Ward 8 –Tain and Easter Ross Ward Forum
Meeting held on Thursday 13 November 2008
in Milton Primary School Community Wing
Present:
Cllr Richard Durham (Chair)
Cllr Alasdair Rhind
Cllr Alan Torrance
Ian Hargrave, Corporate Manager, Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross
Sergeant Keith Robb, Northern Constabulary
Maurice McIntyre, Area Education Officer
Alastair MacKinlay, Assistant Rector, Tain Royal Academy
Duncan Mackay, Head Teacher Craighill Primary School
David Inglis, Licensing Standards Officer
Frances O’Connor, Fearn Community Council
Liz Whiteford, Fearn Peninsula Partnership
Peter Whiteley, Tain Community Council
Isabell McLaughlan, Milton Housing Forum
Hamish Mackenzie, Tarbat Community Council
Rose Hazell, Kilmuir and Logie Easter Action Group
George Dobbie, Kilmuir and Logie Easter Community Council
Eveline Waring, Nigg & Shandwick Community Council
Carol Elliot, Ward Manager Tain & Easter Ross
6 members of the public
Apologies:
Fiona Robertson, Tain Initiative Group
Sarah Lumb, Inver Community Council
Richard Cross, Nigg & Shandwick Community Council
1. Welcome and Introductions
Cllr Durham welcomed everyone to the Forum.
2. Apologies for Absence
As listed above.
3. Community Safety/Police report – Northern Constabulary
Thanks to Special Constable Ian Sutherland for coming along with the CCTV Mobile Van. Special Constables are urgently needed; anyone interested should contact the Police.
Sergeant Robb gave a report on policing in the Command area. The full report is attached at appendix 1.
It is hoped to take the Blue Light Discos to Tain in the near future.
Q – Can we get an update on staffing at Tain Police Station?
A – It is hoped to be up to full strength before January. ACTION: Police to confirm what full strength is.
Q – There is a 20mph speed limit outside Tain Royal Academy but people are still speeding, can there be a police presence to enforce?
A – The officers in Tain are very traffic orientated and will target the area whenever possible.
Q – Can the Police clarify to children about using bikes on pavements and when they must use lights?
A – ACTION: Police to look at.
4. Ward Update
Congratulations to Steven Urquhart, Street Sweeper from Tain – nominated by Tain Community Council. Stevie was joint winner of the Community Council’s employee of the year category at the Council’s Quality Awards ceremony on Monday evening.
A success. Following discussions at an earlier Ward Forum the Housing & Property Service has agreed to change the housing category of ‘Seaboard Villages’ to ‘PORT/INV/FEA/ PITCA’ which is a shortened version of the suggestion ‘Portmahomack/Inver/ Fearn/Pitcalnie’ given to them by Ward Councillors. This has had to be shortened because of computer system restrictions. It has also been suggested by Ward Councillors and agreed that the letting area ‘Milton’ should be renamed ‘Milton/Kildary’.
The Steering Local Area Partnership came together last week for the first time and met Sandy Anderson who has been appointed as the Consultant to produce a Local Development Plan for the Ward and to make recommendations on the make-up of a formal Local Area Partnership.
5. Feedback on action points from previous Ward Forum
The Notes from the previous Ward Forum are attached to the agenda. Feedback on actions is shown at appendix 1.
In addition to the Nigg note - Geoff Robson, The Council’s Head of Environment, has just told us that 12 weeks of public consultation on the Draft Nigg Development Masterplan should commence next week. He says once the consultation stage is over and responses have been analysed they will then be reported to the Planning, Environment & Development Committee and to the full Council in March.
6. Presentation - David Inglis, Licensing Standards Officer. What communities need to know about The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 and the changes to licensing laws.
David is based in Wick and covers Caithness, Sutherland and the Tain & Easter Ross Ward. The new Act comes into force on 1 September 2009. The old Act had 7 or 8 different types of licence. The new Act has only 3, Premises, Personal and Occasional licences. Voluntary groups will be most interested in the Occasional Licence.
The new Act looks at applications from a community aspect and encourages child and family friendly premises. This has to be addressed in the application form and operating plan. If it is appropriate, 16-17 year olds can be unaccompanied on premises. Each application is considered individually.
Every application is passed to the local Community Council with the operating plan for representations or objections which are then passed to the Licensing Board.
Voluntary Organisations can apply for an occasional licence as long as the event is for the benefit of the Voluntary Organisation. Individuals can apply for Personal Licences to run events. Village Hall committees can apply for occasional licences.
