Minute of Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 17 May 2011

Kalewater Community Council

Minute of Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 17 May 2011

In the Village Institute, Morebattle

Present:  Community Councillors; Eric McNulty, Helen Cessford, Michael Scott, George Aitchison, Margaret Blackmore, Paul Grime, Andrew McEwan, Sarah Dixon, Matilda Hall.
SBC Cllr Alec Nicol.

Public: 2

ACTION

1

Apologies

Community Councillors; Margaret Lister, Peter Tweedie

2

Minutes of Previous Annual General Meeting

The minutes of the previous annual general meeting of 18 May 2010 having been circulated, were passed as a true record of events.

Proposed: Cllr Grime; Seconded: Cllr Aitchison.

3

Matters Arising

3a

Completed.

3b

Completed.

4

Chair’s Report on Community Council activity since AGM 18 May 2010

As always I would like to start my annual report by thanking all the councillors who have attended and participated in our monthly meetings and to those who are standing down for their input and attendance over the last few years and also those who have elected to return as the case may be.

Thanks to Michael who has had a busy few months pulling together the action plan bids and grant application information on top of the normal workload and also to Margaret for keeping our financiers in order. I will now continue by reviewing the regular activities that councillors have been involved in.

• Many thanks must again go to the councillors and others who gave an excellent welcome on behalf of our community to the Kelso Laddie and Jehtart Callant and their followers who met here on Sunday 20th June 2010 from the organisation of the local dancers to the teas provided in the institute.
• The Morebattle in Bloom committee sustained the achievements of the last few years by receiving First Prize in the Wee Village Category this achievement coming against increased competition in the category. In the 2011 competition the village will again be entered in the previous year’s champion’s competition.
• There was no Christmas tree purchased this year due to the severe weather conditions at end of November and most of December. It was suggested that the newly purchased Christmas lights would look nice slung over the Cherry tree in the grounds of the Village Institute so this was done with the aid of a local electrician who wired up a link to the tree. The lights were well received by the wider community after some reservations at the outset.
• The Morebattle.com website is still encountering problems but I’m sure it will be up and running again soon.
• The Morebattle interpretation board is now taking shape due to the dedicated work of a subgroup of councillors in bringing their ideas together and we hope to see the final result in the near future.
• After the loss of the village phone box during the bad weather in March 2010 we now have a modern glass panelled box instead of the traditional red box which would have been expensive to buy and expensive to maintain with a yearly maintenance contract with the service provider as a condition of provision of service for years to come.
• The outreach Post Office service has now returned to the Village shop which is more suited to some members of the community but we must also thank the Templehall Hotel for hosting the service for a year or more.
• There is still no conclusion to the proposed windfarm at Whitton Edge due to continued discussions with the Ministry Of Defence regards vibrations from the turbines interfering with sensitive seismic listening equipment and other visual impact objections but a decision is expected sometime this year.
• Our vision of a Community Action Plan for the future is now much nearer as we have now gone through the process of selecting a company with the expertise to help us pull the plan together and move onto the next stage. 
• The new Bob Pringle award is proving a great success with the first two recipients receiving awards for their dedicated service to our community.
• Finally, these are some of the many items we deal with each month but in this last year in particular I’ve been impressed by the way councillors have volunteered to take on tasks on behalf of the community council which is why we are moving projects forward instead of waiting for someone else to take them up. I hope this dedication continues in the years to come.

Thanks

Eric Mc Nulty

Chair

Kalewater Community Council

5

Treasurer’s Report

In the Treasurer’s absence the Chair tabled Accounts for 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2011 and a statement of receipts and payments for the same period. Copies of the papers were circulated amongst the councillors attending.

Chair read out Treasurer’s covering note (to be forwarded to Secretary).

The Community Council’s main source of income came from the annual grant from Scottish Borders Council.

Approval of the Annual Abstract of Accounts

Proposed: Cllr Grime, Seconded: Cllr McEwan.

Treasurer

6

Elections

SBC Cllr Alec Nicol chaired this item and thanked the communty councillors, including the Treasurer for her well-presented accounts. He also noted the success of the Bob Pringle Award.

Community Councillors

The following councillors reached the end of their 4-year tenure: Cllrs Blackmore, McEwan.

Completed nomination forms were received for Andrew McEwan. No elections were required.

Kalewater Community Council Members (9):

Cllrs: Matilda Hall, Eric McNulty, Andrew McEwan, Helen Cessford, Michael Scott, Paul Grime, Margaret Lister, George Aitchison, Sarah Dixon.

Three spaces remain unfilled. Cllr Aitchison would speak to Pete Tweedie to ascertain whether he would rejoin the community council as a co-opted member.

Cllr Cessford offered to try and identify other potential co-opted members.

SBC Cllr Nicol noted that most local community councils had 11 or 12 members

Office Bearers

SBC Cllr Nicol thanked the previous office-bearers for their work during the past 12 months.

Cllr Nicol asked for nomination of office bearers.

Cllr McNulty confirmed that in her absence, Cllr Lister was happy to be nominated as Treasurer.

Chair: Eric McNulty; Proposed: Cllr Hall, Seconded: Cllr McEwan

Secretary: Michael Scott, Proposed:Cllr Grime, Seconded: Cllr Cessford

Treasurer: Margaret Lister; Proposed: Cllr McEwan, Seconded: Cllr Scott

Vice-Chair: Helen Cessford; Proposed: Cllr Hall, Seconded: Cllr Aitchison

SBC Cllr Nicol passed the chairing of the meeting back to Cllr McNulty.

                   Cllr Aitchison

                   Cllr Cessford

7

Appointment of Auditors

Rennie Welch were appointed as auditors for the next 12 months.

8

Agreement to abide by Scottish Borders Council Code of Conduct for Community Councils

Kalewater Community Councillors agreed to abide by the SBC Code of Conduct.

9

AOB

None raised.

Signed:

Date: