There will be a meeting of the community council at 7pm on Monday 4th February in the Burgh Chambers of the Town Hall, Queen's Gardens. There will be a short break at about 8pm during which the 200 Club draw will be made.
Young St Andrews Citizen of 2001. Appendix G.
(Read for accuracy in matters of substance - harangue the secretary for minor (spelling etc) errors outwith the meeting)
(For anyone wishing to address the meeting on a matter relevant to St Andrews. Please contact the Secretary or Chair before the meeting. Priority will be given to those who have been invited to speak or have given advance notice).
Colin McAllister.
Local residents to speak.
Appendix C for brief summary, Appendix E covers some matters discussed at the meeting. All members should have received a copy of the working paper.
((Iain Smith MSP has sent us a copy of a letter he wrote to Chair of the Fife Health Board, Esther Roberton, urging early completion of the outline business case and seeking assurance that funding remains available despite delays.))
New business should be notified to the secretary in advance for inclusion in the agenda, otherwise it can be taken under AOCB
Due to continuing ill-health Chris Lesurf has resigned as CC rep at the Cosmos.
Can anyone take her place?
Appendix D: a suggestion from Keith McCartney.
8.3.1. Historical Query appendix B
Written reports are required by terms of the Scheme for Community Councils.
Appendix A & Questionnaire. Joe Peterson to explain further.
Appendix F.
Please notify Secretary/Chair of items before the start of the meeting. Hint: Given that the end of the meeting is usually taken in something of a rush, unless items are urgent it might be better to submit them for next meeting's New Business.
Tues.15th Jan 2002 10.30am.
Apologies: Frank Riddell.
Attendance: Joe Peterson, Chris Lesurf, Joe Lamb.
Matters arising from last meeting
Cosmos Centre - Chris now has a copy of the constitution.
Fife Society for the Blind - Joe Lamb stated that there had been no further major developments.
Current matters
Primary Care
NHS Trusts
Fife Health Council
Fife Health News
Fife Environmental Network
Community Council Environmental Audit
AOCB
NHS reminder that a further public meeting will be held at 10am Monday 18th February in the Town Hall Admission is by ticket only from Fife Health Council 01592-200555 or Fife Health Board 01334-421102.
Date of next meeting: Tuesday 15th February.
From: “Ron Munro” <munro5112@iprimus.com.au>
Subject: information on a Town councilor c1817?
Greetings from South Australia. I am seeking information on a town councillor (and Merchant) named Alexander MUNRO (or MONRO?) father of David Munro (or MONRO) born St. Andrews 02OCT1817 who started university in St. Andrews at the age of 14; and eventually became a Reverend of Coldingham.
Rev David Munro, of Coldingham, Scotland had a son names Robert Stevenson Munro, and I am the Australian great grandson of this Robert. Robert came out to South Australia c1890s as a marine engineer of steam Ships and worked here in south Australia on the costal steamers at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century.
I am yours thankfully as to how I may be able to get such information on Alexander Munro/Monro?
7.30pm Monday 21/1/02 Fife Council Offices, St Mary's Place.
Ann Herring (Hosp Manager), Dr John Bell, Joe Peterson, Ken Crichton, Penny Uprichard, Frances Melville, Gordon Pay, Frank Riddell, Bill Sangster, Ken Fraser, Murdo Macdonald, Donald Macgregor, Lindsay Murray, Ian Goudie, Pete Lindsay.
Dr Bell spoke at some length about the factors that will influence the next stage of the hospital development; choice of site. These include the services to be offered in the hospital/health centre. Whether it is a join facility. Parking spaces. Requirement for many services to be on the ground floor - little can go upstairs due to standards of practice/legislation (?). However he and the LHCC are concerned that a phased approach to transferring services from the existing facilities to a site developed in stages might be vulnerable to changes in financial climate. They are inclined to build a general purpose structure and then worry about the details of services - although a services wish-list was circulated (I believe other people took notes of this). This was part of a 'preferred option', but it was not a commitment. This would provide for both hospital and health centre, though the ambulance centre may still be a later phase.
