Board minutes – 13th October 2015

 

 

Present

Christine McCulloch (Acting Chair); Fergus Boyle, Davy Stevenson, David Hepburn, Graeme Schreiber, Bob Campbell, Kelly Norton and CEO, Michael Bertram.

 

2. Apologies –Stephen Dobbin, Alan Hill.

 

3. Agenda confirmed   

• Present

• Apologies

• Minutes of last meeting

• Matter arising

• Financial report

• CEO report

• AOCB

• DONM

 

Minutes of last meeting

Proposed – Bob Campbell.

Seconded – Kelly Norton.

 

4. Matters arising

4.1 Director Graeme Schreiber asked to leave the meeting at 6.30pm to attend another meeting; the Acting Chairperson approved the request.

 

4.2 Annual General Meeting

CEO advised that in discussion with the Chair and the Company Secretary we had chosen the date of the 17th of November 2015. This would be held in the DA Hall and would be 17h30 for 18h00 start.

 

CEO added that the Chairperson, Stephen Dobbin is required to sign the annual financials on behalf of the Board.  

Resolution: It was agreed that Stephen Dobbin is authorised to sign the company financials.

5. Finances – CEO advised that as the Chairperson was on annual leave that there would be no monthly account sheets for September and these would be held over to November’s Board meeting.

Resolution: It was agreed to adopt the September 2015 financials at the November Board Meeting.

6. CEO Report  

The CEO stated that main issues this month were the Millport Moorings Association and working with North Ayrshire Council on the Cumbrae Economic Development Plan; and several funding applications, which would be covered in the CEO report. 

The Chairperson advised the CEO to proceed with the items which required discussion in the CEO’s report.

6.1 Millport Economic Regeneration Action Plan (MERAP).

CEO advised the Board Directors if we receive a final economic development plan for the island (workshop held 31st August 2015) then he would copy in all concerned.   

CEO stated that as discussed in his report; CCDC would have a key role to perform in the proposed development plan.   

CEO further advised the Board that North Ayrshire Council wanted to form a ‘project steering committee’ to continue the work towards finalising a robust plan for the island. This work would last up to nine months, and it is needing a chairperson to drive the process forward and that we had nominated Mr Fergus Boyle as the best qualified person from CCDC.

 

Director Fergus Boyle confirmed and asked the Board to note that due to personal circumstances he had to reject the offer to be proposed Chairperson of the steering committee.  There were no other nominations from the Board.

 

Discussion took place on the future economic development plans for the island and CCDC’s role.

Further discussion around the need for ‘The Taste of Cumbrae’ operation and agreed that the CEO and Director Graeme Schreiber would work on proposals to develop this themes of the Isle and report back to the main board. 

 

6.2 Millport Sailing project

CEO advised the Board that the positioning of the new moorings went ahead on the 12th of September with the Clyde Moorings Association; who requested changes to the positioning of the proposed new moorings to ensure that the deep water challenge remain in place.   

Discussion took place on the moorings committee role and CCDC assistance to this new committee.

CEO advised that we have been looking at how we can fund improvements to the sailing infrastructure, and we have spoken to Community Shares Scotland about the work done at Port Patrick Harbour who have successfully applied and launched community share scheme.

Director Bob Campbell advised that he had spoken to the people responsible for raising funds at Port Patrick Harbour; and that they had raised their target (£100,000) in less than three weeks.  Director Campbell added that they are also willing to host a small delegation from Millport to learn from their experiences.

CEO advised that he was hopeful that we could raise funds from the third sector to pay for this trip.

Director Bob Campbell further advised the Board that he had been in discussion with North Ayrshire Council (NAC) to assist them to position their retaining blocks for the winter on the sea bed and CCDC will also help NAC them store the buoys and chains over the winter.

Discussion took place on the how these moorings work, and Director Campbell briefly explained the workings of the new moorings.

Resolution: It was agreed that Director Bob Campbell was authorised to continue with the work with Council on behalf of CCDC. 

