Wick Ward Forum
Action Note of meeting held 13th November 2007

Attending

Cllr. Bill Fernie (Chair)
Cllr Katrina MacNab
Cllr. Graeme Smith
David Sutherland – Caithness Ward Manager, Highland Council
Alistair Traill – Rector, Wick High School
David Dunnett – Pulteneytown Peoples Project
Acting Inspector Lorraine Patterson – Northern Constabulary
Coreene Campbell – Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council
Catherine Patterson – Tannach & District Community Council
Robbie MacKintosh – Ward Manager’s Team, Highland Council
Alex Macmanus – Ward Manager’s Team, Highland Council

Also 8 members of the general public including press reporter.
 

Apologies – Ian Hargrave – Corporate Manager, Caithness Sutherland & Easter Ross

 

Ward Forum of 11th September 2007 updates.

 

Wick CCTV – There had been focusing problems experienced with the cameras which necessitated a change of supplier. This has now taken place and it is believed that the system will go live by the end of November 2007. Cllr. Smith advised that Wick will, per head of population, have a very large coverage in comparison to other towns of comparable size. The volunteer operators of the system will be getting training shortly and the Wick and Thurso systems have formed the Caithness CCTV Group to allow interchange of operators should circumstances dictate. Cllr. Smith also advised that more volunteers would be welcome.

 

South Road, Wick – The recent flooding had been caused by weeds blocking the drainage pipe which empties into the river at the Mackay’s Hotel. Ward Manager had spoken to Gordon Sinclair of Transport Scotland but no date for starting the work to resurface the road to cover the winter period has been given.
ACTION NOTE – Ward Manager to make further contact with Transport Scotland.

 

Pedestrian Crossing at Francis Street, Dempster Street, Thurso Street & Cliff Road. -
Transport Scotland will now progress with this work before the end of March 2008.
ACTION NOTE – Ward Manager’s Team to monitor for commencement of work.

 

Trees at Union Street & Argyle Square – Surveys were due to be carried out early in October and the information from these surveys is awaited.
ACTION NOTE – Ward manager’s Team to contact Community Works Manager for progress report.

 

Question raised on 11th September 2007 – Mrs Duncan, Broadhaven Road, Wick very concerned about the continuing smells originating from the Scottish Water Sewage Plant at North Head. Scottish Water advised that they had carried out improvements to the plant over the summer but unfortunately they had pipes bursting after the improvements but they have now been fixed. The smells should now have disappeared and no longer be a problem.
ACTION POINT – Ward Manger’s Team to periodically contact Mrs Duncan to ensure no recurrence of problem.

 

Community Safety

Cllr. MacNab raised the issue over the road lay out and lack of pavements at the Oldwick Road, Oldwick Farm Road, Cairndhuna Terrace and Kennedy Terrace area in relation to the South School. This issue had been raised at the Caithness Community Safety Action Team meeting earlier in the day and was having attention.
ACTION POINT – Ward Manager and Area Roads and Community Works Manager to site visit

 

Local Action Fund 2007/08 - £8k/9k funding had been agreed to each Ward in Caithness which has to be applied for before end of March 2008. Fund is targeted at 11 years old and over. Meetings are due to be held with Youth Action Group and Youth Development Officers on Thursday 29th November. Application forms and guidance notes are available from Ward Manager’s office in Wick or e-mail alex.macmanus@highland.gov.uk
ACTION POINT – Ward Manager’s Team to monitor uptake of applications and spread of applications to ensure County wide coverage.

 

Discretionary Budget

Distributed spreadsheet showed that £24,725 had been spent leaving a balance of £32,092. Ward Manager reminded the meeting that these funds require to be spent before end of March 2008. C.C. Campbell asked what would happen to any funds that were left in the budget after end of March 2008. Ward Manager advised that he was drawing up a wish list for items he would like to see done in the town to improve its appearance and if any funds were left they would be used for this list before end of March 2008.
Alistair Traill advised the meeting that Wick High School were at this time raising funds to purchase a multi-purpose minibus for use by school teams and perhaps also by Community Groups. The school has so far raised or had pledges between £7k and £10k. Mr Traill was confident that the school could cover the day to day running costs of a minibus. The school would be submitting an application for funds from the discretionary budget.
Cllr MacNab explained to the Forum the £9,333 spend on the Caravan Site. These funds were used to cover an overspend on improving the road along the north side of the river from Station Road to the Caravan Park. The general feeling of the Forum was that this was money well spent.

 

Dates of next meeting – 15th January 2008 and 11th March 2008 both in the GP room at the Assembly Rooms

 

A.O.C.B.

Cllr MacNab said that she would wish that Council Service reports would be available for the next ward Forum Meeting scheduled for 15th January 2008. These reports would make the Ward Forum discussions more meaningful and should open up the meeting to questions from the floor. This then would achieve the goal of having service delivery scrutinised. She suggested that perhaps Ward Forum Meetings could be ‘themed’ and that Service Managers be invited to discuss reports and answer any relevant questions. She was particularly interested in Housing reports and noted that there did not seem to be any form of contact with Cairn Housing despite them having a presence in Wick.
ACTION POINT – Ward Manager’s Team to make contact with Cairn Housing with a view to their attendance at a Ward Forum Meeting.

