[2002 index]

Royal Burgh of St Andrews Community Council

Agenda - March 2002

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.

1. Attendance

2. Minutes of February 2002

(Read for accuracy in matters of substance - harangue the secretary for minor (spelling etc) errors outwith the meeting)

3. Presentations

(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).

4. Fife Councillors

4.1. Frances Melville (West)

4.2. Sheila Hill (South)

4.3. Jane Ann Liston (South East)

4.4. Bill Brooks (Central)

5. Planning Committee Report

6. Matters Arising from Previous Meetings

7. New Business

New business should be notified to the secretary in advance for inclusion in the agenda, otherwise it can be taken under AOCB

7.x. Strip the Willow

A jubilee suggeestion from Keith McCartney. Appendix X

8. Reports from Officers

8.1. Chair

8.2. Treasurer

8.3. Secretary

8.3.1. Bulletin Responses - Appendix A

9. Reports from Committees and Representatives

Written reports are required by terms of the Scheme for Community Councils.

10. Any Other Competent Business

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.

Appendix A - Bulletin Responses

What is needed in St Andrews? (7 reponses)

• The overworked libraray staff need a new, larger building
• A railway station
• A better waste management system
• Some pedestrianisation of the town centre
• Shops which cater for local residents, not just tourists
• Some emergency road and pavement repairs
• More involvement of the general public - how many people have a copy of the Code of Conduct?
• A ban on leaving bus engines running for up to 15 minutes. This does not happen at Glenrothes or Dundee.
• A waste paper collection. Fife are concerned about landfil problems and costs. Would the loss on waste paper be less than the cost of extra landfill?
• Small independant traders need to be encouraged; and
• Lower rents and rates in town centre shops
• There need to be less charity outlets
• St Andrews should be like some of the small towns in France ... where there is a more 'upmarket' feel
• A paper collection is a must
• Recycling is a necessity
• Less charity shops and encourage a better class of shops, which St Andrews was well known for it in many parts of the Country
• Thanks for the town/gown liaison
• Please remove zebra crossings [at] corners of South St / Bell St - extremely dangerous - & the ones at other end (Market St/Bell St)
• Please put a pedestrian-controlled crossing near the Kinness Fry Bar [...] children and young people cross here daily. It has been needed, and requested, for years
• Long overdue clearance of Steprock beach. One of St Andrews great eyesores
• The statue of St Andrew (in Botanic Gardens) should be a welcoming figure on the skyline at old railway bridge entry to the town
• I understand the council are proposing to upgrade College St and other sites. Surely the area in Market St beside the Whyte-Melville Fountain is more important and in need of urgent attention, and the fountain itself
• Urgent need to teach the Councils recycling programme (sic)

Appendix X

The Golden Jubilee

I write to propose that the Royal Burgh of St Andrews Community Council give consideration to seeking to stage the world's longest/biggest Strip the Willow on St Andrew's Day this year (a Saturday) as an appropriate and fun way for the community to be involved in celebrating the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

The reasons I would put forward in support of this proposal are that

* the Queen is recognised as being someone who enjoys Scottish Country Dancing so an event featuring this would seem appropriate.

* the dance is one which is taught in schools, is known by most adults and is therefore something in which a great many members of our community could participate without it placing a large commitment on their time.

* it would provide a high profile event during St Andrew's Week

* it would provide the opportunity for funds to be raised for good causes through sponsorship.

To further this the Community Council would require to

1. Contact the Guiness Book of Records to find out if there is an existing record to be broken or, if there is not, what you would be required to do to verify a record attempt. They can be contacted at - Guiness Publishing 338 Euston Road London NWI 3BD Tel. 0171 891 4567

2. Should an attempt be pursued an estimate of the length of South Street ( measuring from the West Port) which would be required to accommodate the sets required for the record. (The Police may be likely to be happier if it could end no further than the start of Abbey Street as at the Lammas Fair to reduce disruption to traffic).

3. Letters would require to be sent out all groups in the town (schools, Scottish Country Dance Groups, Churches, Rotary, Round Table, sports clubs, university, etc.) to invite their participation and ask for a number participants.

3. The event would best be held in the evening to avoid traffic and could be arranged to take place immediately before the, traditional Beating Retreat ceremony.

4. Permissiodwould have to be sought from Fife Council, Fife Constabulary and Public Liability Insurance would have to be obtained.

5. The Community Council could nominate a charity or charities and make sponsor forms available to all participants or partcipating organisations could make their own arrangements to seek sponsorship in support of a charity of their choice.

6. It would be worth writing to the R & A Town Committee ( through Peter Dawson, Secretary) asking theirn for a specific figure to cover Public Liability Insurance and the cost of hiring musicians in return for being named main sponsor on all publicity materials

In closing may I commend this proposal to you and thank you for giving it your consideration.

