CCA MEETING – MINUTES
22 February 2023

Here are the minutes for the latest CCA meeting, which include….

CCA Financial Status, information on speed limits, Nith Inshore Rescue updates, Shore Clean, D&G Council budget, SNH, a new Estate Manager (welcome Anna!), School news, Ladyfield Project notes, Barbour and Hutton Hall news, Allotments, WWT, Cycling events, Glencaple Playpark updates, Shore Clean and the broadband updates in the parish.

There will also be news coming about Caerlaverock’s plans for the Coronation. Details will be published soon – keep an eye on the CCA and Barbour Hall websites/Facebook for updates.

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MINUTES

Apologies: Rob Wells, Sue Greig, Police Scotland, Dave Pickett, Gordon Tennent, Helen Clark, Shirley Little.

Minutes of Last Meeting – Accepted.

FINANCIAL

Financial – incoming since last meeting £1,676.80 from motorhomes.

Outgoings £90.46 incl flowers for older residents in the area at Christmas.

Balance of £24,099.16

£10k is earmarked for the new playpark in Glencaple.

Net disposable just over £14k.

Budget is 5-6k for the year, money for ride-on Mower/shed required. We are in a good position, have over twice the amount needed for the budget and we will have more MH income in the next few months.

GENERAL REPORTS

POLICE

No representation again. DG gas been in touch regarding poor comms with CCA. Response was that no officer available, so DG has asked for a report. Not really getting good engagement with police Scotland – do we just ignore this or escalate?

Ronnie Clark: Keep at them – if incidents happening, we should know about them. There have been incidents of break ins to honesty boxes at the Quay End and theft of heating oil, so we need to know what is happening in the area.

D& G COUNCIL

Malcolm Johnstone: Following up from last meeting, the speed limit – extension at Shearington. This is not progressing at the speed MJ would like but says the councillors will persevere.

Re Glencaple – the markings on the road were still marked at 30mph – these should be updated.
Road repairs outstanding – there have been workmen out but not repaired yet.

Council Budgets: next Tuesday there will be a big talk about the budget. Three budgets going forward, we will see which one carries.

People can look at budgets on the D&G Council website to check – regardless of which budget carries, rates will go up. MJ notes every year there is money that has to be trimmed from the budget, “its relentless”. The budget available comes about 80% from the government.

Doug Anderson: re flashing speed signs in Glencaple – if we had one in Glencaple people would realise the speed they are doing they would slow down. This would also apply to Kelton as speeds are high there. John Carson notes that at Kelton bank – a lot more vulnerable area – there should be one there too.

Billy Little: 50mph was what was decided at the time for Kelton. It’s a lit area, so should be 40mph – and extended from Kelton bank so people don’t speed back up to 60 again.

John Carson: is of the opinion that general speed signs waste of time, people don’t slow down.

SNH

No formal report. DG says shooting season finished on Monday, we don’t want people going out on merse with dogs, as it is working up to nesting time. Areas where there were stiles are now closed off. There is the usual problem with dog poo being left, bins seem to be emptied regularly.

Kelly Green notes that dog poo really curtails activities with children in the area.

CAERLAVEROCK ESTATE

Anna Austin introduced herself as the new Caerlaverock Estate manager, from the 9th January. She is employed directly by the estate, who will be doing a lot of the management themselves. Plan for estate office at Bowhouse farm, and in the next 6 months will be moving in there. Currently working partly out of the Boathouse. She does not have an Estate Manager background and was previously a lawyer. She is enjoying it very much and please do get in touch if anything she can help on.

CAERLAVEROCK PRIMARY SCHOOL

Mr Tennant sent a short message and gives his apologies: Miss Cochrane – our head teacher for the partnership (Caerlaverock and Brownhall Primaries) is retiring at the end of the school year. We will have a new head teacher in place starting August. The new head teacher will be Mrs. Karen Scriven, who is currently head teacher at Amisfield and Ae primaries.

BARBOUR HALL

Gerry Donnelly: The hall has achieved funding for the upgrade of the toilets.

It will be a significant amount of money to bring them up to date. Long term there needs to be new toilet blocks. Doing this as a priority will be a step toward making the hall more attractive to use.

Secondly, hoping to have a public meeting with hall plans as architect plans are being expected soon. Watch the website barbourhall.co.uk, and facebook page to see about a date where there will be an event for everyone to come and discuss the proposed upgrades to the hall.

Also keep an eye out for events happening, always something on – films, lunch clubs, folk music clubs, and open to any ideas about new groups and events. If there’s anything you would like to start get in touch and we will help you make things happen.

