Ayton
Community
Council
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Minutes for meeting held Tuesday 6th February 2024

Held in Ayton Community Hall at 7pm.  

Present

Apologies for Absence

Minutes

SW opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and the apologies for absence were received.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on Wednesday 3rd January 2024 were approved by MC and Seconded by AW as a true and accurate reflection of events.

Matters Arising from the minutes of the previous meeting

SW advised that she had contacted Berwickshire Housing and had not heard back however AW advised that a Salt Bin was no in situ and the paths were being gritted.

SW advised that RH and AC still needed to sign that code of conduct and as they were not present, she would seek to speak to them separately.

SW has not yet had the chance to meet with the resilience group but would endeavour to do so at the earliest opportunity.

Promotion for the Sustainable Selkirk Event was going well, and we would continue to promote.

Cllr JA advised that new road markings had been requested on the road into Ayton and this would be carried out at the same time as planned work in the coming weeks to install “Dragons Teeth” on the same stretch of road.

Cllr JA advised that the Cemetery could have extra cuts and he has asked for this to be added to the list of planned additional cuts in the coming weeks. He has also asked for a site visit to assess the Health and Safety risks on the site and where necessary remedial works can be carried out which he confirmed is the Duty of SBC.

TS confirmed he had contacted the dog warden at SBC regarding Dog Fouling in the village. Additional Signage will be provided, and residents and members of the CC are encouraged to report offenders. Additionally, Ayton Primary School will make additional Dog Bag Dispensers and TS confirmed that local business Hair By Louise is happy to provide bags to be installed in these dispensers.

AW confirmed that at present 4 children from Reston attend Ayton Primary School and this can be reported in any future application for wind farm grants connected to the Reston Area. In addition to this Cllr JA recommended that we show an expression of interest in the Place Based Investment Fund from SBC where we can request £10,000. TS to contact Graham Johneston at SBC (gjohnstone@scotborders.gov.uk).

TF confirmed he had spoken to Graham Dolan and now has access to the old village website where he can take content that we may wish to retain on the new website. He has suggested that we create 3 websites going forward which he will manage for the village, the community Hall and the Community Council. This was unanimously agreed. In addition to this he would set up email addresses for the Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer as well as a generic one for all members of the community Council.

In relation to the High Street Garden, SW advised that an offer from Unpaid Work at Criminal Justice has been made. This would be considered at a future meeting.

Treasurer’s Report

PI advised that there was no additional income and expenditure, and account balances remained the same as the previous meeting.

PI advised that in order to change the signatories on the Royal Bank of Scotland Accounts we would need to agree and minute this so he could present this to the branch. All members agreed that The Chair (Sarah Woodbury), Treasurer (Paul Ingram) and Secretary (Trevor Smith) should be appointed as nominated signatories where 2 signatures would be required on every transaction.

PI advised that we are due a payment of £630 as our annual grant and Cllr JA agreed to chase this up with Gillian Jardine.

Area Partnership Meeting

It was reported that this meeting would take place in Duns Volunteer Hall on 7th February and that members were invited. It was agreed that TS and AC would bioth attend on behalf of the Community Council and report back at the next meeting.

Community Council Stakeholder Meeting: SW advised that we were asked to send a representative to this meeting and that AM would attend on our behalf.

Training Session with Logan Inglis and James Anderson

It was agreed by all members present that this training this would take place at the beginning of the next meeting on 5th March at 7pm.

Peelwalls Meadow Footpath

SW advised that a member of the community had contacted her seeking minutes of previous meetings going back several years relating to the initial agreement to install a footpath between the housing estate and the village. These minutes have been provided and Cllr JA confirmed that he had also received a number of emails on the matter and was working with the residents in question to seek solutions to the issue.

Bird Scarers

AM Advised that he has looked into the issue and legally the farmer is allowed to fire the bird scarers 4 times per hour during day light hours which is the current frequency, however he has spoken to the farmer in question, David Allan and he has agreed to reduce the frequency to twice an hour and also to move the scarers to a part of the field that is further away from local housing. It is hoped this will reduce any noise pollution and we agreed to monitor this. It is also anticipated that the need for these will reduce as the weather improves and more food is available to wildlife.

Public Transport Issues

Local Resident, Jim Edgar attended the meeting after making contact regarding public transport concerns.

Email Below:

From: Jim Edgar
Subject: Public Transport Situation
Date: 18 January 2024 at 11:17:39 GMT
To: aytoncommunitycouncil@gmail.com
To Ayton Community Council

I am contacting you about the public transport situation affecting Ayton.

Since Travelsure stopped operating their Borders services at the end of October the service available in Ayton has changed a lot. Borders Buses altered their routes apparently to increase their efficiency.

