Apologies: Allan Macaskill (AMaca).

Public: 5 members of the public were present.

AL took the chair for the meeting.

Minutes were approved without changes. PMcC proposed, AD seconded.

David attended the meeting in an off duty capacity, but gave an update on the current issues of interest to the Police:-

• One or two minor issues relating to local youngsters. DP has had a word with them, particularly about keeping well away from the railway station as otherwise the British Transport Police will take action. There was discussion about making provision for some sort of shelter, possibly down at the Sports Field, where children can hang out, out of the rain. Currently the favoured spot is under the Chestnut tree at the War Memorial.
• Children overall are behaving well, the main area of concern being noise. There is little or no vandalism.
• One or two thefts have been reported in the area recently and it is thought that these are being carried out by people from outside the area.
• There is ongoing concern about speeding on the Trunk Road and the traffic police have been very active over recent weeks.
• The problem of litter is increasing — local groups or the school may wish to take advantage of fund raising by doing a litter pickup, when several hundred pounds can be made from sponsorship.

David gave an informative talk about the Argyll & Bute Volunteer centre, the Argyll Council of Voluntary Services and the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, explaining the aims of each of these organisations, the pressures that they are under with regard to funding and resourcing their work and the possibility of having them under one roof with administrative support being provided for all.

As at the 30^th April 2006 there was:-

a current balance of £130.30 on the cash account.

a current balance of £2,482.42 on the Community Trust 1 Account.

a current balance of £24,000 on the Investment Accounts.

Community Trust Account 2 was closed with the balance of £3,696.19 transferred into Trust 1.

A summary of the current position on all accounts was distributed and it was agreed that full audited accounts would be provided for the next AGM, together with a budget for the following twelve months.

During the period since the February meeting, the main expenses had been costs associated with the Senior Citizen’s party and Secretarial expenses.

Further expenditure had previously been authorised on a contribution of £1,000 to the Pedestrian & Vehicular Traffic Assessment and up to £600 for hanging baskets / flower for tubs.

Various correspondence was received and sumarised to the meeting.

It was proposed by PMcC and seconded by TMcL to co-opt Mary Stone onto the committee as representative of Inverawe. This was agreed by all present.

MG gave a resume of the planning applications received :-

• An application had been received for 13 houses on the former garage site, together with adjacent ground. Detailed drawings were made available for inspection.
• An application had been received for 15 houses at Crunachy.
• An application was received for a new crofthouse at Dunmore.

Objections had been raised to all three applications on the grounds of inadequate infrastructure within the village to cope with further development.

It was agreed that TMcL would draft a letter seeking clarification that the Crofters Commission had been consulted on the application for the new crofthouse at Dunmore, together with reminding Argyll & Bute Council planning department of the community council’s previous objection to the decrofting & development of whole crofts.

An application had been received for a new access to be created onto the A85 near Brolas. It was agreed that MG should write to clarify that the access would be for agricultural purposes only and that the current access to Brolas would be closed off.

An outline proposal had been received

It was agreed that no comment would be made until further more detailed information had be provided and / or a public meeting had been held by the developers.

A review was given of the work being carried out under the Wider Role initiative sponsored by the West Highland Housing Association (WHHA) and carried out by Community Links Scotland and a Steering group comprising the WHHA and local representatives from the community.

An application had been submitted to Forward Scotland for funding towards upgrade and improvement of access paths to Airds Bay and the Inverawe Smokery, together with signage and other environmental improvement works.

An application for additional funding for the same work is to be submitted to SNH

A consultant had been appointed to carry out this work with a site visit planned for end of May. It is anticipated that their report will be completed by the end of June. This work is being funded by contributions from:-

Community Scotland

Argyll & Bute Council

Taynuilt Community Council

West Highland Housing Association

A survey by means of a questionnaire would be carried out of all households in the village and would cover areas such as:-

• Future development
• Infrastructure
• Provision of amenities

A similar survey would be carried out of local voluntary groups and businesses

It was agreed that up to £600 would be spent of hanging baskets & flowers for tubs.

CR was to seek a firm price from Arthur Piggot. Graham Morse had agreed to maintain the flowers over the summer.

It was agreed to proceed with revitalising the community web site. PMcC would liase with Brenda Neish of Busybee Web Design and arrange a demonstration of what would be possible.

It was envisaged that the site would comprise four pages:-

• Home page
• Taynuilt Community Council page
• Community Events page
• Commercial Activity page

AL gave a resume of enquiries that he had made with Network Rail regarding a possible car park facility on the old loading bank adjacent to the railway siding. AL had estimated that a parking facility could be provided for 35 — 40 cars.

It was envisaged that such a facility might be rented on a long term lease, subject to Network rail having the option of terminating the lease if they required the loading bay back for any activities associated with the railway operation. Network Rail have indicated that they may consider such a lease, but require the payment of a processing fee of £1,000 (AL suggests £500) and a minimum annual rent of £2,500 (AL suggests £1,500). It would be envisaged that upgrading of the loading bay would be carried out by Argyll & Bute Council using money generated by parking fees in Oban (as previously muted by Neil Brown of Argyll & Bute Roads Department), with the annual rental being split equally between the Argyll & Bute Council and the Taynuilt community.

AL gave a resume of a meeting which he and TMcL had held with Scottish Water (SW) to look at the sewerage treatment works. SW had already spent circa. £100k on some initial upgrading work and had budget approval to spend a further £959k in order to bring the works up to Shellfish Standard. It was envisaged that work on the second phase of upgrading would commence by October 2006.

It was agreed that the public notification of meetings should be a minimum of 10 days.