Bonnyrigg and Lasswade Community Council

Minutes of meeting
Community/School Flexible Learning room, Lasswade Library, Lasswade
Centre, Bonnyrigg.
Thursday 13 February 2020 at 7.00 p.m.

In attendance
Community Councillors: Jan Irvine (Chair), Bill MacDonald (Treasurer), Diane
Easton (Communications), Marnie Crawford (Planning), Darius Namdaran, Ruth
Scott, Owen Proudfoot
Midlothian Councillor: Dianne Alexander
Visitors: PC Keith Dolan; PC Alannah Juchniewicz, Louise Gough, Steven Gough,
Linda Kane, Gail Halley

Introduction and Welcome

Chair Jan Irvine welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Apologies for absence

Apologies were received from Community Councillors Rhona Matthews, Sheila
Metcalfe and Alison Thomson. Also, from local Midlothian Councillors Derek
Milligan and Janet Lay-Douglas.

Minutes of meeting of 13 February 2020

There were no corrections. Adoption of the minutes was proposed by CC
Marnie and seconded by CC Ruth. The minutes were duly approved as a true
record of the meeting.

Matters arising from the previous minutes

Chair Jan commented that the December police report had not mentioned any
thefts from the Co-op. Perhaps this was an indication that the store’s measure
of putting a staff member at the checkout nearest the door was working.

Police Report for January

Summary of incidents. Five road traffic incidents arising from proactive
policing. Three incidences of vandalism against vehicles or property, one drug-
related incident, one theft of tools from a parked vehicle, one theft from the
Co-op and one alcohol related incident.

Chair Jan asked if there had been any further issues with youth disorder; PC
Dolan replied that he was not aware of anything significant in the town centre.
Councillor Alexander asked if the new youth clubs were beginning to make a
difference; PC Dolan believes that there is a growing interest in them.

Visitor Steven Gough reported that around 20-30 HGV lorries per day are
making their way at speed from Rosewell past Cameron Crescent towards
Polton Road. He is concerned about the travelling speed of these lorries and
the fact that these streets are heavily populated with children going to and
from school. PC Dolan believes these lorries are coming from the quarry
outside Rosewell. PC Dolan will feed this back to the traffic team to see if
something can be done. Councillor Alexander believes the lorry drivers should
be using the Rosewell bypass and the distributor road and should not be
coming into the town.

Visitor Issues
[Bright Sparks]
Chair Jan introduced Louise Gough who is representing Bright Sparks Centre.
She reported that Bright Sparks has succeeded in gaining £45000 grant funding
to refurbish the five-a-side pitches in King George V Park. They propose to
install a multi-use games area [MUGA] in the centre of the space, with a cycle
track running around inside the perimeter fence. The MUGA will have an all-
weather surface. Louise reported that Bright Sparks has obtained from the
Council a licence to occupy and a lease is imminent, therefore they are
planning to go ahead. Bright Sparks is working with community groups and
Louise is attending the Community Council tonight to provide an update. They
have removed the old surface from the five-a-side pitches and believe the
tarmac surface beneath is in reasonable condition. Louise provided details of
the refurbishment and believes it will be completed in about six weeks. Louise
was asked about the ongoing problem of flooding in the pitches; she replied
that they did not have enough funds to address this but believes it should not
be too much of an issue. CC Darius suggested that small ditches could be
introduced to help with the drainage. Louise also noted that it will not be
possible to use the pitches in the dark because the floodlights are not currently
operational, and they would need to spend £5000 to fix them. The original
fence will remain in place.

Louise was asked who would have access to the pitches after the
refurbishment is completed. She replied that there would be allotted times for
community groups, for example football groups. Louise was then asked if the
facility would remain unlocked; she replied that this would be determined by
the terms of their insurance. There followed some discussion about this. It
was noted that Louise had made assurances to the Community Council three
years previously that the facility would remain unlocked and fully open to the
public, and it is important now that she meets that commitment. Louise
argued that the facility is Bright Sparks’ and the children and families that use
Bright Sparks will have priority and there will be community use after that. CC
Darius stated that this is Fields in Trust land and it is required by Fields in Trust
to be open to the whole public and not locked away for specialist use. Bright
Sparks would need permission from Fields in Trust to proceed; Louise replied
that this had been granted. CC Darius is concerned that if the facility is
padlocked people will be reticent to go up to Bright Sparks and ask for
permission to get the key and allow their children to play there. CC Darius
reiterated several times that this is public Fields in Trust land gifted to the
community in perpetuity.

