Scottish Borders Council

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Via MS Teams

Contact: Louise McGeoch Tel: 01835 825005  Email:  lmcgeoch@scotborders.gov.uk

Link: Link to Live meeting

Items
No. Item

1.

Welcome and Meeting Protocols

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the first meeting of the Tweeddale Area Partnership held via Microsoft Teams and outlined how the meeting would be conducted and how those both in the meeting and watching via the Live Stream could take part.

 

2.

Feedback from Meeting on 14 January 2020 pdf icon PDF 164 KB

Copy Minute from meeting on 14 January 2020. (Attached.)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Minute of the meeting of the Tweeddale Area Partnership held on 14 January 2020 had been circulated along with a summary of the discussion attached as an appendix to the Minute and this was noted.

3.

Tweeddale Community Fund 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 250 KB

3 applications for approval:-

 

(a)       Live, Learn, Earn

(b)       Tweed Theatre

(c)       Railway Heritage

 

(3 assessments attached plus Tweeddale Funding Information)

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

3.1       Funding requests requiring consideration by the Partnership had been received from:-

 

(a)     Peebles Railway Heritage;

(b)     Tweed Theatre; and

(c)     Live, Learn, Earn

Copies of the assessments relating to each application had been circulated.

3.2       Peebles Railway Heritage had applied for funding of £4,500 to allow them to appoint a consultant to assist in taking forward a project around a former railway building situated in the East Station Car Park, Peebles.  Kenny Harrow advised that at the time of assessment for Peebles Railway Heritage the application didn’t meet the Community Fund Criteria.  He outlined the application and advised that the required 3 quotes had now been provided.  Mr Les Turnbull, a member of the Group spoke in support of the application and advised that it was proposed, with the use if IT, to provide an educational tool for both residents and visitors and there had been early talks with Tweed Valley BID regarding the sharing of facilities.  Both Mr Harrow and Mr Turnbull answered questions regarding funding, the involvement of Tweed Valley BID and the level of community involvement to date.  Mr Fernand commented on the success of a Railway weekend held in Newlands.  Following discussion of the proposal there was no consensus reached.  However, it was agreed that, while there was general support for the proposal, it was premature to agree funding at this stage and the Group were asked to do more work with Tweed Valley BID, look at other sources of funds, provide more information on the management of the project and carry out some further community engagement.

3.3       Tweed Theatre had applied for funding of £5,900 to support a series of short performances which would be filmed and then streamed to an audience. Kenny Harrow explained that the funding application would support 12 performers plus a director and producer to support rehearsals, providing costumes and props, access to Zoom to allow for editing and recording functions and some specialized skills in production and editing.  Unfortunately a representative of the Group was not present to answer questions regarding the funds currently held by the Group.  Councillor Anderson, seconded by Councillor Haslam, moved that a grant of 50% of the amount requested be approved and this was supported.

 

3.4       Live, Learn, Earn had applied for funding of £4,950.  This was a new group which had been set up to provide learning and training opportunities for young people from Tweeddale. Training opportunities would include bike building, repair and metalwork. Kenny Harrow advised that Scottish Borders Chamber of Trade would act as banker for the Group.  Aegir MacIver spoke in support of the application and answered questions.  Those present were fully supportive of the application and the request for funding was approved.

 

4.

Other Information and News for Noting pdf icon PDF 53 KB

(a)       Outstanding Community Fund Applications for 2019/20 - these have been dealt with as per the report that went to Council on 27 08 20 which also contains the evaluation of Localities Bid Fund 1&2 and Participatory Budgeting: (summary attached.)

