Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair varied the order of business as shown on the agenda and the Minute reflects the order in which the items were considered at the meeting.

(a)          Minute – Copy Minute from meeting held on 20 September 2023.  (Copy

attached.)

(b)          Menti Feedback from meeting held on 20 September 2023. 

3.0       Feedback from the Meeting on 22 NOvember 2023   

3.1       At the November meeting there had been inputs from NHS, Police Scotland and the Wise Group but there were no actions to take forward from this meeting.

Alison Granger, Community Sergeant, Police Scotland.

4.0       POLICE REPORT

            The Chairman welcomed Sergeant Alison Grainger to the meeting to give an update on policing in the Cheviot Area.  Sergeant Grainger advised that resources remained unchanged from the previous update   She reported that parking continued to be an issue and parking tickets were being issued.  Community Officers, wearing plain clothes had patrolled on 2 separate nights in January working with the school link officer, Social Landlords, the Council and Anti-Social Behaviour Unit detecting and reducing vandalism and anti-social behaviour within the area.  Work being undertaken in terms of Feedback from the St Boswells Fair, Vulnerable Children meeting, road safety and hate crimes.  Police ahd been involved in the Carers Fairs and had a presence at Senior School Socials.  The Police were working with organising committees for event planning and would provide advice and resources where possible.  Sergeant Grainger was keen to get Police Officers back onto push bikes for patrolling local areas. 

            DECISION

            NOTED.

Update on the engagement workshops and showcase event held at Jedburgh Community Campus

5.0       A Place in Childhood

There had been circulated information on the Children and Teenagers Neighbourhood Plan for Jedburgh which explained that A Place in Children (APiC) had received match funding from Paths for All to engage with children and teenagers in the development of 20 Minute Neighbourhood Strategies for five places across Scotland. The 20-minute neighbourhood concept sought to better align spatial planning with transport planning (transport infrastructure) and community planning, to make it easier for people to walk, cycle and use public transport to meet their day-to-day needs. However, as a group, children and teenagers typically face the most significant barriers to making sustainable travel choices. Therefore, bespoke engagement with children and teenagers to create their interpretation of their 20-minute neighbourhood would allow decision-makers to understand the critical barriers to movement and prioritise key actions to support opportunities for active and sustainable travel in the long term.

5.1       APiC specialised in children and teenager engagement, working frequently with schools across Scotland. APiC was working closely with the Scottish Borders Council to engage with children and teenagers living in Jedburgh to create a Children and Teenagers Neighbourhood Plan of Jedburgh. The engagement would be two-phase, seeking to achieve the following three outcomes: 1. Facilitate high-quality discussion and trustful dialogue around their local neighbourhood, drawing out gender and age-specific needs and experiences as well as those shared by all. 2. Discuss with participants the best ways to involve their cohort in future stages of design and development of local plans and proposals. 3. Co-facilitate with Local Authority colleagues, to provide on-the-ground mentorship and guidance on meaningful involvement of young people in placemaking. The project would primarily involve creating a children and teenager’s map of the local area from their perspectives (experiential mapping) and working with them to identify local opportunities for improvement. Following this, APiC would work with the participants to co-design an engagement and delivery strategy for the long-term ambitions for local improvements. The next stage would involve organising a stakeholder engagement event where some of the children and teenagers involved in creating the plan would present their ideas to the Local Authority and would work together to identify potential opportunities to make their priorities for action happen. The experiential mapping stage of the project would take place over two days on the 26-27th September, and the stakeholder engagement would take place in December. Additionally, APiC would be consolidating the outputs from all 5 projects into a “How to engage with Children and Teenagers on 20-minute neighbourhoods’ strategy which shall inform the development of a broader 20-minute neighbourhood engagement both within the local place and also for use nationwide.

            DECISION

            NOTED.

Pam Rigby, Youth Engagement Worker, Community Learning and Development Services, SBC.

6.0       YOUTH ENGAGEMENT UPDATE

Pam Rigby, Youth Engagement Worker for SBC regularly attended the Area Partnership meetings to give updates but was unable to attend the meeting and it was agreed that the item be carried forward to the next meeting.

            DECISION

            NOTED.

Introduction to the new MSYPs for Scottish Borders MSYP Election

7.0       MEMBERS OF THE SCOTTISH YOUTH PARLIAMENT

Pam Rigby, Youth Engagement Worker for SBC was to introduce the newly elected Members for the Scottish Youth Parliament to the Cheviot Area Partnership, however as she was unable to attend the meeting, it was agreed that the item be carried forward to the next meeting.

            DECISION

            NOTED.

Overview from SBC Communities & Partnership Team

8.1       Cheviot Funding Tables 2023/24

There had been circulated copies of the Cheviot Funding for 2023/2024 which detailed the funding available together with information on the allocation of the Neighbourhood Support Fund in 2023/24.  The opening balance at 1 April 2023 was £46,383.  Other sources of funding included Local Festival Grant Budget totalling £16,675.00, Annual Support Grant to Community Councils totalling £10,470.00, Common Goods, SBC Enhancement Grant, SBC Welfare Grant and SBC Small Schemes totalled £192,112.69.  Following the previous Cheviot Area Partnership Meeting, all funding recommendations were supported totalling £14,037.88 leaving a balance of £47,418.48 and applications assessed and awaiting decision totalled £8,316.03. 