CC Marnie commented that her understanding of the original conversation

with the Community Council three years ago was that the facility would be
locked while it was being used by the children at Bright Sparks, but not at other
times for example during school holidays and at times of the day when it was
not being used by Bright Sparks. There was an understanding that the facility
would be open when nobody was using it. Louise stated that there will not be
times when there will be open access; instead there will be slots when clubs
will be able to use it and the facility will be closed for safekeeping when it is
not being used. CC Marnie commented that the Community Council will
consider whether to pursue this with Midlothian Council and with Fields in
Trust. Chair Jan agreed that the Community Council will ask Fields in Trust and
Midlothian Council to clarify if the lease with Bright Sparks allows for the
facility to be locked while it is not being used by them and take it from there.
CC Darius argued strongly that the community own this land. One of the
problems in Bonnyrigg is that individual groups take over one piece after
another piece and as the population multiplies over time future generations
will have no public space left. He believes it is important to protect land like
this now so that it’s not just accepted in future that it will be locked. It was
also noted that in practical terms community groups are effectively running
businesses under the umbrella of providing community facilities. The
Community Council’s experience of this is that when people get leases for
sports pavilions etc they are effectively taken out of public use. The
Community Council’s role is to reflect the will of the whole town. The public
have rights to this land and the Community Council must state that they
believe the community would like it to stay unlocked. Action: CC Marnie will
follow this up with Midlothian Council and Fields in Trust.
[Waverley Park]
Visitor Linda Kane reported that residents in the Waverleys believe that
someone wants to take over the pavilion at the Waverleys, run it as a
community centre and perhaps even expand into the park. Residents are in
opposition to this on the grounds of increased traffic through the surrounding
streets and especially into the car park at the pavilion, which will negatively
affect the local population. It will also affect people in the Waverleys who use
Waverley Park which is the only green space for their community. The visitors
report that there is already a high volume of traffic from parents using the
playgroup in the pavilion. Parents come from Gorebridge and other areas
outside Bonnyrigg and drop their children off at breakfast club early in the
morning, before they are taken to primary school. They believe also that
parents are driving into the Waverleys and parking there to avoid the parking
restriction around Lasswade Primary School.

The park was originally a piece of derelict land when the railway ran through
Bonnyrigg. It was created for residents in the ‘steamies’ [as the Waverleys are
known], and the Wimpeys. The visitors want help from the Community
Council to secure the park for their community. CC Darius suggested that the
residents form a community group and take it over to run it as a community
hall. They could lease it to community groups and would be in control over
how the facility is used. CC Marnie suggested looking at options to restrict the
volume of traffic into Waverley Drive which is the route into the pavilion car
park. Linda replied that they have tried this and have not made any progress.
CC Bill suggested a prohibition order like that outside Lasswade Primary
School. CC Marnie understood that there were objections about a previous
asset transfer request because the proposal was to make the facility so much
bigger. Chair Jan advised them to ask the Council for an impact statement,
looking at the impact on the lives of the residents and children living nearby.

CC Darius suggested restrictions to traffic on grounds of accessibility. For

example, cars would not be allowed into the park unless needed for disabled
access. Residents could then support an asset transfer request on the
condition inserted into the perpetual lease for the land that no cars are
allowed into the park except for disabled vehicles. That way the problem
would be resolved in the longer term. Linda and Gail felt this would just push
the problem outwards and visitors to the park would just park in the
surrounding streets. They argue that as well as the traffic to the pavilion, there
is traffic from other users such as dog walkers and a fitness boot camp that
uses the park.

CC Darius commented that the Council own the pavilion and the Council are
desperate to get rid of these facilities because they don’t want to pay for them.
The odds are stacked against the residents unless they are prepared to
negotiate conditions before anyone gets the lease. He recommended making
it a pedestrian only park and the residents ask for a barrier to enforce access
for disabled and delivery vehicles only. This would provide a long-term
solution as it would restrict the pavilion from growing into something bigger
because parking would be needed for that. The Community Council would
support this. The residents were asked to think about this and work out what
they want to do.
Action: Chair Jan will go down early one morning next week to have a look.

Report from Midlothian Councillors

Councillor Alexander reported that their focus was on the Council budget and
the council tax rate increase. After consultations with local and government
agencies, the decision was made to increase the rate to 3% and add the rate of
inflation, so a total increase of 4.84%. The Council had had been affected by
the delays in the UK and Scottish governments budgetary processes and had
had to predict how much revenue they would receive. When the Scottish
budget was published, there was a 17% drop in capital budget for all local
authorities, which equated to £1.7m for Midlothian. The drop is half as bad as
Council officers had feared. The Council has approximately £5m in reserve.

Chair Jan believes that Midlothian still receives less money from the budget
than West Dunbartonshire even though Midlothian is a far bigger area.
Councillor Alexander described West Dunbartonshire as a shrinking council and
said they have more need than growing councils. The Scottish Government
allocates a block grant to COSLA who then decide the funding level for
individual local authorities. The funding formula was agreed a long time ago
but is still used despite the changes in local authorities such as Midlothian.