(b)       The Tweeddale Community Fund for 2020/21 is now open - guidance and application form is on SBC website: https://www.scotborders.gov.uk/info/20076/community_grants_and_funding/261/community_fund

(c)       Community Councils - grants are being paid as normal for 2020/21

(d)       Festival Grant Scheme – commitments re pubic liability and insurance are being met for 2020

(e)       Federation of Village Halls – grants are being paid as normal for 2020/21

(f)        VE Celebration Fund – this fund is now closed and commitments re expenses are being met

(g)       Tweeddale Locality Plan & Action Plans - these plans are now published and outline the priorities of the Tweeddale area and could be the focus of a future Area Partnership meeting: https://www.scotborders.gov.uk/downloads/download/1310/locality_plans

(h)       Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 – Currently, there are no formal Participation Requests and 2 formal Asset Transfer requests being considered within Tweeddale

 

Minutes:

The agenda detailed the following updates since the last meeting:-

 

·                Outstanding Community Fund Applications for 2019/20 - these had been dealt with as per the report that went to Council on 27 08 20 which also contained the evaluation of Localities Bid Fund 1&2 and Participatory Budgeting:

·                The Tweeddale Community Fund for 2020/21 was now open - guidance and application form were on SBC website: https://www.scotborders.gov.uk/info/20076/community_grants_and_funding/261/community_fund

·                Community Councils - grants were being paid as normal for 2020/21

·                Festival Grant Scheme – commitments re pubic liability and insurance were being met for 2020

·                Federation of Village Halls – grants were being paid as normal for 2020/21

·                VE Celebration Fund – this fund was now closed and commitments re expenses were being met

·                Tweeddale Locality Plan & Action Plans - these plans were now published and outlined the priorities of the Tweeddale area and could be the focus of a future Area Partnership meeting: https://www.scotborders.gov.uk/downloads/download/1310/locality_plans

·                Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 – Currently, there were no formal Participation Requests and 2 formal Asset Transfer requests being considered within Tweeddale

The updates were noted.

 

5.

Fit for 2024: Review of Area Partnerships & Community Fund and Actions for Tweeddale Area Partnership pdf icon PDF 59 KB

(Summary of the reports attached.)

Minutes:

5.1       There had been circulated summaries of the Council reports.  Jenni Craig, Service Director Customer & Communities gave a presentation on the review and outlined the actions and next steps.  A series of questions of the future of the Area Partnership and how the community fund might work were shared to aid the discussion.  The Chairman commented on .the small number present at the meeting but asked if they would share their views. 

 

5.2       The following points were made:-

 

·                Need to involve a wider audience

·                With regards to the community fund and ring fenced grants there was a widespread desire to keep those funds for Festivals, Village Halls etc. but perhaps with a greater degree of oversight of bank accounts

·                The importance of making Area Partnership meetings accessible to all was highlighted.  Although a BSL interpreter had been provided the lack of amplification and poor acoustics in Halls was an issue.  The use of the Hearing Access Protocol provided by “Ideas for Ears” was recommended.  With regard to MS Teams meetings it was difficult to lip read and the use of close captions was suggested.

·                A preference for virtual meetings was expressed as it was felt that the format worked better than live meetings

·                The Partnership needed to look at how good ideas could be spread across the whole of Tweeddale

·                A vision for what an Area Partnership could do was needed including how it could feed into the Council and taking account of statutory requirements

·                The Partnership needed to agree what it would do next now that the Locality Plan had been prepared.

·                The proposal to set up a small working group was welcomed by a number of attendees

·                Area Partnerships needed to set the criteria for the community fund to make it community rather than Council centric

·                The need to encourage more people to attend was highlighted

 

The Chairman advised that he intended to set up a number of “drop-in” sessions via Zoom between now and the next meeting in January to obtain community views.  It was agreed that officers would do more work to encourage attendance at the next meeting with clearer guidance provided about the difference between attending the meeting and watching the Live Steam

 

6.

Date of Next Tweeddale Area Partnership - 19 January 2021

Are there any items you would like to propose for the agenda?

 

Minutes:

The next meeting was scheduled for 19 January 2021 and following a discussion it was agreed that the meeting would go ahead.

 

7.

Any Other Formal Business

Minutes:

The Chairman advised that the Peebles Parking Working Group was currently on hold but it was hoped that it could resume its work early in 2021.

 

8.

Open Forum

Opportunity to raise local matters.

Minutes:

No items were raised.

 

 

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