The main issue for me is that the last bus from Berwick to Ayton is now 16:20. Previously there were two buses, one at 17:31 and one at 17:13. One ran via Eyemouth, the other ran directly to Ayton before heading on to Eyemouth so there were option both to and from Eyemouth. The loss of these last buses has had a considerable effect on what we can do and where we can go. The last bus from Eyemouth is now 16:47.

The last buses now operate before the end of the working day for most people. It has to be said that the two last buses to Ayton were often not very full, but they provided a key means for some people to live in Ayton and work in Berwick and indeed for one person to live in Eyemouth and work in Ayton. For me I often used either of these last buses as part of a return rail trip arriving back at Berwick. This change makes it virtually impossible to get to Newcastle to do any work and return to Ayton afterwards.

Another part of these “service improvements” was the withdrawal of six buses two and from Reston station - hardly a good step for integrated transport. Changes to the Trans Pennine Express Rail service now often involve a change of train at Berwick in order to reach Reston anyway. Nevertheless the loss of many services between Ayton and Reston does not help and, yes, I have used these services to reach Reston. In the place of these buses the Berwick to Duns service now runs via Chirnside and this brings these extra full sized buses into Ayton High Street.

At the same time the rules for the Pingo bus were changed to prevent it being used along existing bus routes, even when there is no service on that route (or the last bus has gone).

The bus service to Edinburgh which I use from time to time has never returned to pre-Covid timings. There the last bus from Edinburgh is 18:00. There is a gap between 15:00 and 18:00 whereas there used to be two buses around the end of the working day to provide for both shoppers first and workers second. This obviously affects times you can return from Dunbar, the buses there now leaving at 16:15 and 19:15.

None of this helps to bring young people to live in Ayton and reinvigorate our community. If they cannot live here and travel to work easily how can we attract them? Nor does it help people like me who are getting older and cannot always use a car. Older people face isolation if there is no accessible public transport.

I know that the policy of Scottish Borders Council is to reduce subsidy to the statutory minimum which is to provide only school transport. After that we have to rely on the whim of the bus providers, and now there is no competition in that market. This policy now seems to have taken its obvious course and we are more isolated than ever. The Council has also taken the bus timetables away from the stops, requiring the use of smart phones for those who can find a phone signal. Some kind individual has printed the timetables off and stuck them to the bus shelter but will these be updated? However accurate the timetable the service is poor anyway.

The simple first thing would be to restore an end of the working day bus from Berwick.

Despite cuts to that route too, the Borders Buses trip which use to serve Ayton still runs as the 17:35 to St Abbs. Why does it no longer travel via Ayton?

I might point out that the Borders Buses website still offers a departure from Berwick to Ayton at 17:15. This involves travelling to “Craigswalls Entrance” where you are expected wait for 43 minutes (presumably in the dark, snow and wind) for a return service to Ayton. That journey takes 1 hour and 36 minutes almost half of which is spent waiting at Craigswalls Entrance. This I think is more of an insult to Ayton than a bus service.

Jim Edgar
7 Welltower Park
Ayton

Members of the Community Council agreed that services were much less frequent and there was an impact for residents who relied on public transport. Cllr JA advised that work was being undertaken however funding is currently under review and some routes are simply not sustainable. An example was given where one service which was cut only had 2 passengers and those had now been provided with publicly funded taxis.

It was agreed that TS would write to the officer responsible for public transport at SBC supporting Mr Edgar’s concerns and we would continue to engage with Mr Edgar and monitor the situation.

December MMWR Report

PC McCloud has submitted this month’s police Scotland report with no issues effecting Ayton. He has noted that he is happy to attend future Community Council Meetings on request.

AOB

A6105 is to have work undertaken to correct a dangerous camber in the road.

Cllr JA advised that a consultation is taking place on Democracy Matters and SW will circulate this to members for completion before 28th Feb.

Cllr JA advised that due to a change in his personal circumstances he would no longer be able tp attend all 12 community Council Meetings every month and he has asked Cllrs Hamilton and Orr to take some of these over, which they have agreed to do, meaning he will not be at all future meetings however he reminded us he is always available to be contacted and continues to champion the area.

Cllr JA informed Community Council that a recent Budget Survey among the public had received the highest response in the area fro0m this ward.

AW Informed Council that the 7.5 tonne limit sign on vehicles through the village had been removed. SW agreed to report this to Darren Silcock and council would continue to monitor heavy good vehicles passing through the village illegally.  

Date of Next Meeting

It was agreed that the next meeting would take place Tuesday 5th March at 7pm.

The Meeting closed at 9pm.