WHAT are ERC proposing.
No further engagement and support by the Council
Given the following (only a few extracts) some may be inclined to believe that a lack of this kind of support would be a blessing.
Clarkston Community Council Minutes 15th April 2013
Alex Hewetson wants to introduce a computer system for the Accounts but it was deemed unnecessary given the small amounts involved. AH has also sent information on honoraria and mileage and it was questioned why so much time appears to be spent scrutinising the CC Accounts when they consist of such relatively small amounts.
EK asked if everyone had received and completed their Community Engagement Review Survey from Alex Hewetson. It was mentioned at the last joint CC meeting that there have been so many surveys and reviews but nothing has moved forward. The CC’s want to work with the Council and have their support but there is concern that things have become too dictatorial.
Clarkston Community Council Minutes 2nd September 2013
Alex Hewetson, Community Planning and Engagement Team, ERC welcomed everyone to the first Clarkston Community Council meeting following the recent Community Council elections. He explained that he would chair the first part of the meeting until the election of Office Bearers had been completed. AH questioned the CC’s Agenda, stating that the Constitution required to be adopted prior to the election of office bearers. EK stated that the constitution could not actually be signed by the Chairperson prior to said Chairperson being elected and therefore the Agenda order would be adhered to.
Clarkston Community Council Minutes 7th October 2013
Alex Hewetson notified CCC that he had done all the lets for the year to June 2014.It was discovered, by chance, that in fact no lets had been done at all for CCC. EK notified Jim Sneddon ERC regarding this.
Clarkston Community Council Minutes 2nd December 2013
EK highlighted that Jim Sneddon, ERC was contacted on the 27th November regarding the approved CCC minutes for October 2013 not being put on ERC’s website and he has not responded. Mr Sneddon had previously explained that the minutes would be put on the website within 14 days of receipt and this has not been the case. Mr Hewetson had been contacted in October regarding the most up to date minutes for CCC on the ERC website being April. The most recent minutes are being put in CCC’s notice board as soon as possible after approval to enable the community to be kept informed
Clarkston Community Council Minutes 6th January 2013
EK reported that Alex Hewetson had failed to include CCC (and others) in important emails. VMcK questioned this and wanted specific details of the actual emails. EK replied the emails regarded a meeting on the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill. This became evident at the Joint CC meeting in December and another CC kindly forwarded the two emails that CCC had not received from Alex Hewetson, to ensure that we had the relevant information. ERC have been informed of this as the situation is unacceptable and it is very concerning that an officer from the Community Engagement and Planning team has failed, on more than one occasion to notify CCC of important information that was sent to other CC’s. There is further concern that CCC could have been excluded from other information
Busby Community Council Minutes 18th March 2013
4) COMMUNITY PLANNING TEAM – ERC
Alex Hewetson asked if he could record this part of the meeting and explained that the recording
would be deleted as soon as minutes had been written up. Alex spoke of the Christie
Commission report and meetings that are being held with community councils, elected members
and heads of service on Community Empowerment and Engagement. George explained that we
had asked for the information in advance of this meeting some time ago, the information was
only circulated to community council members on Friday this is not sufficient time for members
to prepare themselves. George also confirmed that Busby CC is not in favour of taking on any of
the council facilities and gave the Dumfries and Galloway example. Long conversation followed
with general agreement that the papers received from Alex Hewetson were difficult to read and
badly written. John requested that Alex define exactly what he and his team mean by this. Alex’
colleague Alasdair explained that the paper is a discussion based paper and that they are here to
guide us through it. George went on to explain that community councils in East Renfrewshire
have been through this process on a number of occasions, sat on various committees and
subgroups and basically everyone is fed up that nothing is ever done. Alasdair suggested that
we try to progress this in a positive light and not dwell on the past. George again re-iterated
that the paperwork should have been supplied at the time of organising the meeting not at the
last minute. George went onto explain that Busby CC has a history of problems with Alex and his
department, the following examples were given:
• E-mails on 29 June, 27 July and 23 August regarding the Grant to which there was no
response, Jim Sneddon informed George on 23 August that he had passed the issue to
Alex.
