Merchiston Community Council —Minutes of Annual General Meeting (AGM) by Zoom
Date: 18 June 2024
Chaired by Ian Doig, Chair of Merchiston Community Council (MCC)
Started: 20:18
Ended: 20:50
Present: MCC Members: Ian Doig (ID, Chair), Vivien Kitteringham (VK, Vice-Chair, Minute-taker), Frances Hawarden (FH, Treasurer), Bridget Stevens (BS, Licensing lead), Mairianna Clyde (MC, Planning lead), Raphael Uddin (Associate member, Boroughmuir High School), Roma Menlowe (RM, Zoom Host), Joan Houston (JH), Vanessa Meadu (VM)
Councillors: Val Walker, (VW, Fountainbridge and Craiglockhart), Neil Ross (NR, Morningside).
Residents: Grahame, Kay Smith
- Introduction by Chair, Apologies & Declarations of Interest
ID: All community councils (CCs) are obliged to have an Annual General Meeting and as part of that to appoint office bearers for the forthcoming year.and also to produce an annual report.
Apologies were received from John McKenna, Ruben Manso, Helen Zealley, Klaus Glenk,Daniel Cairns (Secretary) – all MCC – and Councillors Christopher Cowdy, David Key, Claire Munro.
There were no declarations of interest.
- Minutes of AGM of 20th June 2023
The minutes from the AGM of June 2023 were unanimously approved as a true record of the meeting.
- Annual Report (view here)
ID: This records the membership and activities of MCC over the year 2023-24, incorporating reports from office-bearers and is quite lengthy. It discusses the review of CCs being carried out by CEC, which has been discussed at several MCC meetings. ID’s view is that the objective of the review should have been to strengthen CCs and encourage residents’ participation especially at the forthcoming CC elections, probably to be held in the autumn of this year. However it is difficult to find residents to participate and stay and ID has commented on the difficulties of CCs in the review, e.g. lack of resources both financial and in terms of practical support, especially given the new demands to be placed on CCs such as notifying CEC of every meeting 10 days in advance or limiting the tenure of the Chair to maximally 5 years. These demands could lead to more difficulties in recruiting members. ID would particularly like to see more administrative support, especially in terms of IT, for example website maintenance and facilitating the hybrid meetings that CEC suggests. This review is a live issue among all CCs in the city.
The Annual Report also includes reports from the engagement officer, secretary and licensing lead and a summary of planning issues, a police report and summary of finances.
MCC projects throughout the year are mentioned: the Polwarth Pavements Improvement Project (PPIP) and the leaf clearing project as well as joint activities with the Edinburgh Union Cnal Society (EUCS) and other organisations.
Finally ID thanked all members of MCC for their hard work, all 7 ward councillors for their support, attendance at meetings and willingness to respond to residents’ concerns. MCC appears to be particularly fortunate in this respect. Finally thanks to CEC officers for their support, e.g. on the leaf clearing project, and to our residents for their activities, support and comments.
JH thanked ID for his excellent and comprehensive report.
- Audited Accounts for Financial Year ended 31st March 2024 (Attached here)
FH: Overall MCC is now £37 better off than at the beginning of the financial year and has a balance of £3741, some of which is available to spend appropriately.
FH suggested that the honorarium given to our auditor Mr. Allen should be increased from £30 to £35. After discussion it was agreed to increase the auditor’s honorarium to £40.
FH also regretted the total lack of support from CEC for moving to making payments digitally . ID agreed and added that he too has been endeavouring to get MCC moved into the digital age.
ID proposed that MCC adopt the accounts for 2023-24, seconded by Vivien Kitteringham and agreed unanimously by MCC.
- Office Bearers for 2024-25 – Proposals
ID: In the light of elections for all community councils being expected to take place in autumn 2024 it is proposed to reappoint the current office bearers, planning lead and licensing lead team for 2024-2025 and to split the role of secretary into Social Media Secretary and Minutes and Meetings Secretary, since the role of secretary requires a great deal of support.
First turning to the other office bearers and leads: Chair: Bridget Stevens nominated Ian Doig, seconded by Vivien Kitteringham – no further nominations.
Ian Doig nominated Vivien Kitteringham as Vice-Chair and Engagement Officer, seconded by Joan Houston – no further nominations. Roma Menlowe proposed Frances Hawarden as Treasurer, seconded by Bridget Stevens – no further nominations. These appointments were unanimously approved.
Mairianna Clyde is to continue as planning lead and Bridget Stevens as licensing lead. (BS clarified that she will do this pro tem due to other commitments and having served on the council for 22 years – she gave notice that she will stand down in the near future).
There has been a need to find a website manager and resident Neil Anderson, retiring this month, has agreed to take on the role and is also very interested in and knowledgeable about local history. MCC approved this suggestion which will be formalised at a later date.
It was proposed that Vanessa Meadu take on the role of Social Media Manager and this was unanimously approved. The rearrangement of the secretarial roles will be finalised in due course.
- Any Other Business
BS: extended MCC’s huge appreciation to Ian Doig for his excellent chairmanship of MCC, which the other members echoed. ID thanked MCC, pointing out that it is one of the largest and most dynamic of the 46 Edinburgh CCs.
The meeting ended at 20:50