Minutes of meeting held on 17 August 2011 at Kincorth Community Centre

Kincorth/Leggart Community Council

Item No

1 Chair

Graham Bennett had informed the secretary he would not be able to attend this meeting.

2 Attendance

Members

Catherine Cowie Secretary, Hazel Park Treasurer, Lee Brown, Lynne Brown, Iris Murray, Alexander Park, Glyn Sangster, Mary Wilson, Roy Wilson. Councillors Cooney, Dean and McCaig.
Others

Ian Tallboys Aberdeen City Council Countryside Officer.

3 Apologies

Graham Bennett, Maureen Downie, Gary Mitchell, Robert Sangster.

4 Ian Tallboys

Mr Tallboys gave us an outline of the duties undertaken by the rangers, the activities they organise and the sites they cover.
The City Council have a commitment from 2007 to plant a tree for every citizen. 210,000 trees have to be planted by 2012. Volunteers are used for the planting but the use of machinery ensures a much speedier progress. The trees are a mixed species that are chosen for their suitability for the environment and climate in the area where they are planted.

Deer management has been a very contentious issue with the planting on Tullos Hill. We were informed of the need for control of the deer population if the trees are to survive. There are very strict legal requirements on how the deer can be controlled or culled. There are a given number of deer that can be accommodated per hectare of woodland if the trees are to survive and the deer be properly housed. A Scottish Natural Heritage survey identified 29 deer on the hill. This is nearly twice the number that can be there without damage to the trees.

The trees will help the reduction of our carbon footprint and the project will be used to assess the effectiveness of the species in retaining carbon dioxide.

The talk was followed by a question and answer session where concern was expressed that the cull could lead to the extinction of the deer in the same way as had happened to their natural predators and there would be a loss of previously open space where children could play.

5 Minutes of Previous Meeting

The minutes of the June meeting were accepted as a correct record.

6 Business Arising

6.1 Item 5.2

The Secretary has written to Bear regarding the lorries parking on the verges at ASDA. However no reply has been received. It was agreed another letter should be sent addressed to the Managing Director of Bear enquiring why the previous letter had been ignored.

Action Secretary

6.2 Item 5.4

The Zebra crossing on Provost Watt Drive has been repainted

6.3 Item 5.7

The KRAS account has not yet been accessed with the details still held in the community centre safe.

Action Lynne Brown

6.4 Item 5.9

The Secretary, Treasurer & Lee Brown have met with officials regarding upgrading the play parks

6.5 Item 7.4

Karen Riddoch has provided an explanation of our council funding.

7 Police Report

There was no police presence at this meeting.

7 Correspondence

7.1 Scottish Association of Community Councils

We are advised that this body is to be disbanded in 2012 due to withdrawal of Scottish Government funding.


7.2 Aberdeen City Council

Karen Riddoch has asked for contact information for our members to be checked to ensure she can contact the correct person when necessary.

7.3 Aberdeen City Council

A list of the city council heads of departments etc. with contact details has been received through the Secretary of the Community Council Forum. This will be retained by the Secretary for our elected officials to use if and when necessary

8 Treasurers Report

There have been no movements in the accounts since the last report. Councillor Dean informed us that her donation to our council would be coming from the City Council soon.

9 Reports

9.1 Planning

The application for the Leggart Development bears no resemblance to the original proposals discussed at three public meetings. A representation has been sent regarding the increase from 50 to 61 houses on the site and the change from the graded height of the houses to all units being of two storeys.

The planning gain that was mentioned in the original consultation is not apparent in this application.

A letter from the Scottish Government informs us that they have requested further information from the City Council in relation to the local Development Plan

9.2 Community Council Forum

Speaker Valerie Watts, Chief Executive of the City Council, was the invited speaker at this meeting. She started by apologising, which she said was very unusual for her. She wanted to know what questions had been put to her office and never replied to and pledged to get answers in future. We were asked if contact details for council officers had been sent to us. In reply she was informed that this had been received with names but no contact details. (Since the meeting we have been sent full contact details and this has been given to our Secretary.

