HELMSDALE

A ND D ISTRICT C OMMUNITY C OUNCIL

Minutes of the mee;ng held on Thursday 5th April 2012 Present: E dward Mackay, (Vice-Chair), B arbara J appy, (Treasurer), Penny Kane, (Secretary), Malcolm B romley, Alison Cowie, Paul Harrington, G erry W ood, Councillor Deirdre Mackay. Guest speakers: S onia W ayman, Chris R aLer, S imon Y oung 1. Apologies: S tan Amey, (Chair), 2. Police report: N o police present 3. Sonia W ayman: talked about the Highland Council E nvironment Improvement Project. T he HC is looking to enhance the open spaces in the village, giving a sense of place and improving access to the countryside. Money has been allocated for a T own and V illage R egeneraQon Project to be shared between T hurso, W ick and Helmsdale. T his will work in the village alongside the T imespan project Museum W ithout Walls. An area for improvement will be the car park near the B ridge Hotel: the addiQon of a viewing plaUorm, upgrading of the ower beds, the demoliQon of the public lavatories, and relocaQon of the recycling bins. Other areas may be a Descendants W all, upgrade to other paths. S onia would like volunteers for a S teering G roup to put ideas forward. T hese will then be submiLed to the Planning and Development CommiLee at the Highland Council. (NB Concern was raised on 2 points regarding the demoliQon of the public lavatories for a job which is Qed in with them-this job will be safe-and that a Comfort S cheme will be put in place in the village). Timing is crucial, improvements must be completed by this Qme next year as 2013 commemorates 200th anniversary of the Highland Clearances and it is anQcipated there will be large numbers of visitors to the village. Wall of D escendants: T here is already a path from the Memorial S tatue down into the village. It is hoped to raise enough money to build the rst part of the wall a`er which it would be self- funding. T he wall would be about 3 feet high and it is thought 60 metres of wall made of Sutherland S tone would cost around 75K. ? May have to go through planning because of the height. V olunteers for the S teering G roup: Paul, Penny, J ean S argent and J acqui Aitken. Penny to email addresses to S onia 4. Chris R aPer: Radon G as: Hunters will come up with a standard quote for people with a high reading. T here are means tested grants available but the work needed has to be assessed by someone qualied to do so. Hunters have so far been very unreliable about returning calls and Chris will therefore nd out if there are other contractors, possibly local plumbers who are willing and qualied to do the work. T here are 2 ways of dealing with the problem: vents under oors to outside or pumps in the roof. N ew-builds will be dealt with by the building rm. Deirdre will nd out who does the work on Council Houses. Delivery ;mes to McColls: Due to a complaint about the noise level of deliveries to McColls these had been changed to a much later Qme parQcularly for milk which caused problems and annoyance to a lot of villagers who asked for the suppliers to revert to the original delivery Qmes. The original complainant is anxious that the problem should be sorted out amicably. T herefore the Community Council will write to McColls suggesQng that the suppliers should go back to the original delivery Qmes. A leLer will be sent to the complainant asking for her cooperaQon and a noise level monitor should be placed in her bedroom for a week or so, so that she can record the Qmes and levels of noise. Penny to discuss with S tan and copy Chris 5. Simon Young:

 Telford B ridge: A specialist B ridge E ngineer has recently examined the bridge. His ndings were that although the bridge has deteriorated since the last inspecQon (it is inspected every 2 years) the structural review showed that the load bearing capacity of the bridge remained at 40 tons and that therefore there are no engineering grounds for giving a weight limit on the bridge at the present Qme. T he Council members were concerned about weight and also vibraQon and diculty in accessing the bridge for long vehicles plus the danger to pedestrians using the bridge when large lorries go over. T he proposal is now that the Highland Council can exercise some control over the Qmber lorries by asking them not to use parQcular routes and also to exclude certain routes. Currently the T elford B ridge is not an excluded route. In miQgaQon someQmes the lorries are unable to get down Dunrobin S treet because the road is blocked by delivery vans and poor parking. T he bridge needs about900K spending on it and this will happen when it gets to the top of the list. (In S outh S utherland and E aster R oss there are about 400 bridges needing maintenance). Penny to email S imon to ask for copy of the report. Rapsons Car Park: The planning dept are responsible for this-(Geo R obson)-Rapsons are keen to have a meeQng with the Council to change the entry into the car park and to move the entry doors to the garage from S hore S treet into the car park. It may be possible to relocate the recycling bins to that area. Deirdre will report back on this. Simpson Crescent: A complaint has been received regarding the speed of cars going into the garage/parking area, endangering children and others walking there. S imon will report to Housing Dept and Deirdre will report to the police. Potholes: Malcolm sQll has a problem B arbara will report again plus the one outside T imespan. 6. Approval of March Minutes: Proposed Alison, Malcolm seconded. 7. MaPers arising from March Minutes: Post-oce: On-going. Penny had emailed to nd out if any progress. CAT scan being done at entry to Post Oce to rule out pipes etc. S Qll no decision regarding pulng post box there or upgrading other one Booking bus ;ckets: This is now possible via the S ervice Point. Cost 50p to book. B us stop sQll showing the old Qmetable 8. Councillors R eport: Nigg S kills Academy is now operaQonal and will help people to use their skills to retrain and help them to get work. Y oungsters will be prioriQsed but there is no age barrier. T he Highland workforce is well recognised abroad for their skills and good work ethic. Alison reported that a roong course in Inverness has stopped mid-course and students now have to go to Arbroath. Deirdre chasing up. Tugboats covering the Minch are being removed. W e need them there because of the volume of shipping including tankers and liners as well as to help deal with potenQal oil polluQon. Lobbying conQnues to get them reinstated. 9. Treasurers R eport: B arbara has received 200 from the Highland Council. In the bank including that we now have 577. T he forms for signatories have now been sent o, just waiQng for photo id from E dward 10. Development Ocers R eport: Development G roup: As per the A GM, the HDDG dissolved at last nights A GM and the N EW HELMSDALE & D ISTRICT DEVELOPMENT TRUST was formed. The reason for this is, because legally, the Helmsdale & District Development G roup does N OT have the status the Community requires in order for the group to undertake tasks that is required of it. One simple example of this is that if we remain as the Development G roup, we cannot purchase or acquire assets such as the Petrol S taQon to refurbish and re-open as a Community Asset. T herefore we have had no opQon but to change the status of the Development G roup and have chosen Development T rust Status as the body that would full this legal requirement. We have a total of 11 places on the

board of the new trust. 6 of these places have been taken up by the current HDDG and a seventh is for the T imespan Director, who is yet to be appointed. W ith 2 co-opted members of the CC, that leaves 2 further posts to be fullled. Housing: S Qll awaiQng Planning conrmaQon for R ockview Place, mid-April funding, we have applied for various amounts from various grant funders. W ith regard to the informaQon published in the N orthern T imes about the Highland Council loaning the Community up to 130k, this is a bridge loan for the S colsh G overnments I IF award, which paid upon compleQon of the project. W e will not start the project, unQl the last pound hits the bank account. T his will reduce the liability risk to the Community. W e are sQll looking to achieve a target start date of end of S eptember 2012. Plots will be marketed very soon, once planning approved. W e now have 3 plots allocated to the project, courtesy of the Highland Council. Filling S ta;on Finalised all risks with regard to the business plan and we will shortly be idenQfying grant funders we are in need of a minimum of 10 V OLUNTEERS to help run the petrol staQon if we dont get the volunteers, then the petrol staQon will N OT re-open. T o remain compeQQve and aLracQve we have limited margin exposure and therefore, we cannot, at this moment, employ anyone it is to remain, as planned, a self-service, 24/7 chip and pin system. T he more people who volunteer, the less o`en you are likely to be called out Renewables Oshore: I held a meeQng in the Community centre with regard to the oshore renewable HIE, CNSRP, Harbours, T HC, U HI N HC, and E nergy N orth to invesQgate the potenQal for harbour infrastructure development very posiQve. W e have some feasibility work to undertake, this is in the process of being taken forward. Harbour users are being kept informed. Renewables Onshore: G ORDONBUSH T he awards panel met several weeks ago and the results have been published online and applicants have been informed of their success. For the rst 2 rounds, the totals allocated to each community and the wider community are noted. T he next meeQng regarding the framework for the remaining 2 years will take place 16th May 2012 Other: Computer courses, we have now received our allocaQon of 10 laptops, funding has been carried over from last year, due to a technicality - Community Centre has informaQon sheets out asking for names to run courses. W e have been informed there are more moneys available for the 2012/2013 year, so more courses are in the oering. Harbourmaster job adverQsed. N ot sure where A.O.B. Alison reported that the Medical E quipment F und will close because of fall in members. Penny to contact ChrisQne Cowie Gerry and Penny aLended a training course in T hurso which they felt was not very exciQng! Penny to email Deirdre MeeQng closed at 9.15 Date and ;me of next mee;ng: T hursday 3rd May 2012 at 7.30pm in the Community Centre

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