North Kincardine Rural Community Council
NKRCC

 

Minutes

Minutes of the meeting held on Monday 18 March 2002 at 7.30pm in Maryculter Community Hall.

Agenda
Present
Apologies
Absent
Minutes
Next Meetings

Present

Maryculter

Netherley

Banchory Devenick

Aberdeenshire Councillors
Avril Tulloch
Bill Fraser
Kevin Park
Rob Winmill (Vice chairman)
Robert Keeler (Secretary)
Philip Smart
Kate Kleppang
   

2 members of the public

Apologies

Mike Birch
Raymond Cowan
Alan Bisset (Fetteresso)
Sandy Wallace(Lower Deeside)

Absent

Fiona Culbert

Minutes

1. MINUTE of the meeting of 18 February 2002 was approved
2. MATTERS ARISING
 

Website
Nothing to report..
 

Rural Schools Closure
Rob had written to Hamish Vernal and a reply had come back through Steve Davis chairman of Governors of Netherley school, that a meeting will be held on the 23rd of April, Philip and Avril will attend on behalf of the community council.
Steve commented that there would appear to be no agreement between the parents of the three schools and he would hope that the forthcoming meeting would be a discussion of all points. It was also felt that it was unhelpful of the council to assure schools that the existing catchment areas would not change if the proposed merger did not go ahead. With this in mind parents would obviously seek to keep things as they are.
  Tree screening
Rob had contacted Transco, who have requested a planned of the proposed planting, trees would not now be purchased until the autumn.
  Roads - Netherley Bridge
Alan was unable to attend this evening to comment on his recent meeting with the Head of Roads dept. Rob commented that there was £610,000 in roads budget for 2002/3 and wondered what the project would encompass.
  Roads - Mr Craigmyle
The invitation to Mr Craigmyle - roads division - to attend one of our meeting to discuss our concerns regarding the roads in the area had been passed to Ralph Singleton principal network engineer, who turned down the invitation on the grounds that a consultation exercise had taken place and some community councils had been invited. We were not invited and expressed our concern at the time. He commented that it was unlikely that satisfactory answers could be given to any specific complaints raised at the meeting as he would not have access to records. We felt that was a very poor response to our request and Rob suggested it might be worth talking to Mr Munro informally to try to reach a more satisfactory outcome. Bill commented that with the amount of Council tax everyone is now playing Council officials have a duty to satisfy their expenditure or lack of it.
  Police report
No Police report, and nothing reported in our area from the weekly Grampian police reports.
3. PLANNING
   

Rob reported that since the initial proposals on settlement 'envelopes' for the new Aberdeen Local Plan (and the housing allocations for them) had been published, there had been some amendments. The decision on the Netherley and Maryculter West proposals, and the respective numbers of houses for them, had been deferred (pending the decision on the new school), whilst both Stobhall and Maryculter East have been recommended for withdrawal from the list of settlements altogether.
A further proposed amendment would see Blairs Estate listed in ALP as having the potential for future housing whilst not specifically being listed as a settlement. Exactly how this would tie in with the Muir Group's 3-yr old planning application for 281 houses and flats at Blairs is still by no means clear to anyone - possibly including the planners! Comments from the Community Council and many local residents both to the local elected members and to the planners have doubtless helped to inform and guide these amendments.
Rob also discussed the controversial policy in the new Structure Plan (N.E.S.T.) which seems to forbid the conversion of steadings to houses within the Green Belt and in particular the way in which the Council intends to apply this retrospectively to existing applications. To prefer an unused - even derelict - steading to a new house seems to make no sense and it remains to be seen whether the elected members will passively accept this guidance or whether they take the common-sense view on occasions. The planning application for 10 new houses at West-side Croft (opposite Sunnyside on the B979) is now going to appeal and it was agreed that a strong objection should be sent to the Reporter in support of those local residents who had previously objected.
Bill had read the consultation document issued by Scottish Executive on planning matters and he would liaise with Philip to respond by March 31, this deadline had now been extended to May.
   
Planning applications received since last meeting
S020157PF Full Planning Permission for Erection of Non-Commercial Stables and Formation of Vehicular Access at Batchart Farm, Blairs.
S020199PF Full Planning Permission for Formation of Wildlife Pond at Batchart Farmhouse, Blairs.
S020212HA Full Planning Permission for Alterations and Extension to Dwellinghouse at Carraigean, Netherley.
5. FINANCE
  Raymond had supplied accounts to March together with a list of donations made. Maryculter driving for the disabled had requested to be considered for a donation and the sum on £150 had been unanimously agreed The Corbie Hall committee request for funds to purchase a grit bin in order to keep the steps and disabled ramp ice free was granted in the sum of £90.
 

