Minutes:
Duncan
Martin – Oban Community Council
The
opportunities for more academic pupils has been talked about.Ìý How well are schools stretching more gifted
pupils?
Peter
Bain commented that there are 98 subjects on the curriculum and that the number
of students leaving with 8 or more highers places the school in the top 20 in
the country.ÌýÌý Mr Bain also explained
that academics were not purely the focus and that pupils, in addition to
qualifications, also required to demonstrate experiences of disciplinary
learning and personal endeavour.
Duncan
Martin reflected that he was a friend of a parent whose child went to Cambridge
University and that they hadn’t felt the support offer to pupils going to
University outside of Scotland had been as well supported.
Mr
Bain advised that Schools seek to support every individual and provide any
necessary certification to get into any University in Scotland.Ìý He commented that schools do have networks
that pupils going to Universities in England or Europe and pupils are put in
touch with others who have direct experience.Ìý
He also stated that schools offer interview training and support to sit
entrance tests.
The
Secondary School Head Teachers, and Depute Head Teachers, left the meeting at
this point and the Committee considered the questions that had been submitted
in advance of the meeting before taking questions from those attending.
Question
1 – 4 - Frank Roberts, Oban Community Council
It
has often been suggested to me that parking wardens are routinely sent from OLI
to other areas, leaving Oban under resourced.Ìý
Will the Council please advise therefore:-
I
would like to Council to respond in writing and would like a time limit on the
response.
The
questions will be put to the relevant department and Councillor Kain will
request that the response is issued timeously.
Question
5 – Roddy McCuish
Roddy
submitted the following question prior to the meeting by email:-
I
recently reported rat increase of some alarming numbers at the junction of
Polvinister Road and Glencruitten Road. I thought the quickest way to
investigate this problem was to approach one of my elected members. I
contacted Cllr Lynch who replied very promptly and reported it to the relevant
department.Ìý Unfortunately he was
told the warden was unexpectedly unavailable at the moment and would look
at it on their return. I fully understand that staff may be
unavailable for various reasons. Surely there are other staff who can
cover for the warden or even have someone seconded from another area. As you
are all very aware Oban is very busy and to be without a warden of any
sort is not a good position to be in as their duties are many.Ìý Also I hasten to add the workload this
person will have to come back to will place tremendous pressure on
them.
Mark
Calder responded to the question stating that in reality the answer is No;
there is no mechanism in place to cover unavailable environment wardens in each
geographical area. Mr Calder, commented that as a former Councillor, Mr McCuish
may recall, the service underwent significant savings which resulted the
Environment Wardens cut from 9 to 4.Ìý As
a consequence there is no provision to cover when a warden is off.
Question
6 – B T MacDougall
B
T MacDougall submitted the following question by email prior to the meeting:-
Have
any of the representatives been to visit the two Piers in Taynuilt recently
which are overcrowding with motorhomes, stealth caravans and tents which have
resulted not only in human excrement and toilet paper in almost every shrub
along the beach and repeated anti-social behaviour such as emptying cassette
toilets into the Loch, driving on the beach and reckless driving on the single
track road towards the Piers.
This
has been reported to the council and the police, yet police patrols seem to
have ceased or greatly reduced since the arrival of the sunny weather.
What
needs to happen before this issue is being addressed by the council and police?
The
local resident Otter population has already moved further up the river and it
will only be a question of when and not if with all the fire pits etc before
the wildlife is further impacted.
I
am all for tourism but this is purely vandalism.
Mark
Calder was able to pick up on part of the question, in that the Council would
not have any responsibility for the piers or adjacent carparks as the land
belongs to someone else.Ìý Any anti-social
behaviour should be reported directly to Police Scotland, however, fly tipping
can be reported to the Council using the online form or by phoning the
Council’s Contact Centre.
Chair
stated that in essence the problems should be reported to the relevant Land
Owners.
Question
7 – Neil MacIntyre
Question
submitted by email prior to the meeting:-
Could
you please put a question to Mark Calder or any officer that’s present about
how much CCTV plans will cost if it goes ahead.
Even
a projected cost would be great if they are putting these plans together and
are waiting for further information.
Mark
Calder advised that the costs are negligible between £500 - £2000 which could
be absorbed as part of the existing budget.Ìý
We would be looking at installing 1 – 2 cameras at Ganavan possibly on
the toilet block and one elsewhere to cover the area.Ìý At the moment we are working with the
Council’s Term Contractor who provides support for all our CCTV systems across
the whole area, to agree a specification with them and get their professional
advice on the appropriate system for the area.