Councillor Alexander was asked what was happening with the community asset
side of things in the town. She replied that they are not included in any
negotiations until the transfer request comes before them and there is nothing
just now. CC Darius asked whether the Council has a statutory obligation to
inform the Community Council of community asset transfers. CC Marnie
replied that historically the Council’s Communities Team has sent the details in
an e-mail to the Community Council. Also, the Council’s website has a page
showing all ongoing community asset transfer requests.

Chair Jan informed Councillor Alexander that she planned to contact the
Council’s Highways team to complain that the two main routes into Bonnyrigg
have temporary traffic lights. She’s concerned about the number of times each
road has been dug up; the road in the High Street has been dug up six times
since the new development went up. This is bad planning. It shouldn’t be
allowed to close of both arterial routes into a town at the same time.

CC Diane described what she observed one afternoon at Hardengreen. Traffic

passing from Bonnyrigg through the temporary lights was being held up at the
roundabout. This was causing a queue of cars in the section of road between
the two sets of traffic lights. When the lights turned green for traffic going
towards Bonnyrigg, these cars could not move forward because the road was
blocked by cars stuck in the other direction. Going further on, she saw traffic
queueing on and around the Hardengreen roundabout. Traffic was queueing
from both ends of the A7 onto the roundabout. Traffic was queued from the
Eskbank and Tesco junctions onto the Hardengreen roundabout. All the roads
and junctions onto Hardengreen roundabout were completely gridlocked and
nothing could move until the temporary lights towards Bonnyrigg changed to
green for long enough to allow some traffic to pass through.

Councillor Alexander reported that there is meant to be a notice of who owns

those traffic lights, who is putting them up. You can phone them up and if you
find that the lights are there unnecessarily it can be reported to the Council.
CC Jan replied that the issue is not whether the temporary lights are necessary,
but the fact that someone in the Council is issuing permits to have these roads
dug up again and again. Both roads should not be affected at the same time.
If Bonnyrigg was affected by a major incident, how are the emergency services
supposed to be able to get into the town to deal with it? Also, the roadworks
are affecting the shops in the High Street. One of the reasons for the closure
of the decorator shop is that when the roadworks have been outside their
takings have been next to nothing. People try and avoid the area and they
can’t park nearby.

Councillor Lay-Douglas had asked for her report to be read out in her absence.
She was disappointed by the Scottish budget and felt that more of what local
government does is directed by Scottish Government. Has responded to
matters around Poltonhall, Hopefield, Bonnyrigg and Lasswade, specifically
concerns over traffic when the new primary school campus opens in April. Has
sent a copy of the traffic management measures to CC Marnie who will send it
onto Community Councillors. The measures include pedestrian entrances,
20mph roundels painted, the bus layby will be changed to a single yellow line.
There will be no parking, but drop-offs will be allowed. Will be attending the
school’s open morning on 21 February. Parking and disabled spaces in the car
park of the old surgery to be repainted. Refers to trees being taken down
behind the Laird and Dog prior to consent being granted. Has received letters
of complaint but now that the trees have been removed it’s not clear what
action can be taken. The public toilets in Bonnyrigg; Councillor Lay-Douglas
has discussed these further with Council officers. Believes there is a need for
more charging points for electric cars. Has contacted a Councillor in Edinburgh
about litter being dropped on the Lasswade Road on verges beneath the
bypass and around the ‘Welcome to Midlothian’ signs and is hopeful this will
be taken seriously.

Financial Report
Treasurer CC Bill passed round copies of a bank statement which shows a £200
entry. This has been paid by the Bank of Scotland as compensation for errors
in sorting out the signatories for the Community Council’s bank account. Also
new paperwork authorising the bank of the new signatories; CCs Diane and
Darius to sign the new forms. CC Bill asked if we wanted to vary the
authorisation to sign; did we want to have one person or two people to sign
cheques. CCs Darius and Diane both replied that it should remain as two
signatories. CC Bill commented that he hadn’t seen the petty cash (£34.82)
which is mentioned in the end of year balance. CC Diane replied that she had
been given the box with all the bank papers last year and perhaps it was in
there; she’ll have a look when she gets home.

CC Darius wanted to include an item to the Financial Report. The Bonnyrigg

Community Hub wants to stop being a limited company and return to being an
ordinary community group. Before they do this, they’d like to transfer some of
their funds, around £500, to the Community Council for any future community
bonfires. This is money that is already ring-fenced for this purpose and they’d
like to transfer it with the condition that the Community Council ring-fences it
also for the running costs of the community bonfire. Chair Jan stated that the
Community Council should be under no obligation to run the bonfire. CC
Darius agreed and proposed to write a letter stating that while it would be
preferable, there is no obligation for the money to be used for the bonfire and,
according to the constitution, it will be ring-fenced for community gatherings.
This motion was proposed by CC Marnie and seconded by Chair Jan and was
duly carried.

