Agenda item

Minute of Meeting of  27 August 2015 for noting.  (Copy attached.)

The Minute of Meeting of Peebles Common Good Fund Sub-Committee of 27 August 2015 had been circulated.

         DECISION

         NOTED. 

2.1    With reference to paragraph 2  of the minute, Members were reminded that a briefing note dated 1 September 2015 had been submitted to them  by Mr G. Nelson, Solicitor advising that at the meeting of the Peebles Common Good Fund Sub-Committee held on 27 May 2015  an application had been made by Tweeddale Rovers AFC in respect of the pavilion at Kerfield Park, Peebles.   With their application they included background information regarding how the club had built the Pavilion in the early 1960s then handed it over to the Town Council at a small ceremony at the Council Chambers prior to the monthly Town Council meeting.  This appeared to contradict other information in the application which seemed to indicate that the Pavilion was owned and run by the Club.   Members had asked Estates and Legal to seek to clarify the ownership of the Pavilion.   Mr Nelson advised that having checked Council titles it was confirmed that Kerfield Park, Peebles was owned by the Council and that this included the area on which the Pavilion was built.   There was no evidence in the records held by the Council to indicate that a formal sale had been made of the Pavilion site to the Club or anyone else.   The official legal position was therefore that the Pavilion was owned by the Council.   However, the Pavilion had been occupied and maintained by the Club throughout its life, in a similar way as if they legally owned it.  In terms of the current 2007 lease the Council leased the land and the Club was entirely responsible for the maintenance of the Pavilion.   The current lease was valid until 2028.   Applications by the Club, during the current lease, to the Common Good Fund regarding maintenance of the Pavilion therefore legitimately related to a responsibility that the Club and not the Council currently had.   Any change to the official legal position of ownership of the Pavilion at Kerfield Park, Peebles would be a matter for the Council to consider.   Community Councillor L. Hayworth asked whether the pavilion should lie on the Common Good register, rather than being listed as a general Scottish Borders Council asset, as it had been handed over to the Town Council in the early 1960s.    The Solicitor advised that if the Pavilion was judged to be a Common Good Asset it would not be appropriate for the Common Good to give funding to the tenant to maintain it.    However the Solicitor advised that it remained his opinion that the Pavilion for the reasons stated in his note is a Council rather than a Common Good owned asset.  

         DECISION

         NOTED.

2.2    With reference to paragraph 3 of the Minute, the Estates Officer advised that Scottish Borders Council had received money from Scottish Gas Networks as a contribution towards costs of landscaping of the garden area of Dovecot Court, Peebles but the work had not yet been carried out.   Fiona Rowan, Friends of Dovecot would advise him on the Housing Associations plans/proposals.

         DECISION

         NOTED.

2.3    With reference to paragraph 4(b)(ii) an informal meeting with members of the Peebles Hendaye Twinning Association had been held prior to this meeting.

         DECISION

         NOTED.