(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 late 1997 on are on line at http://www.louisxiv.demon.co.uk/standrewscc/)
Chair: Murdo Macdonald
Community Councillors: Laurel Aguilar, Bette Christie, Ken Crichton, Richard Douglas, Ken Fraser, Ian Goudie, Chris Lesurf, Pete Lindsay, Dennis Macdonald, Murdo Macdonald, Joe Peterson, Bruce Ryan, Ewen Sparks, Archie Strachan, Cynthia Tero, Penny Uprichard.
Students Association: Simon Atkins, Ben Reilly, Bonnie Ryder.
Fife Councillors: Sheila Black, Jane Ann Liston, Bill Sangster.
Apologies: George Davidson, Frances Melville, Donald Macgregor.
accepted
None
Reminded the meeting that Gordon Christie will be 90 on 6th August. Meeting agreed to send congratulations.
Pete Lindsay
Reported that she enjoyed the recent concert, despite the poor weather and thanked all involved in organising, playing and particularly shifting chairs.
Confirmed that these will be reinstated in St Andrews library following the concerns raised last month by Keith McCartney and backed by Cllr Liston.
The problem of restricted access raised last month was due to the alarm system being mis-wired. If the library was closed, opening the toilet would set off the whole library alarm system. The systems have now been separated.
A consultant should be appointed in 3 weeks time to undertake a study on clearing the burn.
On the matter of clearing his understanding is that SEPA have moderated their position somewhat. They are now saying that the Kinnessburn can be cleared, if it is done in an environmentally friendly manner.
Archie Strachan added that Rymonth’s trouble with erosion of the bank on which their access road is built, continues. Neither Fife Council nor the Crown Estate (they are involved as the Kinnessburn is tidal downstream of the Greenside Place bridge) will take any action. Rymonth would be in trouble if the road washes away. Bill Sangster suggested there are various grants which might apply but Archie Strachan said that Rymonth does not accept it is legally in ownership or responsible for the bank; they want Fife Council or the Crown Estate to act.
Fair will operate on Sunday with the same hours as last year.
During the first few weeks of operation there was an increase in passenger numbers over last year.
Ian Goudie asked about collection of rubbish from the St Mary’s Place car park after finding it in a very poor state early one weekend morning. There was some speculation as to whether this was due to dumping or perhaps the aftermath of the Farmers’ Market. Cllr Bill Sangster said that there was a daily collection of rubbish in the town centre – loose black bags etc – to a central point for uplift about 9-9.30am, it might be that the car park hadn’t been cleared at the time the problem was seen.
Corrected his comment in July 4.3.8. that street drains were only cleared on need. They are in fact cleared annually, and whenever a problem is reported to Fife Council. Anyone noticing a blocked drain was urged to report it to Transportation Service.
[On the day before this meeting] Firstly, relieved that no one was hurt. Commended prompt action of the children who spotted the fire and called the Fire Brigade in time to prevent serious damage. She understands there were 4+ fire engines attending, some from out of town. The swift and effective response of the Fire Brigade was generally praised.
This was rained off in early July, the ground at Craigtoun was too soft for vehicles. However the 25th anniversary has been rescheduled to 5th September.
Some concerns have been raised. The work on the conversion of the former guest house is taking much longer than it should; but there will be no occupation of the redevelopment until the crossing is in place. Some local residents have questioned the position selected for the crossing: this was chosen to allow residents of the east side of St Mary’s St, Albany Park and St Nicholas Farm area to cross the busy road, and is placed to join to the footpath through to Dunnolly Place.
Fife Council is thinking about charging for special uplifts, despite emphasising in a recent article in The Courier that the free uplift system makes fly-tipping a foolish choice. It is suggested the current system is being abused; 1 household in central Fife has asked for 40 special uplifts a year, another in East Fife 38, but 50% of uplifts are just once a year – the proportion who ask for none is not recorded.
Murdo Macdonald felt special uplifts should not to be considered for charging unless a civic amenity centre is operational.
Ken Crichton asked what had become of the Jane Ann Liston’s suggestion some time ago of advertising the Lammas Market (and piggy backing St Andrews Week) in the in Edinburgh Festival Fringe literature. She replied that Fife Council seemed to have dismissed the suggestion without investigation, though the new professional event organiser helping with St Andrews Week this year thought it worth following up. Meeting agreed that this simple idea for promoting St Andrews should be followed up.
Ken Crichton to write
Further details:
Pete Lindsay explained committee’s concern at the effects of the new lights on nearby traffic, especially cyclists using the Old Guardbridge Road link to the cycle track to Guardbridge. Not clear from the plans is the effect of the change of lighting at head-height (plans give effects at 5m) though it looks beneficial overall. Depending on response to requests for clarification may ask for further shielding at the boundary wall such as tall bushes.
Some members of the committee had in fact undertaken a ‘site visit’ on leaving the committee meeting (in the Fife Council Office, St Mary’s Place) and felt there was a less obtrusive route for the proposed access ramp/path that would preserve a tree, which would be lost in the plans as seen. An objection has in fact been submitted asking for the path route to be reconsidered.
