Action notes - Ward Forum - West Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh (Ward 6)

Meeting held on 30 September 2008 at 1900 in Achnasheen Village Hall

Agenda

Chair: Cllr Jean Urquhart

Present: Cllr Biz Campbell; Cllr Richard Greene; Cllr Audrey Sinclair; Cllr Jean Urquhart; Murdo Finlayson (Applecross CC); Mairi Chisholm (Aultbea CC); Willie Macrae (Gairloch CC); Isabel MacKenzie (Gairloch CC); Helen Grainge (Garve & District CC); Sue Tarr (Garve & District CC); Jean Hollingdale (Garve & District CC); Kristine MacKnzie (Lochcarron CC); Richard Munday (Shieldaig CC); Tom Forrest (Torridon & Kinlochewe CC); Amy MacDonald (Wester Lochewe CC).
Officials in attendance: Robbie Bain (Ward Manager); Chief Insp Paul Eddington (Northern Constabulary), Insp Matthew Reiss (Northern Constbulary); Cadet Erin Robson (Northern Constabulary).

And 7 Members of the public.

Introduction

Jean Urquhart welcomed everyone to the meeting.

VisitScotland

Scott Armstrong outlined the importance of tourism to the economy of Scotland, the Highlands and Ward 6 in particular, estimating the value of tourism in Wester Ross alone to be £50.4m and providing 1500 full-time equivalent jobs.

He gave an update on the role, function and structure of VisitScotland and how it is funded. It currently has 3 distinct aspects to its remit: Marketing; Information Services and Quality Assurance Schemes. Scott stressed that they don’t do Product Development; Business Development orTourism Training, these areas being the remit of the Enterprise Network, the Local Authorities and Skills Development Scotland.

Scott further described the segmented approach to marketing and gave an overview of current trends in tourism.

Questions from the floor related to: Rationalisation of tourism marketing; the reliability of tourism data; the importance of repeat visits and customer loyalty; the need for a child-friendly approach by tourist businesses; the relationship between VisitScotland and VisitBritain (especially in overseas marketing); the Tourism Growth Fund; the importance of not overcharging for single occupancy and finally the importance of the marine element in tourism (sailing, cruise ships, diving etc.).

Highland Council, Roads & Community Works

Jim Tolmie (Area Roads & Community Works Manager), accompanied by Ian Hay and Mark Crowe gave an outline of the structure of Transport, Environmental and Community Services within Highland Council and where Roads & Community Works fitted into this. He stressed that the Refuse Service was no longer part of the Roads & Community Works remit.

For reasons of depot location, Roads & Community Works remain organised along the old Area borders, with the area south of Strathcarron Junction covered by the Skye & Lochalsh office in Portree and the area north of this covered by the Ross & Cromarty office in Dingwall. Within Roads & Community Works there were two teams: the Technical Teams and the Operational Teams. The Technical Teams in Ward 6 are Managed by Bryan Stout in Dingwall and Gordon MacDonald in Portree and the Operational teams by Ian Hay in Dingwall and Mark Crowe in Portree. On the ground, the operational teams are led by the Community Works Officers: George Speed in Lochalsh and Geoff Walker in Wester Ross & Strathpeffer. It was stressed that George & Geoff were happy to have a drive around the local area with CCs so that problems can be identified and addressed. Cllr Greene endorsed this approach and encouraged CCs to take up this offer.

In order that enquiries and complaints on any TEC Services issue can be dealt with by the appropriate person, Jim encouraged Community Councils to use the new generic email addresses: sltecsa@highland.gov.uk for Skye & Lochalsh / rossandcromarty.tecsadmin@highland.gov.uk for Ross and Cromarty. These email addresses are accessed several times a day by office staff in Portree and Dingwall, who can ensure that they are passed to the appropriate person.

The Council has recently appointed an Education and Enforcement Officer (Ian Wilson, ian.wilson@highland.gov.uk whose remit is dog fouling, litter and abandoned cars) and a Dog Warden (Nel MacDonald-Rolfe nel.macdonald-rolfe@highland.gov.uk).

Discussion points from the forum members realted to: the need for a Council-wide organisational chart to be available to the public; the question of how TECs would cope with future cubdget constraints and whether the current budget for winter maintenance was adequate.

