LANGBANK COMMUNITY COUNCIL
MEETING MINUTES
WEDNESDAY 11th DECEMBER 2019
7.30pm in the Langbank Church Hall, Main Road
Present:- Neil Barrington (chairperson), Caroline Bryce, James Hunter, John O’Brien, Jacqueline Doherty (secretary), Carly Deheer and Julie Gilmour.
Apologies:- Julie Arbon, Mercedes Harms, Maggie Hancock, Gloria Dunn, Giselle McGill and Cllr James MacLaren.
Other Attendees:- Police Scotland PCs Fraser Williams and Steven McMinn.
Start and welcome.
The chairman thanked everyone for their attendance and opened the meeting at 7.30pm.
Police Report by PC Fraser Williams and PC Stephen McMinn:
6 recorded crimes: 3 relating to Gleddoch. 3 thefts; -- 1 Mary Park Road, 1 Gleddoch Hotel, 1 Station House. Vandalism reported at Gleddoch House and a disqualified driver caught driving a van along Main Road.
Abandoned car on Main Road near Coast, has been there for approximately 1 month.
Someone posted on Community Facebook page that they had their car damaged on Main Road, looked like someone had scratched it with a key. PC Williams to monitor.
Our thanks passed on to PC Williams and rest of police officers for attending Christmas Tree light up ceremony and for regular attendance at all of our meetings throughout the year.
A8 Roundabout:
No reported near misses at roundabout recently.
West bound to roundabout, there is a sign to say “reduce speed now” which is immediately followed by a national speed limit applies sign. This seems to be contradictory and perhaps as a safety measure the only sign should be the reduce speed now sign.
Acceptance of last meeting minutes:
Proposed by Carly Deheer, and by seconded John O’Brien.
Number of Smartwater Kits left:
10 kits remaining, with 3 requested.
Village website update:
Recent LCC Minutes and pictures from Christmas Tree lighting up ceremony have been placed on website. langbank-community.com is the website.
Once a full handover of this website is complete then, there will be a generic email address for use for all emails to community council. This should be added to the agenda for January’s meeting.
Responses from the Langbank Survey:
Due to illness these have not been fully collated. Information will be presented on graphs with comments being listed – these will be placed into groups. Results will be displayed on web page, community Facebook page, hard copy in doctor’s surgery and on village notice boards for all to see.
Discussion around putting summarised version in every home and the best way to do this. Results also to be shared with the Village Hall committee and the Langbank Church as they will be able to address some of the issues, e.g. indoor recreational space etc.
Village Defibrillator:
Caroline Bryce has written to practice manager of Doctor’s Surgery as it was generally felt that this would be the best situation for a defibrillator. They would be happy to have it sited outside surgery, but need to contact property owner to check that he has no objections to this.
Caroline is also trying to arrange more first aid training.
Langbank Village School :
No further update on canopy, but head teacher is moving on and new temporary replacement will be appointed 12thDecember to start beginning of new term. It was agreed that this item would be put on hold until a later date.
Tennis Court Update:
Julie Gilmour is meeting with representative from Scottish Water, (Gordon Young), on Monday. He had initially been given no relevant information and was not fully aware of the situation, he had simply been told to do a survey for the permanent disconnection of the water. Business Stream had sent a very unhelpful email which was factually inaccurate, but Julie has since managed to inform both Business Stream and Gordon Young of the facts. Ewan McMaster from the Langbank Bowling Club will also attend this meeting as they also have an interest in the water supply. It is hoped that if all involved work together then progress can be made.
Village Christmas Tree:
A successful event with many people coming to see lights being switched on. £96 raised for Glasgow City Mission, this will pay for 8 homeless people to enjoy a Christmas lunch. Thanks to Renfrewshire Council for providing tree. Thanks to Mary Bonner for turning on lights and to PC Fraser Williams for coming along to support event.
Village Tree Festival:
December 7th and 8th December. This was a huge success with 20 village groups taking part. Many people came into church to see the display of trees and listen to the music/entertainment provided. £640 was raised for church redevelopment fund.
Grange Cottage flooding /sewerage concern :
No update from Muriel Colquhoun relating to this, although It was noted that there was a lot of water flooding down over Old Greenock during the recent floods. This then continued down Station Road and eventually out onto Main Road.
Recent flooding on Saturday night and Tuesday was very bad. RC contacted and did come and attempt to clear any blockages. Acknowledgement that although more should be done to avoid flooding that the high tide does have an impact.
Fly tipping at West Ferry – RC Signage – “No Tipping”:
Cllr James MacLaren has been in contact with RC - re signage here. Although RC would place a sign, they would not cover the cost of same, and the CC would need to do so, but cannot make any decision until a total cost is provided by RC.
White lines at the foot of Station Road bridge:
This remains a concern. Despite RC policy of the road requiring to be of a certain width before centre white line can be applied, all were in agreement that white lines are desperately needed on this narrow section of road, as drivers do drive on wrong side of road under the railway bridge and continue to do so all the way along to blind bend at station entrance, with many cutting the corner completely.
Potholes on Middlepenny Road were filled but this hasn’t really improved road conditions as there are now mounds on road rather than holes.
Church Improvement:
There are now 4 sub committees working on this. Plans are moving forwards and a funding target has now been set. It is hoped with some positive progress work could begin by early 2021.
Village Hall:
There is a dangerous wall in the carpark at the Village Hall. There have been several issues relating to this which have now been resolved and repairs will start soon. In the meantime this hazard has be cordoned off for safety reasons.
There are significant repairs required to the kitchen and external wall and RC will start to make these repairs in January 2020.
AOCB:
The chairman has written to LCC Member - Ian McDougal - to inform him that the wall at the bottom of Station Road is in a bad state of repair, and to ask if he could help contact the appropriate person to instigate repair.
The chairman thanked everyone for their attendance and meeting closed at 9pm.
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Report by James MacLaren
This was not discussed at meeting as email was not picked up prior to meeting but the following report was provided:
Roads
Water running onto Station Road: - As the bridge is owned by Network Rail, Council have informed them of the reported water run-off through their retaining wall and await their response on the matter.
Leaves on Station Rd: - Council had a sweeper deployed to Langbank and swept Station Road on 8 December 2019.
Pedestrian lights, Station Road: - Officers are currently investigating options to create a safe passage for pedestrians through the bridge; I will provide an update once there is a preferred solution.
Maintenance of Footpath at Station Rd to Dennistoun Rd
I have asked Network Rail to clear the vegetation on the footpath from Station Rd to Dennistoun Rd. This footpath leads to and from the station.
Litter free village sign
Council can arrange for the sign to be manufactured and erected but as the sign is not a traffic or directional sign, we would require the CC to cover any costs incurred. Please let me know if this is something the CC would wish to pursue, and I can request a quotation for their consideration. This is something that could be paid for by an application to the Local Partnership.
Litter A8 Hatton Brae
Council have managed to source enough materials 20+ tonnes at no cost to fill in the area at Hatton Brae. It is expected that materials would be brought to the area over the next week or two.
Blocked gullies
The blocked gullies on Station Road were cleaned out on 25th November. If you think any have been missed, then please let me know. The ones on the Main Road at Coast should also have been cleared.
Westferry
The bins at Westferry car park should have been emptied on Friday 6 December. Any litter that has spilled from the bin should be lifted at that time.
Gleddoch House Septic tanks
The operations manager at Gleddoch has confirmed that the repairs to the drainage system have now been completed. SEPA will only be involved again if the sewage discharges into the road drains and/or gets into the watercourse. Sewage on land, like in this instance, is Environmental Health’s remit.