Ayton
Community
Council

Minutes for meeting held Wednesday 5th February 2025

Held in Ayton Community Hall at 7:00pm.

Present

Members of the Public Present

Apologies for Absence

The minutes of the previous meeting held on Tuesday 7th January 2025 were unanimously approved. Proposed by PI and seconded by AM as a true and accurate reflection of events.

Public Forum

2 Members of the public were present at this evenings meeting and it was agreed the public forum could take place first to allow them to leave should they not wish to remain for the whole meeting.

Paul Cliffe advised the CC that the current tenants of the Hemelvaart Bier Café had ceased trading. He further advised that after conversations with them they were planning to continue as residential tenants in the property. He felt that this left a big gap in the village and was sure others would agree, which was widely accepted by all members of the CC. He had wondered if there were any solutions to this such as volunteers being able to take over the running of the bar or even consideration being given to a community buy out and examples from both Chirnside and Horncliff were given of where this has happened.

TS advised the meeting that there was a party who were interested in buying or leasing the pub should it become available and he was aware that they had made contact with the current owners, Pineapple Property Leasing Limited, although he understood no response had been received that he was aware of. Cllr AO also stated that as the pub is a commercial property, a change of use would be required if it was to be converted to a solely residential property. It was unanimously agreed that should an application be made, it would be opposed by the CC and it was further agreed that TS would write to the current owners of the site to express this opinion as well as seek reassurances of the future of the building as a public house.

Joanna Waddell attended the meeting to report on the successful fund raising that had taken place at Ayton Primary School in order to install their new Trim Trail. In total they had raised £35,718 in a fairly short period of time. With this in mind she was keen to share their work with the CC so that these lessons could be taken forward when looking at replacing the current play park. While we currently have £84,000 in agreed funding from SBC and an agreement that the new play equipment will be installed in 2026/27 financial year it was agreed that if more money could be raised we could look to vastly improve the offer in the village.

Suggestions for grants included: The National Lottery, Simpsons Malt, Various Wind Farm Funds, Scottish Building Society, Foundation Scotland, Arnold Clark.

It was also suggested that following a community consultation we could launch a Just Giving Page and look at further funding from within SBC and the Area Partnership, both of which had been successful with the Schools work.

Chair, AM thank Joanna for coming along and sharing her knowledge. He offered further congratulations on the excellent work carried out by her and the Parent Council at Ayton Primary School.

MMWR

The police report had been received and circulated ahead of the meeting. There were no points on note for Ayton and no one wished to comment on any items noted in the report.

It was noted that there had been another car hit on the High Street, where the offending vehicle had failed to stop. Members were reminded that all such incidents should be reported as Police are more likely to take action if they see patterns emerging.

Clock Tower Flag

DH was unable to attend this evenings meeting and no update was offered, although it was noted that some work appeared to be starting on the property around the clock tower although we were unsure of what this was at this stage.

Treasurer’s report

PI informed the CC that the council had purchased a poppy wreath which was laid by AM at Sunday’s remembrance event at Ayton Church. The cost of this was £39.60.

Project Account Balance stands at £913.13
Treasures Account Balance stands at £1013.66

AOB

Litter on the A1

AC reported that she had written to Bear Scotland as mentioned at the previous meeting and was very pleased to have had a positive reply from the CEO and a meeting has been agreed for 13th Feb. AC will update further at the next meeting.

It was noted that we have still not decided on a Logo despite 2 suggestions already. It was agreed that we would explore the possibility of launching a competition to do this and that would be explored further in the near future.

Village Notice Board

It was noted that the village notice board had not been updated with recent meeting minutes. TF volunteered to take the task of obtaining said key and keeping the notice board up to date.

Next meeting

The Next Ayton Community Council meeting will take place on the 4th March 2025 at 7pm in the Community Hall.