Question
8 – Laura Corbe, Keeping Oban Beautiful
Laura
submitted the following question by email prior the meeting:-
We,
a community collective led by Keep Oban Beautiful & with volunteers from
amongst others Oban High School, would like to ask for permission to work on
council land to rehabilitate a small stretch of woodland located close to the
high school. The goal is to create a wellness walk & woodland heaven in
this otherwise unused scrap of land. We do not wish to acquire the land, which
may not be possible anyway as I believe Scottish water may have an interest
there, but would like to have all permissions/risk assessments/training/
paperwork in place to begin work by the start of the 23/24 academic year. There
are several invasive species which we will endeavour to remove however there is
a small amount of Japanese Knotweed establishing on site & we’d also like
to request Council arrange for its permanent removal as soon as possible.
Mark
Calder advised that this is not something that they were aware of but are happy
to work with any group who are willing to take any vacant and disused land and
do something positive with it for the Community.Ìý He confirmed he had Laura’s contact details
and will get in touch with her directly to take this forward and that he hoped
to have an update for the next Area Committee.
Duncan
Martin asked if the Council have any plans to deal with the eradication of
Japanese Knotweed at the Black Lynn next to the Bridge Café?
Mark
Calder advised that he is not sure of the areas specified and would need to
find out if the Council is responsible for the removal Japanese Knotweed in the
areas.Ìý The Council does have a Policy
for the Eradication of Japanese Knotweed which he will circulate to the Members
and Duncan for their perusal.
Councillor
Hume advised that the Council Policy is to spray the Japanese Knotweed in the
Autumn which does not eradicate completely, it is an invasive species which
requires to be pulled out at the root.
Councillor
Luna Martin believes the Council Policy is to inject the Knotweed twice a year,
however, there has been a couple of issues raised concerning the cleaning of
the council vehicles after the treatment of the Knotweed, which could cause
cross contamination?
Mark
Calder did not agree that this was the case, there are mechanisms in place for
the cleaning of vehicles following work will all invasive species.
Question
9 – Marri Malloy – Oban Community Council
Following
a recent visit to Ganavan I witnessed 2 large Campervans parked in the bays
with them a car taking up a further space and all their diving equipment taking
up another space.Ìý It has been in the
papers recently that with the issue of camper vans councils are employing
specific wardens for this problem which are funded by the Scottish Government –
are ·¬ÇÑÊÓƵapp Council going to employ such wardens in Oban and if so,
will they be deployed to Helensburgh as the current traffic wardens are.Ìý I know the TRO is coming up later in the
Agenda, but we will not be permitted to ask questions during that items, so
will the TRO cover Ganavan?
Councillor
Kain advised that the funding and wardens is not something we are aware of and
asked Mark to add this to his list. Councillor Green added that the wardens in
Highland were funded by Nature Scotland.
Stuart
Watson advised that the Council has 6 traffic/amenity wardens to cover 116
carparks and 2.5km of road, they are put out to where they are most needed and
where the demand is higher.Ìý Oban has the
highest rate of attendance at 80% for a traffic warden to be on site within the
town.Ìý In terms of Ganavan the Traffic
Order was never installed there to raise revenue, the 2 hours free time was to
allow people to walk dogs, walk the cycle path and recreational time.Ìý The traffic wardens do attend Ganavan, we
have worked closely with the Police and the Environment Wardens done joint site
visits and there has never been any evidence to what is reported to us.Ìý The police have written to us to state there
has been no evidence anti-social behaviour.
In
comparison to Highland Council where they have a warden to every 500 spaces,
·¬ÇÑÊÓƵapp have a warden to every 1200 spaces, also the Oban wardens are
not just covering Oban they are OLI wardens so have to travel to Craignure,
Fionnphort and Iona which is a whole working day away from Oban.
Councillor
Hampsey asked if the traffic wardens have a schedule to kept to and show how
often they attend Ganavan and whether there is an aim as to where these wardens
should be and how much time they attend these areas?
Stuart
advised that wardens do not have a schedule to follow as the public would pick
up on when and where they would be in the area.Ìý
Wardens also do cash collections and whilst they are carrying out these
duties they are unable to do enforcement.
Question
10 – Marri Malloy – Oban Community Council
On
reading the report on Play Parks, Helensburgh received £368,500 for 11,Ìý play parks, Oban received £33,500 for, it
seems, 2 Play Parks, MAKI received £368,500 for 12 and Bute & Cowal
received £167,500 for 5.Ìý The report
mentions 1 new playpark, and I can only assume that is Atlantis Leisure.Ìý
As
the Play Park at Atlantis Leisure has been deemed new it has not been funded,
it has been closed on numerous occasions as it supposed to be maintained by
·¬ÇÑÊÓƵapp Council and we have been told it is because there is no
funding.Ìý So why has Oban not received
more of the funding to allow Atlantis Play Park to be maintained up to
standard?Ìý It also seems that the
children in OLI are unimportant when they only have 2 playparks and the other
areas have 11 and 12.
Councillor
Kain advised that the funding was for improvements not maintenance.Ìý Mark Calder agreed that the funding from the
Scottish Government was for playparks, which the Council are responsible for,
to be used for improvements and upgrades, broken or unsafe equipment to be
replaced.