Different licences require different responsibilities. David is happy to help with any queries and his advice is free. David can be contacted on (01955) 607774. He is also happy to come out to Village Hall meetings to explain the rules in more detail.
Q – Will unaccompanied children be allowed in to licensed premises up to a set time?
A – Time will differ for each licence as each application has to show what they want to do is appropriate. It is hoped to introduce children into the environment in a responsible way and only where appropriate.
Q – What about an organisation that only runs one event per year?
A – Voluntary Organisations can apply for occasional licences totalling 56 days per year. They don’t need to go through training as with the other types of licence but the purpose of the event(s) needs to be for the purposes of the organisation.
Q – Small community businesses that rely on having a licence have to pay £800 for a premises licence. Are large retail outlets paying the equivalent?
A – The cost for a premises licence is based on rateable value. So larger businesses pay more. £800 is the minimum cost and last in perpetuity. There is also an annual cost of £200 for a renewal and any associated costs of training. According to a trade organisation, in some cases where applicants have used a solicitor and an architect, the cost of an application has been around £2500. A Personal Licence costs £50 for 10 years.
Q – Is it the same Premises Licence for off-sales and drinking on the premises?
A – New licences are granted on a like for like basis. Premises which only sell off-sales will not be permitted to sell for consumption on the premises. Some on-sales premises will continue to be allowed to sell off-sales. Details must be specified on the operating plan submitted with the application.
7. Presentation – Education. Maurice McIntyre, Area Education Officer; Alastair MacKinlay, Assistant Rector, Tain Royal Academy; and Duncan Mackay, Head Teacher Craighill Primary School. How can schools and communities work together better.
Tain Royal Academy has an Associated Schools Group (ASG) or a community of schools. All the feeder primary schools form this ASG with Tain Royal Academy. Member primary schools are Craighill; Knockbreck; Gledfield; Edderton; Inver; Tarbat; Hilton; Fearn and St. Duthas.
Milton Primary School is part of Invergordon Academy’s ASG but some Tain Royal Academy pupils come from Milton.
The aim of this presentation is to give the Ward Forum a flavour of how the learning community is working together.
Primary school Head Teachers and selected secondary school staff from the ASG meet 4 times per year. This grouping covers children aged from 3 to 18.
The ASG meetings have a broad focus on ensuring the best provision for all pupils in the ASG including the transition from primary to secondary school which can be stressful for young people. A number of initiatives work to make this transition easier. Staff from the secondary school go out to meet young people in their primary schools. Young people visit the secondary school to get used to the building.
After Easter each year the secondary school hosts a problem solving day for all Primary 7 pupils so young people are mixing with those who will be in the same 1st year as them. In June, Primary 7 pupils go to the secondary school for 4 days to get used to the school and follow timetables. Senior pupils act as buddies. Parents are also invited to come and look around the school.
Across Scotland schools are now working on a ‘curriculum for excellence’. This involves children from the start in what they are learning and how they feel they are getting on. This is to get each child to take ownership of the subject.
The ASG also meets to see how they can work together to improve the curriculum. All teachers come together from the nursery up to share practice, this allows small schools to build up support networks and share the costs of speakers/training to inspire all. All teachers are better informed of what other age groups do so they understand what children are referring to when they’ve done something else.
Other ASG projects include primary school science subjects. Science is difficult to deliver in primary school so secondary teachers go out to teach science in primary school and to bring pupils into use the secondary school labs.
Home economic teachers link with primary schools to look at healthy lunch boxes.
St. Duthas school pupils are helped to access Tain Royal Academy facilities such as home economics and music.
Gizzen Briggs tour primary schools.
Primary schools access a swimming programme at the Academy.
Geography is an issue making it difficult to get to and from areas.
A new initiative is the curriculum transition project based on a French family visiting Tain. Young people start working on this while in primary school and finish it in secondary school. When Primary 7 pupils move on to first year at secondary school their performance sometimes falls. This project allows staff to measure past performance in their new surroundings so they can encourage a similar standard.
Q – I have noticed all primary school staff are interested in what is happening in other areas now compared to years ago. At what stage are parents involved?
A – Parent Councils have replaced School Boards. They are fairly new and are still finding their roles and defining their interests. The Parent Councils in the area are now getting together.
Q – Do parents find out what is happening with the kids?
A – Parents are now involved earlier. Education is regarded as a partnership with the school, the pupil and the parent(s). Parents are also surveyed to see what they think and how they can be meaningfully involved.
Q – Are parents involved when there is bad behaviour, for example, bullying?