Police Issues

Chief Inspector Paul Eddington introduced Inspector Matthew Reiss and Cadet Erin Robson. Ch Insp Eddington reminded the Forum that a great deal of policing was “hidden” and that public feeling about “Bobbies on the beat” was misplaced – there were more police now than ever before, carrying out a range of very important “behind the scenes” work. Examples of this were:

the management of sex offenders, with three full time officers constantly working with other agencies and other officers;
child protection, two full time officers and other local officers trained in handling child protection issues, working closely with social work services and dealing with very serious cases. Northern Constabulary are currently engaged in a pathfinder project under the Government’s “Getting it Right for Every Child” programme, looking at the beneifts of early intervention and targetting the right resources where needed.
Domestic abuse. This was an increasing area of activity, partly reflecting the greater confidence of victims to come forward. Ross & Cromarty was embarking on a pilot of a multi-agency risk assessment conference – a process which had been shown to be effective in England
Community Safety, working in schools and with public agencies. The recent Blue Light discos were anexample of the success of this approach, with a decrease in calls to the police over the weekend. Both events held so far have been well supported and enjoyed by all the participants. A small coningent from Ullapool attended the last event but further work with the school was required to encourage stronger participation.

Finally Ch Insp Eddington spoke of the cadet programme that Cadet Robson was part of and the hope that this will provide a good introduction to Policing for school leavers who may wish to follow a career in the police.

A question was asked about whether the police had Youth Officers. While the answer was “no” it was pointed out that this did not mean that the police were not involved in youth activities locally. Examples were Operation Youth Advantage and Street Football.

Yvonne Boa (The Council’s Youth Development Officer in Ullapool) felt that the Police attitude to the involvement of Ullapool children in the Blue Light discos had been “tokenistic”. This was strongly refuted by Ch Insp Eddington who pointed out that the youth officers had been kept fully informed and that every effort had been made to include children from Ullapool and Gairloch High Schools, including sponsorship by Stagecoach of free bus travel to and from the events.

Inspector Matthew Reiss followed by raising specific issues of note to the Ward:

Loopallu. Increased police visibility had led to a reduction in thefts and people seemed to be reassured by the more obvious police presence. A substantial quantity of drugs were seized and there had been one arrest for drink driving and one for driving while under the influence of drugs.
Road Safety. The police continued to take action against speeding, use of mobile ‘phones while driving and drink/drug driving.
Winter issues. The public were reminded that, in winter, road conditions can change rapidly and that, since the police can’t have a car on every road, they would want to be notified of any problems.
Crime. There has been an increase in thefts of scrap, diesel and heating oil in the area and the public are advised to lock central heating tanks and not to leave scrap metal lying around. People should be vigilant and report any suspicious activity.
Serious Crime is down by 20-25% and this is still one of the safest places to live in the UK.
Recruitment. The police are currently recruiting. Insp Reiss was keen to point out that anyone with integrity, honesty and enthusiasm, interested in a challenging and rewarding career should consider the police and contact Human Resources at Police HQ.

Discussion points from the Forum included: underage drinking at Loopallu; Wildlife crime and Sheep rustling.

Other Business

Recycling. Tom Forrest circulated a letter which raised concerns about the Council’s programme to roll out kerbside collection of recyclables. He questioned whether this was a sensible way to handle the recycling issue and feared that the Council was exporting, at great expense, a valuable commodity that could be put to better use locally, keeping jobs and income in the local community. He further expressed disappointment that recycling had not appeared on the Agenda for this Forum meeting. Members felt that Mr Forrest was incorrect in his assertion that recycling in Wester Ross would start in March and agreed to pass his concerns to the Council’s Refuse and Waste Management department. Members agreed that Waste Management issues would be the topic of a future forum but denied that any commitment had been given to the Torridon & Kinlochewe CC in August that it would be brought to the next Forum meeting.
Kyle Youth café. Fiona Begg, chair of the Kyle Youth Café asked why the input of the Sessional Youth Worker was being reduced from ten hour a week to five. Members had no information on which to answer this question but would investigate.
Children’s Services/Mental Health. Kerry Maclennan requested that a future Forum should address issues surrounding provision of Children’s Services in the Ward, especially: the lack of Mental Health workers in Wester Ross; the lack of a children’s services worker for Gairloch High School; the gap in provision between ages 16 and 18 and the lack of work opportunities for 16 year olds.

It was agreed that this issue would form the focus of the next Ward Forum and the Forum agreed that this issue needed to take precedence over a discussion of Waste issues.

It was agreed that the next Forum meeting would be provisionally set for Monday 24th November at 19.00 in Achnasheen.