Spean Bridge, Roy Bridge and Achnacarry Community Council
SPEAN Bridge, Roy Bridge and Achnacarry Community Council held its November meeting at Kilmonivaig Church Hall recently.
Items discussed included: The road surface at the junction of the A82 and A86 had broken up in two areas. BEAR Scotland sealed the holes and promised an investigation to determine why the surface had deteriorated after two years.
Chairman John Fotheringham had written to Donald Cameron MSP who had offered to host a meeting with Transport Scotland at Holyrood to discuss local road safety issues including Telford Bridge, pedestrian crossings on the A82 and A86, trunk road access, speed limits, signs, Aonachan crossroads and repeated overnight closures on the A86.
The community council agreed to examine whether the use of social media should be used to promote community council work.
It has been confirmed the B8004 at the Commando Memorial will be prioritised for resurfacing in the new financial year, but as an interim measure the worst potholes will be treated with a coarse material. Highland Council has requested the prompt removal of used road signs and will remove and store these themselves if this is not carried out.
Discussions with Highland Council’s housing development manager had brought assurances of no further commuted affordable housing payments for the foreseeable future. Spean Bridge is now a priority area for affordable housing. Roy Bridge, Gairlochy and other areas will not be forgotten and when opportunities occur they will be examined.
The community council has received notice of a major development on the 4.4 hectare site opposite Spean Crescent in Spean Bridge, which will be subject to a community consultation in March 2018.
As far as the community council has been able to determine, telephone boxes at Tulloch, Gairlochy and Bohuntin will remain, with Murlaggan, Achnacarry and Roy Bridge Drill Hall being removed, although a year has elapsed since the consultation without any formal notification from BT.
New Citylink coaches have been deployed on the Fort William to Inverness route.
The chairman will submit a request for village halls to be reinstated as polling stations and for the community council area be used for all elections to allow residents at Corrour easier access to a polling station at Roy Bridge by either road or rail.
The chairman attended a national resilience conference. It was agreed a resilience committee should be formed with Ian Langley and Amy Exeter taking the lead.
A complaint about car parking at Spean Bridge Railway Station had led to Abellio ScotRail and Network Rail confirming car parking for rail passengers is available on both sides of the railway lines.
The treasurer reported Highland Council had decided it was inappropriate for the ward discretionary fund to support Christmas party funding in its cumulative form. After a debate it was decided the chairman should write and highlight concerns and suggest this might be an opportunity under the community empowerment act to delegate a sum to community councils to support local charities that are neither constituted or have bank accounts.
The chairman said he hoped to schedule presentations by SSE on CoireGlas and Ronnie Macrae of Highland Small Communities Housing Trust on plans for affordable housing locally over the next two months.
A request to repair the 20mph warning lights at Spean Bridge Primary School and turn off the ones at Roy Bridge School will be made to BEAR Scotland after intervention from the public.
Inappropriate car parking in Aonachan Gardens and Altour Road in Spean Bridge was concerning residents and Police Scotland will be asked to investigate. The absence of a police officer at community council meetings will also be raised.
The chairman was asked to write to CJ Lang, owner of the village Spar Shop, requesting it tidy up the area surrounding the shop.
The experiment of moving to Kilmonivaig Church Hall appears to have been a success so the community council will continue to meet there for the next few months.