GLENORCHY AND INNISHAIL COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Minutes of Special Council Meeting

held in Dalmally Village Hall

on 11 July 2007 at 7.30pm

Present David Fellowes, Pam Whitehead, Kate Craig, John Burke, Donald McLaren, Karl Pipes, Averil Watson, Councillor Donald MacDonald plus 2 members of the public

1. Welcome

The Chair welcomed everyone to the Special Meeting. He explained the meeting was being held because the Community Council had been asked for its comments on the Planning Delegations Report by 24 July 2007, which was two days before the next scheduled Community Council meeting.

2. Apologies for Absence

None

3. 3. Discussion of Planning Delegations Report

It was agreed to send the following comments regarding the report:

• It is felt the proposed change of moving the decision making of planning applications from Area Committee meetings to Council Officials is undemocratic. The Area Committee meetings are held in public and G&ICC believe it is crucial that these important planning decisions continue in this way rather than in camera by the Council Officials.
• One of the main complaints about Argyll & Bute Council is the length of time building regulations and planning applications are processed. If the Council Officials have an even heavier workload because of having to make the final decision on applications it is believed the planning delays will increase.
• There is concern that Council Officials are not as knowledgeable about our Community Council area as our elected Councillors. The Council Officials have to follow planning guidelines strictly, whereas if our area Councillors make the final decisions they can take into account the needs of our area and have more flexibility in the final decision.
• Point 1 of ‘The Protective Services and Licensing Committee is authorised’ section mentions statutory consultees as Scottish Natural Heritage, Historic Scotland, Scottish Environment Protection Agency but does not mention Community Councils. It is felt Community Councils should be a statutory consultee.
• Point 5 of this section mentions 14 days to object to a planning application appearing on the weekly planning list. This is not a practical time limit and G&ICC considers the present time limit of 28 days should be retained.
• G&ICC believes the definition of ‘significant’ of 10 or more objections is not appropriate for our rural area where there is a small population over a large area. It is felt ‘significant’ should be 3 or more objections.
• It is understood the Protective Services and Licensing Committee has already been appointed. However there are only 9 Councillors covering 11 wards, which means there is a possibility that our ward will not be represented. This is not acceptable.
• It would be helpful to have practical examples of different types of planning applications and how the decision-making process would work under the two different systems.

Action – The Secretary to write to Charles Reppke, Head of Democratic Services and Governance at Argyll & Bute Council with these comments.

4. Any other Business

(a) The Secretary handed out to all Members a questionnaire from Graham Brown, Argyll and Bute Council’s Operations Manager, seeking their opinion on street cleaning, maintenance of play parks, rubbish collection, road repairs etc. It was noted that the maintenance of cemeteries was not included in the questionnaire.

Action – The Secretary to return the questionnaires to the Operations Manager.

(b) The Secretary asked if we wanted to continue our membership of the Association of Argyll and Bute Community Councils. The membership fee is £10. It was agreed we would continue our membership and the Treasurer would issue a cheque for this amount.

Action – The Treasurer to issue a cheque for £10.

(c) It was mentioned that the pothole in the road at Blarghour was filled in three weeks ago, but needs filling in again.

Action – The Secretary will write to A&BC Roads Department to ask for the hole to be filled in again but this time with a more permanent repair.

(d) It was mentioned that there is a very large hole in the road (A819), which stops vehicles from parking on the loch side of the road to view Kilchurn Castle. As a result vehicles are stopping on the other side of the road, where there is not so much room and passengers (sometimes coach parties) are having to walk across the road.

Action – The Secretary will write to A&BC Roads Department to ask for this to be repaired.

(e) It was agreed to put the parking problem by Cruachan Power Station for Cruachan hill walkers on the agenda for the next meeting (26 July 2007) to be discussed under Any Other Business.

There being no further business the meeting ended at 8.30pm