Valerie said she is having some difficulties with the Doric and local dialect. However she is coping provided the speech is not too fast. Although she is Northern Irish, Valerie has been in Scotland for 23 years. She gave an outline of her wide experience of services before arriving in Aberdeen. This was quite impressive. The problems of the council were obviously very much in her mind as was the low moral of staff and these are some of the things she will have to work to improve. She stated that the job is never done, neither before nor after her term in office.

Regarding the city finances she said she had been asked if she was worried by the situation. She is not worried because the finances will be managed. She has a concern that there is no joined up vision for the future of the city between the various concerned bodies but this is not an immediate priority. Another concern is the individual manifestos of the various political groups within the council where the political point scoring tends to take precedence over the needs of the city. The political parties need to learn to work together for the good of the city.

The problems of the planning procedures and the council ignoring comments made by residents on planning applications was also a concern she has to address. Community councils question why they are ?consulted? when they know their comments will be ignored. However Valerie did ask if our community councils consulted the people they represent. Not many of those present replied yes to her question. I am afraid neither Mary nor I could in all honesty say we consulted properly with our residents.

The meeting was then opened to questions that were answered very honestly by the CEO. We are of the opinion that this was a very encouraging session with the Chief Executive. She obviously has already a very reasonable grip on the problems of the city and apparently the ideas and ability to address them.


Community Council Liaison Officer

Karen Riddoch then spoke to delegates regarding her request for email addresses for the community councils. A letter had been sent to all CCs but she had received only one reply. She can set up a web page for our councils and is asking for generic addresses for council members to avoid using any personal email addresses. I think we could provide this since Lee has already got a similar system in place. Karen can also help with managing and improving our website. Her email address is kariddoch@aberdeencity.gov.ik
It was agreed that Lee should provide Karen with the generic email addresses of our members.

Action Lee Brown

Planning

Peter Reiss along with other representatives for the forum is to attend a meeting with the City council on 5th September regarding the planning system and its problems. I questioned why Allan Strachan from Nigg CC was representing the forum since he seldom attends the meetings. However I was informed that his knowledge of the problems with the Aberdeen FC stadium could be valuable in such a meeting.

The stakeholder event is using the forum rather than contacting all community councils due to the restriction on space at the meetings.

Kingswells delegates raised their problems with residents and developers meeting then sending the framework of their discussion to the city council only to have the document ignored. There are apparently problems between the city and Kingswells CC with comment made by council officers and councillors .

AOCB

Bucksburn delegates asked that bus services be carried over as an agenda item for the next meeting.

A report on water provision, i.e. swimming pools, is to be discussed at a city council meeting on 15th September. The report should be available on the Education, Culture and Sport committee agenda on the website one week prior to the meeting.

A question was asked regarding the availability of councillors business interests and whether this could be accessed on the website.

Graham said he would wish to attend the forum meetings but has not been to any since stating his intention. Is he getting intimation of the meeting agenda and minutes sent directly to him?
The secretary of the Forum will be contacted to ensure she has Grahams email address.

Action Roy Wilson

10 A.O.C.B

10.1 Royal Bank of Scotland

As award for community projects is available from RBS. Councillor McCaig will try to find the application form for this award.

Action Councillor McCaig

10.2 Managing Your Migraine

A leaflet is available with information on this subject

10.3 Royal Horticultural Society

Information on Britain in Bloom was noted.

10.4 Playparks

Catherine and Hazel met with two city council officers. A plan for the park improvements is to be prepared after which local businesses will be approached seeking sponsorship for this venture. Greenspace can provide a minibus to visit parks in other areas to see what could be done if the money is available. Members were reminded that the money available from our funds must be at least allocated if not spent before December this year.

Action Secretary and Treasurer

10.4 Newsletter

A provisional newsletter for our area has been prepared. After some discussion it was agreed that a further addition should be made to cover our efforts regarding the play parks. The library will be approached to determine how many copies we can have under our allowance per month. The sheets will be left in shops, library, community centre, medical centre, churches etc.

Action Roy Wilson

11.Date of Next Meeting

This will be held on 14th September.