Agenda and minutes

Consider report by Principal Solicitor.  (Copy attached.)

         With reference to paragraph 1 of the Minute of 15 December 2021, there had been circulated copies of a report by the Principal Solicitor advising on the outcome of the recent consultation under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, and to seek approval of the final Common Good Register for Peebles.  Under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 the Council was required to establish and maintain a register of property which was held by the authority as part of the Common Good (“a Common Good Register”). Before establishing a Common Good Register, the Act required the Council to publish a list of property that it proposed to include in the Register and consult the public on this list.  The Sub-Committee had approved the draft asset register in December 2021 and agreed to the commencement of the public consultation. The consultation ran from December 2021 to 31 March 2022.  The Sub-Committee now required to consider the responses received to the consultation, and approve the final register to be recommended to Council for publication.  Details of the consultation responses were appended to the report together with the proposed response to each.  There were 65 responses to the consultation and 13 of these responses related to Peebles, including submissions from Peebles Community Council and Peebles Civic Society.  The Principal Solicitor advised that the consultation had identified an area of woodlandrunning parallel to and between Edinburgh Road and the Eddleston Water, north of Brown Brothers Showroom, which used to form part of Venlaw Estate.  This had been gifted to the town of Peebles so this asset had been added to the register.  She further confirmed that any further assets identified as being Common Good in the future could be added and the Council would update the Common Good Asset Registers accordingly. The Registers would similarly be updated if existing property was disposed of or reclassified. The Council would also ensure that the Common Good Asset Registers were reviewed on a regular basis, and at least every five years.  In response to a question from Community Councillor Maudsley regarding the views of the Peebles Civic Society, Mrs MacLeod advised that these points had been raised before and Council position was that there was no evidence to support any further additions at this time.

         DECISION

         AGREED to:-

         (a)      note the consultation responses and officers’ comments thereon, as set out at Appendix 1 to the report;

         (b)     approves the contents of the final list of heritable and moveable property assets held by the Council within the former Burgh of Peebles, as set out in Appendix 2 to the report; and

         (c)      recommend to Council the said final asset list for publication as a completed Common Good Register for Peebles.