Landward Caithness Ward Forum
Tuesday 17th June 2008 at Community Hall, Lybster
Present
Cllr David Flear – Chair
Cllr Robert Coghill
David Sutherland – Caithness Wards Manager, Highland Council
Area Commander, Chief Inspector Andy Brown – Northern Constabulary
Police Officer Jennifer Baughan – Community Safety Officer, Northern Constabulary
Douglas Fraser – Castletown Community Council
Mrs Elizabeth Geddes – Castletown Community Council
John Green – Dunnet & Canisbay Community Council
Billy Manson – Halkirk Community Council
Mrs Janet Mowat – Halkirk Community Council
William Brown – Caithness West Community Council
James Macdonald – Watten Community Council
Donald Henderson – Tannach & District Community Council
Mrs Elizabeth Henderson – Tannach & District Community Council
Mrs Elizabeth Cameron – Berriedale & Dunbeath Community Council
Neil Buchanan – Berriedale & Dunbeath Community Council
Donald Miller – Latheron, Lybster & Clyth Community Council
Robbie Mackintosh – Ward Managers Team, Highland Council
Alex Macmanus – Ward Managers Team, Highland Council
Elizabeth Anne Mackay reporter was in attendance but no members of public
Apologies
Mrs Irene Hendrie – Dunnet & Canisbay Community Council
Cllr David Bremner
Cllr Willie Mackay
Community Safety – Area Commander Chief Inspector Andy Brown & Jennifer Baughan, Community Safety Officer, Northern Constabulary
Chief Inspector Andy Brown gave a short resume of his police career to date. He strongly believed in working in partnership with local communities and all would have seen and read his message in the local papers. He was from the ‘old school’ of policing and believed police should be seen not only to act as a deterrent but as a comfort to communities. He stressed that to enable him to police he needs help from the general public no matter how trivial things may appear all evidence is part of a larger jigsaw when compiling reports to the Procurator.
Jennifer Baughan went over the crime figures for Lybster from 1st January to date. She reported there were 21 noise related incidents of which a few were repeat occurrences, 4 assaults, 4 cases of dog fouling
Rural areas are being targeted by travelling criminals. Security is at times lax in the countryside. Staring up a ‘Farm Watch’ scheme in Caithness & Sutherland in partnership with the National Farmers Union (NFU). NFU will include community safety brochures for their members when they mail them. Police will advise NFU of numbers and intelligence. A press release will be issued within a few weeks to advise non-farmers of community safety issues. It is stressed that again the police must be alerted by the rural community via phone
Chief Inspector Brown went on to explain the Automatic Number Plate Recognition system (ANPR) that will be introduced into the County very shortly. This system costing £10,000 and financed by the Local Members discretionary Budget will be able to recognise car details almost instantaneously and alert officers to the ‘travelling’ criminals who since the opening of the three bridges has put the County in easy reach from the Central Belt and beyond. The Chief Inspector was very grateful to the members for funding the ANPR as this will allow him to concentrate on having police on the street as his budget had no element to cover the cost of ANPR. He felt, as did the members, that this was an excellent piece of partnership working. A full press release would be made in due course once the system is fitted to a police vehicle.
Forum member felt that with ‘Farm Watch’ the police could enlist the help of the vets, D & S McGregor, with the distribution of information materials to non NFU members. As oil process continue to rise thefts from tanks are becoming more common. Chief Inspector advocates that a padlock be fitted to oil tanks however with some tanks a plastic ventilation cover can be prised off. Thefts of oil require transportation to carry drums so again any suspicious vehicles should be reported. The police are aware of the gang that are operating in the County and are slowly building up enough evidenced to make arrests.
