Minute of the meeting held on Monday 20th January at 7.30pm in Maryculter Community Hall.
|
Maryculter |
Netherley |
Banchory-Devenick |
Aberdeenshire Councillors |
Bill Fraser Philip Smart - Chairman Mike Birch Alan Bisset
Kevin Park Rob Winmill – Vice Chairman Kate Kleppang (Fetteresso)
Avril Tulloch Robert Keeler - Secretary Sandy Wallace
Raymond Cowan - Treasurer (Lower Deeside)
2 Members of the Public
APOLOGIES – None.
MINUTES of the meeting of 9th December were amended and approved
1. MATTERS ARISING
Rural Schools Closure – Reports were
heard back from the recent meetings organised by Aberdeenshire Council to
present their revised plan for building a new primary school near the
Lairhillock Inn to replace the existing facilities at Netherley and Maryculter.
In the revised plan the existing school at Banchory Devenick is retained.
Discussion centred on the consultation process, the new facilities that could
be provided and whether the existing school infrastructure could cope with the
proposals for additional housing building (especially in the Maryculter
catchment zone) should the new school not go ahead.
A public consultation was being organised and a presentation would take place
by Aberdeenshire's Director of Education at the next NKRCC meeting on 17th February
which the public would be encouraged to attend. Questionnaires to be returned
by 3rd March and Council sub-committee would make the decision on
the proposed merger.
As any new school would have many facilities which (when not in use by the
school) would be open to members of the public including the sports field,
games hall/badminton court/tiered seating, library, computing & conference
facilities, NKRCC had been asked for contacts from any local organisation which
might use and thus might like to help specify the exact nature of these
facilities.
It was agreed to
distribute a leaflet in both School catchment areas giving information on Mr
Vernal’s forthcoming visit and such other information on the proposal as had
been discussed. This would be drafted for comment and issued around weekend 31st
January. Robert asked where exactly the catchment areas were. Philip said the
council had been asked to include a map with the questionnaires.
Web site – Mike queried access to comments received in ‘Forum Sections’
Currently these can only go to one person but Kevin will look into allowing all
councillors access through a forum group. We will also look at setting up other
Forum Groups for public comment. Kate commented that we agreed to put our
website address on Minutes and Agendas
Tree Planting – nothing until March
Roads – Philip spoke to Head of Roads Dept and hopes to see a draft report before document is finalised.
2. PLANNING
Area
Local Plan - the
settlement statements were discussed, at the last Area Committee meeting the
Aberdeenshire Council officials had proposed introducing an additional 30
houses to the NKRCC area and creating a new settlement near the Lairhillock Inn
of 50 houses. While this proposal was entirely rejected by the Aberdeenshire
Councillors and they had decided that all 50 were to be relocated elsewhere it
had highlighted the fact that despite a very long public consultation process
it appeared that new proposals could be introduced at the last minute
dramatically changing housing allocations in the area. Some other changes the
committee proposed appeared to be broadly in line with prior public
representations in adding settlement status to Cookney and Stobhall (which had
been settlements in the previous plan) and not proceeding with a new settlement
proposal at Netherley. The balance of housing (50 houses) was reallocated by
the Area Committee to Marywell as a first choice.
The local councillors were congratulated on their stance over the issue of the
lack of public consultation but the fallback position, should the allocation to
Marywell not be possible, caused concern as this would involve allocation of
significant numbers of houses to the Bancory Devenick, Maryculter and Woodlands
of Durris areas with the majority of these houses being near the existing
school at Maryculter.
It was pointed out that since individual houses (ie: those not in official
settlement boundaries) did not count towards Aberdeenshire's future housing
statistics the only way that housing allocations were met in rural areas was
through the creation of what were seen as "housing estates" or even
complete "new towns".
NKRCC's preferred position was for such housing as was necessary to be
distributed and not to overwhelm existing communities, but once again NKRCC
noted that Aberdeenshire's housing policies seem inconsistent given that other
policies severely restrict some steading conversions allegedly to preserve the
countryside environment.
Organic Farm – retrospective planning permission for two residential caravans had been approved .
Cookney Housing – Rob reported that the actual conditions for 8 houses made no mention of street lighting.
Golf Driving Range – Permission had been granted. Mike wished to formally state his disquiet over this, he is concerned over traffic implications with additional traffic on the South Deeside Road including school Buses.
It was also agreed that a letter is written to the Council expressing our concern about the Right of Way following from approval of the application and by the statements made by the Councils Legal department including a reminder to the Council that they have a Statutory Duty to protect Rights of Way.
Westside -Maryculter– Nothing further.
Blairs – Nothing further
Westerton Farm – It was agreed to write in support of this developement
3. FINANCE
200 Club Draw – As all information was not available , there will be a double draw in February.
Elisha Baxter who received a donation from us towards her expedition to Thailand will be coming to a later meeting to talk on her experiences.
5. CORRESPONDENCE
Police report: No Police report and nothing reported in our area from the weekly report.
6. AOCB
South Deeside View – 300 copies distributed – Community Councillors were thanked for their efforts in distributing them.
Community Council Vacancies – The Chair reminded the meeting that there is a vacancy for a councillor in each area
20 January 2003 at 7:30pm 17 February 2003 at 7:30pm
Any Comments : Visit our Website - NKRCC.org