Chairman
LANGBANK COMMUNITY COUNCIL
MEETING MINUTES
WEDNESDAY 11 th MARCH 2020
7.30pm in the Langbank Church Hall, Main Road
Present: Neil Barrington (chairman) Caroline Bryce, Julie Arbon, Maggie Hancock, Mercedes Harms, Janice
Buchanan, John O’Brien, Cllr James MacLaren, Carly Deheer, Giselle McGill, Jacqueline Doherty (secretary)
and Julie Gilmour.
Apologies: Tom Adair, Gloria Dunn (treasurer) and James Hunter .
Start and welcome:
The chairman welcomed everyone and opened the meeting at 7.35pm. He had taken precautions prior to
meeting and cleaned tables with antibacterial wipes, bearing in mind the current health and medical
warnings on the prevailing pandemic.
Acceptance of last meeting minutes:
No issues arose and the last meeting minutes were proposed by Carly Deheer and seconded by Maggie
Hancock.
Status on Smartwater Kits:
There are no kits left. The remaining kits were gifted to Langbank Village Hall, Langbank Church, Langbank
Primary School and Bishopton Scout Group and all were grateful for these.
Village website:
Carly Deheer now has her own login for the website. She and Graham Brown have managed to set up a
generic email account, which can be used for anyone formally wishing to contact the CC. This email will be
ready for use within the next few days.
Going forward - the details of the website will be included at the bottom of any information sheets.
It is hoped that site will be improved – ease of direction to specific information and What’s On section.
Accident activity at A8 Roundabout:
Damage to the A8 Roundabout has been reported to Transport Scotland for a second time. The yellow
warning signs have been reinstated.
Publishing and distribution of results from the Langbank Survey:
An A4 print out will be distributed with the next church “By The Way” newsletter.
Village Defibrillator implementation status:
The Coast Restaurant have agreed that they would site one defibrillator and Renfrewshire Council have also
agreed that another could be sited at the Village Hall. Graham Brown has applied for a Clydesdale Bank
Community Grant of £500 and Caroline Bryce is in the process of completing another grant. It is hoped that
if these are successful, then two defibrillators will be purchased soon.
Status on Langbank Tennis Court:
Sharon Marklow of Renfrewshire Council (RC) has now confirmed that the legal team at RC are looking into
ownership of this land. The next step for the LCC - is to contact solicitors “Holmes McKillop” who are
recorded as having been dealing with this subject of ownership as far back as 1975.
Chairman
RC would be willing to consider a Rural Improvement Grant to improve the tennis court area. They were
happy that the LCC had - through the village survey - consulted with villagers, but noted that the younger
villagers had little input. A survey will now go to the primary school and secondary school pupils.
Julie Gilmour has now had to raise a complaint about the complaints department at Scottish Water.
Despite the tennis club doing everything asked of them there has been no furtherance of the situation.
Julie has been told that this matter will be resolved within the week. Thankfully all court proceedings have
been halted.
Feedback from Renfrewshire Community Council Forum Meeting on 25/02/2020:
The chairman and John O@Brien both attended this meeting.
Jacqui Reid is now the chair of this group. Sam Mullen is the vice-chair.
There are 3 remaining meetings and for those the following three priorities were identified.
*Parking and driving near schools. In some areas this is so severe that traffic marshalls have been
introduced.
*Planning and infrastructure
*Place Plans – 4-year plan which CC puts in place for their area. RC would send a representative along to a
meeting to provide more detail. Foxbar CC have already completed comprehensive reports. We need to
decide if this would be something we would wish to do. It was agreed that this should be explored further,
and invite extended to April or May meeting.
Suggestion that each CC should have a “community email address”, which we are currently in process of
sorting. There was also suggestion that CC may wish to have a designated mobile phone – all agreed this
was not a good idea for the LCC.
The chairman has completed the expenses forms for this meeting. This £50 is paid directly to the LCC.
Fly tipping @ West Ferry:
RC have now filled in the area at Hatton Brae and it is hoped that this will reduce the amount of fly tipping –
however it would appear that they may have filled the wrong hole. Tom Adair reported that there is a
burst pipe at Hatton Brae and a fallen tree which is blocking the footpath from Langbank to the old A8 at
Hatton Brae.
Flooding:
There is still rubble lying at the foot of Station Road which was washed down from Old Greenock Road and
the drains at the side of Station Road during recent floods. Some of this has been removed by villagers but
not all of this. Villagers have cleared the rubble at the top of Station Road and Entrance to Elmbank. It is
disappointing that despite 4 phone calls from the LCC and numerous others from villagers that RC have not
addressed this issue.
Discussion around the bad state of repair of top of Station Road and depth of gullies which do cause a
significant hazard. There is some undermining of road at top of Station Road. See Cllr MacLaren’s report
further down.
Question asked as to whether drains along A8 near Marypark have been cleared. This has been flagged to
Renfrewshire Council in past and yet it still does not appear to be on RC Flood Plan.