March 200 Club Draw winners

  • £5 no.157 J Bissett
  • £10 no.228 J & P Anderson
  • £15 no.227 Mr & Mrs Barrack
  • £50 no.220 Mr Anderson
6. CORRESPONDENCE
   
Feb 19 SEPA - National Waste Strategy - Issues Paper
Feb 19 Green Diary - Feb 2002
Feb 19 Aberdeenshire Council - Acknowledgement of letter re Corbie Hall and Land Westside Croft Maryculter
Feb 21 Kincardine and Mearns area committee meeting 26 February 2002
Feb 22 Scottish Executive - PAN 63 : Waste Management Planning
Feb 23 Kincardine and Mearns area committee meeting 26 February 2002 additional papers
Feb 23 Scottish Executive - Planning appeal - Former Mink Farm
Feb 23 Sir Robert Smith MP - Loss of Post Office monopoly
Feb 23 South Aberdeenshire Crime Bulletin w/e 22 February 2002
Feb 27 Association of Scottish Community Councils - AGM 15 June - Aberdeen
Feb 27 Grampian Police - Force Strategy 2002 - 2005
Mar 1 South Aberdeenshire Crime Bulletin w/e 1 March 2002
Mar 2 Kincardine & Mearns Area - Delegated Planning Applications 18 January 2002 to 13 February 2002
Mar 2 Postwatch Scotland - Introduction pack
Mar 2 Notification of granting of full planning permission for Community Hall Corbie Park Maryculter
Mar 4 Letter re objection to planning application for stables at Batchart.
Mar 7 Aberdeenshire Council - Countryside Access Strategy Workshop Feedback
Mar 7 Golden Jubilee Summer Party reminder
Mar 7 Scottish Executive - Consultation Drafts : NPPG3 and PAN 38
Mar 8 Green Diary March 2002
Mar 9 Aberdeenshire Council - Grampian Joint Community Care Plan
Mar 9 Grampian Local Health Council - Advice Pack
Mar 9 South Aberdeenshire Crime Bulletin w/e 8 March 2002
Mar 11 Aberdeenshire Council - Best Value Review of Landscape Services
Mar 14 Kincardine and Mearns area committee meeting 19 March 2002
Mar 14 Grampian Valuation Joint Board - Publicising Register of Electors
Mar 14 Association of Scottish Community Councils - Election of Executive members
Mar 14 Aberdeenshire Council - Notification of refusal of Planning permission for Residential Caravans at Maryculter.
Mar 15 Aberdeenshire Council - Review of Indicative Forest Strategy for Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen city
Mar 15 South Aberdeenshire Crime Bulletin w/e 15 March 2002
Mar 16 Aberdeenshire Council - Letter from R Singleton Principal Network Engineer turning down our request for Roads dept to attend a meeting
Mar 16 Kincardine and Mearns area committee meeting 19 March 2002 - additional papers
Mar 18 Aberdeenshire Council - Notification of Appeal re Westside Croft Land Maryculter
Mar 18 Scottish Executive - Extension of deadlines re 'Getting involved in Planning'
7. AOCB
  Kincardine & Mearns Community Council Forum Thursday 28th February 2002.
Kate reported - The meeting kicked off with a talk by Kincardine's new Inspector - Ian Swan.
The Kincardine Police Force consists of 44 police officers (including 6 sergeants) and 7 support staff. There is a minimum of 4 officers on duty at any time. Due to changes in legislation Special Constables may find that they cannot work at their full-time job and continue to put in significant hours as a Special Constable. Inspector Swan's priorities are: Vandalism, Antisocial Behaviour, Drugs and Road Safety.
So far, public consultation meeting have not been well attended and he is interested in exploring other routes to obtain information such as Community Councils. There is a new Force Strategy Document 2002 - 2005, which will be posted on the Internet - address not given.
For speeding problems contact Mike McTavish.
  A representative of the Archie Foundation explained that the charity is attempting to raise 3 million pounds by December 2003. Over the past year they have raised 1 million - much from corporate sponsorship. They are not eligible for Lottery funding.The money will go to providing the new Aberdeen Children's Hospital with parent accommodation, playrooms, research units and The Art Project.There is going to be a big fund-raising event in June.The Hospital Trust has underwritten the 3 million but so far the fund is on target.
  George Niblock, Head of Waste Management, started off by telling us that the Pitdrichie Landfill site is almost full and 2 new sites are required for Stonehaven/ Portlethen and Laurencekirk.
Depending on Council backing and funding, the new plan will provide wheelie bin to households in South Aberdeenshire with collections maybe being reduced to once a fortnight. Bulky items that do not fit into the 240 litre bins could be uplifted - at a price, or taken by the householder to the dump at no charge. There will be kerbside recycling collections in towns. For the rural communities it will remain up to the individual to bring their recyclable material to a collection point. Home composting is to be promoted. There were quite a lot of questions after the presentation. People were concerned about the collections being reduced to fortnightly, wheelie bins being suitable for rural areas and the pressure on individuals to reduce their household waste could result in increased fly-tipping.
Timescale for these changes is 18 months.
  Willie Munroe closed the meeting with a round-up of Matters of Interest. I have a copy available.
  Opinion on the issue of 'wheely-bins' is pretty evenly divided, with nearly as many welcoming them as oppose them and the same goes for the Council's intention to offer the opportunity for us all to separate our rubbish into recyclable types. Fewer collections however concern us in that in the rural areas, one of the few ways in which the Council's services manifest themselves is through the regular rubbish collection and with the increase in Council Tax which we have all recently seen, it was agreed that this development should be strongly resisted with a letter being sent immediately to the Council. The Chairman stressed that whilst a letter from every Community Council in the Shire may give the Council pause for thought, HUNDREDS of letters from individual householders to their members would be far more effective.
  On the matter of Police contacting Community Councils, we used to have a police presence at our meetings, this then reduced to a report specific to our area , now we get neither.
  The Chairman reminded all present that we should again be holding A BRING AND BUY PLANT SALE at our meeting on May 20th, urging all concerned to 'prick out and pot up' in preparation.

Next Two Meetings

April 15 2002
May 20 2002 PLANT SALE!!!!