• Alex Hewetson wrote a letter to Busby CC on 25 September – George has never received
this letter and Alex Hewetson was to check the mail register at ERC – this has never been
done. George also questioned the fact that after all these month’s years of e-mail all of
a sudden a letter was mailed?
• Linda Devlin resigned from Busby CC – this was detailed in the October 2012 minutes,
Alex Hewetson was also informed of this by Sandra Kennedy on 29 October, why did it
take until 23 January 2013 for Linda to be removed. Also one of the contributing factors
to Linda’s resignation was that the training material that was promised by the
Community Planning team never materialised.
• 17 December – Alex Hewetson agreed to forward Busby CC’s complaint to Stage 2 – this
was never done and Alex Hewetson decided on 9 January that Busby CC did not have a
valid complaint and he failed to inform Busby CC of this
• Request was made to change the contact e-mail address for Busby CC – why did this take
3 months to do.
Alex Hewetson feels that resolutions that he has achieved have been positive and gave the
example of agreeing the full administrative grant with Jim Sneddon. Alex also agrees with
Alasdair’s point that we should be moving forward.
General discussion about ERC and agreed that point has been made – move onto the documents
sent by the Community Planning Team and agree to look at them and discuss further at next
meeting. Alasdair took note of John Bunclark’s questions and promised to get back to us as soon
as possible. Agreed to sit down at our next meeting and formulate answers which Sandra will
then e-mail to the Community Planning Team
Thornliebank Community Council Minutes 1st October 2013
Co-option question
The request to co-opt Lisa Patton had been discussed, among other matters, at a
meeting on 16th September. A secret ballot had been taken which turned down Ms
Patton’s application by 8 votes to 2. Ms Patton insisted that this meeting was invalid.
She also said that she was disgusted by some of the comments that had been made
about her: that she was “political.” Mrs Mullen read out a letter that Mr Adam had
sent to the chief executive about Mr Hewetson. The comment was made that lack of
communications from Alex Hewetson and Jim Sneddon to the Community Council
had lead to a difficult situation: the propriety of the 16th September meeting was in
question. Mr McPhail suggested that the decisions taken at that meeting be ratified
tonight. The Chair said that because there were different interpretations of the
constitution we could not take this forward tonight. We should take advice on whether
our meeting of the 16th was correct or not.
CC Joint Meeting
Helena Shanks and Ritchie Adam had attended the meeting at Rhuallan House hosted
by Savio de Souza of Giffnock Community Council. 3 Giffnock councillors attended.
Uplawmoor and Barrhead CCs did not attend or send apologies. The election process
was discussed. A number of CCs were unhappy with Alex Hewetson’s contribution
and had complained officially about his conduct.
Discussion on the constitution:
Many CCs wish to hold part of their meeting in camera – copying the system used by
the Council itself. It was felt that this should be in the constitution. It was also felt
that the council should have the right to change the constitution
Thornliebank Community Council Minutes 5th November 2013
Letter re Alex Hewetson
Mr Adam has had a meeting with Jamie Reid. Mr Reid had said that the April
minutes could be published on the Council website if the word “libellous“ was
deleted. This was agreed although Miss Shanks pointed out that the deletion of one
word could change the whole meaning of a statement. A vote was taken, and although Miss Shanks and Mrs Mullen were opposed on principle, the majority agreed that the
change should be made to allow the minute to appear on the Council website.
Meeting of 16th September
This special meeting had been called to discuss the constitution, co-option, sub
committees and other internal issues. Alex Hewetson said that as the public were not
invited no decisions should have been taken at the meeting.
The Chair, Mr Adam, asked if members wished the decisions taken at the meeting to
stand or if we should wait for advice from ERC or if we should vote tonight to ratify
the decisions taken at the meeting. Several members felt that this had dragged on long
enough and wished to vote tonight.
Newton Mearns Community Council Minutes 13th January 2014
It was noted that:-
Alex Hewitson still isn't forwarding emails correctly
Home addresses have been removed from ERC website listing Community Councillors.
Cllr Waters told a CC should have CCllr. Addresses published.
He also stated only Councils were exempt from Data Protection Act not CCs.
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