John Carson notes that the music days are becoming very popular, and the idea of a local community session has spread to other places like Moniaive it is now becoming a regular thing. Gerry says it is a great way to spend an afternoon.

COMMUNITY ALLOTMENTS

Rob Wells: On the allotment front – all is well – we are looking forward to a season just starting now. The soil is warming up, folk are thinking about seeds and planting. This is our 4th season – and the allotment site now feels well established. I think we are all getting to know the soil, and what we can best grow. We get regular deliveries of organic manure from Firth Farms as and when we need it, (thanks to the Jamieson family) and that addition of organic material improves the soil structure of the allotment plots. Looking ahead 10 years, this site will be even more special than it is now.

It is also great that the allotment is a community space – the Jubilee picnic in particular on the site was lovely. All folk are welcome to visit, walk around, and use the space at any time.

We are learning how to use the allotment site well. We have not got everything right, by any means, and it will take some years to work out how to make it work to full advantage.

We will be having another veg stall in the summer where you will be able to buy but fresh organic veg. – proceeds go to the maintenance of the community allotment site.

WWT:

David Pickett has sent the following note: With regards to an update there aren’t any big happenings that I can tell the community about. We continue to be happy that we are having very low levels of mortality from bird flu, with nothing like last year’s events. We are working away at a number of small projects to improve the visitor experience and bring wildlife closer to the people.

This includes a revamped wildlife garden, a new path and more mini water features. And also carrying out tricky repairs to get some of the hides reopened. So over time we hope that these will all help the reserve to look better and better.

As ever I am more than happy to answer any specific questions by email, phone or face to face.

NITH INSHORE RESCUE

Dylan Muir: 
We are in the process of finalising arrangements to keep our second vehicle. This has transformed our ability to respond and how we operate at incidents.

We are engaged in a procurement process with Ineos to replace our aging land rover. With developments in modern vehicles it requires to be replaced with something more fit for purpose and passenger safety given the type of work and emergency response it undertakes.

We are actively seeking funding to support both projects.

We have recently completed a memorandum of Understanding with Scottish Fire & Rescue which complements our status as a declared facility with HM Coastguard.

We aim to celebrate the Coronation on Sunday 8th of April and Peter Bryden will liaise on this (with the coronation working group which is made up of members of the CCA/ Barbour hall and wider community.)
Our open day will be in August.

NIR Tote: A word about the tote: the tote raises about £3,000 a year for the boat, or £58 per week, so a big “thank you” to everyone who takes part.

The important thing to remember is that the tote money is regular weekly income and it allows us to budget accordingly. Having this weekly money from the tote is key to covering a lot of our day-to-day running costs.
So thank you again for everyone who takes part. Anyone interested in joining the tote, see Chris and Alison. All you need are 10 pairs of numbers between 1 and 30 and it costs either £1 or £2 per week. The draw takes place on a Monday morning in The Boathouse cafe.

DG asked about any update for first aid courses for youngsters – Laurie will be dealing with this.

HUTTON HALL

Kelly Green: Events coming up:

Spring Fair coming up Sunday 16th April. They will hold a raffle, cakes, tombola, games, it will be advertised on usual places online and noticeboards. If people want to donate please do – volunteers needed as well. Colouring in and egg competition at the Spring Fair.

Bingo nights will be coming, hoping in August to do a Hobby Night where people can come and show their hobbies.

There will also be a Wednesday Club – where there will be tea, coffee, biscuits and good chat! This will be starting soon.

Lots of other things in the pipeline!

See the Hutton Hall website huttonhall.org.uk and Facebook page.

PARA-CYCLING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2023

Following concerns and discussion around the forthcoming events DG wrote a letter to D&G Council, did not get a response until a couple of weeks ago. The response was previously published on the website here: https://www.caerlaverock.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Caelaverock-Comm-Association-Feb-2023.pdf

David also had noted the recent lighting of the castle to help promote awareness of the event and the lack of promotion around it – the CCA did not know about it –would have been nice to have been told about it and relay to the community if they had wished to see it.

GLENCAPLE PLAYPARK

DG has some great news. It was out to tender and we will be meeting D&G Council so we can be part of the assessment process. We don’t know what it will be like until we get there. Looks like it’s now a live project – with the CCA contributing £10k of the £43K needed from Motorhome donations, hopefully we will see something complete for the summer.
We will wait to see what the tenders look like if they are fit for purpose and hope they will come in at budget –Lauren Parry and Kelly Green will come along and help support and input.

