Approved
(Copies of Agendas and Minutes of the Community Council are held at Fife Council’s Local Office, St Mary’s Place and the Town Library, Church Square. Those from mid-1998 on are online at http://www.louisxiv.demon.co.uk/standrewscc/)
Chair: Donald Macgregor
Community Councillors: Ken Crichton, George Davidson, Richard Douglas, Ken Fraser, Ian Goudie, Joe Lamb, Chris Lesurf, Pete Lindsay, Dennis Macdonald, Murdo Macdonald, Donald Macgregor, Gordon Pay, Joe Peterson, Ewen Sparks, Archie Strachan, Cynthia Tero, Penny Uprichard.
Students Association: Derek Macleod, Chris Soper.
Fife Councillors: Jane Ann Liston, Frances Melville, Bill Sangster.
Apologies: Frank Riddell, Sheila Black, Laurel Aguilar, Iain Hamilton.
5.2.1. last para:
“which community council only had sight of on the Friday before a Tuesday Development Committee meeting” (replaces Thursday)
5.2.2.
“and Head of Law & Administration Service, Harry Tait” replaces Chief Executive
Ian Goudie had concerns about the style and tone of some parts of the minutes; to be discussed at a future General Purposes Committee meeting.
The amended minutes were agreed.
Approved
Rachel Hay has been Locality Assistant, covering the town centre, for six months. This is a part-time post. Her remit includes: Fighting fly posting, both by removing the posters when she sees them and looking at ways of preventing fly posting in the first place; Improving rubbish collection by liaising with town centre businesses and cleansing service to improve the collections themselves and to get the bins in more quickly; Accessibility of St Andrews for the disabled and blind – A-boards feature on this agenda; She works closely with Ian Hamilton on St Andrew’s Week projects; and there is a St Andrews magazine which she is working on with Flora Selwyn.
There was then some discussion of the area covered by her post which established Town Centre does not include Lamond Drive.
There is an Accessibility working party being set up which would want input from Community Council, she said. Ian Hamilton has volunteered to cover this she added, unless someone else wished to step for-ward. No one did.
IH on Accessibility group
Sent apologies. Decided not to make a presentation after all.
Police not having attended since May, Donald Macgregor is to enquire when they are next to attend.
DM
4.1.1. Police Station Sign [July 4.1.8.] Noted.
4.1.2. Cycle track [July 4.1.9.] The verges have been trimmed and weed killer applied where growth is breaking through the surface.
4.1.3. Park & Ride [July 4.1.1.] Signs are intended to target the western approach to stop cars coming into town; may look at East Sands park & ride in future. The jump in usage has slowed but the figures are still up over last year.
4.1.4. Bruce Embankment Toilets Were closed for a period due to a blocked drain in one case and for cleaning in another; unfortunately some coach parties arrived with pressing needs which had to be accommodated by the British Golf Museum.
4.1.5. Parking Showed a ‘parking disc’ in use in other parts of the country, purchase once and reusable, possibly suitable for residents schemes.
Also reminded the meeting of the parking consultation meeting the following day. Some questioned whether it was worth attending this given the consultants involved, who had not distinguished themselves at a previous meeting [June 9.1.1.7]. She pointed out that there would be both Planning and Transportation officials present so it would be worthwhile that they heard the arguments from community council and other attendees – it will be too late to argue once the strategy is agreed.
4.1.6. 20 Year Structure Plan Senior councillors were briefed on progress recently. She noticed there was no mention of the Tay crossing and NE Fife in terms of the projected housing increases. She’s unhappy that community councils have not been contacted to explain the project and that there seems to be no consideration of interaction with the Local Plan.
Ian Goudie remarked on current development pressures on the southern hillside and emphasised the urgency of the Local Plan update.
4.1.7. Community Warden Scheme She asked if community council had been informed about this? No. Cllr Bill Sangster added that there are to be two in each area – east, west and central Fife.