Large pothole on Middlepenny Road just beyond Railway Bridge which appears to be getting bigger daily.
Insurance:
Insurance Premium is due for renewal. This remains same as last year £170.58. Gloria will organise
payment.
Chairman
Increase in house break-ins at Bishopton and Erskine:
No further concerns re this matter.
LCC news and activities submitted to local “Advertiser Magazine”:
Jacqueline to provide input for April edition.
Playing Field footbridge requiring repair:
The bridge repair has still not been completed. At last month’s meeting there was a discussion around
ownership. Our councillors followed this up and received the following response from RC.
“Further to your recent enquiry regarding the footpath to the west of the burn, I can confirm that the ownership of the path
from Dennistoun Road to the path running parallel to the railway is entirely owned by the individual residents of the
Langvale Developments estate at the bottom of Dennistoun Road. (House numbers 25 to 65 inclusive.) I can also
confirm that the footpath & steps from Dennistoun Road into the park and going down the hill towards the station are
wholly owned by the residents, with the residents and Renfrewshire Council having shared ownership and responsibility
for the footbridge and burn. The split between the land owned by Renfrewshire Council and the residents is the centre
line of the burn. I have attached a plot of the area below.
The footpath running parallel to the railway line to the north of the site is entirely owned and maintained by Network Rail.
I can confirm that Renfrewshire Council are instigating a suitable repair to the handrail of the footbridge at this time.
However, Renfrewshire Council may in future pursue the landowners for the part recovery of any costs incurred for any
subsequent works required to footbridge and burn”.
.
There is a light out at the bottom of the steps. This is likely to be the responsibility of RC rather than the
residents and so should be reported.
Question was asked as to how repairs would be made to the path to the west of the playing fields. Janice
will approach the Community Payback team to enquire as to whether this would be something they could
do.
Cllr James MacLaren’s Report
Roads
Station Rd: - An officer will inspect the eroded verge in the top section and instruct necessary repairs to any
safety defects. The inspector has instructed repairs on a number of potholes on Station Road under a 5-day
response. The debris at the bottom of the road has been passed to a supervisor within StreetScene who
will assess this.
Old Greenock Rd: - Council have met with Gleddoch staff and worked together to ensure the culvert has
been cleared on the private length and have rechecked the section that runs under the road.
Drainage - Seath Avenue: - there is a drainage issue from the banking onto the pavement and steps are
being taken to resolve this.
Netherton Road: - I have received reports that lightning is shining onto the road at Netherton Road from
the Gleddoch golf range. This is being investigated.
Old Greenock Road: - the potholes have been reported. These were only recently repaired.
Seath Avenue Road Sweeping: - this has been requested and chased up. It was also noted at the meeting
that the recently replaced Seath Road surface has now been washed off.
Coronavirus
I raised an emergency motion at last Thursday’s Full Council meeting requesting to know what plans the
council was making. The lack of hand cleansing stations in the building is worrying.
School Recycling
Park Mains has received new bins to enable more recycling to take place.
Chairman
Langbank PS Condition Report
I have attached a copy of this report. Page 7 gives the report of Satisfactory. I note this report is quite old
and will request something more recent. A copy of this report can be requested from the CC
School report – overall rating is a “B”. Question asked as to how the criteria and areas were weighted.
James MacLaren will follow this up.
Path from Dennistoun Road
I can confirm that the ownership of the path from Dennistoun Road to the path running parallel to the
railway is entirely owned by the individual residents of the Langvale Developments estate at the bottom of
Dennistoun Road, (House numbers 25 to 65 inclusive). I can also confirm that the footpath & steps from
Dennistoun Road into the park and going down the hill towards the station are wholly owned by the
residents, with the residents and Renfrewshire Council having shared ownership and responsibility for the
footbridge and burn. The split between the land owned by Renfrewshire Council and the residents is the
centre line of the burn. The footpath running parallel to the railway line to the north of the site is entirely
owned and maintained by Network Rail.
Station Road Park
The repair to the handrails of the bridge should now be complete.
Litter A8 Hatton Brae
I have received confirmation that the area at Hatton Brae has now been filled in. A further assessment will
be carried out in the coming weeks to make sure the area has been sufficiently filled, if required we have
additional materials that can be used. I will request a site visit as the hole I had in mind has not been
touched.
Consultation on school admissions.
The main impact on Langbank Primary will be change to registration date from March to November.
Main impact on Park Mains is restricted places for placing requests largely due to the number of new
houses in Dargavel, Erskine and Inchinnan. Initially impact will affect pupils attending St. John Bosco and St.
Anne’s. There will also be an impact on parents wishing to put in a placing request for children due to
subject choices (usually impacts senior pupils).
There has been talk of boundary change, but this is not mentioned as part of the consultation.
Jacqueline to respond on behalf of the Langbank Community Council.
AOB.
There will be a drop-in bus outside the village hall between 4.30 and 6.00pm tomorrow evening. LCC
council were asked to advertise this. Jacqueline to put on Village Facebook page.
Meeting closed at 9.20pm.