Balintore & Hilton Community Council
Minutes of meeting held 28TH OF September 2021 7pm by Zoom
Present:
Jenny McCann (JM) Chair
Brian Gallagher (BG) Treasurer
Alastair Gill (AG), Minute secretary
May Ross (MR) Community Group Champion
Derek Louden (Councillor) DL
Apologies: Leighanne Hodgkins (LH), Dave Macrae (TDDT)
Absent: Louise Johnston (LJ), Fiona Robertson (CC), Alistair Rhind (CC)
| Item | Action | |
| 1. | Jenny McCann (JM) Chair welcomed everybody to the seventh BHCC Zoom meeting. This is a minuted meeting with minutes available on the BHCC website. It was agreed to keep using ZOOM to hold CC meetings. | All |
| 2. | Apologies – Leighanne Hodgkins (LH) | To Note |
| 3. | Previous Minutes – Accepted and agreed. | All |
| 4. | Defib Update / Training – Defib now back and in working order at the Chemist. New Pads are on order and cabinet is being inspected by Sangsters Electrical. Data upload completed for recent incident, to secure national database. Training dates to be arranged and will include St. Duthus FC. Training video uploaded to BHCC website, further First -Aid / CPR training to be investigated. Special thanks to Leighanne for her work in maintaining and monitoring the Chemist Defib. | JM,BG,LH |
| 5. | Planning – No planning applications for consideration | ALL |
| 6. | Police Report – Between 26/08/2021 and 26/09/2021 police had cause to deal with 18 calls in the Hilton/Balintore area. VANDALISM – 0 DRUG OFFENCES: 0 DISORDER/ASSAULT: 3 DOMESTIC OFFENCES: 1 THEFT BY SHOPLIFTING/THEFT: 1 ROAD TRAFFIC OFFENCES: 0 | ALL |
| 7. | Community Group Updates Seabaord Community Poly Tunnel – Norma BalfourOver the Summer the polytunnel has been extremely busy and we have managed to grow potatoes, tomatoes, beetroot, green beans, lettuce, courgettes, aubergines and cucumbers. All harvested produce has been sold on a Saturday morning from 11am – noon. We have also supplied vegetables to both the Seaboard Centre and the Balintore Hotel. Our Sales to date have raised £230 with more to come. This has been advertised at the tunnel and on our Facebook page under Seaboard Community Polytunnel. We have had classes from Hilton Primary School to visit at the beginning of the growing season. The children had great fun planting, painting and learning about various stages of growth within the tunnel. We have also been involved with the local Rotary Club and have had members along on several occasions to help us out. The Rotary Club very kindly donated 10 grow bags to help with the planting of Tomato plants and supplied many other small seedlings and flower plants which helped expand our supply for flower planting in 24 individual boxes throughout the villages. Several families within the villages (and this included the housing scheme) became involved in planting flower beds and watering them throughout the season – this has helped to make our village look a bit more attractive. The committee had hoped to have ‘decked’ the front and back entrances to the tunnel and to have laid teram within the inner fence wall. It was agreed with The Criminal Justice Team that they would take on our project over the summer months but unfortunately for us, there were insufficient bodies available to carry out the work. We hope that this work will be carried out over the winter months. In the meantime we are looking for any available bodies that would give an hour or two of their time to come along and help us get the area tidied up inside and out – Working in the tunnel is extremely rewarding and if you are interested you can spend some time there on your own completing a task or join a member of the committee to complete some weeding or planting. Over the next 2 months we will be weeding and tiding up the raised beds ready for winter and help is required. if anyone has an hour or two to spare, please get in touch with Norma 07818024200. The committee is open to suggestions and ideas and welcome any interest in the tunnel. Over the last 4 months we have had a large number of visitors from all over the UK and abroad. The comments have been filled with envy that our wee villages have this wonderful project on their doorstep …… it is exactly that ………. it needs its community to become involved to help sustain it. Seabaord Hall / Centre – Maureen Ross Café Seaboard continues to be extremely busy with visitors and locals -we expect this to quieten down soon.2. Toilet and comfort facilities are constantly being used, this has addedpressures, cleaning and consumables as well as occasional maintenance.3. Funding application has gone into Museums Galleries Scotland for theYear of Storytelling which we hope to receive and use at the FisherfolkFestival in May 2022 – conditions permitting.4. John Ross Visitor Centre is progressing – renovation works on scheduleand the research work is almost finished with content of panels expected by end of this year. Graphics and printing finished by mid April andhopefully by end of April early May the Centre will be open.5 . Harbour Toilets have now started – very disappointed to hear that whenthey unblocked the drains what was found was socks, rags, blue paper hand towels and plastic bags – what hope have we? This is certainly not thecontents of campervan cassettes.6. Concern that with the hold up of Highland Council sending out the Terms & Conditions of the grant for the work on the toilets this meant our builder missed his window to start – the situation is that over the past 3/4 months building materials have rocketed – we need to re-assess the budget.7. As previously advised the funding which would have addressed the issueof the Tennis Court being upgraded was unsuccessful. Further applications to be looked at. Seaboard Cares – Alice Smith Update from Seaboard Cares: The monthly “Drop Ins” are starting on Monday 18 October They are also hoping to arrange a Halloween fun event for the village children. | JM / MR |
| 8. | Van Parking – A complaint was received from a local resident regarding work vans parking and blocking side streets in the Hugh Street area of Balintore. It was agreed that this was not a CC matter and that the Resident should approach HC or the local Community Police Officer. JM to advise accordingly. | JM |
| 9. | Twenty’s Plenty Signs – Signs are all up and located as per agreement with Highland Council. No funding is available for further signs and it was noted that the HC are considering making all access roads in and out of the Seaboard Villages into a mandatory 20MPH ZONE. DL to update CC at next meeting. | ALL / DL |
| 10 | AOB – Floor subsidence – HC have surveyed a property in Balintore and have agreed to rectify the issue. Floor joists / frame were levelled using packers of different materials. This has led to deterioration of some packers, allowing floor levels to drop. Affected properties to contact HC Housing and DL for further information. Residents Calendar – AG asked for a contribution to be made to the current resident’s initiative for a charity calendar.It was agreed that the BHCC would contribute towards the cost of printing the calendars. All monies raised selling the calendar are to be donated to the local resident’s food bank. The BHCC agreed to contribute. Amount to be decided on receipt of further information. The organiser of the initiative is to be approached and asked to become a co-opted member of the CC. AG to approach resident. It was also agreed that the BHCC would help with the advertising of the calendar through the website, mailing list and FB page. | DL AG |
| 11. | TDDT – Update Tourism Sub Group – Visitor Management 16/09/2021 was held. Next meeting of the sub group will be held on Thursday 28 October at 6pm. Further information can be obtained from rachel@tainddtrust.com. | |
| 12. | Meeting closed at 8.10PM Next Meeting Dates: Tuesday 23rd of November 2021 @ 7pm via ZOOM Tuesday 18TH of January 2022 @ 7pm via ZOOM Tuesday 2nd of March 2022 @ 7pm via ZOOM |