Monthly Meeting
23rd October 2023, 7.30pm
Dalmonach Community Centre
Attending
Jim O’Donnell (JoD) Chairperson, Jack Fordy (JF Secretary), Margaret Smith, (MS) Treasurer, Iain McPhie, (IM), Gloria Hendry (GH), Pauline Larking (PL), Helen Leslie (HL), Fiona Jenkins (FJ) Stephen Burns (WDC). Andy Sinnott (G & K CC) Alan Williamson (WDC), Alan McMullen (WDET), Cllr Iain Dickson (later).
Apologies
Catherine Howard (CH), Nancy Malcolm (NM), Cllr J. Bollan.
Police Report
PC Harvie was unable to attend, but had been able to send us the Crime Stats for the period. These were read out by the chair.
40 Recorded Crimes in this area 12/9 until 22/10.
The meeting thought that 40 was a lot, but expressed worries that this figure would only increase in proportion to the reduction in Police Officers.
The Police would urge the community to continue to use Crimestoppers if wishing to leave anonymous information regarding incidents which are happening within the community. The telephone phone number is 0800 555 111 and is operated 24hrs a day.
Minutes and Matters Arising
- Dalmonach Steps. Alan McMullen of the West Dunbartonshire Environment Trust attended and said that he come along in person to apologise for the almost 2 moth delay in completing the steps. He explained that the works were substantially complete on schedule by the beginning of September, but after that time they suffered a series of delays due to the late delivery of the handrails, these rails were to be produced and installed by a sub-contractor. This sub-contractor, Falkirk Council, was said by the main contractor P1, to have acted in a most unprofessional manner holding up completion of the project.
- Dilichip Flooding Thanks to IMP for leading on this. As many of you could see (If only on Facebook) the flooding of Main Street by the Dilichip Burn. IMP had written on more than one occasion to WDC Greenspace. This had resulted in some works carried out on the burn. IMP thought that these works had actually made the situation worse. When the heavy rains of October arrived, he was proved to be correct, the flooding was worse than ever and houses along the street suffered damage. This is a very worrying situation, just after our litter pick an excavator appeared on site and cleared the area under the bridge, blocked by old debris, which had worsened the flooding. Works to remove the concrete sections and deepen the burn while easing the angle of the corner had not begun at the time of writing. This left the footpath washed out and dangerous to walk on.
- Local Place Plan, Alan Williamson (WDC) and Andy Sinnot (Kilmaronock CC) are here to speak about it to us. …See later.
- Bonhill School Heritage Stones Gary was able to confirm that our proposed budget of £2.5K is OK. He had an idea for a bench with some possibly waney-edged timber from a local sawmill. However, it looks like we will have to work out the design aspects of this on our own and IMP kindly volunteered to take this on. GH Confirmed that On Point Stonemasons were extremely busy at this time and were reporting a 2-year backlog of work. IMP said that he was waiting on permission from the Bonhill School Administration to access the stones.
- Bonhill Pumpkins. FJ reports that she has contacted all her usual agencies and that she would be on site on Sunday from about 3.00pm. JF will organise Insurance.
- Litter Pick Organised by JoD our chair, this was very much a jolly family event and it went off very well see our F//B pages for details. Chair suggested organising another Pick for March.
- Bonhill School Greenhouses IMP explained that he was able to source replacement durable plastic covering for the Polytunnel Frame at Bonhill School. He had not yet begun this as he was waiting for permission to access the site, also there was less need for a poly tunnel at this time of year.
- Car Boot and Tabletop Sale. After discussion we agreed that the date should be Saturday 23rd March 2024. There was some discussion around possible charges but it was agreed that GH do some research to see what other groups charged.
Acceptance of Minutes
Accepted as a true and accurate record confirmed by IMP and GH.
Secretary’s Report
- We all came together to carry out our Dilichip and Red Burn Litterpick on Sunday. This was our first such an event for a while and after 2 hours of hard work, we had collected a large volume of litter and strange detritus. Thanks to all who took part in what was a very happy day.
- Flooding at Dilichip: Iain has borne the brunt of the work around this and perhaps better let him speak of this himself.
- The re-emergence of the wind farm proposals (see documents previously circulated). This will lead to a lot more work for each of us.
- At the last Community Councils’ Forum, we discussed forming a sub-group to represent the West of West Dunbartonshire and reflect the huge dissatisfaction with the performance of some parts of WDC and to address the feeling that we are very much the “poor relation” of Dunbartonshire and are losing out badly sandwiched as we are between the National Park and Clydebank/Dumbarton.
- There is a strong local feeling that the Balloch Library should not close, I believe that we should oppose this closure too. After a short debate, it was unanimously decided that we oppose this closure.
- We have been asked by the Lennox Herald to Collaborate on the provision of stories. This was generally agreed to be a good idea, the Lennox usually placed any stories verbatim in the paper, although it was acknowledged that they seemed to need a fairly sensationalist angle.
Treasurer’s Report
Incoming £0
Outgoing Sept/Oct £49.88
Balance £6199.79
The Treasurer explained that there had been a problem with transferring the mandate from the previous incumbent. The form completed and submitted was found to be the incorrect one and as she was not a signatory, the Bank would not discuss the matter with her. The Secretary had been able to speak with them, and resolve the matter but this has caused a delay.
Local Development Plan
Alan Williamson Place Team Leader of Development Planning gave us a valuable insight into the Intricacies of producing a Local Place Plan. He explained how the legislation changes by Scotgov has now extended our democratic choices by involving the Local Community in the production of the next ten-year plan. This plan, which would inform decisions made by the Council in future planning issues around our area.
After a period of consultation lasting approximately 18 months, the next Local Development Plan, LDP3 would run for a period of ten years from January 2026.
The secretary pointed out that preparing the consultation would confront us with a big challenge as we have around 9000 residents in this community council ward, and that at present we had not been able to interest anyone from the New Bonhill areas in joining us to give insights into the challenges and opportunities their areas will have.
Place Plan in Action
Andy Sinnot who is the Secretary of Gartocharn & Kilmaronock Community Council, gave us a concise report on how they set up the consultation, involved local residents, drafted the plan and finally published it. Andy stressed that this had been a complex but manageable task as they had to contact and resolve the opinions and options of their almost 800 residents in their area. The secretary thought that despite the huge disparity in populations, we could adopt some of the methods used by KGCC and simply scale up the procedures.
AOB
As there was no other business, the meeting closed at 9.05pm
Date of Next Meeting
4th December Venue: Ladyton
Then
15th January 2024 at Dalmonach
12th February 2024 Ladyton
8th April 2024 Dalmonach
20th May 2024 Ladyton
17th June 2024 Dalmonach