March 19th – Meeting Agenda

March 19th – Meeting Agenda

Our next Community Council meeting will be held on Tuesday 19th March in the Allan Centre GP room.
 
The meeting starts at 7.30pm and any member of the public is welcome to attend.  We will be joined by people and organisations that work together for the people of Bridge of Allan, the community policing team, Friends of Bridge of Allan and elected representatives when their calender permits.  
 
This month we have on our Agenda:
 
👉 Police report 
👉 Common Good Fund Asset Transfer
👉 Residents voice
👉 Sunnylaw Land Auction – see the latest update
👉 Local Development Plan – Evidence Outcomes
👉 Tennis Courts
👉 Local Place Plan 
👉 Succession Planning/Co option
👉 Christmas Lights
👉 Planning Applications Report
 
Reports from our position holders – Chair, Secretary, Treasurer
Cornton Road Rail Crossing

Cornton Road Rail Crossing

At our February meeting we were joined by Tracy the Network Rail Level Crossing Manager to talk about recent issues using the crossing.  Proplems in this are not however new, see our post from 2022. 

Tracey had responsibility for 56 crossings.  She reassured us that the Cornton Road Crossing (No1) was inspected every 16 weeks.  They are encountering approximately two incidents per week, which are caught on the cameras.  Drivers caught remaining on the crossing, or entering when they should not, could face penalty points and fines.  Check out this RAC guide to level crossings for everything you need to know.

The Cornton Road crossing is extremely busy with 4,000 vehicles a day (double the average) and 431 pedestrians using it. 

Should you become stuck on the crossing you are however safe, due to the crossing being equipped with the latest obstacle detection technology that scans the area of the crossing to ensure that it is clear before trains are permitted to approach. If vehicles or pedestrians are within the crossing area, only the entry barriers will be activated so that no further vehicles can enter the area and trains will be instructed to stop. Only when the crossing area is clear will the exit barriers be activated and trains allowed to approach the level crossing.

We would like to remind you that it is very important that when driving this route you do not enter the railway crossing without knowing that your exit is clear.  So please be patient and be aware that vehicles in front of you may not move until they are sure they can safely exit the crossing. 

Sunnylaw Road remains closed

Sunnylaw Road has been closed since a garden wall collapsed into the road in April 2023.  A temporary road closure order is in place until April 2024.   The closure is regularly reviewed by Stirling Council who risk assess if the route is safe to be open. 

Many residents have been in touch with us and the Ward Councilors about the inconvenience the closure is causing them.  Requiring diversion on via a busy Henderson street, steep Ferniebank Brae  and the occasionally flooded Blairforkie drive.  Alternatively some are enjoying the reduction in traffic on the route.

The remaining part of the wall at the corner is unstable and barriers are there to protect people from this risk.  Unfortunately the situation to resolve the  problems with the wall are legally and technically complex. While the road remains closed and the barriers in place please be patient and respect the risk management and do not interfere with the fencing. 

Be assured that all parties want this resolved as soon as possible.  If you are being adversely affected by the closure please pass your comments on to your ward councilors who are working with Stirling Council and the property owner.

Sunnylaw Action Group Update – March 2024

Sunnylaw Action Group Update – March 2024

Lots has happened since our last update in February, with the action group meeting fortnightly to ensure we’re in the best possible position to secure ownership of the Sunnylaw land for the community.

As well as launching our community survey,  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CCBOASUNNY which is open until Friday 15 March, we have been working on our bid for the purchase.  We want to tell the owners of the land more about our community and why selling this land to us would mean so much.  The responses we’ve had to the survey so far have helped us tell that story – so thank you to the 350 of you who have already responded.  If you haven’t had a chance to respond yet, please take a few minutes to complete the survey – the more responses we have the stronger our case is.

We heard this week that we can’t use the Common Good Fund to buy the land – this was always a possible outcome, and while it’s disappointing, it’s not the end of our bid.

A number of very generous local residents have pledged financial support to allow us to privately fund a bid on the land, which will give us the funding to make an offer as planned.  If that’s something you’d be interested in discussing please get in touch with the group through amanda@ccbridgeofallan.org.uk before the 18th March.

Not only do we have the funding to make an offer but our very own Development Trust, Discover Bridge of Allan, is in a position to act as the holder of the land for the community.  This means that the future management of Sunnylaw would be co-ordinated through the trust, and that any decisions about how to use it would be made through the community. 