A – All schools have an Anti-Bullying Policy. All parents are informed about it. If there is an issue the school has a way of dealing with it and will involve the parents of both sides as necessary, especially if there is an ongoing issue.
Q – What do you do about sports and working with sports in the community?
A – Every ASG has an Active Schools Co-ordinator who works closely with primary and secondary schools to involve the children in some form of sport in and out of school. They involve clubs in this but there must be the appropriate checks in place.
Children also get the option of taking part in after-school clubs. In nursery they are active every day. In Ross-shire there is also a County sports event. We hope to get all children active and having fun so this is sustained into adulthood.
In secondary school pupils get 2 hours of physical education (PE) per week. Health and wellbeing is promoted across the school. There is a house system to promote competitiveness and some pupils go on to regional and national competitions.
Q – How can Tain Tennis Club link into more schools?
A – Get in touch with the Active Schools Co-ordinator, Julie Cleghorn, to make the link. Young people have lots on offer so you may be competing with other activities for their time.
Q – What happens with dyslexic children now?
A – The Additional Support Needs Legislation ensures schools have a duty to identify a broad range of additional support needs. Schools work with parents to identify any issues early with the help of professionals. Teachers are now trained how to identify problems and there are tests for different types of dyslexia. Every school has a school liaison group which brings together parents, teachers and others as necessary, for example, Doctor; Psychologist; Occupational Therapist; depending on the issues. It is important that everyone communicates and advice is shared from primary school to secondary school.
8. Date, location and topic of next Ward Forum
Thursday 15 January, 7pm for 7.30pm. Carnegie Hall, Portmahomack. The host Community Council will be Tarbat.
Main theme: Transport, Environment and Community Services (TECS) – How do we improve waste collection and recycling in Tain and Easter Ross?
If your organisation would like any other aspects of the waste collection and recycling service covered please let Carol Elliot, Ward Manager, know in plenty of time.
Secondary short topic: Provisionally Easter Ross Community Care Forum.
Q – We have dates set for the next 6 months; can we get dates for the full year?
A – ACTION - To be arranged.
9. Public Question and Answer session.
Q - Can the Housing Manager, give an answer to the question as to how many people in the Tarbat Community Council area are on the housing waiting list. All our Community Council wants to know is the number of families and the number of people this represents - not the names.
A - We can tell you that we have received 34 applications (of which 18 were for 1-bedroomed accommodation and the remainder for larger sized accommodation) for housing in the Seaboard Villages lettings area (soon to be Portmahomack/ Inver/Fearn/Pitcalnie). The information we have on the number of applicants is not broken down any further than that.
When a house becomes available in a lettings area the electronic system creates a shortlist of applicants based on a points system, unless the short listed applicant has specifically requested not to be housed in a certain area e.g. Portmahomack (which can only be found out by looking at their paper form), they will be offered the house.
Because the many paper applications we receive are stored at the office where the application was registered, which covers many Highland Council Housing offices and those of our Partner Housing Associations, collecting information from comments added into a form or about where the applicant lives at the moment is extremely labour intensive and only provides a small contribution to identifying the Housing need in an area.
The Highland Housing Register form is not a research tool; it only looks to collect information on a person’s housing need. Housing and Property staff has offered to go to the Community Council and explain in detail the complicated picture of housing provision. A recent example of housing development in Dunbeath gives an example of supply not reflecting numbers on waiting lists but of the need for development after taking many other factors in to consideration.
Tarbat Community Council is encouraged to take up the offer made to them by Housing & Property staff to attend their meeting to explain the many factors that have to be taken into account when assessing housing need and developing new housing proposals.
The Highland Council, Highland Housing Alliance and Albyn Housing Society are making great in roads to providing affordable housing in the area. After more discussion the level of interest in this was welcomed and Community Councils were encouraged to engage with Housing & Property.
Q – Can you consider asking questions from the public after each item rather than having 20 minutes at the end?
A – Members of the public are invited into discussions wherever it is feasible to do so (as happened at this meeting). The idea of 20 minutes at the end was what the Council originally agreed, and that means that people are not restricted to talking about items which the Council has put on the agenda.
Q – Can it be noted that Tain Tennis Club want to thank the police for dropping as promised following the vandalism item raised at the last ward Forum.
A – Noted.
10. Thanks for attending.
Cllr Durham thanked everyone for their attendance, Thanks to Dorothy and Marion from Kilmuir & Logie Easter Community Council for hosting refreshments.
Updates on ACTIONS can be seen at Appendix 2.