Mark
also stated that there is a live consultation going on at the moment regarding
Play Parks, which can be found on the Council’s website. The Governance Officer
confirmed that the information and link had been emailed to all Community
Councils, but will send around again.
Question
12 – Duncan Martin
Duncan
had a question in relation to the TRO which is coming up later in the
Agenda.Ìý The Chair confirmed that he
would allow the question to be raised at the relevant item.
Duncan’s
second question - Oban’s raison d'etre is its harbour and the project to create
a 21st century governance structure for our harbour is the single most
important task at the moment yet neither Mr Smith nor Ms Flanagan consider it
important to attend these meetings. I consider that an insult to the people of
Oban and the users of our Harbour.
I
would like to ask whether at this stage it is possible for the Area Committee
to ask the Harbour Board to revisit its decision 18 months ago to proceed
towards a municipal port.
Five
years ago in this building Mr Smith stated that the Council did not want to run
Oban harbour because it lacked the expertise and capability to do so. Over the
past five years the Council Officers have established the truth of that
statement beyond any doubt.
The
task of creating a new Harbour Authority is one which, following Scottish
Government Policy, should have been co-produced with the communities - the
geographical and the users. The role of the Council should not have been to
lead the project but to provide administrative and legal support.Ìý But there is a problem : community
empowerment means that centre loses power.Ìý
And those at the centre will always find reasons why they can't let go.
After
stalling for at least two years they convinced the Board 18 months ago that a
municipal port was the simpler and therefore presumably quicker option and
anyway OCHDA didn't have a Business Plan.
Now
we still don't have an HRO and there's no sign of the Council's Business plan
either.
Everyone
around this project is convinced that if the proper co-production process had been
followed we would have had a Harbour Trust in place at least two years ago.
Even now, I believe that the expertise within or available to OCHDA could
produce the proper paperwork in a few weeks.
Councillor
Kain, in response, pointed out that he was fairly knowledgeable on the Harbour
having read all the paperwork going back to 2012.Ìý Kirsty Flannigan and Jim Smith are both
significantly engaged and properly exercised in their duties to Oban Harbour,
Oban and the wider community.Ìý Jim is in
other meetings today and Kirsty, as a Director, is significantly engaged but I
did talk with both yesterday.Ìý With
regards to the process, the Harbour Revision Order is sitting with the Scottish
Government, and the Council awaits that response. At the appropriate time there
will be a special Harbour Board.Ìý We are
due to have a Harbour Boards Business Day where a designated person,
independent from the Council, will be in attendance to brief us, he is the
designated person for several ports and is fully aware that the Council is on
track to getting a Harbour.Ìý If, as
suggested, at the December Harbour Board Meeting, that we delay in submitting
Revision Order, we would be significantly behind in the process now.Ìý This is going forward it is out with our
hands, it sits with the Scottish Government and Transport Scotland to get to
the next stage, where there will then be a Special Harbour Board Meeting to
approve it, followed by a 40 day statutory consultation with all users.Ìý The extent of the views on the Harbour Board
are to such an extent we are not looking at a parochial harbour but it is a
strategic port for Argyll and the whole of Scotland and the broader community
and stakeholders include Barra, Mull, Iona, Coll, Tiree and Colonsay.Ìý It is their lifeline and once this is
established OCHDA will be involved in the Port.Ìý
Councillor Kain reiterated that it is just not an Oban Bay Port, it is a
strategic port for Scotland, and Jim Smith and Kirsty Flannigan are well
exercised in the importance of this harbour.
There
were follow up questions and comments from Marri Malloy, Frank Roberts and
Duncan Martin regarding the need for public consultation on the Order, that
there was no monetary benefit for the residents of Oban, perceived lack of
financial planning and vision, and that there would be a public enquiry and
potential for delays if the Order was as reported.
Councillor
Kain and Councillor Vennard made the point that there was no sense in
revisiting the historic situation.Ìý
Councillor Lynch agreed commenting we were dealing with the here and now
and that he hoped the community council could play a role in widening access
when the public consultation was undertaken.Ìý
Councillor
Kain commented that there has been considerable misrepresentation on what the
Order is going to be and its intent.Ìý He
felt that the intention would become clearer when the actual Harbour Revision
Order comes back, and the re-iterated the intention to create a municipal
harbour which will have greater economic development across Argyll.
Phil
Hamerton, OCHDA, commented that a development plan could follow the Order.Ìý He said that he had hoped there would be a
role around future vision and plans in co-creation but until the Order was in
place then it’s a chicken and egg problem.
Mark
Calder responded on the point about financial planning, setting out that the
marine estate is managed through a 10 year rolling asset management plan and
that there were examples of return on investment across the marine estate.Ìý He did not feel statements about lack of
financial planning were borne out of any evidence.