Meeting held on 5 September 2005 at Kingsbarns Community Hall

Present:

Joyce Taylor, Charlotte Kirby, Claire Wright, Cllr Douglas, Peter Erskine, Raymond Hair, Geoff Lang and 15 village Residents.

The Chair opened the Meeting.

No apologies for absence had been received but it was noted that Donald Peddie was again absent & The Chair undertook to contact Donald to see if he would prefer to stand down from office. Should that be the case the Chair invited volunteers to replace him.

Minutes of Meeting 4 July & Matters Arising:

The Chair noted that the July Minutes had been unusually late owing to Summer holidays etc... as they had been hitherto previously available in the Post Office within io days of CC Meetings.

Kingsbarns School: The Headship post was now being advertised. There is to be a School Board Meeting on September 12. The current head-count of pupils is 32 including 5 new, which is healthy. Several School Clubs had been established which is very productive. A WW2 Lunch is planned in the Village Hall. Huw reported that the University had been approached by the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama wishing to do 'Composition & Performance‘ with school-children which would be good for the School & he will follow this up with the School via Charlotte. Cllr Peter Douglas advised that Kate Hughes of Fife Council may be able to help towards overcoming individual funding problems for after-school activities - Charlotte will follow up.

Crail Raceway: Having had no replies from e-mails it was agreed that Geoff should formally write to Willie Robertson at Crail concerning Policing in Kingsbarns on race days.

(It was noted that on Sept. 27 Crail Raceway would be applying for Planning Renewal to their current allowance of 28 days of races - although in reality, in the past year, Crail have actually held 58 races of one sort or another quite apart from Car Boot Sale events!).

Bus Shelters: The photos of various styles were again circulated with the preferred consensus being for two matching stone structures, but less deep and less enclosed than the current West-bound shelter & with a stone seat - in fact not too dissimilar to Boarhills but without a flat roof. This will be communicated to Robin Dick in response to his e-mail dated April 29th.

Best Kept Village: John Robb had volunteered to do a show-round to the Judges on July 6 and he reported that this had gone well despite bleak weather. Indeed in the “Small Village” category Kingsbarns was ranked 5th behind Upper Largo, Lundin Links, Pitlessie and at the top Gauldry. It was suggested that in future more advanced notice was vital to give everyone a chance to prepare/clean-up. In the past we have won this Award & 2006 being the 90th Anniversary of our Flower Show would be an ideal opportunity to repeat our former success - particularly so as it is clear from the Judges Report that they are looking for an abundance of Flower Planters, Tubs & Pots. The Chair pointed out that this underlined clearly why we need a permanent working group concentrating on “Village Events & Appearance” as was discussed at the July Meeting. Claire suggested that we use some of our Community Council Fund to tackle this issue and hire someone to take care of the rights-of-way - this was endorsed by Peter Erskine since the Fund is just accumulating. Claire went on to say that until the black sheds are removed we will have little chance of winning this Award and as time goes by they become increasingly hazardous. The Chair felt the time had come to approach the owner of those sheds (Laird) and will personally take this forward.

Goldcrest: Requires a follow-up by the Chair.

Dog Fouling: Bags & Leaflets will be obtained from Fife Council.

Future of Kingsbarns: At the July Meeting Working Groups had been formed for Schools and for Village Hall. This still left unrepresented - Play & Recreation/Village Events & Appearance/Village Economic Activity. Representing the Working Group for the Village Hall Peter said that he was keen to develop it’s usage and it’s funding. It was suggested that a Group such as the Kingsbarns Social Group be established to pool all and any ideas for usage. Vicki Fisher, Editor of the Kingsbarns Magazine, volunteered her help and put forward the idea of a Youth Club. This was debated but ultimately it was felt that the age diversity within the village was a definite stumbling block.

Claire requested that Vicki put the phone numbers of our local Police in the Magazine and Vicki willingly agreed to this. The Chair encouraged all present to call & report problems to the Police since the Police work on the basis of regularity of reports. Cllr Douglas further endorsed that we should raise our complaint level and to push the Chief Constable of Fife Constabulary to improve service levels as in a recent instance it had taken our Police 10 days to return a call!!

