Minutes for meeting held Tuesday 3 June 2025

Held in Ayton Community Hall at 7:00pm.

Present

• Trevor Smith — Secretary, chaired meeting
• Alison Currie
• Toby Foster
• Cllr J Anderson

Apologies for Absence

• Alan McFadzean — Chair
• Paul Ingram — Treasurer
• Darren Hall
• Emily Sanderson
• Amanda Wright
• Cllr A Orr
• Cllr C Hamilton

Members of the public present

• Paul Cliffe
• Carol Cliffe (Vice chair, Ayton Gardening Society)

Minutes of the Meeting 6th May: TF proposed, and AC Seconded, and minutes were unanimously approved.

Ayton Show

Carol Cliffe attended the meeting on behalf of the Ayton Gardening Society to discuss our plans on working with them to have some kind of village event. She advised that the Show would take place on Saturday 6th September and outlined the current plans including the usual competitions which members of the local community are encouraged to enter. They would also be using the bowling club and the school to host these events and the bowling club would also be used to toilet facilities and refreshments. In addition to this there is a classic car show planned on the field by the school and the Norham Brass Band will also be performing.

Carol advised that the show committee are keen to expand the show and would welcome the idea of widening it to a larger event, however they did stress that they had limited man power and anything the Community Council wished to include would need to be done so by additional volunteers. It was also pointed out that the programme for this years event had already been printed and was currently being distributed.

Additional ideas that were discussed were:

• A Marque with Bar and live music throughout the day/Weekend – AC to speak to Coldingham Show organisers about using their marque.
• A Scarecrow Train around the village.
• A try Bowls event in partnership with Ayton Bowling Club. TS to speak to bwling club committee
• A children’s Sports day on the field – Possibly approach the active school’s coordinator at Ayton Primary.

Going forward it was agreed that one or two members of the Community Council could be invited to the next Ayton Gardening society meeting. Carol did not have the dates for this but TS agreed to speak to Caroline Lathe regarding this matter.

Scottish Borders Council Cuts

Following on from the previous meeting Cllr JA advised that both meetings at Eyemouth Community Centre had gone well and a plan had been put forward for the library to be moved into the community centre, protecting the jobs of those already employed. There were also on-going discussions about the Fitness Studio being taken over by another local business however their appears to be no threat to the swimming pool and Gyn in town. The council had launched an online survey of residents. Cllr JA and TS both agree to share links to this on social media and residents should be encouraged to complete the survey.

Community Council Consultation

Following TS speaking to SBC it was agreed that we would look at a consultation for the village but would avoid the SBC format, preferring to come up with our own which would be led by AC and PC. They had agreed to circulate a survey to members for their approval which would look at priorities for the village. It was suggested this will be sent out to all households in the village and a stall could be staged that the Gardening Society Show in September. TS would circulate survey to CC members when it had been produced. TF would also generate a QR code which would take residents to an online version of the survey.

Ayton Village Facebook

Following concerns raised at the last meeting Kenneth Combe had been invited to the meeting to discuss the social media page. He was not able to attend on this occasion but stated he would be happy to come to a future meeting if required. Hre also advised that other administrators did fine it difficult to manage the page and pointed out that TS from the community Council was an admin on this page. It was agreed to look at village communication as part of our wide Community Plan and if necessary we could launch a Community Council social media page.

MMWR

No report had been received prior to the meeting.

Road Closures

Bear Scotland had reported a number of road closures in the coming months and had given details of therse and had also advised that all houses would receive details in the post. TS agreed to display current notices on the village notice board and Cllr JA would request and increase presence from Road Traffic police during diversions to ensure speed limits and other laws were being adhered too.

Treasurer’s report

Project Account stands at £916.04
Treasurer’s Account stands at £706.16

It was notes that we had paid £60 in meeting room hire fees and had received £2.91 in interest into our account.

AOB

None

Next Meeting

The next Ayton Community Council meeting will take place on 1 July 2025 at 7pm in the Community Hall.