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Present Jane Douglas, George Prentice, Sandra Demptster, Sue Murdoch, Godfrey Smith, Jayne Brydson, Fiona McKinnon, John Findlay and Gillian Smith. Apologies Kate Maxwell The chairperson Jane, opened the meeting by welcoming everybody and introducing our local councillor, Mr Prentice. There were no police matters to be discussed. Minutes of the last meeting had been read by everybody and so were signed and approved. Matters arising The Senior Citizens lunch has been booked at the Ken Bridge for the 19* December, so far 31 people have put their names forward, and the hotel is booked for 40. The Hotel does everything, all we need are some raffle prizes and do we want to put a present under the chair. Jane to organise this. Our thanks must go to Godfrey for running the bonfire night and also to Jamie for collecting and delivering wood for the fire. It was an excellent night and attended by crowds of people. Correspondence We have received a thank you letter from Noreen Bell. There is a letter to be completed by John Findlay as the planning representative. There is to be a conference in the Ken Bridge on the 5fc December about Black Craig. There are petitions in the local shops about supporting the windfarm. The Local Committee have voted against Black Craig and have also turned down about the cables going underground. Planning Report There is nothing this month in Balmaclellan. Treasurers Report Please see the handout. There has been £ 87.60 collected towards the fireworks. The Playground seat has cost £ 260.00 Christmas Party There has been a donation of a bottle of whisky for a raffle prize Kate is going to get the fairy lights for decoration. The tree is to be put up at 9.30am on Friday. We do not need a police presence to shut the road to let the children out around the tree as long as there are 2 adults. Presents are needed for the children, a wee lucky bag or similar, Sandra to get these. Sue has everything organised and will ring around when she wants help. Christmas Disco We need a disco for the dance. Jim McClelland will run the bar. Sue is organising the licence for sale of alcohol. There are 4 stewards needed. Sale of Hall Land. The small strip of land adjacent to the left of the village hall ( as you stand on the road facing the hall) is crossed as access to the houses built further on up the gravel track. Mr Jardine has applied to build a further three houses along this track and the granting of the permission stipulates that he must own this strip of access land. The hall committee are unsure if there is anything in the deeds stopping a sale as this land was donated' for the good of the village '. Mr Prentice is going to speak to Alec Haswell, Corporate Government Support and report back as soon as possible. Already a valuation has been done on this small strip, commonly called a 'ransom strip' and has cost the community council £ 528.75. The valuation was carried out by The District Value Office. The Crichton. Dumfries. On such a small section of land the invoice value does seem excessive, and perhaps we should have looked around for a more competitive quote. The value of the land is in confidence to the community council by the chairpersons request. It was felt though by the majority of the council to be far in excess of the offer received from Mr Jardine and possibly mean that the houses would then not be financially viable. A debate arose on the benefits to the community of money (if received as this land is of only any value to Mr Jardine) or of the extra housing. It was suggested that a negotiator was bought in but at a cost of £ 85 per hour it was left undecided unless we could find someone else a lot cheaper. Any Other Business There have been complaints about the amount of water on the roads. There is water running down the hill, is the drain blocked or is the water seeping through the road edge ? The Ken Bridge road drain is also blocked again, water is running across from Ladys Well Close across onto the main road. The car park next to the shop is full of weeds and needs resurfacing. The date for the next meeting was set as Monday 28th January 2007.
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