GRASSCUTTING & COMMUNITY PROJECTS

Doug Anderson has got a ride-on mower – its been bought and ready to go, and discussions are under way on provision and positioning of a shed to store it securely in.

DA says Dick McKune has agreed would cut grass at allotments and Quay end and states that the person that uses this mower it needs to know what they are doing – not just an everyday job as there are hazards at both locations.

COMMUNITY CLEAN UP

The Community clean up organised by the Nith Inshore Rescue is now fixed for Sunday the 19th. This is Mother’s Day – but it is best for the bore, and provision of the skip, and litterpicking efforts. People don’t have to do the 19th but could do it anytime eg the Saturday before, great if we could start and make some teams – it’s pretty messy on the merse and also litter as well along the verges. A poster has been produced and will be put online and on noticeboards.

HUTTON TRUST

No report at this time.

BROADBAND NETWORK

Full fibre network is on its way – concern about additional poles, unwelcome in a scenic area, so was raised with MP David Mundell, who has a response from Open Reach:

Re: Fibre Optic Roll out (Case Ref: DM23448)

Further to my most recent email to Openreach, I have now received the response below from them:

“Our project manager got in touch with me concerning the work we’ve started so far, this might help residentsunderstand what our plans are.

As noted our intention was to only use existing poles for the new fibre network. Where we couldn’t the intention was toinstall underground.

That’s still the case, but we’ve had to make some adjustments.

As work has begun, we’ve found pockets where going overhead would be a far more suitable option than
underground. In locations where the network needs to cross a carriageway. Rather than arrange costly and disruptive roadworks going under the road, we’ve used a pole to simply take the overhead cable over the road, then back underground or to an existing pole for the rest of its journey.

Likewise, we’ve also found where we are using existing poles there might be a gap we need to fill in order to keep the height of the cable. In these cases we’ve installed either a single or a pole either side of the existing network in order to augment it.

Finally we have had instances where we’ve planned to use a pole, but the pole is not in situ. In those cases we have installed a new pole to bring the network in line with our records.

In all instances though we have only installed single poles and not a brand new route consisting of multiple poles. As noted this has been used just to augment what’s already there.

Overall in the entire region only 15 poles have been planned. This is the first piece of work to be completed and so it likely feels we are installing pole after pole. But once these are in situ we’ll be moving on to the more complex underground work. The pole work is extremely limited.

It may also be worth speaking with the Scottish Government team. We have signed off all plans with them and they have approved budgets before moving forward.

I’m genuinely sorry if this came as a shock to the community, I hope this has reassured them we are not peppering the area with poles”

I understand from Billy [Little] it looks like a new duct route is being put in place which may avoid extra poles and overhead wires from Kenneth Bank to Lantonside? Hopefully this will indeed address the concerns that had been raised, but please do let me know if not.
Rt Hon David Mundell MP

Billy Little explained he noticed additional poles appear down the foot of the hill on the road to the Canine Rescue and spoke to contractors and helped them ensure that no more poles than necessary were going to go up.

Anna Austin had a meeting with Open Reach and Morrison Engineering they confirmed plan is to deliver fibre to every household – what they have done is looked at everybody’s existing connectivity and networks then looked at the worst connections and doing them first, which is good logic. No timescale yet – but is progressing fast.

DG: Thanks to everybody involved we have got to where we need.

LADYFIELD

Masterplan has been submitted – its on the website: https://www.caerlaverock.org.uk/ladyfield-masterplan/ Two things raised by community in last meeting of concern were:

1 Road traffic:

Increased traffic on Glencaple road, and our ability to get in and out, agricultural contractors etc

2 Discharge of surface water in to the River Nith:

DG agreed to look at it and if anything needing to be commented on as a community he will do this. Individuals can have a look and comment yourself. More that is said the more chance of seeing changes.
If you have strong thoughts about it put your views forward – DG was contacted by Kingholm Quay community – we are not getting involved in politics about the development, we are keeping an eye on traffic issues and water flooding issues that impact our community.

CORONATION WEEKEND

There are plans to host a Community Picnic at the Barbour Hall.

(A meeting of interested individuals from the community, CCA and Barbour Hall have now met and information will be published shortly online and in noticeboards about the Picnic and other ideas, and how people in the community can contribute to this.) David encouraged those who could help to do so.

AOB:

No other points were raised and DG thanked all for coming.

Next meeting is at The Barbour Hall at 7.30pm on 31st May 2023. All welcome.