Secretary’s Report
Minute Secretary. CC Diane had contacted CC Sheila’s family member but was
advised that they could not take on this role. She has put together a short
note to post on the Community Council Facebook page and read this out to
those present. CC Diane asked if they would be happy with the post; everyone
agreed and the post will be put up as soon as possible. CC Diane also
mentioned that she has begun to restrict her Facebook use to the Community
Council page only; she is concerned that when she ‘shares’ posts to other
Facebook pages, for example the Residents’ Forum, it’s her own name that
appears as the sharer rather than the Community Council. CC Darius offered
to change it so that the Community Council links to the Forum so that when CC
Diane posts items from the CC page to the Residents’ Forum it will be as the
Community Council. CC Diane was very happy for CC Darius to do this.

CC Owen had been helping with the minutes for a few months last year. He
apologised to everyone present for not being able to continue doing this.

CC Darius offered to ask his assistant to type the minutes for next month and
he will absorb the cost. He also mentioned that his company may be able to
employ dictation software that recognises people’s voices. So, when they
introduced themselves at the beginning of the meeting, their voices would be
identified when they spoke during the meeting. CC Diane will co-ordinate this
with CC Darius’ PA.

Midlothian Federation of Community Council’s mailing list. There were a

couple of issues arising from the recent change to the Community Council
chairperson. CC Marnie has been removed from the mailing list. CC Rhona has
asked to be added to the Federation mailing list; CC Diane has asked for this to
be done.

CC Diane has started a ‘list of items’ which summarises information arising

from e-mails coming into the Community Council and plans to start issuing this
instead of bombarding everyone with all the e-mails. The document will
contain links to any surveys or web pages which might be of interest. Items
this month include the Council’s planning framework, constitutional policing,
the World VE Day celebrations, a list of forthcoming Federation meetings, an
article about the weedkiller situation in Midlothian, and a free workshop to run
by the Scottish Parliament in Dalkeith.

Twinning Account
CC Jan has spoken with the President of Lasswade Rugby Club; she has been
reassured that they still have twinning links with a town in France. She also
noted that Lasswade Rugby Club now has over 3000 young people. The rugby
club has had a meeting with SRU and has been commended for the amount of
work they are doing in the community. Chair Jan will put this to tonight’s
meeting and asked the two signatories [CC Darius and his wife Jo] to sign the
cheque. Chair Jan will arrange for a presentation of the cheque and a photo
for the Midlothian Advertiser.

A Twinning Association meeting will be held at the end of this meeting.

Roads, Pavements, Traffic

CC Rhona will be attending the next MTRAP meeting on 24 February and she’ll
update the Community Council in March.

Chair Jan mentioned the planned development at Sheriffhall Roundabout and

how much bigger this is to be. She will try and bring copies of the brochure to
the next meeting.

Items of interest from Midlothian Federation of Community Councils

This was dealt with in the Secretary’s Report.

Scottish Water Top-up Taps

CC Bill advised that a top-up tap is being installed in Penicuik. CC Bill is still
liaising with Scottish Water to see if one can be installed in Bonnyrigg.

BLCC Support for the Friday Night Youth Drop-in project

CC Bill has suggested making a contribution in support of this project. He
thinks it would be a good idea if they had a table tennis table and would the
Community Council be prepared to contribute £150. Chair Jan and the other
Community Councillors were happy for CC Bill to donate the sum (£200)
awarded by the Bank of Scotland as compensation for the bank account
signatory issues. CC Darius suggested that we don’t specify that it’s to be for a
table tennis table. Instead they should use it for equipment depending on
what the kids would like. Everyone was happy with this.
Any Other Competent Business
CC Diane asked CC Marnie about recent correspondence regarding the GP
practice boundary. A journalist from a Sunday newspaper had been looking
into an allegation that GP practices were taking patients from their lists. CC
Marnie looked into it and there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that this is
happening.

Planning
CC Marnie commented that there is not much to report. She has written to the
Council about the proposed development at Golf Course Road, Bonnyrigg and
this has been brought to the attention of the planning committee. Some of the
residents have thanked Marnie for doing this. There is an issue at Lasswade
with trees being cut down to make way for a development behind the Laird
and Dog pub. This is a conservation area and the developer should have had
the landscape plan approved before they went ahead. Other major planning
applications are currently on hold.

Date of Next Meeting

Thursday 13th March at 6.45pm for 7pm
Venue: Community/School Flexible Learning room, Lasswade Library, Lasswade
Centre, Bonnyrigg.