Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Tweeddale Area Partnership and outlined how the meeting would be conducted.

(a)        Consider Minute of meeting held on 31 October 2023. (Copy attached.)

(b)        Consider Action Tracker. (Copy attached.)

There had been circulated copies of the Minute of the Meeting held on 31 October 2023. 

DECISION

NOTED and AGREED the Minute of 31 October 2023 and Action Tracker.

Feedback from meeting held on 31 October 2023.

Kenny Harrow provided a recap of the last meeting, attended by Chief Executive NHS Borders Ralph Roberts.  Further conversations had since taken place as a contribution to Place Making.  There were to be opportunities for future discussions as required within the Area Partnership and Community Engagement Officers were available to help facilitate these. Peter Maudsley (Peebles Community Council Chair) informed attendees  of his role on the working group regarding the a review of the four community hospitals in the Borders and information was to be brought back to the Area Partnership where appropriate in line with the confidentiality agreement.  The working group had been established in response to issues that had arisen in Kelso and Duns regarding an impending lack of Doctor cover previously provided through GPs.

DECISION

NOTED

Pam Rigby Youth Engagement Officer SBC to give an introduction to the newly elected MSYP for the Tweeddale Area Alexandra Waterston-Law.

Pam Rigby, Youth Engagement Officer SBC introduced Alex Waterston-Law who had recently been elected to the Scottish Youth Parliament.  Ms Waterston-Law summarised her priorities for attendees: transport and the limitation it places on young people; access to sport; and youth work, particularly in relation to the mental and physical health and wellbeing of young people.  Members and attendees congratulated Ms Waterston-Law on her appointment and Councillor Pirone advised her of a new youth work task group that was to begin in Tweeddale.  Any correspondence was to be directed to Pam Rigby until such time as all MSYPs had been allocated an email account; Pam Rigby was also to be copied in to all emails sent to MSYPs. The MSYPs’ email addresses were to be circulated to Members by Pam Rigby once set up.

DECISION

NOTED the update.

Crick Carleton Place Making Working Group Chair to provide an update on the progress of the Peebles Town Team.

Crick Carleton provided a summary of progress to date on Place Making in Peebles.  The team had produced a working draft of an updated town action plan that was available to view and download from SBC website (Peebles (arcgis.com)). Consultants had been recruited via the SBC Place Making Support Framework to support the finalisation of the place plan and town action plan.  At the appropriate time, consultants could be recruited by Place Planning/ Town Teams for two purposes: (1) to support communities in the development of their Place Plan and (2) to develop investment proposals for items identified in Place Plans.  Funding was in place to be drawn down from the Shared Prosperity Fund where appropriate.  A summary of the consultant’s remit was shared with attendees and was expected to be finalised for Peebles in May 2024; the result being an accessible, public facing Town Action Plan to sit alongside the Peebles Place Plan.  Attendees were advised that any application for funding had to demonstrate that the objectives were deliverable, fundable and were likely to have the support of Planning partners.  A short history of the Peebles Place Making Team and its contributors, including SBC, was provided and the processes of applying for consultancy funding and engaging a consultant was explained.  It was suggested that communities required more help to develop capacity within to enable them to take the Place Planning process forward.  Borders Community Action was engaged in a pilot project in Berwickshire for a Development Officer whose remit was to build capacity. There was a request for Tweeddale to have a similar role. Hannha Lacon was the SBC point of contact at Hannah.lacon@scotborders.gov.uk .

          DECISION

NOTED the update

An update from Colin Kerr.

Due to the absence of Colin Kerr, it was agreed to continue discussion on the matter until the next meeting of the Area Partnership.  A meeting of the Flood Group was to be held on 15 February and it was requested that the minute of that meeting be circulated to Members.

A summary of spend to date and available funds.  (Copy attached.)

There had been circulated copies of the Tweeddale Funding Table which showed available funds in the Tweeddale area.  Kenny Harrow reported that there was an opening balance of £60,138.77 at 1 April 2023.   Were all applications under consideration to be successful, there would be £2,774.53 left. 

