December 8th 2016 Minutes
Johnstone Community Council
Minutes of the ordinary meeting of Johnstone Community Council held
on Thursday 8
th
December 2016 at 7.00pm in Johnstone Town Hall.
Present
Members: Ronnie Carlin, Wilma Dean, Ron Ewing, Carol Ewing, Elizabeth
Forrest, Catherine Johnstone, Sheila King, Dennis Lavery, Christina Leon,
Daniel McKay, Janine McKenna, Valerie Reilly, and Thomas Wallace.
Also in attendance:-
Councillors (Ward 7) – John Caldwell and Iain McMillan.
(Ward 8) – Derek Bibby.
Officers Robert Mackie and Iain Armstrong of Police Scotland.
1. Apologies
Linda Flint, Daniel Graham, Malcolm Hill, Mary Tennant and Councillors
Gilmour, Doig, McGee and Hood.
2. Minutes
The minutes of the previous meeting were read and agreed.
Proposed by Daniel McKay
Seconded by Dennis Lavery
3. Police Crime Statistics Report
The police officers presented the monthly crime statistics.
Johnstone Town Centre
A total of 33 crimes were reported including 2 common assaults, 1 theft and 1
attempted theft, 4 breaches of the peace, 3 drug offences, 6 road traffic
offences, 7 drink-related offences, 3 breaches of bail and 1 instance of
vandalism. 25 of these crimes had been detected.
West Johnstone
A total of 18 crimes were reported including 2 common assaults, 1 theft and 4
attempted thefts, 2 breaches of the peace, 3 instances of vandalism, 2 drug
offences, 2 RTAs, and 1 case of attempted murder. 7 of these crimes had
been detected.
Johnstone Castle
A total of 15 crimes were reported including 1 serious assault, 3 common
assaults, 1 breach of the peace, 2 drugs offences, 3 instances of vandalism
and 1 road traffic offence. 11 of these crimes had been detected.
Spateston and Corseford
A total of 9 crimes were reported including 1 common assault, 2 breaches of
the peace, 5 instances of vandalism and 1 case of wilful fire raising. 2 of these
crimes had been detected.
Cllr Caldwell commented that it was good to see a drop in the number of drug
offences and that all had been detected. Officer Armstrong replied that it was
rare to have undetected drugs offences and that if more officers could be
deployed the figures might go up.
DMcK asked whether the new street lights were having any impact as they
don’t seem to be spreading their light as far as the older type. The officers had
no information on this matter.
Elizabeth Forrest asked why the number of accidents was high on the High
Street. The reply was that it was due to the high volume of traffic in the area.
Sheila King asked whether the number of crimes was good or bad for a town
of Johnstone’s size. Officer Armstrong replied that he didn’t have comparative
figures so couldn’t say. Ron Ewing added that it was a problem of perception
because the Gazette says there are problems with crime in Johnstone.
Councillor McMillan added that they were sensationalising the picture.
4. Chairman’s Report
RE noted that the weather had been particularly bad/wet for the
Remembrance Day parade. DL added that they got soaked – but in
comparison it was better than the men had suffered in the trenches in 1916,
as had been commented on by the Minister on the day.
DL also noted that he had received a letter from Kenneth Graham of
Renfrewshire Council thanking us for our attendance.
RE reported on the events organised by JCC. The first, about the Town
Centre Strategy, had been well attended with 70 people present. The second
had suffered from being on the same night as the LAC meeting and poor
weather on the night. Alan Niven had given a presentation about the Paisley
2021 bid.
It was hoped that we would be able to stage more public information events in
2017. Thomas Wallace suggested we should discuss this as a body before
organising more – he had heard some feedback that some people had not
wanted to attend the second meeting because of a lack of understanding.
DL commented that now we have a template we should continue as future
meetings might bring up good ideas.
RE agreed that we would have discussions about future subjects but added
that time had been against the committee in the organising of the first two.
There was some discussion about the fact that presentations about 2021 had
been going on in two meetings in the same building at the same time, with
some seeing this as a lack of communication, but it was pointed out that they
were aimed at two different audiences.
Christina Leon suggested that we should collect feedback from any future
meetings and that she would be happy to undertake this.
Councillor Bibby added that the clock was ticking on the City of Culture
decision and that there would only be one last tranche of money if we wanted
Johnstone to benefit. It was suggested that a group of JCC members could
get together and decide whether to put in a bid, but that time was of the
essence.
