Ron Smith

Health care, flood prevention, timber traffic, windfarms. The big issues. Sometimes big answers follow, such as this week’s news that the appeal by the promoters of the Broadmeadows windfarm has been refused by a Government Reporter. Matters such as this can cause widespread concern to Borderers. However I am convinced that ‘small’ issues can also cause great personal anxiety.

Earlier this week a tall tree in my own garden was made unstable by the strong wind. If it had continued to fall over, a few neighbours’ cars could have been history and the road blocked. Fortunately I was able to arrange for it to be felled quickly. The incident did however get me thinking. Firstly of the impact (sorry!) on the neighbours if their cars or properties had been hit. I also started thinking of the whole environmental issue relating to trees and undergrowth. It can be very difficult as a Councillor to get agreement to remove trees, prune them, or clear overgrown areas. A plant can start out as ‘a weed’ but if not removed seems to gain official protection. Trees, bushes and grass need managed. For them to show to best advantage they need to be shaped and cared for. On many occasions, I’ve been approached by residents regarding trees near their boundaries which are causing concerns, by overshadowing a garden or threatening to break and cause damage.

Yet, there is a window in which such work would be considered by the Council. September to February is seen as the more acceptable time to cut back greenery, as this is the quieter period for animal and insect life, outwith the breeding and nurturing season. I’ve met this situation when wanting gorse cut back on the Millers Knowes, or encroaching vegetation on the Waverley Walk between Stonefield and Liddesdale Road. That one was interesting. It was said initially that cutting should not be done because this was a habitat area for a rare butterfly but then it emerged that the butterfly had not been seen there for many years, and that cutting back growth should also encourage its main habitat, the kidney vetch plant!

There’s a danger in letting greenery get out of hand. Failing to manage it stores up problems for the future. I think of vegetation growth on the banks of Slitrig and Teviot, of trees needing crowned at Duke Street and Heronhill Bank, of laurels needing lowered in Teviot Crescent to allow light and visibility. We need to maintain a balanced approach. In no way am I against the wildlife which lives there, but I want to see control – which will allow managed growth, and which will not leave us with a problem in the future when there are no funds to remedy the situation.

I had taken my eye off the ball for my own tree. I should have managed it earlier.

Crumhaugh House

I was specifically singled out by Hawick News last week as having contributed nothing to the presentation made at Hawick Community Council’s meeting when Crumhaugh House was discussed. That’s quite true. I was there to learn.

As with Councillors Turnbull and Paterson, I had a clash of community council meetings. I chose to prioritise the Hawick Community Council as I wanted to find out more about the Crumhaugh House situation.

I wanted to hear what Dr Ross Cameron had to say and I wanted to see and hear what the public attitude was.

The public reaction was anxious and emotional. The large number who attended were concerned about the impact of change on their relatives, and staff were concerned about the impact on their patients. That much was clear, and in that respect I learned what I had come to learn.

Dr Cameron’s presentation however was incomplete. We heard there had to be changes, partly because of financial pressures, partly because of the fast rising numbers of older people and particularly of those with dementia, but also because there is a tactical shift from bed occupancy to care at home. However we heard no detail – the public was not reassured, uncertainties remain, and so anxieties remain.

The Hawick News noted that I am one of the Executive Members for Social Work, and am a member of the Community Health and Care Partnership between SBC and NHS Borders. In those roles, I am aware that ‘service redesign’ as they call it has already begun in Kelso and in Peebles. I’ll read an excerpt from a Minute of a meeting which was approved only on Friday past: [Andrew Lowe – Director of Social Work] ”The recent public meeting [in Peebles] was interesting in terms of seeing the changes in attitude from initial concern about losing beds to seeing the benefit of the services the redesigned system will bring to the community.” But I also know that Social Work was involved in making arrangements for those who were being affected by these proposals. That hasn’t happened in Hawick yet. The plans are incomplete. We’re getting half the story.

The process is not yet complete, but that also means that we still have the opportunity to influence it.

I ask therefore that we put pressure on NHS Borders to bring forward their full proposals urgently, so that they can be fully discussed by the community and councillors. Remove the uncertainties, and reduce the anxieties.

Until that time, leave Crumhaugh House well alone. Let’s have the status quo until Dr Cameron and chief executive Calum Campbell and Director of Social Work Andrew Lowe can come here and present to us a complete package which could bring improvements in service, including the provision which should continue into the future at Crumhaugh House.

250mm high kerbing being installed

I welcome the news that work has started this week on flood protection in the Mansfield Road and Duke Street areas.

As Hawick’s representative on Scottish Borders Council’s Flood Advisory Group, I’m aware of how slow progress has been seen to be. There has been work over the years to address individual problem areasd – at the High School, at the junction of Elm Grove and Rinkvale Cottages, at Haggisha’ Brae, and at the Golf Course, but there has also been a perception that not much has happened along the Slitrig and Teviot. In fact, investigations and detailed planning have been continuing to formulate a multi million pound Flood Protection Scheme for Hawick and a public presentation of this plan will be made around March of this year, as required by Scottish Government procedures. Alongside this, SBC’s Flood Protection team have been prioritising a Minor Works programme and a presentation on this was made at Area Committee last year. Thirty one items were considered, for work to be done within the Council’s budget for this financial year, and this is now beginning.

Work began this week on raising kerbs at the rear of the pavements in Mansfield Road and Duke Street, by 250 mm, at the base of the existing railings, which will have the effect to raising the riverbank a little, and filling in lower points where water can run over into the neighbouring streets.. This will help address the anxiety caused as the river rises and will bring protection from the 1 in 10 year flood. The kerb work on Mansfield Road will stop opposite the nursery as Mansfield Road is already protected up to the 1 in 10 year return period between this point and the sewerage works.  The kerb is only proposed where the existing protection is below the 1 in 10 year level. Perhaps 250 mm does not seem much but it is higher than a dorrstep. If water can’t get over the kerb, it can’t get over the doorstep!

A ‘’stop log’’ arrangement is proposed for the footbridge at Noble Place, and these will have to be put into place whenever the water levels are high.

Preventing water flowing back up the gullies from the river is an aspect that is currently being looked into.

Other work which will follow during this financial year includes fitting flaps to the holes in the walls on Teviot Road and on Commercial Road. Those holes are currently meant to allow rainwater to drain from the road surface back into the river but at times of flood have the opposite effect. The flaps are intended to keep the river water where it is meant to be.

During this financial year, £70000 is being spent on the preparation of the major Flood Protection Scheme and a further £70000 on the Minor Works described above.

The major Flood Protection Schemes have to go to public consultation as the Government requires there to be an opportunity for residents or businesses who feel the proposals could cause them a problem to be able to object. After that consultation period, a bid can be made to the Scottish Government for part funding to allow the Scheme to go ahead.

I notice from today’s Hawick News that reporter Gavin Gibbon attacks me for having contributed nothing to the lively public debate at the Hawick Community Council meeting where Dr Ross Cameron, Medical Director of NHS Borders was speaking of the future of the Crumhaugh House facility. There was much competition to speak and I chose to stay silent as I had come there to learn.

I attended this meeting to hear what Dr Cameron had to say in response to the rumours and theories which have been circulating in the town, to find out more of NHS Borders’ plans for the facility, and to hear the reaction and views of townspeople. My own view after hearing Dr Cameron was that clearly no alternative plan is yet in place to meet the needs of those catered for at Crumhaugh, and I have certainly no knowledge of SBC’s Social Work Department having yet been involved in detailed planning for this. I also believe that central to the discussion has to be the future use of the Crumhaugh House building. We need the detail therefore of what is intended, what provision there will be for patients, and what role the building will have in future in providing care facilities for the people of this area.

The reaction of townspeople was clear. They have not been reassured. Both NHS staff and the relatives of patients who attended this meeting showed plainly that they value the Crumhaugh House services. Neither they, nor their Councillors, can be expected to support change until they have confidence that a quality service will continue to be provided into the future.

Pretty as a Picture?

‘Fury erupts over empty salt bins’. I admit that my first reaction to last week’s headline in the local paper was that this had to be an exaggeration. However the longer I thought about the matter, the more I realised that this was just another example of unacceptable impact on the individual. Similar impacts occur when a bin is not lifted, the behaviour of an anti social neighbour is not changed, a protected tree overshadows a garden, or a street light is not repaired. None would perhaps figure in the greater scheme of things but each is a problem which looms large in the lives of individual townsfolk.

Look at the salt bin issue. The Council decided that bins located on streets which are a priority for salting and gritting could be removed. Seems sensible enough. If the Council is going to do it, residents shouldn’t need to. However the Council was caught cold! Machinery broke down. The side streets were unsalted and impassable. The bins were empty, or had been taken away. Residents couldn’t do the job for themselves. They couldn’t show ’resilience’. That just wasn’t good enough. We can’t overlook the individual resident. What’s the point of salting and gritting the main roads if they can’t be reached from the side streets?

I’ve had experience recently of every one of the other matters listed above. In each of them an individual resident has contacted me to try to have a problem affecting their daily life sorted out. In most of them, communication is the key. It often worries me that figures of authority think that the need for communication is fulfilled when the appropriate forms are sent out on time, but real communication is a two way process, a verbal or written conversation, and in a democratic society requires the interests of the individual resident to be fully considered.

Thirteen local residents attended a public meeting held in Trinity Church Hall on Tuesday 12th December to consider traffic problems being experienced in Brougham Place. This was augmented by several e-mails and telephone messages previously received. The meeting was chaired by Cllr. Ron Smith and attended by PCs Keith Murray and Helen Spence and SBC’s Roads officers Brian Young and Jim McQuillin.

The nature of the problems was agreed to be abuse of traffic regulations already in place for the street, where restriction of the middle and upper sections of the street to access for residents only is being flouted by use as a shortcut, or rat run, to and from the Terraces area. Speeds are seen as an issue in that these can be inappropriate for the street, although below the statutory 30 mph limit. Mention was made of use of the streets by taxis as a shortcut, although some felt that this had improved over the past year.

Residents clarified that features of the problem included confrontations between Brougham Place dwellers and motorists, in questioning drivers’ reasons for using the street, physical obstruction, and the possibility of accidents as children or more elderly users of Trinity Church Hall exited from the Halls into the pavement-less and narrow street. An example was given of an incident where a four year old boy leaving the Hall was knocked down by a car in September 2011 and had to be taken to hospital for a check-up.

It was noted that data on road use had been collected about two years ago and had identified busy periods as being around midday on weekdays and in the early hours of Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Residents queried Police and Traffic Warden involvement and were given assurances by Police present that attention would be paid to parking on double yellow lines at top and at bottom of Brougham Place, but that it would otherwise be difficult to maintain any lasting presence in the area to identify wrongdoers.

Possible solutions were then considered and the outcome was to identify a package of measures which, taken together, might help alleviate the problem.

Roads officers agreed:

• to examine the existing signage which was installed some time ago, and, having lost its reflective capability, did not have sufficient clarity and impact.

• to renew the speed bumps in Brougham Place, which also had been installed some years ago and had been worn down or subsided, to leave them with little current effect.

• to consider the possibility of the street being designated as ‘one way - downhill’ which would remove the possibility of drivers finding the High Street busy and choosing to use Brougham Place as an escape.

Councillor Ron Smith agreed

• to pursue any necessary funding of the above developments through the Members’ Priority, Pay & Display, or Small Schemes budgets

• to arrange that taxi drivers are reminded of the restrictions in place on the street.

The Chair asked Roads officers for a realistic time-scale for them to respond to the above tasks and it was agreed that mid January was feasible. At that point nearby residents, and those others who had attended this meeting or had submitted observations would be informed of proposals and another meeting then arranged to gauge reactions.

Those attending the meeting were then thanked for their input and the meeting closed.

Last week I attended a conference on Criminal Justice which falls within my responsibilities for Social Work on the Council’s Executive. A speaker stated: ‘We have people in our community who offend’ and this caught my attention. His aim was to emphasise that such offenders are already part of our communities and should not be seen as somehow external to the group – bad folk who come into the area and attack us!

Recently it seems that the local media has been reporting more than usual on vandalisms, break-ins or slip-in thefts, and assaults. We’re noticing this as it’s never been much of a problem in our town. Certainly some of these offences may well be committed by newcomers to the area but by living here they have become part of our overall community. Other offences will have been committed by those who have been here all of their lives. Whichever group they are in, they are within the Hawick community and they have partners, sons, daughters, parents and neighbours who can have influence on them. How does it help the community to have graffiti, windows broken, cars scratched, thefts or assaults? Dog dirt??

We all have a responsibility to our community, to Hawick. Surely we can have an influence for good on family and neighbours, by showing them that offending, or anti-social behaviour, just isn’t acceptable to the rest of us.

I think this theme has been reinforced in me by the councillors’ participation recently in patrols with Community Wardens and with the Police. As I wrote in my previous blog posting, Councillor Turnbull and myself took part in a night shift with the Police a few Saturdays ago, paying particular attention to how a typical Saturday evening developed – from heading out, leaving the pubs, leaving the clubs, to congregating at takeaways in the early hours. Does a successful night out have to include knocking over litter bins on High Street? A few days later several of us, separately, accompanied the Wardens on dog patrol. In my own case, I witnessed a fixed penalty being given out within five minutes of starting! No lead, no bags! No thought for others walking in Teviot Crescent!

‘We have people in our community who offend’. Can you use your influence over them!

Two interesting new experiences in the last week or two. I accompanied police officers on a Saturday night shift (along with Councillor George Turnbull) and I went out around my ward with two Community Wardens for part of an afternoon. Both experiences were very educational and informative. They also left me praising both sets of workers when I saw the type of tasks or situations they have to deal with.

The shift with the local Hawick police began at 8 pm, with the introduction being a look around Hawick Police Station. After this we had a briefing from Chief Inspector Paula Clark, before we went out in the car with her. This gave an insight into matter which were developing through the night. Later we returned to Wilton Hill base and met with officers in for their break.

