Landward Caithness Ward Forum
Action Note of meeting held on 5 February 2008
at R.I. Halkirk

Present

Cllr David Bremner – Chair
Cllr Willie Mackay
David Sutherland – Caithness Ward Manager, Highland Council
Mrs Anne Alexander – Watten Community Council
James Macdonald – Watten Community Council
William Manson – Halkirk Community Council
Mrs Janet Mowat – Halkirk Community Council
Neil Buchanan – Berriedale & Dunbeath Community Council
Mrs Elizabeth Cameron – Berriedale & Dunbeath Community Council
Donald Henderson – Tannach & District Community Council
Mrs Elizabeth Henderson – Tannach & District Community Council
Irene Hendrie – Dunnet & Canisbay Community Council
Alan Roberts – Bower Community Council
Bill Brown – Caithness West Community Council
Chief Inspector Liz Goskirk – Northern Constabulary
Robbie Mackintosh – Ward Managers Team, Highland Council
Alex Macmanus – Ward Managers Team, Highland Council

No members of the public were in attendance but Gordon Calder attended in his capacity as a member of the press.

Apologies

Cllr David Flear
Cllr Robert Coghill
John Green – Dunnet & Canisbay Community Council
Douglas Fraser – Castletown Community Council
Mrs Elizabeth Geddes – Castletown Community Council

Matters arising from previous Forum – 11th December 2007

1. Brown Bins had now been agreed for Braal Castle Road with residents advised.
2. Issues over trees and bushes/hedges encroaching onto paths and roads would be left as a standing order item to allow monitoring. Alan Roberts questioned the fact that the Council may be sued by landowners if cutting is carried out without permissions. RTA guidelines note that if they become an imamate danger they may be cut. If individuals wish to cut these encroaching trees and bushes they do so at their own responsibility.
3. It has been confirmed by Scottish Provincial Press that the Caithness Explorer 2008 will be published by middle of April. As was last year an additional 10,000 copies will be ordered with the cost being met equally by the three Caithness Wards discretionary budgets.
4. Proposed meeting with Rapsons and the Caithness Transport Forum was cancelled on the day because of the bad weather. An alternative date will require to be arranged.
5. Recycling performances reward scheme is in hand. Ward Manager is waiting 4th quarter figures before drawing up the scheme. He will be looking at various options to make the scheme equitable e.g. per head of population, % increase. It is acknowledged that Bower has Seater Site on hand but Bower Community Council would speak to the Bower Village Hall over obtaining and siteing bins in the village.
6. Trading Standards wish to know if it is believed that retailers are selling fireworks without the required licence There are however periods during the year when no licence is required. This information along with curfew times is available at the following site. www.berr.gov.uk/fireworks  
7. Winter gritting maps had been sent to all Community Councils. Berriedale & Dunbeath Community Council have noted that the Newport to Berriedale section has not been included on map as there is a road at Newport that can be used to get to Dunbeath if the A9 is blocked.

Trees, bushes & hedges encroachment.

Issues at Achscrabster had been already identified and were having the Ward Managers Team attention. Questions were raised over all the fallen timber that was evident in the County and that how this timber could be used for power. If these trees have fallen in private enterprises ground there is little that can be done. It was believed that the Forestry Commission were addressing this issue on their own land. It was also mentioned that the rules of nature would just let the trees lie and rot and form habitats. The Bower Village Officer cuts back the encroaching bushes at private road to improve visibility.

20’s Plenty – Dunbeath & Keiss

All schools in County had now been done with Reay having just started. (A question was asked about this regarding the timescales and this would be checked with the Road Safety Team). Landward Members had only this week agreed to the Dunbeath and Keiss plans and work on these areas would start soon.

Ward Discretionary Budgets

Landward Budget was just about fully utilised. Budget figure for year was £56k with total project costs being £171k almost 3.5 times initial budget. It was hoped that the discretionary budget for 2008/2009 would be increased to £82k but this has not been confirmed. Cllr Willie Mackay was very pleased to see that these funds had been well spread throughout Landward Caithness. Ward Manager still encouraged organisations to continue submitting their applications.

Local Action Fund

Landward Budget allocation of £9,627 had now all been committed to Landward projects at Watten, Canisbay, South East Caithness (Lybster, Latheron, etc) also Caithness wide project involving Ross County Football Club.

