Setting up the Cathcart & District Community Council, setting priorities, Police report, Planning Report and more…
CATHCART AND DISTRICT COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING
WEDNESDAY 9TH NOVEMBER 2022, 7PM
CATHCART BAPTIST CHURCH AND COMMUNITY HUB, 96 MERRYLEE ROAD GLASGOW G43 2RA
MINUTES
Attendees in person: Community Councillors: Carolyn Lochhead (chair), Louisa Maddison (vice-chair and planning lead), Mhairi Taylor (area planning representative), Jen Bell, Irene McCann, Stephen McCann, Kate Lonergan, Kenny Boyle, Lynn Thomson (treasurer and reserve area planning representative), Andrew Dewar, Kim Van Deere (secretary), Andrew Dewar,
Cllr Catherine Vallis, John Carson, Isobel Baird, William Baird, M McCann, George Heenan, Derrick Watson, PC Holly McConnachie G304, PC Sammy Garcin G221 and PC Brian Robertson G2497 (for police report section only)
Attendees remotely: Cllr Paul McCabe, Cllr Leodhas Massie, Cllr Sean Ferguson.
1 Welcome and introductions Carolyn Lochhead
2 Apologies were received from Cllr Steven Curran and Rose McQuarry
3 Updates since last meeting Carolyn Lochhead
CL noted that social media presences were up and running on multiple platforms as follows:
Facebook: Cathcart & District Community Council
Twitter: @cathcart_dcc
Instagram: cathcartDCC
If any of the Community Councillors would like to step up as admin on any of the sites and be able to post etc., please contact Louisa Maddison via cathcartdcc@gmail.com. We are actively looking for support with this area of our activities.
Meetings with Housing Associations are in the process of being set up with Cathcart HA and Govanhill HA already having been arranged.
Contact with GCC councillors has been made and CL noted the good attendance of many tonight. Contact with MSPs will follow.
CL noted that a number of pre-consultation exercise were underway, on sales of alcohol, link can be provided and by GCC on libraries. The link to the licensing survey is here https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/LPS2022/. The libraries survey can be found at https://tinyurl.com/ycxk56rc.
A report provided by Cllr Ferguson regarding local matters raised was sent out before tonight’s meeting and is attached to these minutes.
4 Setting our priorities – Mhairi Taylor
MT guided the group through the following questions:
- What happens in the area that enjoy and or you think adds value already?
- What would you like to improve?
- In the next 3-5 years what changes would you like to see in the area?
The group were encouraged to post their responses under the following headings:
Parks and green space, community cohesion, Planning and building, leisure and Glasgow life, roads, parking/active and rail transport, community safety.
The final exercise was for all participants to prioritise their six most important of the items.
MT thanked the group for their input and noted that she would work on the outputs in line and would summarise findings at the next meeting. It was agreed that the exercise can be carried out more again in future to check in with the group and ensure issues are still current, also to share with the wider community to verify that this accords with their priorities also.
Police report
The meeting was joined by three officers from the local Police who attended the event following an invitation to address the group. They reported that in general, there is lower crime in the CDCC area than in many other local areas. There was a short discussion about joy riding in the area and the difficulty of enforcement of car-free zones round schools, which are frequently being ignored. It was agreed that even occasional Police attendance (and fining) will have an impact over time. PC Holly McConnachie noted a more effective and enforceable solution should be found for times when Police are not in attendance. Other suggestions were a physical barrier, obtaining using leverage from fire and rescue services around parking issues near schools
Andrew Dewar asked about the incident rate of public youth disorder, this was noted to be considerably widespread. MT noted that the underlying cause of anti-social behaviour may be a lack of resources.
ACTION Carolyn to contact local fire and rescue with a view to getting their support to address school parking issue.
ACTION Carolyn to contact GCC around same with a view to what enforcement measures against same could be deployed.
5 Planning report – Louisa Maddison
LM provided an overview of current issues to the group. It was noted that the Celeros in person event regarding the development of new properties at the Weir Pumps site was scheduled for Thursday 10th November 2022 6-8pm on the site, LM will attend. We will have the opportunity to respond as a Community Council.
Webpage for the Celeros development: https://www.cala.co.uk/land-planning/current-planning-applications/scotland-planning-applications/planning-applications-in-glasgow/inverlair-avenue-cathcart/
Development at White Elephant is showing as “pending – consideration” so it has not been decided yet. Details at: https://publicaccess.glasgow.gov.uk/online-applications/caseDetails.do?caseType=Application&keyVal=RAA1G2EXFRI00
Development at 152 Newlands Road has been granted subject to meeting conditions. If you click on the link and then the “documents” tab you can see the associated information. Try opening the “site plan” to see the design
If you would like details or a map or further documentation emailed, please email the generic CDCC email address cathcartdcc@gmail.com. If anyone would like to be shown how to look at planning applications online please contact Louisa Maddison and she will provide.
William Baird asked about whether the pitch was to be removed from Merrylee Primary School – CL noted that the surface requires to be replaced.
ACTION Carolyn to check status of pitch with Parent Council at Merrylee Primary School.
6 Treasurer’s report – Lynn Thomson
A Treasurer’s account will be set up online. TSB, Santander and BoS are all being considered, Three signatories were noted to be required. Around £3k is awaiting credit to the account, and approximately £35.00 expenditure has been spent on materials for this evening. CL, LM and LT will make a final decision on banking services provider on behalf of the CC: it was noted that Post Offices are an important part of communities and should be considered as an option CL and MT thanked LT for her work investigating the bank account issue.
7 AOCB
It was agreed that the months during which CDCC will not meet would be December, July and August.
The date and time of the next meeting was therefore agreed as 7pm, Wednesday 11th January 2023 at the Baptist Church and Community Hub. CL sought and received agreement that the venue would be booked for the next 12 months on the basis of its suitability/accessibility.
Kenny Boyle noted the very low level of public services (roads, cleansing etc.) should be addressed by relevant head of GCC.
ACTION More effective communication with and tasking of GCC Cllrs/Heads of Service should be commenced: as a starting point, Lynn to invite Neighbourhood Regeneration Officer Lisa Thomson to one of the CDCC meetings, Cllr McCabe will also be invited to attend. MT suggested using the facilitated prioritisation exercise to identify the main headings to be raised with GCC.
ACTION Isobel Baird requested that CDCC contact bus company on behalf of the community re: frequency of local bus services. Carolyn to contact.
