Ward Forum

27th April 2009
14.00 in Kinlochewe Village Hall

Chair:
Cllr Biz Campbell
Present:
Cllr Biz Campbell; Cllr Richard Greene; Cllr Audrey Sinclair; Cllr Jean Urquhart; Charlie Macrae (Plockton CC); Alistair MacLean (Torridon & Kinlochewe CC); Tom Forrest (Torridon & Kinlochewe CC); Isabel MacKenzie (Gairloch CC); Sue Tarr (Garve & District CC); Jean Hollingdale (Garve & District CC); Kate Finlayson (Contin CC); Alison MacLeod (Applecross CC); Richard Munday (Shieldaig CC); Graham Hewitt (Dornie & District CC); Isobel Stewart (Contin CC); Roy Baker (Marybank, Scatwell & Strathconon CC); Lizzie Bird (Stromeferry & Achmore CC); Roddy MacKenzie (Aultbea CC); Ken Morrison (Lochbroom CC); Margaret Denny (Wester Lochewe CC)

Officials in attendance:
Robbie Bain (Ward Manager); Chief Insp Mike Coates (Northern Constabulary), Insp Matthew Reiss (Northern Constabulary); Colin Clark (THC, Head of Waste Management); Ian Wilson (THC, Education & Enforcement Officer); Caroline Eccles (RoWAN); Claire Munday (West Coast Recycling); Mary Gibson (SNH); Fiona Downie (THC, Youth Development Officer).

And 8 Members of the public.

Introduction
Biz Campbell welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Police Issues
Chief Inspector Coates introduced himself to the Forum as replacement for Paul Eddington who had moved on to a position in Police HQ in Inverness.

Inspector Reiss outlined recent police activity in the Ward, including an incident concerning quad bikes in Contin, a mountain rescue alert on Slioch and the fire at Lochbroom House. He noted on-going policing in respect of vehicles, with about 20 vehicles per month impounded for lacking tax, MOT or insurance and speed enforcement work at Achanalt.

Points from Forum members included compliments to the police for their handling of a particular issue; the advantages of informing the local CC when problems arise and questions over whether a rise in drug-related offences was a likely consequence of recession and whether the police force was up to complement locally. Insp Reiss confirmed that the force was up to strength in both Ross & Cromarty and Skye, Lochalsh & Lochaber. No increase in drug-related offences had yet been noticed and the police continued to emphasise the benefits of intelligence-led policing.

Waste Issues
Ian Wilson, Highland Council, Education & Enforcement Officer, outlined his work and the penalties that can be charged but emphasised that he relies on people reporting incidents. Abandoned vehicles require a notice to be displayed on them for 7 days after which they can be removed and destroyed. Where the owner can be traced, the charge is £150 for removal and £150 for destruction. Fixed penalties are £40 for dog fouling, £50 for litter and £50 for flytipping. In the case of fly-tipping the case can additionally be reported to the procurator fiscal for further action.

Discussion commenced on the topic of fly-tipping, the difficulty of identifying culprits since most of the fly-tipping happens at night and the risk that bulky-uplift charges levied by the Council might add to the problem. The difficulty of getting fly-tipped debris removed from private land was raised and reference was made to the problem in respect of Railtrack and Forestry Commission land.

There were pleas for more bins and debate over whether removal of bins from car parks and lay-bys encouraged people to take control of their own waste. A plea was made for the community skips (available to Lochalsh) not to be removed and for money to be made available directly to communities to enable them to undertake litter pick-up campaigns themselves.

Colin Clark, Highland Council’s Head of Waste Management, outlined the policy background to waste management in UK and EU before going on to detail the current arrangements for collection of waste and recycling in Ward 6. Colin noted that in Ward 6 at present about 55% of households had access to Kerbside recycling, either through rural blue bins (Lochalsh, Marybank, Strathconon, Contin and Garve) or blue box/brown bin (Strathpeffer). He closed by outlining some of the developments likely to occur in the future, including in-vessel composting and energy from waste schemes.
Colin was asked when the remaining Households in Ward 6 might expect to receive a kerbside collection scheme. While he could not provide any assurances, Colin suggested that where 95% of households were receiving a kerbside collection service it may be untenable to leave the remaining 5% without such a scheme but also pointed out that to maximise capture of recyclable materials, all three elements needed to be present: a kerbside scheme and recycling points and recycling centres.

It was suggested that there was a need for skips for mixed recyclates at strategic points across the Ward rather than only at regional centres and there was discussion on the potential for community-operated local centres.

Caroline Eccles, from RoWAN (the Ross-shire Waste Action Network) spoke about the their role in waste awareness. Currently they operate a Master Composter Scheme, whereby volunteers help at events and talk to neighbours and friends. They also have staff employed in “Towards Zero Waste Communities” a project which is active in 6 communities including Ullapool. They perform school activities and Caroline showed slides from a waste audit carried out with pupils at Dingwall Academy. More information is available from the RoWAN website at www.rowanweb.org.uk

Claire Munday and Tom Forrest, gave a presentation on the West Coast Recycling Group. This group has been running since 2004 and has the aim of “reprocessing and closing the recycling loop ideally in Highland, or preferably within Scotland”. While they also have aspirations to provide recycling for cardboard, most of the attention to date has been on plastics recycling. The Shieldaig plastics scheme started in 2006 and was followed by further collection centres at Kinlochewe, Applecross & Strathcarron.

To date, 54.5 tonnes or 1784 cubic metres of segregated plastic has been collected by these communities and taken by Ferguson Transport to Invergordon.

Currently a business plan is being prepared to extend the range and scope of the collection regime and form a charitable organisation which could work with Highland Council to deliver local recycling in Wester Ross.

It was agreed that the next Forum meeting would be provisionally set for Monday 22nd or 29th June at 19.00 in Dornie Hall.