Ward 8: Appendix 1 – 11 June 2009

Response to action points raised at Tain and Easter Ross Ward Forum

ACTION 1: Insp Aitkin to get exact figures on how many vandalisms and breaches of the peace have been reported since the last Ward Forum.

Response:

Figures as recorded from the 23/4/09 to 11/6/09
8 recorded breach's of the peace
2 deliberate damage

ACTION 2: Councillors to write on behalf of Ward Forum to the Northern Joint Police Board asking them to make a representation to the Scottish Government for more Police officers.

Response: Letter signed by 3 Ward Councillors and sent 29 June.

ACTION 3: Stagecoach will look at the amount of time available to people coming in to Tain before returning to Balintore and the time between buses in the evening.

Response: See response to Action 4.

ACTION 4: William Mainus to report the call for a Sunday Service to the Council’s Public Transport Unit.

Response: Stagecoach is presently reviewing the bus network in the area and the services and connections to the main towns and communities and will finalise plans and proposals after the focus group meeting in Tain in September. Stagecoach will also discuss the comments made at the Forum with Highland Council as the services in the Seaboard Villages are run in the majority under contract to Highland Council at the next Operations Meeting between Stagecoach and Highland Council in August, in the meantime we have drafted an initial letter to Highland Council to highlight the comments made.

ACTION 5: Ward Manager to organise a local meeting with a few bus users, Stagecoach and a representative of the Council’s Public Transport Unit, to look at improving the timetabling.

Response: Community Councils asked to recruit a local bus user from their area. Meeting organised for 2 September. In part as 4 above, but, the Portmahomack service connections are currently been checked and if need be the timetable will be changed to improve the connections to/from Inverness, in the meantime an instruction will be put out to drivers on the Portmahomack service that they must wait for the arrival of the Inverness buses.

ACTION 6: William Mainus to speak to Transerve to see if a lay-by can be put in near the Nigg roundabout to help the bus stop safely to pick up commuters.

Response: A letter is in the process of being drafted to request whether lay-bys near to the roundabout are possible, Highland Council will also be copied in to see whether they will support that request.

ACTION 7: William Mainus to pass on the request for a double ticket to travel on the bus and train.

Response: Within the bus and rail industry there is a joint ticket called Plusbus, there is no scheme in the Seaboard Villages, at the moment we are currently reviewing all the Plusbus Schemes and within that review will consider a scheme for the Seaboard communities, but no guarantee can be given at this moment.

ACTION 8: Ward Manager to see if there is any interest in forming a tourism group.

Response: Tourism businesses written to and Press Release issued to measure interest. Meeting organised for 22 September.