Those present generally shared the concern that delay might mean loss of funding partway through and agreed that big bang approach was preferable to phased implementation (NB this too could affect choice of site).
Some numbers:
Current beds at the moment - 26 + 9 for surgery recovery [trolleys?}
Planned - 40 beds + 10 recovery (nb this is not 50).
Health Board is allowing £1-1.5m extra running costs for the new facility
Building costs will be £15-18m (at least)
There was some brief discussion of locations though this will really be for the next phase. See Appendix E for sites being considered. It was pointed out that the creation of a green belt has been confirmed in the Fife Structure Plan now, though its boundaries have not been defined it will probably have an effect on choice of location. Consultation over this is seen as very important as no one wants to see another 2-3 years delay in a planning fight over an unacceptable development site. Dr Bell specifically denied any involvement in a widely-rumoured major development proposal at a western site that is said to involve 100s of houses, a feeder road from the A91 - and a hospital as a sweetener.
There was some discussion of services, in passing. Points noted were that there will be no provision for maternity services, though they are not specifically ruled out. There will probably be geriatric beds though not, as discussed here last month, geriatric day care. We were specifically asked for an opinion of mental health care facilities, of which there are none formally in St Andrews at the moment, despite 1 in 7 (?) requiring treatment for mental health at some point in their lives (Neddy Seagoon: “I'm as sane as the next bloke!” Eccles: “I'm the next bloke folks.”). All speaking were in favour of the addition of this particular service, long overdue in a town of St Andrews' size.
Pete Lindsay
This year is the centenary of a notable event in golf for in 1902 Sandy Herd won the Open at Hoylake and Laurie Auchterlonie the US Open at Garden City achieving a unique 'double' for St Andrews, their native city, and for their families, as Fred Herd had won the US Open in 1898 and Willie Auchterlonie the Open in 1893. All four men were members of the St Andrews Golf Club.
To mark the magnificent achievement of the Herd and Auchterlonie families which brought such honour to our community I would propose that in this the centenary year of Sandy and Laurie's victories :
a. The Chairman write to the Captains of the clubs where Sandy and Laurie were professionals in 1902, i.e. Huddersfield and Glen View, with greetings from St Andrews on this auspicious occasion enclosing a copy of the Community Council coat-of-arms matriculation certificate for each club to display in commemoration of our townsmen's achievements
b. The Recreation Committee pursue with St Andrews Links Trust the possibility of a tree - perhaps a Scots Pine, Rowan or Birch - provided by the 200 Club, being planted alongside one of the paths leading to the Eden Clubhouse to mark the centenary. A plaque alongside perhaps reading
The Centenary Tree Planted by the Royal Burgh of St Andrews Community Council in 2002 to mark the victories of St Andreans Sandy Herd (Open Championship) and Laurie Auchterlonie (US Open Championship) in 1902
May I thank you for giving this proposal your consideration.
Keith McCartney
The Outline Business Case (OBC) is nearing completion for the development of services in St Andrews for the population of St Andrews and the surrounding areas including the East Neuk.
The Outline Business Case will be presented to the Board of Fife Primary Care NHS Trust and then to Fife NHS Board. If approved it will then be submitted to the Scottish Executive.
The Outline Business Case will recommend a preferred option for services and type of site required. It will not select a specific site. Work is however due to commence on the evaluation of potential sites in preparation for the next stage of the process. This will include comparing sites in terms of:
Accessibility is a very important issue for the Trust and consideration will be given not only to the existing provision of public transport services to and from the sites but also the potential to adapt services and improve access. Sites being considered are
1. Existing St Andrews Memorial and St Leonard's Fields
2. Grange Road
3. Largo Road
4. Riggs*
5. Craigtoun Road/Carron Bridge
This evaluation process, which will take into account stakeholder views, may last several months before a preferred site can be identified.
I would be happy to discuss any aspects of this further. Please contact me at the LHCC Office should you wish to do so.
Dr John R Bell
Chairman
* Riggs is located on the B939, Strathkinness Low Road, lying on the Western boundary of a residential area and to the North of the cemetery.
