These minutes are for a Gallatown Community Initiative meeting which all members of the public are invited to take part in.
Meeting Started: 1100
Attendees
- Ryan Bayne (Secretary)
- Craig Young (Member)
- Laura Martin (Chair)
- Shuggy Hughes (YMCA Staff)
- Sharron Davies (Member)
- Michelle Dawson (YMCA Staff)
Apologies
Wilma communicated and was unable to make it.
Previous Minutes
Sharron proposed approval of the minutes and Craig gave the second approval.
Discussed
- New Entrance: Accessibility is a hot topic. A new entrance to the hub, coming off the park path, has been discussed for a couple of years now. Someone queried if the Parks4Life fund was free to contribute to that. Turns out it is being used to cover family activities and bring people together. The community can vote on other funding to help pay for this entrance.
- Improvement to Gallatown Park: This will be a regular discussion in the group going forward. There has been mention of a past consultation, which was halted by Covid. Previous plans included a trim trail, improving the appeal, lighting, and the state of the cage. Apparently, Raith Rovers had been interested in purchasing the cage and renting it out to the community. This was rejected, but a partnership could be explored to bring the cage into use for sports and recreation. Bike Ability and Raith Rovers Girls Football are two weekly users.
- Halloween: the need for a community-organised event has been mentioned. The consensus is that we work towards a stronger tradition. A 👻 SPOOKY 🎃 walk was the favourite idea, potentially linking with Playrangers, which brings staff into the mix of adults overseeing the activity. A School focus was raised,too.
- Anti-Social Behaviour: fires in the wild-space have continued and worsened in their nature, i.e. bins, bikes, rubbish, aerosols, pallets, play resources. This has increased concern that a building may eventually be affected. Safer Communities are going to be part of a meeting in an attempt to address the problem. The GCI has a number of assets within some of the sheds and pavilions that may not be covered by insurance. Steps have been taken to address this but the task list has outstanding action.
- Banking: we are awaiting the bank’s decision and expecting a changeover to a new account soon, with the RBS.
- Risk Assessment: It was suggested that continued use of the fire-pit requires a risk assessment and staff need to be guided on risks. It was recommended to use the pit as a fire for warmth and spectating from the perimeter of the shelter rather than cooking in it – due to the heating of the metal bars. This, however, can be mitigated with a small and well-controlled fire.
- AGM and Bookkeeping were queried – the admin for this has made some progress, but it is still outstanding, nevertheless.
- Training: The group has agreed to attend some form of training.
- Charity Status: it has been recommended many times to move onto charity status. The secretary has been waiting for banking and financial record keeping to be improved with easier banking before he begins the paperwork for that.
- FVA Fund: our past awarded Mental Health & Wellbeing funding is available again – this made a massive difference to as many as 25 regular individuals and a total of 50 who have either regularly or occasionally participated. The fund helped us establish useful assets. A new application could potentially fund craft groups and other activities again. We have agreed that there are many uses for the fund and should apply.
Actions Required
Approach the Fife Council, Raith Rovers and other organisations on a joint discussion to improve the park and its facilities.
Post about park improvement on Facebook and the GCI website.
Vote and accept the session/activities guidelines online, after updating the original copy with alterations.
Further improvement to the constitution:
Send a copy to Michelle
Add the new “ Alternative Aim” to the intro
Send to Fife Voluntary Action for review
Contact Playrangers about an event for Halloween – Spooky walk
Post and create a Halloween chat
Decide a date that does not conflict with YM parties
Reach out to parents for some ideas and support
Decide on a budget and what could be purchased
Consider lantern making
GCI assets need to be added to a spreadsheet
Ideally, we reduce rarely used assets stored in sheds and the hub building. If someone establishes a shed in their garden, are we happy for that to be an option for woodwork?
Halloween shopping list (needs extension, but it’s a start):
Glowsticks
Vote on a budget
Discuss a route for a spooky walk
Should we arrange for family members to offer trick-or-treat opportunities on the walk?
Discuss a target week for holding AGM and updating the constitution. This would allow us to forewarn and plan earlier,i.e. ensuring the hub venue is free and key partners can attend. The secretary suggests mid-September and not deviating too much, as we have in the past.
Present Charity status for voting
Update cthe raft group on funding
Next Meeting
Date: 20th October 2025
Location: Gallatown Hub
Meeting Closed: 1213
Helpful Links
- View Minutes History
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Contact Us
- Committee – committee@gallatown.uk
- Chair – chair@gallatown.uk
- Treasurer – treasurer@gallatown.uk
- Secretary – secretary@gallatown.uk / ryan@gallatown.uk
- Vice Chair – vicechair@gallatown.uk
Minutes are taken very quickly during meetings. Please keep this in mind when reading this content and how things are worded. We are happy to edit anything that seems wrong.