Dates of future meetings

Tuesday 8th April 2008 at 7.30pm in Ross Institute, Halkirk
Tuesday 17th June 2008 at 7.30pm with venue to be decided on 8th April 2008

Any other business

Recycling figures can they be made available to each Community Council prior to the next Landward Forum meeting on 8th April 2008?

Paper bins at Halkirk are continually being over filled and not emptied. Can an additional bin be supplied?

Bower Community Council had recently received funds from Awards for All. These monies would be used to develop a picnic area at Thura Place. Bower Community Council would like to express their thanks to the Highland Council for gifting them this piece of land.

Halkirk Community Council has written to Neill Gillies, Director of TECS over their concerns that the road from Halkirk to Glengolly (B874) is now in their opinion too narrow for the volume, ditches are deep and sizes of traffic using it and also that the road markings are virtually nonexistent. There are now a lot of tree lorries using this road but as there is no weight restriction the police are powerless to intervene. Halkirk Community Council believes that with the proposed Sports Centre volumes of traffic would increase. Local farmers have agreed to give up land to allow this road to be widened. Halkirk Community Council would be grateful if the Landward Forum could also write to Neil Gillies echoing Halkirk’s concerns.

Caithness West Community Council had noted continual signs at the Dunbar Hospital warning of flooding on the A836. If this was a blocked drain could this not be cleared so as to avoid the problem of the flooding danger?  Ward Managers Team would investigate this complaint.

Tannach & District Community Council would like to see the draft proposals for the boundaries realignment brought to the next Association of Community Councils meeting which was due on 4th March 2008. Ward Manager felt that some of the area realignment could prove difficult but that there would be no impositions. He would be looking to match Community Council and Electoral Areas and also look at the elected Community Council numbers discrepancies.

Halkirk Community Council and Halkirk Village Council would wish to thank the Highland Council for making the funds available for them to purchase the ‘smiley faces’ for the entrances to the village.

Police Issues – Chief Inspector Liz Goskirk
C.I. Goskirk introduced herself to the Forum. It is her intention that she would be point of contact for all the three Forums in the County. She reminded the Forum that they can go to her at anytime with any concerns and not just wait until a Forum meeting. In response to a question about police numbers C.I. Goskirk advised that there were around about 20 officers in Thurso with the same number in Wick. She also reported that her officers will carry out a compulsory breath tests for all traffic offences. She also advised that any motorist found to be double the legal limit (70mm) would be kept in custody. This would be published in the papers.

SNH – Ward Manager advised Forum that SNH had written to him about the SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) at John O’ Groats. A copy of this letter was available for all Forum Members to take away with them. Ward Manager advised that as there were a number of these SSSIs in Caithness he would collate all these letters into one accessible source in his office.

Question and Answer Session

Q1 - It is about the gritters mainly on the costal routes, saying there has been so many accidents due to the frost and sometimes never seeing a gritter until after these accidents have occurred, also on Friday evening the roads at Berriedale were total chaos with the snow and all these accidents are having an impact on car insurance, also that up to date technology isn’t that reliable and anyone on the ground could tell that gritters were needed on the frosty mornings.  What can be done?
A – The routes you are talking about here are serviced by Transerve Scotland and not the Highland Council. It is intended that they are invited along to address these issues as this is not the first time that this has arisen. The Ward Manager will make contact with Transerve to have this arranged.

Q2 - I would like to submit the following to the landward forum meeting next week.
"At the Baillie wind power station planning hearing on Tuesday January 15th, RSPB and a local independent bird expert gave presentations on birds which included data which the developer had not taken into account, and which SNH had also failed to take into account during their assessment.  The Planning Committee Chairman asked whether any representative from SNH was present at the meeting and if so could they please comment on information presented with regard to SNH's position.
 No-one from SNH offered any comment or input.
I now know that an SNH employee was present throughout the hearing.  Can you please ask if the Landward Forum can formally write to SNH asking why, when they had taken a decision to attend the meeting at taxpayer’s expense, they failed to respond when asked?"
A – The Landward Forum Members feel that it is not this group’s responsibility to write to an external agency but rather should be done by the individual concerned.