Members feel that without village bobbies the visual deterrent of having the police on site has been lost. Chief Inspector confirmed that Lybster was not loosing its village bobby but at this time a couple of serious crimes in the Dornoch area were having priority policing. Miscellaneous rumours are been reported to the police. Any alleged illegal dumping needs to be proved by evidence and it is very difficult to act on anonymous letters. Small communities must make reports in person and then stand up to give evidence. Dumping on private land is not a Council issue. Private individuals can raise a complaint bur hard evidence is required. Council could go as far as eviction if proven it is their tenants but under the Homelessness Act would need to re-house
Castletown Community Council stressed that the visual deterrent of the police in the village has greatly helped in reducing anti-social behaviour. However they would like to see a police report given at their meetings
Chief Inspector Brown was waiting for an incident van to be delivered to the County. He planned on using this as a mobile office and intended to advertise a rota of where and when this unit would be stationed throughout the County. His force are about to advertise internally for a second Community Safety Officer for Caithness.
In response to a question over safe sight lines at junctions in relation to grass cutting he believed that there should be at least 20 meters clean to allow good visibility. This information could be found in the Highway Code and the Road Traffic Act. During Autumn and Winter the police intended carrying out road safety checks on vehicles as a sort of a ‘car service’. Comments were made about drivers not switching on their lights when weather conditions reduced visibility.
Cllr Flear remarked at how refreshing it was to have a pro-active police chief and he looked forward to working with him as we go forward.
Question – written on Community Safety
From MB
Address provided:
Phone Number provided:
Q - WILL HIGHLAND COUNCIL TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CONTINUED DUMPING OF RUBBISH BY TENANTS IN HOUSES AT SHELLIGOE ROAD/ GOLF VIEW PLACE, LYBSTER?
A – ‘In the past few years around April MB has approached the Housing Service to complain about fly tipping in the field her family own which runs behind Shelligoe Road and Golf View Place Lybster. My understanding is that through the winter months the land lies empty but come spring it can be rented out for summer pasture. Before this can happen the field must understandably be free of rubbish etc.
MB is of the opinion that the residents of the streets mentioned above are almost solely responsible for the fly tipping and frankly I would tend to agree but that withstanding without evidence – corroborated evidence – I can do very little. As a Housing Service we are very sympathetic to MB plight and as a result of her initial letter to George Sanders dated 9/4/08 I spent quite a bit of time down there this year talking to residents and explaining the consequences should anyone be caught fly tipping. Indeed every time I am down I reiterate this.
I wrote to each and every resident in the two streets on 11/4/08 and I will let you have a copy of this letter. Part of the content of this letter asked anyone who had any relevant information to contact me, anonymously if they wished. I sent out in total 30 letters and received 0 replies.
I also believe that the contents of MB letter of 9/4/08 were also passed to Helen Gordon of TECS. Although I was content that as a Housing Service we had done all that the information presented to us had allowed us to do, I knew that the problem was persisting and on May 7th this year I organised a meeting with myself, George Sanders, MB and Kenny Gow of TECS. Colin Sutherland of Lybster Community Council also attended with MB.
I had done a bit of research before the meeting and I quote the Environmental Protection Act 1990 section 89 to you as I did to those present only so that we are all clear where our responsibilities lie: Under s.89 of the EPA 1990 certain bodies including local authorities, crown authorities, designated statutory undertakers and governing bodies of designated educational institutions, have a duty to keep land under their direct control clear of litter and refuse, and highways clear of litter refuse and detritus.
Local authorities and other ‘duty’ bodies therefore have a responsibility for dealing with tipping on PUBLIC land.
Land managers, occupiers or owners of private property are responsible for clearing fly-tipping on PRIVATE land.
It should also be noted that in Scotland an agreement has been reached with ACPOS that where resources are available police will attend to ongoing fly tipping incidents with a view to identifying offenders.
As you can see this meeting was more of a brain storming session to try to give MB as much information as we could. MB felt that she would be able to rustle up enough helpers to clear the field but getting rid of the volume of debris was causing her a problem so Kenny Gow agreed as a good will gesture to provide a skip to Lybster that weekend for this purpose.