 

Cllr MacNab had received a report from the Ward Manager which he had received this afternoon from Housing and she advised the meeting of the following;-

 

Pulteneyhouse Residential Home is due to reopen at the end of November and she praised their staff for the work carried out during the decant of their service users to Caberfeidh Court.

 

She noted that the windows in Wick High School had not yet been replaced. Alistair Traill informed the meeting that the work had been held up due to the discovery of asbestos but that one room at a time would now be completed. He did not believe that this would cause any problem to the pupils schooling.

 

Cllr MacNab noted that the work on the Harmsworth changing rooms was still outstanding. The Ward manager reported that due now to additional problems with the drainage in the showers that a full blown refurbishment of the changing rooms was needed as the building was no longer fit for purpose. It was going to be difficult to get the work done as the changing rooms were in constant use. C.C. Campbell made it known that the changing rooms were not just used by Wick Academy Football Club but all the other summer teams in the Town. It would appear that the damage done to the changing rooms over a period of time was difficult to ascertain which team/s was responsible.  It was suggested that all the teams involved with using the Harmsworth changing rooms during a twelve month period should be invited to a meeting to discuss this contentious issue. There would be no suitable changing facilities available at Wick High School or East End Boys Club to compensate for the changing rooms being out of commission whilst the refurbishment went ahead..
ACTION POINT – Ward Manager to obtain report from Housing and Property Service on present position with changing rooms and also with Education, Culture and Sports Service for arrangements for calling meeting of all clubs involved.

 

Staxigoe and Papigoe School Transport

Ward Manager has requested meetings over the issue of transport for Staxigoe & Papigoe High School pupils. His e-mail request to the Transport Development Officer at Council Headquarters in Inverness is as copied below:-

“Please find attached letters from parents etc and response from Area Education Manger which explains the council’s position.

Letter sent on behalf of the parents and children of Staxigoe and Papigoe (PDF 27kb)

Letter from Area Education Manager to Lord Thurso (PDF 16kb)
 
We had a delegation of parents at The Wick Forum Last night pleading their case.
 
The main crux of the problem is that Children on leaving Wick High at 3-30pm the service bus does not leave from main street Wick until 4-15pm leaving children hanging about the town for 45mins.
 
The walk from Wick High to Staxigoe which is just short of 3 miles is along one of the most exposed roads in the North and in the winter time is sometimes un-walkable even for the hardiest of adults. I can confirm this as a former resident of pupil of Wick High School while living at Staxigoe 
 
The Forum have agreed to take up parents (&Police) concerns with Rapsons to see if the service bus can be re scheduled to pick up the children at or around 3-30pm from the High School. I would appear that the numbers using this bus would be very high (around 30 school children alone) The other concern is the cost for children at 63p paying the same as adults for a family of two this equates to more than £12 per week for fares alone they have further costs associated with the children hanging about the street for 45mins. They realise at this time it is unlikely that the Council will provide free transport but are willing to pay a reasonable fair for the service.
 
The school is also keen to have this arranged as they want to cut down on the number of cars arriving at 3-30 picking up children as there have been a n umber of near misses with pupil/traffic conjestion.

Can you arrange for a meeting with Rapsons and the Caithness members to discuss this issue and are you personally able to help with the problem”

Cllr. Smith informed the Forum that this issue had been discussed at the Caithness Joint Ward Members business meeting on 12th November 2007 and that the concerns raised had the full support of those Members in attendance when the issue was discussed.

 

Forum Members

As the Sinclair Bay Community Council is in abeyance and as the Staxigoe and Papigoe residents had no representative on the Forum the Ward Manager had written to Scott Hervo as Chairman of the Staxigoe Hall Committee to invite him to attend these Forum meetings. Mr Hervo, who was in attendance, verbally agreed that he would attend in the future.

 

Q & A

1. Why has this meeting not had greater coverage in the press as regards time and place? Only way that this was know was from press report on last Ward Forum held in September 2007

 

To place an advert in the local press would cost around £80 each time. During a fiscal year there could well be over 18 meetings in total called for the Wick, Thurso and Landward Wards. The costs involved would require to be met by the discretionary budgets and it is felt that these funds could be put to better use in improving facilities etc. This meeting had been advertised in the Service Point at Market Square and also the notice board outside the Town Hall. However it is acknowledged that a wider spread of the notices would be beneficial. Future meetings would be advertised in the aforementioned locations along with the Library in Sinclair Terrace and at Tesco’s store at the Airport. The use of Caithness.org ‘what’s on’ facility could also be an option. It is intended that an agenda would be available for distribution prior to the Forum to allow the general public the opportunity to submit written questions for discussion.