Meeting – 3rd October 2023
Partick Free Church of Scotland Hall
6.00pm
NOTES OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, ELECTION MEETING & ORDINARY MEETING
Attendees
Elected Members
Alison Kerr (acting chair)
Jamie MacBrayne (acting secretary, acting treasurer)
Ailie Hunter
Colin Price
Stephen Marshall
Geraldine Ross-Hargreaves
Apologies received in advance: Shaun Conroy
Ex Officio Members
Councillor Lana Reid-McConnell (Scottish Green Party)
Councillor Feargal Dalton (Scottish National Party)
Apologies received in advance: Councillor Eunis Jassemi (Scottish Labour Party)
Invited Representative
Steven Dowling (Glasgow City Council) – Independent Returning Officer for the election
PC Andy McKay (Police Scotland)
Public
4 members of the public
(including two prospective new members: Nicolas Dear, Seamus-Padraic Gallagher)
Annual General Meeting of Thornwood Community Council
Officiated by Acting Chair, Alison Kerr
- Attendance – Members’ attendance as above, with some members arriving after the start of the meeting due to work commitments clashing with the earlier than normal start. The earlier start time was at the request of GCC due to the requirement to administer multipleelections this evening.
- Approval of minutes of previous AGM – There was no AGM in 2022 so there are no minutes to formally approve.
- Approval of Chair’s annual report – Submitted by Shaun Conroy and circulated to allmembers in advance of the meeting.
- Approval of Treasurer’s annual report – Submitted by Jamie MacBrayne and circulated to all members in advance of the meeting. Approved at meeting. Copy of report is available on request. Approved at meeting. Copy of report is available onrequest.
Election process
Officiated by Steven Dowling, appointed as Independent Returning Officer by Glasgow City
Council
- Demit of current office bearers and all members – Steven Dowling of Glasgow City Council formally demitted all current office bearers and members of Thornwood Community Council. Steven Dowling then assumed control of the meeting in order to administer the election process for the Community Council.
- Call of nominations – There were 9 nominations submitted for 11 existing positions, so all positions were uncontested and the 9 nominees were duly elected as members of Thornwood Community Council:
Shaun Conroy
Stephen Marshall
James MacBrayne
Geraldine Ross-Hargreaves
Colin Price
Ailie Hunter
Alison Kerr
Nicolas Dear
Seamus-Padraic Gallagher - Call for nominations for the election of Office Bearers and representatives – Steven Dowling sought nominations and seconds for the following roles, which were duly filled as detailed below:
| Chairperson | Shaun Conroy |
| Vice Chairperson | Alison Kerr |
| Secretary | Alison Kerr |
| Minute Secretary | Alison Kerr |
| Treasurer | Jamie MacBrayne |
| Area Partnership Lead | Ailie Hunter |
| Area Partnership Sub | To be decided |
| Planning Contact | Jamie MacBrayne |
| Licensing Contact | Shaun Conroy |
Details of proposers and seconders are held on GCC’s records
Return to AGM
Officiated by Acting Chair, Alison Kerr
Thornwood Community Council is now continuing its AGM with the newly electedmembership.
- Note continuation of the Scheme for the Establishment of Community Councils – Jamie MacBrayne agreed to send a copy of the “Scheme” to all members after this meeting, primarily for the benefit of the two newly elected members.
- Note the appointment of an Independent Examiner of accounts for the next year – It was formally agreed that the same examiner from this year should be approved to examine next year’s accounts. This is Paul McNair, a mortgage advisor who is a friend of Jamie MacBrayne.
- Note the appointment of associate members – There are currently no associate members and no one has expressed an interest in becoming one.
- The assets of TCC were reviewed by the Treasurer. They are listed in the Treasurer’s Report at the end of this document.
- The acting Chair declared that the next TCC AGM will take place in October 2024
The AGM was then brought to a close and the Ordinary Meeting commenced…
The Independent Returning Officer (Steven Dowling) departed.
0rdinary Meeting of Thornwood Community Council
Officiated by Acting Chair, Alison Kerr
Meeting with newly elected members present: Stephen Marshall, James MacBrayne, Geraldine Ross-Hargreaves, Colin Price, Ailie Hunter, Alison Kerr, Nicolas Dear, Seamus Padraic Gallagher
- Minutes from meeting on 5th September 2023 were formally approved.