4.1.8. Paper Collections Ian Goudie asked when the blue bin kerbside paper collections, now available in Markinch, would reach St Andrews? These collections are being spread out slowly from the centre of Fife.
away
4.3.1. Paper Collections Taking up the question about blue bins he pointed out that the recycling facility can only deal with so much paper at a time; the spread of collections is constrained by the expansion of the recycling capacity.
4.3.2. Phone boxes Has written to back retention.
4.3.3. Park & Ride Gave figures; usage up by over 2000 passengers during the first 3 weeks. The Petheram car park is often full.
4.3.4. Bus Shelters [July 4.3.2.] He is consulting with Planning Service and informing the likes of the Preservation Trust of his proposal to use something like the North Haugh Park & Ride shelter in the town centre.
Ken Crichton suggested that another possible site would be by the hospital.
4.3.5. Kinnessburn Working Group [July 4.3.5.] Will meet on 13th August.
4.3.6. Best Kept Town & Scotland in Bloom He went round St Andrews with the judges. It was a very good show this year. He thanked all who support St Andrews in Bloom: businesses, individuals, hotels, Common Good Fund, etc.
4.3.7. Town Hall Flag Pole Looking into replacing the current pole, which needs a cherry-picker lift every time there’s a problem, with a more manageable, perhaps hinged, arrangement that will be easily accessible for maintenance.
4.3.8. Missing Bollards Various bollards and pillars that have been damaged and removed will be re-placed after the Lammas Fair.
4.3.9. Hospital He welcomed the news of progress and identification of a preferred site.
Chris Lesurf reported that at a meeting with health board officials she was told that a hospital plan-ning application would take 2 years.
Ken Crichton called for the location of the hospital to be carefully considered, as there are more factors than just where the hospital can be sited physically. It should not be accepted without question just because it is a hospital.
4.3.11. Refuse Bins [July 4.3.3.] Survey of alternatives ongoing. May try to replace the many small bins with larger communal; similar to Edinburgh. Joe Peterson not happy with this suggestion, dislikes site of the large bins in Edinburgh which take up parking spaces.
4.3.12. Lammas Fair [July 4.4.3.] Sunday opening: Alistair Barnard will be on site to check noise levels.
4.4.1. Park & Ride While pleased to see the improved figures she was asking officials what they mean: how many cars have been kept out of the town centre – commuters are still driving into the centre. Transportation are surveying and will report.
Joe Peterson felt that the Park & Ride route is irrelevant to townspeople and operates during the wrong hours.
4.4.2. ‘Empty’ Council House [July 4.4.7.] This was used as a decant facility for a family with a special needs child while their house is altered appropriately. House will return to stock eventually.
4.4.3. Rail Maintenance The Strategic Rail Authority are suggesting ‘deferred’ maintenance for ‘peripheral’ routes, concentrating on main lines only. It turns out that the east coast main line through Fife is peripheral in the SRA way of thinking. She has contacted various rail authorities to express her concern.
4.4.4. Langlands Road Toilets [July 4.4.8.] Joe Peterson challenged Cllr Liston to state her position on this facility in the light of the recommendation for closure in the Toilets report (agenda appendix F).
She is against closure.
4.5.1 Recycling Centre Progress Agreed to ask Environmental Services to speak to a future meeting on this, and related issues such as bins, collections etc.
PL to write
4.5.2. East Sands Joe Lamb reported a large drop has developed between the access way and the sand level.
4.5.3. Kilrymont Noise Cynthia Tero raised concerns about the use of Kilrymont car park for a marquee during a religious gathering week. The use of the marquee for music (drums etc) resulted in noise problems for residents along Roundhill Road and Kilrymont Road.
4.5.4. Common Good Fund Archie Strachan asked when some decision would be made on the appli-cation for a grant for the bandstand concerts. Cllr Jane Ann Liston replied that the CGF sub-committee, which will meet 20th August, has to agree as well as the local members.
Meeting agreed to pay the Bandstand bills from general funds for now.
Ian Goudie gave a verbal report
5.1.1. Changes to procedure Where letters of objection or comment were previously ok’ed by circulation to committee members, they are now in some cases being countersigned by as many committee members as possible to make it clear to officials that they are agreed.