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DECISION

NOTED

Tweeddale Assessment Panel to present funding recommendations for the following NSF applications;

·         Innerleithen Pipe Band

·         Home Basics Co Ltd

·         Innerleithen and District Community Council

·         Clovenfords Community Council

·         Tweeddale Youth Action

·         St Ronan’s Silver Band

·         Oor Space Youthy

·         Newlands and Kirkurd Playgroup

·         Tweed Togs

·         Innerleithen Community Trust

·         Greener Peebles

·         Peebles Scout Group

Chris Lewin of the Tweeddale Assessment panel provided an overview of each of the applications.  The Assessment Panel had carefully considered each application and any conflicts of interest were declared during the Panel’s deliberations. 

Innerleithen Pipe Band had requested £4,000 towards the purchase of new drums.  The balance was to be paid from various local fundraising events.

 DECISION

AGREED TO FUND £4,000

 Home Basics Co Ltd had requested £1,3200 towards the costs of purchasing tablets and sim cards to update their delivery system which was currently on paper.  It was suggested that they contact SBC’s IT delivery partner CGI directly as an alternative.

DECISION

AGREED NOT TO FUND

Innerleithen Community Council applied for £4,200 to support with the costs to run an arts event, funding for 2025 and a website.  

DECISION

AGREED NOT TO FUND

Clovenfords Community Council applied for £3,600 to finance a flood risk assessment to prepare for a larger project to construct a new bridge to replace the existing one which is inadequate.  Jennfer Jepson and Chris Whitmore from Clovenfords Community Council provided further information on the need for the risk assessment to be done in order to obtain funding for the bridge construction. 

DECISION

AGREED TO FUND £3,600

Tweeddale Youth Action applied for £2,237 towards the one-off £2,596 cost of setting up a pizza shop on Peebles High Street.  

DECISION

AGREED TO FUND £2,237

St Ronan’s Silver Band applied for £3,000 towards the cost of replacement uniforms. Members agreed that fundraising should be undertaken by the band for half of the cost.

DECISION

AGREED TO FUND £1,500

Greener Peebles applied for £6,000 towards the cost of a new and improved poly tunnel (polycrub) to replace one damaged in a recent storm.  As there was no evidence of other funding sought, the funding award was capped at £5,000.

DECISION

AGREED TO FUND £5,000

InnerleithenCommunity Trust applied for £5,000 towards the £7,810 cost of repainting the Memorial Hall’s entrances.    

DECISION

AGREED TO FUND £5,000

Oor Space Youthy applied for £7,014 towards the £9,570 cost of staff salaries for the two leaders and hall rent for the first half of 2024.   Clare Swan (Oor Space Youthy) spoke to the additional information, circulated to the Assessment Panel and Members. Iain Gibson (Peebles Youth Voice) also spoke in favour of the application.  There followed a discussion on the amount to award the organization as there was no evidence of funding sought elsewhere. Members unanimously supported an award of £7,014 as they considered this to be a unique case.  Regarding the ongoing sustainability of Oor Space Youthy, Members were informed of their plans to liaise closely with Peebles Youth Voice and Peebles Youth Trust to develop a fundraising strategy going forward.

DECISION

AGREED TO FUND £7,014

Newlands and District Playgroup applied for £3,888 towards the £4,276 cost to employ a part-time teacher in their gardening activity. 

DECISION

AGREED TO FUND £3,888

Tweed Togs applied for £7,500 towards the total project cost of £8,055 to rent storage units.  Tweed Togs supplies good  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Kenny Harrow advised attendees that members of staff of Edinburgh Napier University were to be conducting interviews with adults who live in villages or towns across the Scottish Borders.  They were to ask a broad range of questions about aspects of quality of life, traffic and travel and whether speed limit changes made any differences to people’s lives and, if so, how and why. It was the intention to speak to people who had lived in towns and villages in the Scottish Borders since at least 2018. The interviews were to last no longer than 60 minutes and were to be conducted on-line, where possible. Face-to-face interviews were to be conducted in Council hub buildings accessible by the interviewees. The interviews were to be recorded, and required consent for the interviews from the potential interviewees.  Interested persons were to contact the University directly; S.Tully@napier.ac.uk  or A.Davis@napier.ac.uk .

The next meeting of the Tweeddale Area Partnership was scheduled for 26^th March 2024. Agenda issued 12^th March.

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

Please contact your local councillor or the Communities & Partnership Team

The next meeting of the Tweeddale Area Partnership was noted as 19 March 2024 which was to be at Drill Hall, Walkershaugh, Peebles, EH45 8AU.