Present:

Mr N Barrington* (Chair); Ms D MacLean*; Mr M Ellis*; Mr J Hunter*; Mr R Overend*; Cllr C Puthucheary; Mr J McKay; Mrs P Fennell

* denotes LCC member

Apologies: Mrs J Hunter; Mrs R Roy

Police Report

There was no police report as the new community police officer was unable to attend and we had not been emailed a current report. However, Neighbourhood Watch had not informed us of any local crime so it was hoped that no news implied no crime.

Minutes of the Last Meeting

These were proposed by Neil Barrington and seconded by Russell Overend.

Chair/Secretary's Report

There were various items which are detailed below or under other headings:

Exterior light at the Community Centre:

Cllr Langlands had informed Neil Barrington that the appropriate person to contact regarding a possible installation would be Mr Paul Sale at Johnstone Town Hall. The Chair will contact both Mr Sale and Mr Henry Grey of the Community Centre committee to find out if this could be accomplished under current funding.

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Roundabout

There is no update on this matter and the Councillors have not received a reply to their joint letter from Transport Scotland.

Environment

It was confirmed that there were speed limit signs adequate to needs on Houston Road and within the village (at entry/exit points).

Planning

It arose during a previous meeting that two planning proposals had been requested for 'scoping opinion' and it was unclear exactly what this entailed. Cllr Langlands undertook to clarify this and wrote to the Chair to the effect that any major or sensitive application was required to a) produce an Enviromental Assessment (i.e. in consultation with bodies such as SEPA, Natural Heritage etc) and b) approach the Community Council to determine local opinion which would include holding a public meeting. This pre-application period would be twelve weeks.

Both the West Ferry and Haddockstone House proposers had been requested for 'scoping opinions'. Haddockstone House falls within Houston boundaries although road access would affect Langbank, and it is understood public meetings have been held concerning this.

To date, Langbank Community Council has not been approached by anyone regarding the West Ferry proposal, and it was uncertain what the status was for the site. (Note: Cllr Puthucheary has subsequently sent an update to members).

Although no one at the Community Council had received notice, a resident noted that on that day (January 13th) the applications for the dementia home and holiday cottages, both at Gleddoch, had been refused and this was later confirmed by checking Renfrewshire Council's website. The original application for 'A' frame houses had already been withdrawn and replaced by the one for holiday cottages.

Permission for the construction of a house on Main Road, on the river side, had previously been refused and the applicant is to appeal to the review body, under the new planning strategy now in place.

Communication

The next issue of Langbank Matters will come out at the end of May. It was decided that two issues per year were sufficient, given the other means of communication now available within the village, such as the Church Newsletter and the new and developing website.

The Community Council here wishes to offer sincere thanks to the owners of the local shop, Laura and Michael O'Neill, for their work and co-operation with the installation of the Christmas tree and the local event they organised to switch the lights on, which had a great turnout and was an allround success.

Greening Langbank

Russell Overend gave the following update to the Station Field project:

An application has been lodged for planning permission to install two notice boards at either end of the field, the boards having been purchased.

There had been a meeting with an engineer and project manager from Renfrewshire Council. Work on the path, running from west to east as well as widening the wooden bridge, should begin fairly soon and £5,000 has been earmarked for contributing to the cost of this work.

The pitch itself is to be 40m x 23m and this should also be in place by Spring, although not in use for some time subsequent to its creation.

The problem of the leaking pipe which supplies one household at the east end of the village continues to cause difficulties, and a solution must be found so that work may be done on this side of the field, and also to prevent the intermittent flooding of the pavement and road in line of this leak. The possibility of requesting a water meter to be installed was brought up and will be investigated.

Funding

As mentioned at the previous meeting, a donation will be given to any group or groups thought to be in need of a small financial boost, and the Council is to decide who would be the appropriate recipients over the next month or two.

AOCB

Bus Service

It had been mentioned at the previous meeting that the bus service might be withdrawn due to underuse. Cllr Puthucheary had written to Scottish Travel in December regarding this, but the point was raised that, as journeys to and from Langbank are not calibrated on the ticket machines, it would not be possible to accurately judge the number of passengers. Cllr Puthucheary is to pursue this with the company.

Dates for 2010 meetings:

February 10th

March 10th

April 14th

May 12th

June 9th