Keith McCartney

Pothole Watch

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

Agenda Additional - 4 March 2002

Circulated at the meeting

Apologies: Callum MacLeod, Archie Strachan (both provisional!)

6. Matters arising

6.1. Hospital

[Feb Agenda 6.1] Iain Smith MSP sends up a copy of the response he has received from NHS Fife.

(Start scanned document)

Thank you for your letter of 22 January 2002 on behalf of Menzies Campbell MP and yourself, regarding your concerns about the apparent delay in the preparation of the Outline Business Case (OBC), for the proposed health centre and community hospital for St Andrews.

The NHS in Fife is committed to provide a range of services from a new hospital and resource centre for St Andrews and 1 can confirm that the team is working towards having the OBC completed in time for the Fife NHS Board meeting on 23 April 2002. If required, the Primary Care NHS Trust Board will hold a special meeting to consider the OBC to avoid further delay. Once approved, the OBC will be submitted to the Scottish Executive.

The Capital Investment Manual sets out the present planning process and timescales. This indicates that it can take anything up to 18 months to move from Initial Agreement to Full Business Case approval. NHS Fife will look to advance these timescales as far as possible but we also recognise the risk that a rushed business case is more likely to be bounced back without approval by the Scottish Executive.

The OBC 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 Full Business Case.

ESTHER ROBERTON Chair

(portion of the document reiterating information on site selection from Feb Appendix E omitted)

7. New Business

7.10. Railbus Guide

Prof Sam Taylor, organiser of the recent Transportation Forum, has forwarded a copy of the Railbus Guide which Dave Prescott, head of customer services at Scotrail specifically asked be made available to community council. Prof Tailor comments 'The facility is already available for through, cross-system bookings/tickets and he clearly wants it better known, to achieve critical mass.'

The guide is valid to 26/5/02, though the bus details for St Andrews are already inaccurate due to the changes from the 95 to 99 service last year.

7.11. East Area Services Committee Agenda

Items of interest: A community plan for Fife; Fife's environment within the community planning context; Regeneration, re-use and protection of land and buildings; Safeguarding and improving our environment; Bus passenger information strategy for Fife.

7.12. Jubilee Ceilidh

Are we organising one?

8. Reports

8.3. Secretary

8.3.3. Letter re recycling Centre [Feb 4.2.1]

To Head of Law & Admin Fife Council

Community council has asked me to contact you to emphasise their concern at the continuing delay in the acquisition of the land long identified for a St Andrews recycling and civic amenity site, between John Knox and Largo Roads.

A recycling centre has been a long held ambition of the people of St Andrews, from well before the inception of Fife Council. It gives St Andrews no pleasure to read of the lamentable recycling figures for Fife when we are denied the facility that would help us contribute to an improvement; we are the largest settlement in NE Fife (a former leader in recycling) and probably in Fife as a whole who lack such a facility.

We understand from the local councillor for the area, Cllr Sheila Hill, that the delay rests entirely in the hands of Safeway plc who own the site they formerly agreed should be a recycling centre. We hope that you will make clear to them again that this a matter of importance to St Andrews.

If there is anything positive we can do to lend weight to the case do please let us know. Given that the recycling centre is a frequent item of concern at community council meetings, and is regularly raised with us by the public through our newsletter feedback, this is a live issue. It is not going to go away whatever Safeway may wish.

8.3.4. Letter re Byre Theatre profits

This letter to the Byre board has been written, but due to an unfortunate oversight involving the posting of an empty envelope the Byre will only have received it very recently. I ask therefore that this text be regarded as not for publication until the Byre have had suitable time to consider their response.

To Mr Neil Anderson, Chair, Byre Theatre Board of Directors

Community council have asked me to write to you to make you aware of their feelings on the matter of the Byre Theatre and the St Andrews Common Good Fund. As you may know the decision by Fife Council, centrally, to strip the Common Good Fund to help pay for some of the shortfall the Byre project faced just before completion was not without its critics in the town. Due to the monies being extracted by Fife Council for the Byre, the Common Good Fund now has only about one-tenth of its annual income available over the next twenty years for the many other worthy causes about town.

Community council have asked me put the following suggestion to you: that if the Byre Theatre finds itself operating in profit at any time it should, as a gesture of good will, make donations from those profits to the St Andrews Common Good Fund so that others may benefit as did the Byre.

8.3.5. Letter to Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Fund

I must thank Ian and Margaret Goudie for providing the correct organisation to address and for some necessary details. However I have not been able to compose a satisfactory letter to send on behalf of community council as yet. An appeal to emailable members of community council for assistance has brought no constructive replies.

Correspondence2