Everyone who lives in Bridge of Allan can become a member of the trust for free, ensuring you’ll have a say in any decisions about Sunnylaw once its in community ownership.

We’ll update you again closer to the closing date for the land – get in touch through this page if you want to find out more.

Stirling Council publishes 2024-25 draft budget with proposals to bridge £16m shortfall

Stirling Council publishes 2024-25 draft budget with proposals to bridge £16m shortfall

Stirling Council have published the draft budget and proposals with recommendations to accept or reject the various proposals that you may have seen through the Big Conversation Survey.

Residents have been in touch with us to highlight concern over the future of our local library service in particular, but also community centres.  See the Save our Libraries petition.

The Budget meeting will take place on the 29th of February and will be attended by our elected members.  

The full press release from Stirling Council is as follows.

Stirling Council has published its draft budget for 2024-25 which includes a number of savings proposals to address a shortfall of over £16m.

councillors will consider and make the decisions on the budget at a special meeting of council next Thursday (29 Feb).

Stirling Council, like all other local authorities in Scotland, is facing an unprecedented financial challenge for a number of reasons including funding pressures, rising costs and inflation and increasing demand for services.

The savings proposals to plug the gap have been informed by feedback from residents who took part in the council’s ‘Big Conversation’, an important exercise featuring an online survey and a series of drop-in events across the council area.

More than 3,400 people participated in the online survey on nearly 50 savings proposals. The results are now available to view on our Engage Stirling site, as well as the Big Conversation webpage

Almost 700 people attended 24 events across the council area between August and December last year, which included eight larger events where members of the public could talk directly to services.

The budget reports, including the revenue budget and proposed capital programme, as well as the administration motions, can be downloaded here.

Stirling Council Leader Cllr Chris Kane said: “The budget-setting process has been hugely challenging for everyone involved, with mounting financial pressures forcing every council service to propose savings proposals to help achieve a balanced budget.

“No one wants to be in a position to be proposing cuts like these; but this is our financial reality, with rising costs and demand for delivering services. While it doesn’t make it any less painful, we are certainly not alone with councils across Scotland having to make very difficult choices.

“I would like to thank everyone who took part in our ‘Big Conversation’ on the budget that started back in August 2023, whether that was taking part in the online survey, coming along to the drop-in events or writing to us on a number of issues. Your feedback, ideas and suggestions have been invaluable and have helped inform the proposals put forward. 

“There will be no easy choices at next week’s budget meeting of all councillors, but it’s critical we keep Stirling Council on a firm financial footing to continue delivering the local services we all rely on.”

You can watch the budget-setting meeting and to find links to the agenda papers on the council’s online broadcasting platform.

For more information, including the equality and socio-economic impact documentation for the council’s 2024-25 budget saving proposals, please visit stirling.gov.uk/bigconversation

Why does Stirling Council have an estimated budget shortfall of over £16m?

The council’s budget gap for 2024-25 was estimated to have been around £13million at the end of last year, a figure highlighted in our Big Conversation with residents. This has increased to due to new and ongoing financial pressures.

In Stirling Council nearly 79% of the budget comes from a Scottish Government grant and our share of the Government’s non-domestic rates or business rates, with the rest raised from council tax.

On 19 December, the Scottish Government published its Local Government Settlement for 2024-25 – the annual funding award for councils – which included funding for a potential council tax freeze.

COSLA, a cross-party organisation that is the voice of local government in Scotland, calculated this amounted to a cut in core revenue funding (the money used to deliver key services like bin collections, education and roads maintenance) for councils of £62.7m for 2024-25, meaning the funding offered for a council tax freeze only equated to a 2.8% rise. Last year, Stirling Council raised council tax by 7%. 

An independent report published this month by the Institute of Fiscal Studies shows funding available to Scottish councils will only go up by 1.8% in real terms next year, coming at a time when councils continue to face a perfect storm as demand for services increases along with the price of delivering them.

The report on the council’s budget says that once ring-fenced grants and new funding which come with spending commitments were removed, the council’s core grant allocation from the Scottish Government for 2024-25 decreased by £1.295m from last year.

It also highlighted that the Scottish Government draft budget provides £147m for the council tax freeze across all Scottish local authorities, with the council’s provisional share amounting to £2.923M, equating to a 4.9% increase in Council Tax.

Verified by MonsterInsights