Nicolas Dear suggested that we record non-attendance of members in the minutes. Jamie agreed to this. There was no formal decision but the idea seemed to be generally accepted and the Secretary agreed to noting non-attendees as ‘not present’. - Glasgow Transport Strategy: Spatial Development Framework – Colin attended a Saturday meeting on this and highlighted a PDF summarising the meeting which can be found here: https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=60624&p=0
There is a consultation survey which Colin recommended people to engage with, which can be found here: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/GlasgowTransportSurvey/ - Love Thornwood – There has been an invitation extended to Love Thornwood from the Thornwood Primary Parents’ Association to a meeting on Monday 6th November to discuss the unused football pitches space adjacent to the school (MUGA – Multi Use Gym Area). TCC are supportive of the use of this space as a community resource. Planters have been installed on the railing at the four corners of the junction at Dumbarton Road / Crow Road / Rosevale Street. The responsibility to maintain them lies with Thornwood Community Council as this was agreed prior to their installation. It will be necessary to organise watering of the planters in dry weather.
- Hot Topics – A member of the public stated that GCC has sold off Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum to meet a £1.5 million shortfall in the Glasgow City Council’s budget, but members pointed out that Kelvingrove is not within Thornwood, and also that community councils are apolitical, so this is possibly not a suitable topic for a TCC meeting.
- Police Scotland Report (PC McKay) – The main issues recently have been: An increase in the theft of 4-wheel drive vehicles in the Thornwood area, with the use of signal repeaters to imitate keyless fobs. The use of Faraday pouches to prevent this tactic is advised. Faraday pouches can be obtained free of charge from Police Scotland. There has also been a noted increase in the theft of items from cars. Police Scotland advise local residents to lock their cars when they are parked up and not to leave any valuable items visible in their car. There was a recent arrest in Laurel Street in relation to this type of crime.
Police Scotland have visited Thornwood Primary to report on security after recent incidents of antisocial behaviour in relation to the unused football pitches space adjacent to the school, with suggestions made to improve security. It has been suggested that the school apply to the Area Partnership for funding to install measures to deter unauthorised people from entering the area. A report has been sent from Police Scotland to Glasgow City Council.
Police Scotland have been conducting a local initiative to deter uninsured drivers from driving. - Elected representatives
Cllr Dalton: There have been discussions around newly introduced brown bin charges, although these are not expected to be particularly relevant to the Thornwood Area as brown bins are not available to flats and tenements. There is an ongoing discussion about introducing this service for flats and tenements.
The local community is still waiting for parking controls to be introduced. There is no formal update on when this will happen.
Cllr Reid-McConnell: There is to be a parking consultation in January/February 2024. A resident of Glasgow Harbour asked if that area would be included. It was unknown, but thought probably not. Cllr Dalton suggested getting the factor involved if there are parking issues, even if that means getting the factor to liaise with GCC.
The Area Partnership discussed plans for the grassy area at Ardery Street but there are no formal plans. It is quite a remote area in terms of passing visitors, so it is not known exactly what form any improvements should take. Possibly funds could be better spent improving areas which are seen by more people.
CCTV cameras have been approved in principle to tackle fly-tipping in some areas, but there has been no formal decision on where they should be installed. The Area Liaison Team is looking for suitable areas to trial them in.
Hopefully there will be approval for spending at Thornwood Roundabout by the next meeting in November.
Cllr Dalton highlighted that it is essential for TCC to have a representative at the AP quarterly meetings where spending is approved. We need to be involved. There are other informal meetings outwith the formal quarterly meetings where matters are discussed but these feed into the formal meetings. The key issue here is that although we have a rep on the AP team, there are lots of informal activities going on that we don’t hear about till the formal meetings, at which point we’ve missed our chance to provide informal input, so we need to be kept informed about these other activities. The takeaway point from the discussion was that Cllr Dalton, who chairs the formal AP quarterly meetings, assured us that Thornwood is central to their plans (re. the roundabout) and if our TCC rep believes that we’re insufficiently informed to be able to make a decision then decisions will be deferred until we’re satisfied that we’re properly informed and understand the situation we’re deciding on.
It’s possible that the £1 million spending earmarked to improve the area around Thornwood Roundabout may need to be supplemented from other funds due to the extent of work required to improve the area.
Nicolas Dear asked Cllr Reid-McConnell about any progress with getting the road markings around the roundabout improved, as they are worn away. Cllr Reid-McConnell has fed back to GCC that this is high priority. There was no further update to report. - Any Other Business – None.
Meeting adjourned.
Next meeting is at 6:30pm on Tuesday 7th November at Partick Free Church of Scotland Hall, 2-4 Thornwood Terrace, Glasgow, G11 7QZ