North Kelvin Community Council Minutes

Wednesday 18 March 2009 at 6.30pm

St. Charles School

Present: Mark Adams (MA) (Chair); Peter Blackshaw (PB) (Secretary); Dave Beavan (DB) (Website & Library); Eddie Devlin (ED); Kevin Edgar (KE) (Treasurer); Liz Edgar (LE); Dorothy Gow (DG); Councillor Jim MacKechnie (JM); Kirsty Davidson (KD) (Minute Secretary)

In Attendance: PC Gerard Christie (GC); Steven Cole, Canal Community Liaison Officer, The Waterways Trust Scotland; Jackie Curry (JC); Margo Curry (MJ); Linda Shields (LS); PC John Williamson (JW)

Apologies: Janet Andrews (JA); Susie Hallas (SH)

Welcome

MA welcomed everyone to the meeting, especially SC from The Waterways Trust Scotland. MA also welcomed some new faces (JC, MC and LS), explaining they were here about 115/117 Queen Margaret Drive.

Minutes of previous meeting and matters arising

MA said PB was having computer problems at the moment and suggested the contact email address on the website should be changed to his.

Action: DB to update the contact email address.

It was reported that North Kelvin Community Council (NKCC) posters have been distributed around the area – there are posters up in Belhaven Nursery; Queens Cross Housing Association; Micha’s fish & chip shop; a Queen Margaret Drive newsagents and Stuart R. McDonald’s Veterinary Practice.

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved by MA and seconded by DB.

Police Report

GC said there had been more activity in the area recently. In the last three months there have been 97 calls to Aspire’s homeless unit on Queen Margaret Drive. Of those, 75 people have been reported or arrested for low-level disorder such as drinking, urinating etc. Many of the local residents expressed their concerns about walking around the area.

GC said the police are proactively policing the area, because of the homeless unit. GC also said that the staff of the homeless unit are contacting the police directly if they suspect their clients are breaking the law. They want to help discourage anti-social behaviour, as they are aware of the effect on the community.

GC explained the homeless unit takes a total of 18 clients, who can not be housed anywhere else. Clients are supposed to stay for a maximum of four weeks, although this is often longer. There are 13 members of staff and a minimum of two members of staff on duty at all times.

JM explained Aspire felt there was no need to consult Glasgow City Council (GCC) or the community, when it turned from a women’s unit to a homeless unit, as they perceived no change of use.

JC, MC and LS said they had a petition signed by members of the community and asked where they should send this. JM suggested Elaine Haddow, Service Planning and Commissioning Officer at GCC. MA suggested they also ask her for a meeting.

It was agreed the manager of Aspire should be invited to next month’s meeting. MA said the Community Council would make a decision about a response after this.

Action: PB to write to the manager of Aspire and confirm acceptance with DB, so this can be advertised on the website.

GC said there are two new police officers to help cover the area and they are on the same shift as GC and Jonathan Rowell. MA asked GC to forward crime figures to PB if the police are unable to attend a meeting.

MA thanked JC, MC, LS, GC and JM for their contributions and said JC, MC and LS were more than welcome to attend future meetings and get involved with the Community Council.

Presentation from Steven Cole, Canal Community Liaison Officer, The Waterways Trust Scotland

SC introduced himself and explained The Waterways Trust Scotland was a national charity that wanted to inspire people to get involved with the canal.

SC explained they are currently working on getting all the canal footpaths tarmaced. SC reported there are plans to create a national canoeing centre at Port Dundas and artificial rapids at Maryhill locks and GCC had held a consultation event the previous week.

SC also said there are plans to host an event on the canal in September, where a 1/10 model of the steel ‘Bigman’, which will form part of a three-way bridge at Stockingfield Junction, will be on display.

MA thanked SC for attending.

Councillor’s Report

JM explained there are more community police in the area because Glasgow Community Planning and the local Community Planning Partnership jointly agreed to pay for 10 new officers in the area. Currently they are half-way towards meeting this target.

JM said plans for the playing fields had gone out to tender, but the Clouston Street development has stalled due to the credit crunch. £1.1 million needs to be raised from the sale of this site in order to fund development of the playing fields. JM explained GCC was opening a dialogue with New City Vision and proposed two options –  bringing forward some of the development, or an advance payment on capital receipt.

JM said local residents have been making changes to the Clouston Street site, such as pruning trees and erecting planters. Whilst these may be positive changes, the land is still owned by GCC and as such, there are concerns about safety to the public.

PB said, on behalf of JA, there was still an issue with black bags not being picked up on Fergus Drive. MA reminded everyone to contact Community Safety with these problems, as they will be able to prosecute individuals, if they can identify them.

Treasurer’s Report

KE reported that at the end of February the account had £921.27, but the money for the posters has still to come off. MA said the Community Council needs to spend more money.

Information – website

DB said he had advertised Clean Glasgow on the website, after last month’s meeting.

DB reported there were 805 page views in February, which are the best figures yet. This could be due to more publicity, with the posters and advertising on the Evening Times, but it is difficult to tell where people come from.

DB said he had contacted Alex Hewetson (AH) about the Council’s portal and had been told to expect an announcement soon.

DB said he had forwarded the graffiti spreadsheet to Clean Glasgow and there were 68 reports logged. PB said he had seen the Clean Glasgow van cleaning windows on Queen Margaret Drive. MA said a note should be added to the website to say action has been taken.

Action: DB to update the website.

Communications and correspondence

MA said he had not received any correspondence for a month, so the issue must have been resolved.

AOCB

MA suggested the renewal for using St. Charles School should be in KE’s name, as the bill is currently going to him.

ED offered a vote of thanks to MA for chairing a difficult meeting.

Next meeting – 15 April 2009 @ 6.30pm, St. Charles School