Here are the approved minutes of the 2023 AGM.
BENARTY COMMUNITY COUNCIL AGM THURSDAY 4 MAY 2023
Present: John Purdie, Debbie Doyle, Lisa Reid, Charlotte Howe, Sarah Ratcliffe, Jack Colquhoun
Chair Welcome
Chair welcomed all to the meeting.
Apologies Tom Kinnaird, Peter Keicher, Anne Hay, Steven Scott, Police.
Declarations of interest
No declarations of interest were made
Minutes of previous meeting
The minutes of the pervious meeting were read. They were proposed as correct by Debbie Doyle and seconded by Jack Colquhoun
Matters arising
There were no matters arising
Chair Annual Statement
Firstly thank you all for coming along tonight, and thank you to the community councillors who give up their time to sit on the council and keep it running.
It’s been a busy year, and not just in terms of leadership changes.
We started with an uphill battle—we wanted to change the perception of the community council within the community. As a team, we came up with lots of ideas and also changes in how the meetings were run. These changes made the meetings more inclusive and welcoming to members of the public, from little things such as serving refreshments to changing the running order so comments could be taken from the public gallery throughout the meeting.
Several of our ideas have either been fully implemented or are works in progress— such as pressing for the Bells project to finally begin, the start-up of a community newsletter, attending meetings and groups which affect our area (Westfield, Climate Action, Path Feasibility, Community Centre etc,) and working with the schools on initiatives such as Litter Busters.
But sadly, the one thing we’ve been unable to make much improvement on is community participation—in both attending the meetings or taking up a role within the community council. For the coming year, hopefully, we can carry on doing the good work we are doing and that we also manage to engage the community, after all our council exists for them, and we want them to be a part of it.
So, I’d like to thank you all again and I hope we can continue to work together to help our great wee community flourish and tackle any issues arising as best we can.
Financial Reports
A financial report was presented by the Treasurer. Charlotte Howe raised a point of order about the audited accounts. It was mentioned there was little time to have the accounts audited after the close of the financial year and before the AGM, one of the reasons there was a proposal to look at meeting dates and dates of the AGM.
Procedural Decisions
The Community Council agreed to change the date of the AGM from May to June, and agreed to leave the regular meeting dates as the first Thursday of each month with the exception of july and August. The Community Council also agreed to adopt the constitution previously circulated to all community councillors
Election of Officials
The Office Bearers stood down. Charlotte Howe proposed that all officials remain in the current posts, assuming the officials would acquiesce, Sarah Ratcliffe seconded this. Debbie Doyle, John Purdie and Jack Colquhoun agreed to the proposal and were re elected into their respective offices of Chair, Secretary and Treasurer.
Any other Competent Business
There was no additional business
Chair thanked everyone and closed the AGM.
Date of Next AGM was agreed as Thursday 1 June 2024