Director Bob Campbell advised the Board that Mr Neil Fleming of Complete Solutions had offered to help fit out the old weigh bridge station.

Discussion took place around the condition of the building and what costs CCDC would incur.

Resolution: It was agreed that Director Bob Campbell was authorised to continue with the work on the weighbridge.

6.3 Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (CARS)

CEO advised the Board of Directors that North Ayrshire Council (NAC) have confirmed that they will be appointing a full time project manager for this project.

CEO further outlined that when we receive further information on the break-down of the grants and the implementation of CARS scheme; he will inform the Board of Directors.             

6.4 Garrison House Ground Works

  CEO stated to the Board of Directors that the works to beautify the area adjacent to the community gardens was now completed. CEO asked that he could record his thanks to Director Davy Stevenson who had given his time freely to work the contractors to ensure that we get ‘value for money’. 

CEO added that he had written to the Kelburn Wind Farm fund and thanked them for their grant and provided them with an outline of the works undertaken with accompanying photos.

6.5 Community Pharmacy

CEO advised that Director Christine MacCulloch and Mrs Jean Kerr had met with the NHS Pharmaceutical Committee where we were given the results of their research into the request for a community led and managed Pharmacy.

CEO advised Ms. Carolyn Dickson; Assistant Primary Care Manager NHS - Pharmacy & Optometry Department had informed us that we had 90-days from the hand-over of the results (12th of September 2015) to make a formal application.

Discussion took place around the application and its requirements for CCDC.

CEO advised that we would need to name a Pharmacist prior to our application. 

Discussion took place around the merits and demits of the system; and the financial commitments required of CCDC.

Resolution: It was agreed that the CEO would work with a steering committee to fully establish all the relevant costs, and report back to the board as soon as practicable.  

6.6 Festivals and Events

CEO advised that we had mixed reactions to this years festivals. It was his opinion that Country and Western weekend had improved massively and was much better organised, whereas the Scooter Rally was poorly organised and numbers seem down on previous years. 

 

Director Mr. Bob Campbell added that he and the CEO had met with the Scooter Festival organisers regarding the use of the grounds and marquee but they did not have the manpower to control visitors.

 

Discussion took place around the events secluded for 2016, and what changes if any we would need to make to our own rules and regulations for users of these grounds.

 

Director Mr. Bob Campbell further added that we had several visitors who simply refused to move even though we had informed them that we needed to keep access points open for Fire Bridge and our sitting tenants (Aged Concern etc).

 

CEO advised also that he had a request from Mr James Taberner to position a food vending trailer permanently in the Garrison Grounds.  The CEO added that Mr Taberner has also requested to use our grounds for the Country and Western festival, and this request had been rejected on the grounds that we had refused permission in the past to other similar fast food outlets.

 

Discussion took place around the request, and how it would be handled from a food hygiene and rubbish collection point of view.

 

CEO advised that we did see a huge increase in litter from the burger/fish van which operate during the festivals; with many more bags of rubbish containing the proceeds from vendors, would be inevitable.

 

Discussion took place around the request and how it would impact on the other traders in the main who paid rates and taxes 365-days per annum.

 

CEO added that this was a concern which had been raised previous when the same operator wished to utilise the drop-in centre for food events.

 

Discussion took place around the needs for a formal policy on the use of the grounds from a food hygiene perspective and requests in future to sell food and other goods from these grounds.

Resolution: It was agreed that the CEO would inform Mr James Taberner that we could not accommodate his request.

6. 7 Health and Safety 

CEO advised that there were no issues to report.

 

7. AOCB 

7.1 Archived photos - Director Davy Stevenson asked if the Board Directors could have a good look in their own personal archives for photos of the garrison grounds with particular reference to how the pond looked in previous decades.

7.2 Annual General Meeting.

CEO advised that he had discussed with the Chairperson bringing the next meeting forward to the 10th of November to ensure that we are fully prepared for the AGM.

 

8. DONM – 10th of November 2015.  

Meeting closed 19h15.