Tuesday 22nd January 2002
Present: All present for first meeting 8 youth, 2 community councillors
Meeting was chaired by D. Reed
Youth hogmanay - This we thought would be a good idea but would be a hard time of year to start by planning something for so instead it was decided to go for a ceilidh on St. Andrews Day this year. It was thought that the school should be approached as they have good facilities for something like this, but also it should be noted that this will not be a school event (and will not just be Madras school pupils attending, we hope) but all other angles will be looked at. It was suggested that an official letter from the community council could go out to the school to see if it would be possible to use their facilities.
Cup - Another idea that was discussed was to run a football cup in the summer for varying age groups where a cup could be supplied by the community council, again school grounds were decided to be the ideal place but all possibilities will be looked into. The price to youth would have to be kept to a minimal. This as the above party would be aimed at all youth in St. Andrews and not Madras College pupils. It was also discussed about having some cup that girls would be interested in eg girls' football, netball, basketball etc.
These two ideas are going to be discussed at year council meetings by youth liaison group members.
Also drop-in cafés and such like were discussed and it was brought up that Cupar Community Council had something going and somebody was going to look into it
Next meeting will be Tuesday 19th February, Fife Council Offices, St. Mary's Place 3:45pm
David Reed
convenor to Community Council
Kirsten has been selected as the Young St Andrews Citizen of the Year for her service to her school, Madras College, and to the community of St Andrews, which is exemplified by the following.
Commendation: David Reed
David has been awarded a Commendation Certificate for his service to his school and for his community work with young people.
Commendation: Laura Gilman
Laura has been awarded a Commendation Certificate for her service to her school and for local voluntary work.
It is that time of year again. The winter has done its usual damage to path and road surfaces, (and likely there is more to come yet). Please pass on details of potholes (>40mm in roads, >20mm on pathways), missing covers, blocked drains etc. Give a clear location - road and number of the closest house or numbered streetlight. Pass to Fife Council's Local Office at St Mary's Place or fill in here:
Defect & Location
Please complete and return to Joe Peterson at the February Community Council meeting. He will collate a consensus response.
1 What are the main ways your CC can affect the environment?
2 Does your CC have, or is currently preparing:
an environmental policy? Yes No
documented environmental aims and objectives? Yes No
3 If your CC does not have the above would it consider developing:
an environmental policy? Yes No
Environmental aims and objectives? Yes No
4 Has your CC produced or does it intend to develop any strategies or plans which deal with environmental issues affecting Fife?
5 How can public bodies help local communities improve their environment?
6 How should public bodies involve the community in their work in improving the environment?
7 How do you as a CC involve the community in the development of your own projects, strategies and plans? Please give details.
8 Please list any significant environmental projects that your CC has been involved in during the past 3 years, or has currently programmed. If a partnership project, please specify partners.
9 What projects or initiatives has your CC been involved in either that are recognised as best environmental practice and/or best value in environmental initiatives?
10. What environmental information resources are required by your organisation [e.g. information covering waste, energy, transport biodiversity and natural resources]?
11.Please list what your CC sees as the key significant environmental issues in Fife.
12.Is your CC aware of any significant gaps in tackling environmental problems in Fife? Yes No
Please describe.
13. Please give any suggestions as to what should be included in the Environmental Strategy which would help your CC achieve its objectives.
circulated at the meeting
A copy of the Fife Council report, circulated to all community councils, is attached.
Fife Council has passed on the greetings cards etc to St Andrews that they received from around the world for St Andrews Day. They are from: The Scots: The North British Society (Nova Scotia). The St Andrew's Society of Pretolia (Ontario). The Caledonian Society of Kenya. The Selangar St Andrew's Society (Kuala Lumpur). The Saint Andrew's Society of Manchester. The Saint Andrew's Society of Valparaiso. The Singapore St Andrew's Society. The St Andrew's Society of Winnipeg. The St Andrew's and Caledonian Society of Victoria, BC. The St Andrew Society (London) Wimbledon & District Scots Association.
Covers: How to improve funding application; Lloyds TSB Foundation; New water charge plan for charities; BT community connections; Community fund changes; Chase charity & Lankelly foundation; Constitutions; FunderFinder.