Community Council opposed a very similar proposal in 1999, which was eventually dropped. Dr Goudie emphasised it is not the facility itself that is opposed, but the entirely unsympathetic aluminium-clad design.
[Third Party: currently an applicant (developer) can appeal against a contrary planning decision on various grounds; an objector (third party) cannot challenge a decision to grant permission, however questionable, on any grounds whatsoever].
A submission has been made to the Scottish Executive strongly supporting ‘third party’ appeals in specified limited circumstances, so that it cannot easily be abused as a NIMBY charter. While the idea has been floated in the news media that the Executive has already dismissed the idea, under pressure from business, before the consultation period is complete it seems that it may still be under serious consideration so a submission has been made.
Cllr Jane Ann Liston had heard that Fife Council are not going to support third party appeals, claiming that slightly wider consultation would suffice. Ian Goudie was not surprised Fife Council does not wish to support a proposal giving more rights to question their decisions.
Ian Goudie was heartened by Cllr Frances Melville’s remarks on the benefits of the old Tourism Management Plan meetings last month. He was disturbed though by comments in the press from St Andrews World Class: none of their proposals have been put to the people of St Andrews for consultation. They cite the new transportation plan as addressing issues raised but no member of the public has seen this document – consultation alone on the new transport plan is not until September or October.
Pete Lindsay suggested that a formal response to the South Street proposals should be decided next month – lest it be said “The Community Council did not object”. It was agreed that Planning Committee should prepare an outline of options; any community councillor would be welcome at the next (or any other) meeting for this or other planning business, or points could be passed to members of the committee.
September Agenda
After some discussion of the relative levels of funding available to the Links Trust vis-à-vis the community council it was proposed that up to £100 from the general account be put towards a memorial of a tree and plaque. On a show of hands:
For £100: 7, against: 3, abstain 7.
up to £100 agreed
Pete Lindsay
Return gifts were a book of sketches relating to the history of Patras, inscribed by the Mayor, and a bottle of a Patras liqueur.
It was agreed to present the book to the town library and keep the liqueur for some suitable occasion.
As a follow-up to recent meetings with community councils and other groups, RAF Leuchars is setting up a Community Forum to communicate and discuss any issues arising. Meetings are expected to be every 6 months. Two representatives were called for.
Dennis Macdonald & Chris Lesurf
[July 4.3.2] Letter from Joe Peterson, Chair of the Recreation Committee, to Alex Rintoul:
“The recreation committee of the Royal Burgh of St Andrews Community Council with the unanimous support of all council members wish to express our thanks for your very generous undertaking of watering over the summer months our floral display at the War Memorial.
Your sense of civic duty is a shining example to others in the community for which we are all indeed grateful.”
[July 6.4.] Laurel Aguilar met the consultants, eventually, after some degree of confusion on their part. She found the interview about business needs in St Andrews was very thorough. She hopes to see the overall conclusions.
The other volunteers also confirmed they’d been interviewed.
[July 4.2.1.] Joe Peterson reported that the CLAN members had laid drive chippings at Gibson House and given a concert; a concert at St David’s; gardening at Balnacarron etc. Thanks to the CLAN gathering.
Agreed that relocation of the notice board would be considered if necessary to help the renting of the ex-Children’s Library to the benefit of the Common Good Fund.
Pete Lindsay
Agreed to decide on action over a constitution at a future meeting after digesting the new Scheme.
St Andrews’ connection with James Stirling is Andrews Melville Hall. On the basis of its appearance, the heartfelt testimony of Cllr Jane Ann Liston who was a student there in the mid 1970s on what it was like to live in, the reactions of today’s student representatives and the fact that the Stirling design for an Arts Centre was never taken up, it was felt better to decline the opportunity to join the association proposed.
Pete Lindsay
Planning
HEW
Archie Strachan reported that the accounts were still in the black, but reminded members to keep their expenses claims up to date not hoard them, which makes monitoring the state of our finances difficult. He also emphasised that people should claim their full expenses, not absorb ‘trivial’ costs. Firstly so that a realistic view of the costs of running a community council is seen and secondly, perhaps more importantly, the next person to do a job might not find the costs trivial and should not be deterred from acting or claiming legitimate expenses.
There was some discussion of the role of the community council funds received as the Fife Council grant and those raised from other sources. These matters are clarified in the new Scheme for Community Councils.
He reminded the Fife Councillors that there was an application made to the Common Good Fund some months ago for the bandstand concerts funding; as the concerts are running and the bands are to be paid a decision from the CGF committee on whether to support the concerts would be very welcome.
Joe Peterson praised Community Services for their very prompt response to problems spotted during the Fife in Bloom judging; these were dealt with before the Scotland in Bloom judging the next day. He thinks St Andrews did quite well in both.
Penny Uprichard announced that the bench seat by the Golden Jubilee tree in Kinburn Park will be installed in the next few days.
Apologies for the minimalist coverage of the minutes in some places, and lack of thorough spelling/grammar checking overall. Please raise any serious omissions in the usual way.
In the words of the poet:
Three things are certain,
Death, taxes, and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.