs C Dewar B Stuart
Mrs H Leuchars R Leuchars
R Smith T Hailey
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Councillor Ron Edwards Councillor George Kay Councillor Susan Leslie PC A Donne 13 members of the public attended
Chair opened the meeting with BCC’s congratulations and welcome to the three recently elected councillors.
Apologies : Mrs A Grant A Smart
Sgt. Johnston
Minutes : Minutes of meeting 13 April 2007 approved, adoption proposed by Gordon McGregor seconded by Tim Hailey.
Police Report It was
reported that there had been a serious assault on two youths at the Links on 5
May by non Burntisland residents. There
had been vandalism of motor vehicles on Kirkbank Road and Fleming Way. School windows had been broken, thefts from
cars had occurred and there had been an attempted break in at the Golf
Club. Constable Donne outlined the new
£40 ASB fixed penalty ticket system recently introduced. This applies to persons over 16 years of
age, imposes a penalty of £40 with 28 days to pay after which the matter goes
to Court. Relevant offences include
public disorder and breach of the peace, drinking in public in prohibited zones, graffiti and minor vandalism. Two officers are required when serving these
penalty notices. Under 16s continue to
be dealt with by taking them home to parents or reporting to Children’s
Reporter.
Councillors Reports :
Councillor Edwards Restated his intention to work
with other elected representatives for the town and thanked BCC for its support
over his previous term in office. The Castle
area clean-up was reported as very successful and thanks were due to all
those who assisted. Hopefully this
clean status will be maintained. No
progress has been made so far with Forth Ports over cleaning their
land. A meeting is due to take place
with Scottish Water late May or early June to seek a resolution to the Haugh
Road problems. Briggs Marine has
lodged a planning application for temporary consent for cable coiling
operations at Seaforth Place.
The proposed operations could restrict vehicles in the street as there
would be occasions when cables would cross from the landward side over to ships
in the dock. Concerns about
availability of the area for parking especially on Games Day have been
addressed by assurances from the company that the facility will be for sporadic
use of a few days at a time only. The
redesigned Skateboard Park has been costed at £183,000 against the
original design’s £100,000. £110,000 of
the cost is currently available. It may
be possible to reduce the total cost by splitting the contract into ground
preparation works, currently costed at £100,000 and construction operations
currently costed at £83,000. Apart from
a better design and the general upward trend of construction costs, the overall
pricing has escalated due to contractors experience with serious sustained
vandalism on Burntisland projects. The Bottle
Coup project is currently out to tender.
Councillors Reports :
Councillor Kay Cooperation with other elected members in the best interests of Burntisland assured. Some liason would be required to ensure best value from the three members with minimum wastage of resources due to overlapping each others activities. Work on the beach should be completed next week. The Dollar Road housing development will restart operations next week. Bollards are to be installed at the Toll Park to control vehicle damage. Gordon Hope is no longer Locality Manager for Burntisland having been replaced by Mary Siskov. Cllr. Kay received no formal intimation of the change and there is concern that Mr Hope’s departure might be disadvantageous to funding for the disabled access from the Links to the Prom. The High Street pedestrian controlled crossing should be operational next week. Remaining repairs to the High Street are scheduled for Sunday working to minimise disruption. A consultation meeting regarding the Limestone Pier is due to take place soon. Lammerlaws bridge is behind schedule due to unforeseen problems but efforts are being made to recover lost time. The Town Clock is reported as completely repaired as of 4pm today.
Councillor Leslie Cooperation with other elected members
assured. Burntisland was to be
commended for its active and lively Community Council meetings. As the new member she is already
familiarising herself with relevant issues as an early priority.
Spring Clean Weekend Covered in Cllr Edwards report. Secretary added his appreciation to Fife Council staff and all volunteers which included a great many youngsters. Six skips were filled with rubbish some of which was extremely difficult to remove because it had lain for so many years.
Forth Ports and Railtrack Railtrack has made a full clean up of its land but there has been no progress with Forth Ports. Secretary has arranged a meeting with SEPA which may have power to force Forth Ports into action. The problems of litter and fly tipping are on the agenda for the Community Forum meeting to be held in the Village Hall Auchtertool on 29 May 2007.
Wind & Energy Planning Information will be available soon giving designated Wind Farm sites. This locality is classed as “very ordinary” and concerns at this were put to Jim Hendry who oversees this project. He states that this classification is only relevant to this project and of no importance for other planning issues. Cllr. Edwards strongly disagrees and believes that the “very ordinary” grading must be challenged. The closing date for representations is 21 May and Secretary will take action before then.
Links to Prom Disabled Access Secretary read out his letter to Railtrack. Peter Dickson of Fife Council is now liasing with Railtrack to secure the project and no further input is required from BCC.
Making Sense of Paths There is a seminar on 29 May for which interested parties should speak to Secretary. Alan Smart and Bill Davidson will attend.
Local Plan There is a half day workshop on 12 June 2007 at Rothes Halls on the Kirkcaldy and Mid Fife Local Plan, described as being on general issues not specific to areas and interests with full community engagement at a later date. Tim Hailey will attend.
Burntisland Blooms Mrs MacGregor has had to apply for funding for permanent planting of FC’s containers and is displeased as she feels that FC or the High Street contractor should have provided finance. Only three out of thirteen containers have functional watering systems due to poor initial installation. None of the watering systems functioned on initial testing. Mrs MacGregor will do nothing more with these containers until the watering systems are
functional. There are ongoing problems with theft and vandalism of plants and flowers which seem mainly due to Burntisland residents. Burntisland Beavers have planted a hedge at Colinswell. Summer bedding plants will be planted out mid June due to Mrs MacGregor’s personal commitments and to minimise losses due to frost damage. A site meeting with contractors is awaited. Volunteers are required to assist with floral work and should contact Mrs MacGregor.
Civic Week Civic Week programme and a letter received from Carol Kirk seeking support and assistance.
Planning No objections raised
AOCB
Rats on Links Four or five dead rats had been found on the road near the entrance to the Links. Concerns expressed included had they been poisoned or what was the cause of death? Where had they come from and were there more? Rats had also been spotted in daylight at the railway station. Secretary will raise these issues with Environmental Services. Cllr Kay recommended that when such incidents were observed they should be immediately reported to Fife Council to have the most effective action taken. Members of the public responded that Fife Council was not “user friendly” and that getting someone to take note of the problem could involve a long and frustrating telephone call. It was generally agreed that more attention to bin emptying at weekends would help counter vermin problems by reducing the food source.
Bird Feeding Bird problems due to public feeding of seagulls and pigeons were reported. Secretary will refer this too to Environmental Services.
War Memorial The state of neglect of this monument was again raised. The grounds within do not get cleaned, there are weeds growing in cracks, the monument needs washed and jointing needs extensive repointing. John Burnett of 20-20 and Burntisland Heritage is making a proposal to improve the memorial and this is presently awaited.
Next Meeting Friday 8 June 2007 Burgh Chambers
7pm.
[Apologies in advance from Bob Smith]