TONGUE COMMUNITY COUNCIL INCORPORATING THE VILLAGES OF MELNESS, TONGUE & SKERRAY A meeting of the above was held on Tuesday, 19 th November 2013 in North Coast Connection, Tongue. Present Attending Patrick Gray (Chairperson) Richard Mackay (Vice Chairperson) Vince Kelly Barry Sutherland David Macleod Angela Simpson (Secretary) 1. WELCOME & APOLOGIES The Committee welcomed Angela Simpson who accepted the post of Secretary with immediate effect. Cllr Linda Munro, Karen Robertson and Meg Telfer sent her apologies for the meeting. 2. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING HELD ON 17 th September 2013 Proposed by Patrick Gray and seconded by Richard Mackay as a true record. 3. ACTION REVIEW 3.1 Suzanne Mackay Contact Strathy and Bettyhill Community Councils regarding requesting a traffic order be raised to reinstate the No Overnight Parking signs (ONGOING) Richard Mackay reported that Suzanne Mackay had made contact but no response received. Action: Angela to obtain contact details from Suzanne Mackay 3.2 Patrick Gray - Contact planning department regarding siting of Angel on causeway (ONGOING) Patrick Gray confirmed that he had spoken to Planning and had been referred to another department. Discussion followed and it was agreed that the statue should be installed. Patrick Gray suggested that once arranged a ceremony would be appropriate. Action: Angela Simpson to obtain contact details from Suzanne Mackay 3.3 Suzanne Mackay - Contact Lehna Edwall to organise November visit (ONGOING) Action: Angela Simpson to liaise with Suzanne Mackay regarding progress and handover. 3.4 Suzanne Mackay - contact Henry Flett regarding the issues to be addressed in Melness (ONGOING)
Patrick Gray confirmed that the gutters had been cleared and that someone could check whether the path had been cleared Action: David Mcleod to check path and advise Patrick Gray 3.5 Suzanne Mackay - Complete application to Ward Discretionary Budget for fencing of Tongue playpark (COMPLETE) Richard confirmed that Suzanne would send it in as soon as it was finished. Action: Angela Simpson to obtain copy application for future reference 3.6 David Macleod - Ask Tommy Mackay for fencing price for Tongue playpark (COMPLETE) A quotation had been received. Action: Richard to check quotation 3.7 Suzanne Mackay - To contact Henry Flett regarding the dead whale at Talmine pier (COMPLETE) The committee noted that the whale had gone 3.8 Barry Sutherland To prepare a specification for the drainage work required to Castle Varich path and obtain quotes from local contractors (ONGOING) Barry Sutherland reported that the specification was complete but quotation still to be completed. Action: Barry Sutherland to send out quotations 3.9 Barry Sutherland To order notice board (ONGOING) Barry Sutherland reported that he had experienced problems contacting the company supplying the notice board, but he was continuing to chase the matter. Patrick Gray suggested that he should persevere for another week. Richard Mackay agreed to arrange installation of the notice board. Patrick offered to create a community Council sticker for the notice board It was suggested that the management of the sign would be an agenda item for the next meeting. Action: Barry Sutherland to contact the company chosen to supply the noticeboard and to identify an alternative if contact could not be made. 3.10 Patrick Gray - Contact local BT engineer regarding cable over Melness playpark (ONGOING) Vince Kelly confirmed that he had contacted BT and spoken to the team appointed to look into the cable. However, the issue has not been resolved. Action : Vince Kelly agreed to contact BT once more.
3.11 Cllr Linda Munro Arrange a meeting between Patrick Gray and European Department of Highland Council.(ONGOING) Patrick Gray had asked Clllr Linda Munro to deal with this via High Life since they had an obligation to provide youth services in the area. Patrick Gray would speak to her again before the next meeting. Action: Patrick Gray to liaise with Cllr Munro before the next meeting 4. SPECIFIC TOPICS 4.1 Christmas Lights Patrick Gray reported that the lights had been installed and the tree lights had been tested. It was agreed that appropriate tree height was 8 to 9ft. Discussion about the source of the trees led to a proposal that the local shops be contacted to supply/donate a tree. Patrick Gray suggested that the decorating of the trees could be made into more of an occasion if the community was notified I advance. Vince Kelly thought that the lighting and therefore the decorating may have already been arranged as he had been informed that the lights would be switched on 2 nd December. ACTION: Richard Mackay to enquire about arrangement for switching on the lights ACTION: Patrick Gray to liaise with the Fun Weekend Committee regarding the organisation of the tree decorating. 5. CORRESPONDANCE 5.1 Quotations A quotation for the play area fencing had been received (see above) 5.2 Emails The emails were currently managed by the secretary using her own personal email address. In her interview, Angela Simpson had requested that the Council had it s own dedicated email address. ACTION: Richard Mackay to ask Suzanne Mackay to set up a new account and forward all existing correspondence to the new address. 5.3 Training The Highland Council is running a training course for Community Councils, designed to help new members understand their powers. A copy of the course details was circulated.
6. ANY OTHER BUSINESS 6.1 Website Barry Sutherland has been experiencing difficulty uploading data to the website, and felt this could be due to a lack of webspace. Patrick Gray advised that we should approach the host site for additional webspace, but further technical discussions outside the meeting may be necessary. ACTION: Barry Sutherland & Patrick Gray to liaise over website issues and look into a solution 6.2 Post Office Vehicles Vince Kelly raised concern about postal delivery delays attributable to bad weather. Vince suggested that the Community Council should write to the Post Office to suggest that vehicles are fitted with winter tyres to help prevent delays. ACTION: Angela Simpson - write to the Post Office to suggest the use of winter tyres 6.3 Property Identification Vince Kelly is aware that commercial delivery vehicles have difficulty finding delivery addresses where properties are without a displayed number or name. He suggested that attention could be drawn to this in the next Community Newsletter. Patrick Gray suggested that something could be posted on the Facebook page. ACTION: Barry Sutherland to post a message on Facebook asking the community to consider displaying their house number of name 7. NEXT MEETING The next meeting will take place on the 21st of January at 7.00pm in North Coast Connection, Tongue.
ACTION TABLE ACTIONEE ACTION STATUS Angela Simpson Liase with Suzzane Mackay regarding Strathy and Bettyhill Community Councils request ONGOING for a traffic order be raised to reinstate the No Overnight Parking signs Angela Simpson Liaise with Suzanne Mackay regarding contact details for the Angel ONGOING Angela Simpson Liaise with Suzanne Mackay regarding progress and handover regarding Lehna Edwall to organise November visit ONGOING David Macleod Check that the Melness path had been cleared ONGOING Barry Sutherland Obtain quotes for the drainage work required to Castle Varich path from local contractors ONGOING Barry Sutherland Contact the company chosen to supply the noticeboard and to identify an alternative if ONGOING contact could not be made Vince Kelly Contact local BT engineer regarding cable over Melness playpark ONGOING Patrick Gray Liaise with Cllr Munro over the Youth Group before the next meeting ONGOING Richard Mackay Enquire about arrangement for switching on the lights Patrick Gray Liaise with the Fun Weekend Committee regarding the organisation of the tree decorating. Richard Mackay To ask Suzanne Mackay to set up a new account and forward all existing correspondence to the new address. Barry Sutherland & Patrick To liaise over website issues and look into a solution Gray Angela Simpson Write to the Post Office to suggest the use of winter tyres Barry Sutherland Post a message on Facebook asking the community to consider displaying their house number of name