Moving on to the wider issue of the Future of Kingsbarns, Cllr Douglas reported that during the course of Consultation, Fife Council had received literally thousands of responses to their Development proposals which will mean that actions resulting will be delayed significantly — by up to 5 years. For more information Kathy Kinnear is our contact point.

Cllr Douglas drew attention to a recent missive from the Boundaries Commission in Edinburgh regarding Electoral Arrangements wherein Kingsbarns was being proposed to link with Boarhills & Anstruther, rather than as currently with St. Andrews - this may or may not be an innocuous advice but we should register our response before October 13th which is the deadline for comment. This will be done.

A History Project:

Academic, Historian and Resident of Kingsbarns, Ian Smith, had come along to propose that an official History of Kingsbarns be collated & written. He would volunteer to coordinate this project. Vicky Fisher is keen to help. Claire & Peter put forward the names of certain local people viz. Ian Turnbull who have great historical knowledge of the area and who should be consulted. In addition Peter mentioned the George Currie Archive of photos and mentioned to Ian that the Fife Council Chief Archivist, located at their offices in Markinch would probably hold a mass of information and was very cooperative.

Geoff pointed out that there is an East Fife Area Projects Fund which Funds certain Community Projects and we should therefore apply to get funding for this. Hence there will first be an initial meeting with Ian Smith to write a proposal and then apply to Fife Council.

AOB:

Audited Accounts - A letter had been received from Fife Council asking for Auditted Accounts which Geoff passed to the Treasurer, Peter, for action.

Mobile Library - the Council have advised that on each Thursday the Mobile Library is to be in the Square only between 1:40 and 1:55 which is a reduction of some 30 minutes.

Dunhill Links Championship - to review at the November Meeting as a postmortem.

Sustainable Communities Bill - we shall lend our support via a request to our local MP.

Draft Core Path Plan - Fife Council have advised us that on October 5 between 7 & 9 p.m. they will be holding a Consultation evening at Crail Community Hall “to view and discuss proposals for a new draft core path plan which strives to achieve a balance between right of access and the needs of landowners” (unquote). Geoff will attend in order to report back to our November meeting but he felt that it would also be in the interests of Peter Erskine and the Turnbulls to go along for themselves.

Doors Open Day - Venues circulated.

Skydive - Next Meeting Sept. 22. Geoff will attend & report back.

Planning Application - for a new sign at the Church gate. The Community Council will respond and will request that the new sign be attached to a pole INSIDE the churchyard rather than on the gate itself.

20 MPH Signs - The Chair reported that some of the signs which were either redundant or offensive, were yet to be removed as agreed with Colin Stirling of Fife Council & would follow this up.

Road Safety - Claire reported that a little girl had been knocked off her bike as she emerged from the Play Park at Bells Wynd. Claire suggested we request a T-shaped bollard at the road end to slow children as they approached the road. Jim Hooton of Community Services will be contacted with this request.

Gulleys - The Chair commented on the flooded gulleys which had been mentioned at the last meeting and Cllr. Douglas said he was dealing with this issue.

Kingsbarns Magazine - Vicky kindly offered to publish important sections of our Community Council Minutes in the Magazine and to this end she will receive the finalised Minutes on or before Wednesday September 15.

Welcome Pack - Peter Erskine felt that there was a need for a Village Welcome Pack to be available for new people coming into the village.

Sewage Treatment Plant - Comments were made about the odour & also adverse comments on the fencing & the ugly transformer on a tall pole which had never appeared on the Approved Plans. The Chair will write to Scottish Water to complain.

Future Meetings - It was decided that all future Meetings should start at 7:00 rather than 7:30 and the dates were fixed as November 7, January 9, March 6, May 8, July 3 and September 4.

Next Meeting: Monday 7 November @ 7:00 pm (not 7:30 pm) in the Community Hall