Fossoway and District Community Council - Minutes of AGM - 5 October 2021

Fossoway and District Community Council
Minutes of AGM
5th October 2021 7.30pm
To be approved.

1. Attending: Community Cllrs Sarah Bruce-Jones, Angus Cheape, Carol Farquhar, Nicola Marchant and Graham Pye; P&K Cllr Mike Barnacle; Five Members of the Public.
Apologies: P&K Cllrs Callum Purves, Willie Robertson & Richard Watters; CCllrs Trudy Duffy, Carole Haigh & Michael Haigh.

2. Minutes: Minutes of the 2020 AGM meeting were read, approved, and signed off.

3. Chair’s Report:

The elected members of the Community Council are as follows:
• Sarah Bruce-Jones
• Angus Cheape
• Trudy Duffy
• Carol Farquhar
• Graham Pye

Nicola Marchant is a co-opted member of the CC.

Carole (Arwen) Haigh has resigned from her post as Community Councillor due to health reasons and Michael Haigh has also resigned. I would like to thank Michael and Arwen for their contributions to the CC in the last few years; we wish them all the best for the future.

I would also like to thank all those continuing members for their support and service during a challenging time.

In June 2021, Rob Young, who had been a Community Councillor for some years, sadly died.

In March 2020 we held our last physical meeting – from April 2020 until September 2021 we have been meeting on Zoom. We could not have foreseen that the first face-to-face meeting would be at the end of 2021. Nevertheless, here we are, and we are delighted to be accountable to the public again. We now have 17 proceedings of meetings to ratify. After consulting with PKC, we have decided to make an inventory of the most important decisions since March 2020 and put this forward to the public in one document. Hopefully we will be doing this in the November meeting.
The Community Council has had another very busy year with eleven scheduled meetings, additional meetings and a large volume of correspondence.

Many of the ‘normal’ activities have ground to a halt because of Covid19. Roadworks on the schedule to be carried out as mitigation measures on the A977 have all been delayed, as have other works.
• Police Service: We recognise that it is difficult for police officers to be present at the meeting; however, we have welcomed Mark Craig and Ashley Mitchinson to some of our meetings. The welcome news is that there will be a meeting to discuss the resurrection of the Community Speedwatch project in Kinross-shire.
• Blairingone War Memorial: I can only repeat what I said in the last AGM and the AGM before that: it is now one of the longest running items on our agenda.
• A977 Mitigation Measures: The works on the School Road Junction and the Drum Signalisation will be carried out in this financial year (March 2022) and the B9097 re-alignment will commence early in the next financial year.
• Networking: The CC have been involved in several other organisations. CCllr Cheape sits on the Kinross-shire Fund Committee; Cllr Marchant attends ‘Stronger Communities’ meetings, CCllr M Haigh and CCllr A Haigh have taken on the 2021 Community Investment Fund meeting; CCllr Farquhar and CCllr M Haigh attend Local Transport meetings; CCllr Marchant has been involved in finding solutions to the closure of the last bank in Kinross-shire and Access to Cash. Members of the CC have also been involved in the local Bloom groups and the Fossoway Gathering as well as the steering group of the Local Development Trust. Many of these meetings have been online.
• Fossoway Community Council Benefit Fund: We would welcome more applications from community groups who are working to improve our villages. Applications can be from constituted and non-constituted groups but must demonstrate community benefit.
• Rumbling Bridge Gorge Bridge: At the time of writing a flood-risk assessment report is nearly finished.
• Bank of Scotland Closure: Though temporary halted by the pandemic, the last bank in the county of Kinross has now closed. CCllr Marchant has been working with other representatives to ensure solutions are acceptable to the community.
• Fossoway Gathering: The Fossoway Gathering, which was held on 4th September, was a great success. The community had a good day and there was a sense of celebration after a torrid year. The CC thanks all on the team for the excellent organisation and all those that took part.
• Community Development Trust: The Steering group for the above consulted during the Fossoway Gathering. There was interest in taking part in this; the next step will be to see how many are sufficiently interested to sign up.
• Transport: Transport continues to be a source of concern. The DRT service has restarted; the replacement service for the former 23 service is running but is, so far, underused.
• Planning applications. The CC’s role in this is to scrutinise the Local Development Plan and to determine whether a planning application is permitted or contrary to the Development Plan. We also take into account local knowledge, for instance of flooding, access and the removal of trees. We generally do not get involved in planning disputes between neighbours. As we said in the last Chair’s Report, we feel that there is a distinct lack of joined-up thinking in the planning department of Perth and Kinross Council. Developments of large, executive homes are generally permitted and there is no incentive for developers to build small homes for those who would like to downsize in their own community or those who would like to start out. Our community threatens to become a commuter area; where people reside for a few years and then move on. Recently we have been approached by another CC to consider solutions for this.

Most if not all of our correspondence is now by email. Most CC members have access to the email system and the Google documents. This works well for us. We have a Facebook page which is a valuable source for accessing information by people in our villages. Presently we are looking for a minute secretary to take on the role of minuting our meetings. So far, no volunteers have come forward.

Thank you to my fellow Community Councillors for their support and for the very significant efforts they have made in dealing with their portfolios and attending external meetings. Many thanks also to our local Councillors Barnacle, Purves, Robertson and Watters for their significant support and assistance to the CC on numerous matters. Please remember that 2022 will be the year to elect new elected members: I would urge all of you to use your vote.

Thanks also to our loyal MoPs - Members of the Public, who support us with their presence, their information and their questions.

4. Treasurer’s Report:
This report is for the period from 1st September 2020 to 31st August 2021, which has been a somewhat unusual period for everyone. The Administrative Grant of £213.50 from PKC topped the CC’s funds back up to the maximum £700.00 allowed. Online access to the CC’s bank account has continued to make paying the CC’s bills much easier.

There have been no physical meetings this Financial Year due to COVID-19; however instead of accommodation bookings, we have spent £172.68 on Zoom subscriptions.

All Community Councillors are allowed to claim for any expenses they incur over the year for traveling to meetings, including regular CC meetings, and any other incidentals. In the absence of any physical meetings, other expenses claimed by Councillors total only £78.90 this account period.

After all the transactions over the year have been tallied the CC has a closing balance at year end of £448.34 and I will be applying for this year’s grant once this meeting has approved the accounts.

The CC members unanimously voted to approve the accounts – Proposed: Angus Cheape; Seconded: Nicola Marchant. The accounts were then signed by the Vice-chair in the chair’s absence.

5. Confirmation of Office Bearers:
The Office Bearers all resigned from their current posts, and new post holders are as follows:

Trudy Duffy, Chairperson – Proposed: Graham Pye, Seconded: Nicola Marchant
Sarah Bruce-Jones, Secretary – Proposed: Nicola Marchant, Seconded: Graham Pye
Graham Pye, Treasurer – Proposed: Nicola Marchant, Seconded: Sarah Bruce-Jones
Trudy Duffy, Data Controller – Proposed: Graham Pye, Seconded: Angus Cheape
Nicola Marchant, Vice Chair – Proposed: Graham Pye, Seconded: Sarah Bruce-Jones

The following posts are not formal offices, so were not voted on at the AGM:
Nicola Marchant: Planning Secretary
Graham Pye: Minutes Secretary

6. Election of New Member:
The CC welcomes Gillian Mudie as a co-opted member of the CC – Proposed: Sarah Bruce-Jones, Seconded: Graham Pye and approved unanimously by the other CC Members present.

7. With no other business, the date of the next AGM was set for 4th October 2022 and the meeting ended at 7:47 pm.