At this point we then accompanied Sergeant Duncan Taylor as he patrolled in his vehicle around Hawick. A focus of our taking part in this collaboration was to note how the Saturday evening and night developed. Firstly there were the groups heading for their night out, then there was the period when the pubs were closing and groups congregated outside their doors and on the roadway, then there were groups forming outside the nightclubs which had later licences, such as Base and Diesel’s, and finally after 2 am. The focus had moved to Bridge Street and Central Square around the takeaways. By 3.30 am., the town centre had closed down for the night.

We learned some useful information about the patterns of movement, and how these ‘dispersals’ were policed. We noted the litter situation which ensued (for example in a corner of Common Haugh car park where cars sat while occupants ate and drank and on High Street where a litter bin was pushed over), and we followed up with a request to Parks to cut back the growth of vegetation along Teviot Crescent where greenery causes dark areas and hinders visibility.

It would probably be fair to say that our attitude to matters raised in the future could be influenced by what we saw on this Saturday evening.

The next experience was to accompany Wardens on their patrolling of Hawick, monitoring the dog fouling problem. I met two local Community Wardens at Croft Road / Teviot Crescent and within three minutes they had ticketed a dog owner! I was surprised that that dog owner had not responded to seeing Wardens in their high visibility vests nearby. I would also be absolutely certain that the owner had also set out with no bags for picking up anyway! We then noticed an owner hurriedly put a lead on their dog as they left the lane behind Diesel’s, shortly before we found a fresh pile of dirt a little further along the lane. This owner’s behaviour seemed to give him away!

We walked the length of this lane, Laidlaw Terrace, Duke Street. Glebe Mill Lane as far as Oliver Park. The Wardens were noting uncleared piles of dirt, but also what they termed ‘residue’ where it had been cleared – either by owner or by SBC. These patterns give them the information as to where to target their supervision. We returned to the town centre along Weensland Road and the Waverley Walkway between Linden Crescent and Lochpark Road. We noted that the stretch of Weensland Road between Oliver Park and Trinity Steps has become a problem area recently, and queried whether someone’s morning route for paper and rolls might have changed.

This outing with the Wardens was extremely useful, not least because of the conversation that was possible as we walked and as circumstances encountered led to questions

Thanks to both Police and to Community Wardens for their cooperation and tolerance.

Ron and wife, Eileen, at Jedburgh Festival July 2011

I’m a first term Councillor, meaning that I was elected for the first time in 2007 and am coming towards the hoped for re-election process for the first time in 2012. For much of that Council term since 2007, I’ve been working away perfectly cooperatively with other Councillors across the Borders, and especially within Hawick. I think, personally, that we’ve shown that we can work well as a team – most of the time.

But an election is looming! Councillors and potential new candidates are competing for headlines. I don’t plan to get into that, and certainly don’t intend to be attacking Councillor colleagues of whatever political colour with whom I’ve been cooperating as much as possible for the past four years.

In a perfect world, I recognise that Councillors representing a local community may well wish they were independent, but I have to state forcefully that that status may not nowadays be the best option. We all need allies, and I for one have been grateful for the support and advice I’ve received from my Lib Dem group.

However, within Hawick the team for this past four years has consisted of two Lib Dems, two Conservatives and two Independents – one aligned with the Administration, one not. We have worked together, mostly ignoring party tags because our first loyalty has to be to the electorates of Hawick & Hermitage and Hawick & Denholm who put trust in us.

I won’t be attacking other Hawick Councillors in the papers. After the next election, I hope I’ll be working with some of them again – as part of a team. Naturally my first priority is to be re-elected, but for that I’ll have to stand on my record of approachability, cooperation, and some successes since 2007. I don’t intend to put at risk a relationship with others with whom I will want to cooperate after the election!

Guinness takes Ron walking at Aviemore

Regular visitors to this site will know that whenever I’m away from Hawick on a break I look for things which would be worth doing here as well! Last week we were in Aviemore again for our seemingly annual ‘doggie holiday’ when we take Guinness, our dog, to self catering accommodation and take the opportunity to put in  – for us – some serious walking. This went well, in a window of excellent weather.

However what I became conscious of this year is that in Strathspey and the Cairngorms area, there are so many many footpaths and cycle tracks. It’s easy to get exercise when a network of paths stretches out in front of you. However in our Hawick area we seem to have to take to pavements and roads too often.

I know there is a range of Core Paths in the Borders, and also that there are excellent booklets produced by the Council titled ‘Paths around…’ Hawick, Newcastleton, Kelso, Peebles etc. and these are available from Tourist Information Centres for £1 each.  I would encourage you to browse through and explore. Perhaps the recent Borders Walking Festival has given you the bug already!

The Speyside Way

I also undertake to encourage the growth of off road paths and cycleways throughout Teviotdale and Liddesdale.