Meeting held on 4 July 2005 at Kingsbarns Community Hall

Present:

Charlotte Kirby, Cllr Douglas, Peter Erskine, Raymond Hair, Geoff Lang and 18 village Residents. Apologies for absence had been received from Cala Cobb, Joyce Taylor and from Scott Turnbull.

The Vice-Chair, Charlotte, opened the Meeting with a warm welcome.

Minutes of Meeting 2 May & Matters Arising:

The Minutes of May 2nd were approved. Under Matters Arising there were 3 issues to be covered:

Kingsbarns School, Crail Raceway & Bus Shelters.

Kingsbarns School; Charlotte reported on the current situation whereby the Acting Head would stay on until such time as a new Head Teacher for both Kingsbarns & Dunino had been found. This post will be advertised from the first day of the new Term. Back as far as our Community Council Meeting of January 10th it had been mentioned by Charlotte that there was a particular size threshold of 52 pupils which Fife Council felt would govern the viability of the School. At this moment there is nothing more to report about the future viability of either Kingsbarns School or Dunino School. On a point of information it was noted that there is a Founder Plaque which needs to be erected on the School Building.

The second matter concerned Crail Raceway and as suggested by Cllr Douglas at our May Meeting, Willie Robertson at Crail Raceway had been written to in order to request that he fund the presence of more Police around the village on Race Days. As yet there had been no response.

Thirdly, on the matter of Bus Shelters it had been agreed at our May Meeting that photos of the styles of Bus Shelter in Pitscottie, Elie & Ceres should be taken and considered. These photos were duly circulated at the Meeting.

Future of Kingsbarns:

As a direct follow-up to our last Meeting Charlotte reminded everyone that emanating from Part 2 of the Village Survey Questionnaire, 11 themes had been highlighted which could be grouped into five key areas ; Village Hall & Amenities / Play & Recreation / Village Events & Appearance / Village Economic Activity / School Issues.

It had been agreed at our last Meeting that Working Groups would be duly established to cover the five key topics and hence Charlotte was asking for volunteers to make up those five Groups.

Peter Erskine said that any future development activity for the village should as a priority directly help to improve the School issue, Play & Recreation and the Village Appearance.

The discussion reverted to the sheer scale of Housing development being contemplated & the time frame involved. Geoff tried to summarise previous Meetings whereby Fife Council had proposed 110 dwellings and we, the Community had countered at a level of 0-30 dwellings. Cllr Douglas felt that it would take up to 2 years for Fife Council to reach the next step — some attendees felt we should be more proactive and others felt we should wait & see what happens. Cllr Douglas felt that the foregoing issues still required much more debate within the community.

Reverting to the topic of the 5 Working Groups, Charlotte volunteered to take on the Schools Group and Peter Erskine immediately adopted the Village Hall & Amenities Group.

Under the loose topic of Village Appearance a debate ensued about the state of certain walkways around the village which were becoming choked with growth owing to neglect by certain house-owners & badly fouled. Apparently some 7 years ago a Survey had been carried out to identify the Rights of Way in the village and Cur Douglas would find this survey.

At our next Meeting on Monday September 5th Peter’s Working Group on the Village Hall & Amenities will report back with their suggestions, Charlotte will take the School issue forward, and at the same time we shall try to move forward with the establishment of the other 3 Groups.

AOB:

Geoff reported that a request had been received to meet with the Best Kept Village Committee Members in the Village Square @ 11:45 the following Wednesday July 6th and asked for a volunteer to show them around while he himself was in Edinburgh all that day. Had a Group for Village Events & Appearance been established this request could have been easily dealt with but in it’s absence John kindly volunteered to guide the Committee around the village. It was thought unlikely that with the eye-sore which is the Laird sheds we would be unlikely to receive any nominations but it was thought to be a useful exercise.

Geoff gave a brief verbal Report on a Meeting which he had attended on behalf of the Community, to discuss with other Community Councillors from Boarhills, Dunino & Carnbee the issue of noise from Skydive’s activities. The Meeting had taken place at Anstruther on the evening of June 29th and had been organised by Ian Purvis of Fife Council as an opportunity for local residents to voice concerns directly to the 2 owners of Skydive. It was clear that Kingsbarns was least affected by noise disturbance with Carnbee the most affected. The Skydive owners pointed to certain noise reduction measures which they would be installing this Summer and it was therefore agreed that the Group should reconvene on September 22nd to evaluate whether their improvements had been effective.

Once again Geoff highlighted the Trafalgar Weekend Celebrations on October 21st to 23rd and the literature which is available if anyone were interested.

It was felt that Goldcrest should be written to again, about the state of the North Quarter Steading plot.

Peter Erskine reported that he had finally opened an Account at the Alliance & Leicester so that the Fife Council Grant could be paid in and payments out, such as Community Council Insurance, could be made.

As part of the Village Appearance Group to be formed, it was felt that the issue of Dog Fouling should be tackled by obtaining bags & leaflets from Fife Council.

Information regarding a Fife Council Safe Angler’s Course had been received and was available to anyone interested.

Gulley @ Corner of Smiddy Burn - Fife Council agreed to clear this out twice per year but this was not enough as whenever it rains it floods This has to do with which areas are “adopted”. Peter Douglas will follow this up on Margaret Barron’s behalf.

Letter re. Dangerous Escapades - Charlotte had received a letter which referred to a disturbance in the Village Centre. The anonymous correspondent had not called the Police and therefore there is little that we can do.

Next Meeting: Monday 5 September @ 7:30 p.m. in the Community Hall.