The Issue
The use of timber for heating and power (fuel wood) is an area of growing interest for many community groups as well as for the forest industry and the Enterprise companies. Following Rio and the realisation that we all share the world's scarce and dwindling resources, fuel wood is seen as a green means of producing renewable energy.
In Scotland, many of the conifer forests planted in the 60s and 70s are ready for harvesting but are of ex-ceedingly low value and are of marginal economic worth (due to the price of pulp and timber). What should we do with all this timber?
At the same time we all have to heat our homes and buildings, are using up the world's fossil fuel reserves and are importing Polish coal to burn in our homes and in our power stations. Crazy! There seems to be an obvious answer to this particular conundrum - use wood to provide heat and also, generate electrical power!
How could this be relevant to you?
This could be relevant to you as individual householder as well as a member of a community council.
A lot of you are surrounded by woodlands either managed by Forest Enterprise or other owners. There is the potential that your local timber resource could provide your home or buildings within your community with heating and / or power.
It already happens extensively in Europe. In France where individuals have had access to timber from man-aged woodlands from time immemorial, it is entirely normal for rural homes to be heated by wood stoves - in some areas every house has cords of wood neatly stacked in the back yard. In Scandinavia they are years ahead of us (nothing unusual there I hear you say). Communities control renewable energy schemes and benefit from creating their own cheap electricity and selling the surplus to their national grids to make income for use in their area. Areas of forest are harvested with brash and forest waste turned into wood pellets to be burnt either in peoples homes or in combined heat and power schemes.
Things are starting to happen here in Scotland too. At Kinlochleven, their village hall and sports centre is heated by wood from surrounding FE forests. Bettyhill swimming pool is now heated by timber. Culag Community Woodland have firewood days with trained chainsaw operators chopping up logs for local people to use in their own homes. The options open to you could range from developing a local firewood scheme for wood burning stoves in homes, to an electricity generation plant.
And the really good news. There is funding to start your own community scheme! Anything from funds to purchase and install boilers for house central heating systems to money to set up a wood fired boiler for your . There are opportunities for working together in partnership with your local authority, with Forest Enterprise or with power generation companies.
So how to proceed?
Do you need to know more information before you know how to proceed? Reforesting Scotland has recently obtained funding to put on a seminar (with an accompanying information sheet) on how communities can start local fuel wood schemes. If you are interested in this for your own community we would like to hear from you. We need to know what the level of interest is and what specifically you would like to know more on. Please complete the questionnaire below - it should only take you a few minutes. Even letting us know that you would like a bit more information and might be interested in coming to a one day seminar will help us gauge the level of interest. The seminar is likely to be free and we might be able to contribute towards travel expenses.
(Questionnaire snipped - does anyone wish to take this further?
| 11/1/02 | SMP playgrounds | Alien play concepts (advt) |
| 12/1/02 | Fife NHS Board | Right for Fife consult dates |
| 13/1/02 | Fife Environmental Trust | Newsletter 2001 (duplicate) |
| 14/1/02 | Environmental Services | Refuse Collection problems - report |
| 14/1/02 | Supplies & Printing Service | Catalogue |
| 18/1/02 | Community Services | Tentsmuir/Eden group will meet 26/02 |
| 18/1/02 | Community Services | CC Welcome Seminar corrections |
| 18/1/02 | Planning & Building Control | Environmental Strategy Workshop |
| 19/1/02 | Tricia Marwick MSP | January Newsletter |
| 19/1/02 | NHS Fife | Board Meeting 29 Jan St Andrews |
| 24/1/02 | Reforesting Scotland | introduction & questionnaire |
| 25/1/02 | Iain Smith MSP | St Andrews Hospital letter |
| 28/1/02 | NEF LHCC | Hospital / Resource Centre - location factors |
| 28/1/02 | Keith McCartney | Golf Anniversary commemorations |
| 30/1/02 | Cllr Jane Ann Liston | St Andrews Pageant June 02 - Public meeting 7th Feb |
| 31/1/02 | Transportation Services | Fife Flood Prevention Report 2001 |
| 1/2/02 | Iain Smith MSP | Review of Strategic Planning - status, parliament debate, letters |
| 2/2/02 | Law & Admin | East Area Services - rescheduled 6/2->13/2 |
| 2/2/02 | C Streatfeild-James | Query beach rescue submission |
| 2/2/02 | VONEF | Newsletter - February 02 |
[Scanned document - PL]
FIFE COUNCIL
East Fife Area Services Committee
9th January 2002
Agenda Item No ...................
