Community Council Meeting Minutes - December 2016

LANGBANK VILLAGE COMMUNITY COUNCIL.

MINUTES OF MONTHLY MEETING – 14th DECEMBER 2016

7.30pm – 9.30pm in Langbank Church Hall

LCC Members & Local Cllrs Present:- Neil Barrington (Chairman), Dav Mackenzie, Jacqueline
Docherty, Carly Deheer, Janice Buchanan and Julie Gilmour
Apologies:- Russell Overend (Secretary), Joe McGarrigle (Deputy Chairman), Chief inspector Simon
Wright (Police Scotland), Ellen Mather, Catherine Farrington, Kirsteen Breckenridge, Gloria Dunn,
Alex Dunn, Deirdre MacLean, James Hunter, Cllr James MacLaren and Cllr Maria Brown.
Also in attendance:- David Henry, David Dresser, Jean Cameron, Director for Paisley 2021 Bid, and
Sgt Frank Williams of K Division, Police Scotland.

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Police Report:
One crime reported on 11 th November - BT Van broken into at Mary Park Road.
Two road crimes reported on the A8 but outside Langbank.
Remember to phone 101 for the Police if anything suspicious is seen.

Minutes of last meeting:
Accepted: Proposed – by Janice Buchanan and Seconded – by Carly Deheer.

Guest Speaker – Jean Cameron, Director for Paisley 2021 Bid.
Jean explained the need and rationale for the subject bid, and with the aid of a handout talked the
meeting through this. She explained that to be a candidate for such a bid, the subject does not have
to be a city, it can be an area of culture or an area of identity.
The entry for such a bid can act as the “glue” in communities with culture and traditions – choirs,
clubs, groups etc. The focus is culture and creativity throughout the community and reputation is a
key element here.
She emphasised that LCC look to capture the key events and moments in Langbank for inclusion into
the Paisley 2021 Bid. Our LBM newsletter would be a good example.
She went on to explain that Londonderry in NI created 1,300 new jobs as a result of their City of
Culture Bid.

The Bid judges need to see that Paisley want the Bid and need to know what they would do with it,
also many Primary Schools are planned to get involved through teaching and media links.
The custodians of this competition are the UK Government Dept of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS)
and the final bid needs to be submitted by April 2017. There is no financial prize for winning this bid,
the anticipated revenue all comes from resultant funding from many and varied sources. The city of
Hull spent £3.6m on the bid, but secured £32m in resultant funding.
The presentation was closed with a lengthy dialogue between CC members and Jean Cameron, much
of which centred around the concern that CC members were concerned that the legacy of this bid
would not remain in such places as Langbank. There were further discussions that Renfrewshire was
not totally focussed on getting the Bid message across to all parties and some Langbank
Organisations felt that they receive more support and information from Inverclyde Council on
available activities, than they do from their own council in Renfrewshire. Jean agreed to take these
comments back to Renfrewshire Council.

Broadband Speed and Performance:
David Dresser, a Langbank resident and Virgin Media employee, explained the current situation with
this company providing fibre access to all Langbank homes and hence much faster and more
consistent access than most residents have at present. David stressed that he was a technical
employee and had no connection with sales or marketing of this company.
There are 384 properties in Langbank and an average of 20 metres between each property. He said
that Virgin Media has a programme called “Project Lightening” which works on the principle that if
sufficient residents of any location sign up to wanting their network, then they will proceed with the
roll-out and installation of such. This calculation means that they would require a firm commitment
from 70% of Langbank (around 268 homes) before instigating installation. It was noted that 100
Langbank homes has already converted to Hi-speed broadband offered by BT’s “Open Reach” partial
fibre network (approx 25 -30Mb), which is still much slower than the Virgin Media full fibre network
of around 200Mb. He mentioned that another option was to “crowd fund” the installation, but this
would cost approximately £237,000. David also stressed that access to a phone line is a legal right
whereas access to the Internet is currently not.
The meeting thanked David Dresser for his assistance in providing us with this background data and
the options open to us, and then debated the concern of “future proofing” our village. This is the
concern with the future value and saleability of residences within Langbank should the area have
low to very poor broadband reception and speed which it currently does. Dav Mackenzie stated that
he had seen reports from “Rightmove Estate Agency” where sluggish broadband can remove
between 5 to 10% off the value of a property, as most new house buyers view broadband as the
fourth utility and this availability is now viewed as a hugely important factor when choosing a home
and should never be underestimated as many potential buyers now want/demand multiple access at
high speed.
It was then considered that in order to progress the option of Virgin Media Broadband - the value
and benefits of this service would need to be explained to residents by someone that they were
likely to know. The LCC proposed to look at one LCC member per street becoming familiar with the
technology concepts and then look to visit neighbours in their own street and explain the potential.
Further discussion on this matter to be continued at our January Meeting.
Further to our Broadband discussions, Dav Mackenzie stated that he will contact Brendan Dick of BT
Scotland to ascertain what could be done in the short term, to improve the poor performance of the
village service and would draft a letter to this effect.

Village Website:
Dav Mackenzie apologised for the delay in making this service live, but it is due to his excessive
workload at this time of year. He plans to do more work on it over the Christmas period.
Langbank Station:
Dav Mackenzie has received a reply from Humza Yousaf, Scottish Transport Minister to the effect
that there are no current plans to reduce the services at Langbank Railway Station and further stated
that since May 2014 there are now 4 trains an hour operating between Glasgow Central and
Gourock, although only 2 of those stop at Langbank in each direction.
Parent Teachers Partnership for Langbank Primary School:
Julie Gilmour stated that the funding for their project to improve the outdoor space at the school
had now reached £17,000 against a target of £20,000. Well done!
AOB:
None
With no further business, and the Meeting was closed.

(There was no Cllr MacLaren report this month, due to his other commitments.)

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Meeting Schedule for 2017:
11 th January
8 th February
9 th March
12 th April
10 th May
14 th June
No meeting in July
9 th August
13 th September
11 th October
8 th November & AGM
13 th December