DECISION

NOTED.

NSF recommendations to be presented by the Cheviot assessment panel on the following applications:

·      CFA000206 Lothian Hall

·      CFA000207 Borders Youth Theatre

·      CFA000204 Springwood Retirement Village

Neighbourhood Support Fund

8.2      There had been further discussion on the recruitment of Members to the Panel and Panel Members had sought clarification on who was eligible to sit on the assessment panel. Officers confirmed there were eight member places as follows:

1.        Jedburgh Community Councillor

2.        Jedburgh District Community Councillor – Vacant

3.        Kelso Community Councillor

4.        Kelso District Community Councillor – Vacant

5.        Jedburgh & District Public Member – Vacant

6.        Jedburgh and District Public Member – Vacant

7.        Kelso and District Public Member – Position becoming vacant at end of fiscal year.

8.        Kelso and District Public Member

8.3       It was highlighted the public members can be anyone over the age of 16 who live within the Cheviot Area and could be Community Councillors if their community council place was already filled.  The panel discussed how best to promote the opportunity to attract new members and encourage Community Councils to nominate a panel member.

8.4       Jedburgh District could nominate one member from either of the following Community Councils: Ancrum; Crailing, Eckford & Nisbet; Jed Valley; Lanton; Maxton & Mertoun; Oxnam Water; St Boswell’s.

8.5       Kelso District could nominate one member from either of the following Community Councils: Ednam, Stichill & Berrymoss; Floors, Makerstoun, Nenthorn and Smailholm; Heiton and Roxburgh; Kalewater; Sprouston; Yetholm.

8.6       There had been 3 applications received for the Cheviot Neighbourhood Support Fund totalling £5,019.18.  There had been circulated copies of a report which provided a brief description of each application received and a recommendation on the sum to be awarded to each project.  As previously reported, projects with a mean score of 80+ in terms of their ability to deliver, clear evidence of need, potential impact, use of public money, innovation and sustainability and therefore would be recommended for approval and those were detailed below: -

8.7       Springwood Retirement Village

An application in the sum of £1,339.03 had been submitted from the Springwood Retirement Village to support with costs of hosting monthly coffee mornings.  The group wished to source items such as crockery as well as raffle prizes and resources for advertising the events.  The group were very active in the community and had over 90 attendees.  Due to these numbers, they had not advertised outside the retirement community however anyone who would like to come along would be welcome.  It was noted that many residents were unable to drive so having access to a social activity within walking distance was vital.  The panel agreed to recommend the project for funding however it was felt that the element of the £100 for raffle prizes should not be awarded.  The recommended total for awarding would therefore be £1,239.03.

8.8       Lothian Hall, Crailing

An application in the sum of £5,877 had been submitted by the Lothian Hall Committee to support the refurbishment of Lothian Hall as well as a re-launch event.  The group hoped to refresh the Hall by repainting to create a more welcoming space for community members to use.  The Committee would like to offer the space to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

Update on Place Making progress in Cheviot.

SECTION 3: PLACE MAKING 

9.0    The Community Engagement Officer explained that within Cheviot, there were 10 communities interested in Place Making, and increase of one since the last meeting.  There was no major update since the last meeting, other than communities starting to request support from the consultancy framework to support their capacities.

Place Making Consultancy Framework: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/b8af497ec5d0471597354de63ff05fe4

Community Council Updates

9.1     Jedburgh Community Council

• Gutter Cleaning in Town Centre
• Plans being developed to run Town Hall and Library
• Generating power from two caulds
• Old Bakery with Courtyard back in use.
• Building Work to be undertaken to extend the Hydro Pool
• Flooding at Bongate – Jedbrugh on list for flood risk assessment and should be undertaken soon.

9.2     Kelso Community Council

• Working on Christmas Lights for 2024
• Rivet Tweed Museum re-opening
• Hosting Air Cadet Parade and Church Service to raise awareness.
• Town Hall had suffered a leak.

Sharing good practice and current activity from across Cheviot.

            SECTION 4: Other

10.0     ADDITIONAL INFORMATION DOCUMENT

The Chairman advised that additional information was included in the agenda pack which contained information on current consultations and links to useful information.

DECISION

NOTED.

Next Meeting scheduled for Wednesday, 27 March 2024 at 6.30 p.m.

11.0     DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS

         Future Meetings of the Cheviot Area Partnership would be held on the following dates:

          Wednesday, 29 May 2024 at 6.30 p.m.

          Wednesday, 18 September 2024 at 6.30 p.m.

Wednesday, 20 November 2024 at 6.30 p.m.

Wednesday, 29 January 2025 at 6.30 p.m.