Wilma Dean commented that Elderslie CC had been awarded £5000 to
investigate William Wallace’s connections to Paisley.
DL suggested that perhaps the Shanks Park garden could be the subject of a
bid as it was noted that Mary Shanks/Polson had been a great philanthropist
for Paisley.
RE agreed that 3 or 4 members should get together as a sub-committee. Dl
declared himself unhappy with that idea as he wanted all JCC members
involved. In response RE said that the next JCC meeting would be devoted to
the subject.
RE went on to report on the Renfrewshire Community Council Forum meeting
and the arguments about it at our last meeting.
TW said that not everything had gone into the minutes and that there had
been no party-political involvement. Renf. Council officials had attended the
RCCF and monitored it. Tw said he had also subsequently contacted Anne
McNaughton who had okayed the events.
SK revealed that she had received a formal letter of complaint from Cllr D
stating that TW had misled the JCC meeting in asking for our votes on the
issues raised. Had this vote been on the basis of misleading information? RE
was of the view that the vote probably would not be reversed and added that
this situation had taken a lot of time to sort out.
RE said that he would prepare letters to go out to all CC’s in the forthcoming
week and his enquiries had revealed that the burger van issue was within our
remit.
Cllr B said that the discussions around the RCCF were irrelevant as all we
were asking was that all our elected representatives, irrespective of their
political affiliation should work to bring extra funding to Renfrewshire. He
added that as the Scottish Parliament’s budget statement was imminent any
letter should go before the weekend to reach our representatives beforehand.
It was agreed that our JCC representatives to RCCF should be elected rather
than just offering to do the job.
Finally RE reported that Scott Allan was moving to a new job in Inverclyde. He
has been very helpful to JCC over the years and RE had sent an email on
JCC’s behalf with good wishes for the future. No replacement has been
appointed as yet.
5. Secretary’s Report
SK thanked all members for attending as often as they did, especially in light
of our meetings now being held monthly.
SK reported that more emails had been sent out as Anne McNaughton had
asked that all Council Board meeting notifications should go to all members
Nothing has so far been garnered from our suggestions box, but there had
been good feedback about the information board.
It was noted that Daniel Graham had recently married and our congratulations
were offered.
On the subject of our public meeting the grant money had only been
supposed to cover one meeting, but we had stretched it to two through
deciding to have no catering. We may get more money next year. RE added
that we currently have enough funds to pay for something ourselves – which
would also give us the freedom to choose our own subjects.
SK asked if Johnstone events could be added to our social media as the CC
should be disseminating information of this sort to the public.
Johnstone Business Consortium have asked whether they could put an ad.
On our sites, but as yet there had been no response to our emails about it.
CL noted that organisations now have to pay for information to go out on
Facebook.
DL was of the opinion that more leaflets at the Town Hall front desk might
raise information levels.
EF partly agreed but added that we need to encourage younger people wh
only engage with social media.
CL added that we can only have our information board at the space allocated
and asked that if our members were passing it at any time would they see that
it is angled correctly as someone keeps moving it.
6. Treasurer’s Report
Carol Ewing reported that there had been no financial activity since the
previous month and that the balance still stood at £3,975.34.
Our new TSB bank account has now been opened, due to previous poor
service from the Clydesdale. The new account will be managed online and will
be much more straightforward as we can now make use of the BACS
payment system.
7. RCCF
Following the earlier discussions an election was held to appoint two
representatives to the RCCF meetings. Proposals were requested.
Sheila King was Proposed by Elizabeth Forrest and Seconded by Ron Ewing.
Carol Ewing was Proposed by Catherine Johnstone and Seconded by
Christina Leon.
There being no objections these two CC members were declared the duly
elected representatives to RCCF.
TW commented that it would have been nice to have asked the other previous
rep if he wanted to stand, but that he was happy to step aside.
8. Sub-Group Reports
Friends of Shanks Park
WD apologised for her recent absences. She reported that the group has
applied for a Social Enterprise Grant and that the LAC was happy to put the
money forward to the next financial year. The situation over the lease of the
land was still ongoing but there was another meeting scheduled.
Other monies were currently being sought to fund a feasibility study to ask all
Johnstonians what they would want from a Community Garden. The group will
then go back to the Flightpath Fund to ask for money to do the actual garden
construction. Any expertise and talents for gardening would be welcomed. The