REFUSE COLLECTION SERVICE FESTIVE PERIOD 2001-2002
1.0 Purpose
1.1 The purpose of this report is to apprise the Committee with respect to the disrupted refuse collection service over the festive period 2001/2002.
2.0 Background
2.1 Fife Council designated 6 public holidays over the festive period. The dates were Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the 25th , 26th, 27th December 2001 and 1st, 2nd, 3rd of January 2002.
2.2 In order to provide a refuse collection service for those householders whose routine refuse collection fell on one of the public holidays, it was deemed appropriate to work the Saturdays and Sundays before the Christmas and New Year weeks. This would take care of the Tuesday and Wednesday routes. It was also deemed appropriate to provide a collection service on Thursday of both weeks.
2.3 Negotiations took place with the joint Trade Unions on a Fife wide basis to establish a remuneration package for the holiday working. The negotiations concluded with a package which included -
[1] Payment of NJC Scheme of Pay and Conditions premium rates for hours worked.
[2] Additional one hours overtime guaranteed on 10 working days from 27th December to 9th January 2002. The crews would start an hour earlier than normal to ensure extra refuse would be collected. It was further agreed that there would be a task and finish in operation over the period.
[3] Additional 3 bonus points or agreed bonus ceiling limit, whichever came first. This to be for a 3 week period commencing 22nd December 2001.
[4] Special collections would be suspended for the period and the resources deployed to deal with the increased amount of waste produced.
2.4 It was calculated that each member of the workforce working over the period would receive an average overtime/additional payment of approximately £600.
2.5 Following the joint negotiations on a Fife wide basis, volunteers were sought to work the revised pro-gramme for the revised remuneration package.
2.6 The resultant search for volunteers on a depot by depot basis was, in the East Area, extremely disap-pointing. It was possible to crew all refuse collection vehicles operating from Keir Hardie Street Depot. However, both Prestonhall Depot and Anstruther Depot had no volunteers whatsoever. This included depot supervision. There were sufficient volunteers in Central and West areas to provide a full collection service.
3.0 Contingency Arrangements
3.1 On Monday 17th December, a personnel agency was engaged to provide LGV drivers and loaders to cover the 11 refuse collection routes over the North East Area of Fife.
3.2 The agency staff were subsequently given training in the operation of the bin lifting mechanisms and driver familiarisation in relation to the vehicles.
3.3 One Supervisor based in the Central Area of Environmental Services volunteered to supervise the agency staff operating from Prestonhall Depot. Unfortunately he had no knowledge, of the geography of the East Area.
3.4 A Supervisor from the Transportation Service volunteered to manage the resources deployed from the Anstruther Depot. In this instance, the Supervisor had local knowledge but no experience of the refuse collection function.
3.5 It became clear, from the outset of the revised collection timetable, that lack of local knowledge was a more severe impediment to progress than lack of familiarity with the task itself. Although both were contributing factors in the further disruption of the service.
3.6 Route packs, street maps and Take and Return lists were provided for each of the vehicles.
3.7 The collection vehicles are currently due to have radio and tracking systems installed. Accordingly, the vehicles had no on board communication facilities. As an emergency measure, mobile phones were acquired on a short-term lease.
3.8 On day one of the revised schedule, Saturday 22nd December, 9 of the agency staff, who had attended training the day before, failed to turn out. (Details of the daily manning are contained in appendix 1 hereto). It eventually proved possible to deploy the 7 town based collection vehicles, 5 from Prestonhall Depot and 2 from Anstruther. However, it was not possible to provide a glass collection or uplifts from the rural premises. In fact, it became apparent that the rural routes would not be able to be done without specific knowledge of the area. Accordingly, there was the most severe disruption to rural routes serviced from the Cupar Depot. The situation in Anstruther was somewhat better with a degree of local knowledge.
3.9 On Sunday the deployment was broadly similar with 7 collection routes covered plus one pick-up truck servicing litter bins and uplifting bags of refuse in St Andrews and Cupar.
3.10 The personnel agency were contacted on Monday 24th December 2001 and instructed to secure re-placement staff for those who did not turn out on Saturday and Sunday to enable a full deployment on Thursday 27th December.
3.11 Arrangements were made to have these replacements trained in the operation of the lifting equipment and undergo vehicle familiarisation training.
3.12 It became apparent on Monday that there were significant numbers of bins missed on the town routes during the Saturday and Sunday collections. This was in the main due, once again, to unfamiliarity with the routes. In addition, a number of vehicle breakdowns on Saturday and Sunday severely hampered collections with 2 routes not completed on the day.
3.13 On Monday 24 December 2001 the work for that day was carried out by the regular workforce and re-sources were deployed to target the missed parts of the town routes and make progress in dealing with the missed rural premises. The small towns and hamlets were targeted. It did not prove possible to deal with the outstanding rural premises, which are serviced via private and small farm type roads. Significant progress was made in addressing the missed glass collection routes. Two vehicles were in operation and ensured that the neighbourhood glass points were serviced.
3.14 On Thursday, 27 December 2001, all 7 town routes, the glass, collection route, the rural route in Anstruther and a mobile litterbin servicing squad were operational. The 2 rural routes serviced from Cupar were again untouched.
3.15 On Friday 28th December, the regular workforce completed the work schedule for that day, and ad-dressed those areas, which had been missed on town routes. In addition, some progress was made in relation to the rural routes, principally the small villages/hamlets.
3.16 Saturday and Sunday 29th and 30th December saw similar deployments to those on Thursday.
3.17 On Monday 31th December, the refuse collections scheduled for that day were done by the regular crews as were, once again, certain rural routes and premises which had been missed by the agency staff who collected on Saturday and Sunday. A refuse collection vehicle and crew was made available by the West Area and they assisted in collecting missed bins.
3.18 Thursday 3th January saw a further failure in the number of employees attending from the agency. In fact, it was only possible to crew 3 town vehicles from Cupar Depot and the 2 from Anstruther. Accordingly, in addition to the missed rural premises, one St Andrews route and Newport, Tayport and Wormit were missed completely.
3.19 Strenuous efforts were being made to uplift the missed waste on Friday 4th January 2002.
3.20 Realistically the earliest that collections can be regularised is week commencing 7 January 2002.
3.21 In order to ensure that the accumulations of “extra” refuse, particularly in rural areas, will be collected additional flat lorries have been acquired. All available resources will be deployed to ensure that there is a full clearance of refuse across the East Area during the week commencing 7 January 2002.
4.0 Conclusions
4.1 There is a need to establish a system whereby continuity of service can be guaranteed. This needs to be addressed immediately.
4.2 Seeking volunteers to work on public holidays is a less than satisfactory situation.
4.3 Whilst agency staff have been used previously, and very successfully, it is not possible to provide the required quality of service where there is a 100% deployment of agency staff.
4.4 Once the service became disrupted it was not possible to give up to date information to householders.
4.5 The introduction of vehicle tracking equipment will greatly improve the control and routing of the vehicles. The installation of equipment will be completed by 31st March 2002.
5.0 Recommendations
5.1 It is recommended that the Committee agree to:
(a) Remit to the Head of Environmental Services to review the arrangements for Christmas and New Year working on a Fife wide basis with a view to guaranteeing, so far as is reasonably practicable, continuity of service.
(b) The Head of Environmental Services establishing firm arrangements for the festive period 2002/ 2003 by 31 August 2002 and to report to the appropriate committees.
(c) Arrangements being made to ensure that households where collection days are changed are each provided with an advisory leaflet prior to the service alterations.
(d) Telephone contact arrangements to be reviewed by Environmental Services, The Local Office Network and the Head of Local Services.
Fraser Thomson
Head of Environmental Services
Author: Roddy G Mann
Area Manager (East)
Hanover Court Glenrothes