Unfortunately I believe following the clear up more stuff was dumped! There has been no further communication from the B family directly to this office since then’
Matters arising from previous Forum – 8th April 2008
Climate Change review question raised by Neil Buchanan over the remit of the development of a Highland Energy Company. Question was raised with Policy Unit by Ward Manager and answered as follows:-
‘It was agreed at the working group meeting that this would be a future item for the working group to consider – we currently have it scheduled for the autumn meeting (the next meeting in June will be a partner’s event). The lead on this is Andy McCann in Planning and Development. I think it would be better to advise members that no decisions have been made on this, even the approach to the review still has to be considered - and that will be later this year. It’s really exploratory at this time and it’s not a priority for the planning and development service. In the meantime, we continue to support those communities seeking our assistance with negotiating community benefit’.
Bilingual Signs in Caithness
Castletown Community Council did not see the point in spending money on these as budgets are tight but they were not anti-Gaelic.
Latheron, Lybster & Clyth and Berriedale & Dunbeath Community Councils were also not anti-Gaelic and had made donations to the Mod Committee. Halkirk Community Council is not anti-Gaelic. Cllr Flear echoed that he is also not anti-Gaelic. It was noted via the local press that Wick Community Council had not made any donation to the Mod and Forum members felt that this was rather short-sighted of them. It was also noted that there has been no response from the Chief Executive of the Council to the letters sent by the Community Councils over the signs issue.
Discretionary Budget
£3,333 had been allocated as Landward share of £10,000 for ANPR system
Balance remaining now at £27,024 having agreed £32,635 to total project costs of £73,477
A question was raised over the entry relating to the Wick air raid memorial which the Ward Manager explained satisfactorily to the forum.
LEADER+ could be used to match fund from discretionary budget. There is between £150,000 to £160,000 available per annum from LEADER+.
Village Officer funding could possible be funded by LEADER+ as there is now no HIE funding available.
Castletown have a real concern over village officer funding and would like this sorted out.
Forum members are disappointed with HIE and would wish for Roy Kirk to address the next forum as they would like to know what is happening with new businesses in the County following the cut in HIE budget.
ACTION POINT – CONTACT HIE TO HAVE ATTENDANCE AT NEXT FORUM.
Halkirk cemetery gates did not fit properly due to supplying Company making mistake. These are being replaced. Bower & Keiss cemetery gates are presently being quoted locally to be replaced.
Date of next meeting
Monday 29th September 2008 at Ross Institute, Halkirk – 7.30pm to 9.30pm
AOB
Forum members felt that the acoustics in the hall were not as good as they could have been.
Bill Brown raised issues over three length of grass at the junctions in the country and requested that they be cut back.
Local Area Planning manager had been written about the planning strategy but has not yet replied. The Harpsdale problem is known to Scottish Water who ideally should be getting contacted by prospective builders prior to any works being started. Problems are encountered when one by one builds are taking place. There are no significant number builds being carried out.
Question & Answers
Q -Can the Council now supply a list of the Harbours maintenance and capital programme for this year?
A – This list is now available and will be e-mailed to questioner within the next few days.
Q – How do delegated powers work in relation the planning matters?
A – Planning Officers have delegated powers to approve and refuse applications. Each week a list of delegated refusals is provided to ward members. If all the ward members agree without consultation then this can be referred to the PARC for determination. How ever this is not confined to Caithness members and includes members from Sutherland & Easter Ross. It is up to each member after weighing up the pros and cons whether he/she should refer this to the local PARC. If any of the members agree with the delegated decision of the Planning Officer then that decision stands. The applicant can then appeal to the Scottish Ministers who will determine the application.
Information on planning applications can now be found at: - /yourenvironment/planning/planningapplications/
Q – What weighting is given to any concerns raised on a planning application?
A – If there are more than four complaints raised the application is automatically referred to the review committee or if the Planning Officer is uncomfortable with the application he/she will also refer.
Q – A planning application had been shown on the internet as having been approved under delegated authority but subsequently had been refused. Why?
A – This was down to human error and for this the Council have apologised. It is recommended to all that prudence be exercised and await written confirmation of such issues.