5.1.2. Participation in the Planning Process The clear dislike of planning officials for comments on their reports to the Development Committee would be reasonable if the reports were balanced sum-maries of the arguments and planning issues. Instead they often reflected behind the scenes negotia-tions and last minute changes which the public had had no chance to comment upon. A recent ex-ample of this was the surprise reduction of car parking spaces at David Russell Hall. Responding to such changes cannot be described as a ‘late’ submission!
Cllr Frances Melville reported that some consideration was being given to reviewing procedures and times of meetings. She asked if community council thought it would be useful for objectors etc to have the right to speak at Development Committee?
Ian Goudie thought it would possibly be useful in emergencies. Pete Lindsay warned that care must be taken that the willingness to appear in person should not be seen as a test of whether an objector was ‘serious’ or carry more weight than a written submission.
On a show of hands the meeting was unanimously in favour of such a change.
Joe Lamb asked if the objections to this development had any effect?
Ian Goudie replied: Not on the position of the building on the site, nor the suggestion of improved round-about and crossing layout west of the West Port, but Pete Lindsay added that an earlier unsympathetic design involving balconies that community council had objected to was changed.
Response confirmed.
Agreed
PL, IG, PU
PL to write
After lengthy discussion it was agreed to invite Chris Broom of the Ranger Service to come and update us on the state of the path.
PL to write
MM, RD
Ian Goudie has asked for copy of consultant’s report with the reasoning for the choice of the Largo Road site. He suggests saying as little as possible on the subject until this has been seen and analysed.
Ian Goudie again suggested that comment on these preliminary discussions be kept to a minimum. The reason developers have pre meetings isn’t to take on board objections, but to get a look at the objections so they can be fielded.
Approved response on the lines described.
PL to write
noted
Joe Peterson thanked businesses for their support and displays, Bill Sangster and Ken Crichton for all their work. The town looked excellent.
none
CL to report.
no comment
KF to report
Noted
Discussed the benefits of seeking more information though an objection has already been submitted to the proposed St Andrews mast (on aesthetic grounds), and voted:
Do nothing: Prop. Ewen Sparks, 2nd Pete Lindsay: 4 votes
Seek written information: Prop. Murdo Macdonald, 2nd Joe Peterson: 15 votes
PL to write
8.1.1. Absence next month Vice Chair Murdo Macdonald agreed to chair September’s meeting.
8.1.2. Cycle Lanes Vice Chair Penny Uprichard asked if she could write to the press on behalf of community council to draw public attention to the opportunity to object to the traffic orders for the contraflow cycle lanes.
Some members were unhappy with this; she agreed to write only in a personal capacity.
Noted that the annual grant had not been received despite being approved some months ago.
noted
9.1.1. Recreation Report by Joe Peterson, circulated at the meeting:
1 Car Boot Sales at B.B. Hall on Saturday mornings have now been suspended due to the hall being booked on Saturdays by the Highland dancers. A review of the current position will take place at the coming meeting.
2 St Andrews floral competitions see minutes appendix B.
3 Scotland in Bloom St Andrews through to finals. Results announced 17th September in Aberdeen.
4 Date of next meeting Tuesday 5th of August. Venue: convenor’s house at 10am.
9.1.2. General Purposes report by Pete Lindsay, circulated at the meeting
Committee meeting 30/7/03
Present: Murdo Macdonald, Donald Macgregor, Joe Peterson, Penny Uprichard, Pete Lindsay, Ian Goudie, Archie Strachan
There was an extended discussion of the workload of the planning committee and the problems they face, with reference to the concerns raised in the July community council meeting.
Agreed planning committee to investigate the offer by Cllr Melville to arrange meeting with senior Fife Council officials.
9.2.1. War Memorial Ken Crichton reported that as part of Beautiful Scotland in Bloom there was a competition for War Memorials too. This was entered automatically, but displays have to be in British Legion colours, which ours were not.
none