Minute of the meeting held on Monday 17th March at 7.30pm in Maryculter Community Hall.

    

    PRESENT

Maryculter

Netherley

Banchory-Devenick    

Aberdeenshire

Councillors

Bill Fraser                            Philip Smart - Chairman                Mike Birch               Sandy Wallace

Avril Tulloch                        Rob Winmill – Vice Chairman                                      (Lower Deeside)

Raymond Cowan - Treasurer   Robert Keeler - Secretary                                       Carl Nelson

Kevin Park                                                                                                              (Newtonhill)

Jill Greenlees 

  9 Members of the Public

 

APOLOGIES – Kate Kleppang.

 

MINUTES of the meeting of 17th February were amended and approved

 
Elisha Baxter and Tracy Stewart gave a presentation on their expedition to Thailand to which we had contributed.

 

1.                  MATTERS ARISING

 

Rural Schools Closure –  Philip reported back on the Aberdeenshire Council meeting that had approved building of a new primary school to replace the existing facilities at Netherley and Maryculter. Sandy commended  the community council on the line it had taken in difficult circumstances. A question was raised over the new site, Sandy confirmed that this is the agreed site, but the Council had not yet acquired the land. Rob expressed concerns about the traffic on the Portlethen to Durris road, and the safety of the children. NKRCC is participating in the consultation group which is looking at the specification and use of the new school buildings. There is a meeting on the 18 March and Avril and Philip will attend and raise this point. David Davidson mentioned that he had received several letters about the school merger during the twelve months of the discussions, and he had supported the Community council’s stance.

Web site –  Sandy said that other community councils would be happy to link with our site – Kevin will progress this.

Roads – Philip asked Sandy if he would give us notice of any meeting or papers involving the B979 or South Deeside Roads. Rob asked that we write regarding the poor state of the Durris-Portlethen road.

Western Peripheral Route – The Charleston/Blairs – route is not yet officially adopted, but Sandy indicated it is very unlikely to be changed at this late stage. The route is marked on the ALP with a broad line so the exact route is not known. Sandy thought that there would be no grade separated junction on our side of the river, but we may wish to put the case for one to the Council. Philip will invite a roads official to our June meeting to give more details. David Davidson thought we might ask Willie Munro as he worked on the original route selection. Mike thought we should get more information and wondered how the Community Councils on the other side of the river felt.

 

2.        PLANNING

 

Area Local Plan –
Settlement statements for the new Aberdeenshire Local Plan were again discussed. It was now noted by Community Council officers that the papers for this weeks Area Committee contained proposals for settlement envelopes for Cookney and Stobhall that also appeared to have changed at the last minute. Many representations were discussed regarding these two settlements and the proposal for a new settlement envelope at Netherley.

Having had prior notice of the Netherley issue NKRCC had undertaken a local opinion survey of those houses in the immediate area.  Councillors Nelson and Wallace were given a summary and all the public responses from the Netherley settlement survey to take to the Area Committee the next day.
The feedback from the latest publications on ALP policy by Aberdeenshire Council found that the NKRCC,  among other, objections had been deemed worthy enough to prompt a rewrite of Aberdeenshire's proposed policies for Listed Buildings (and any development proposed to help preserve them) and also for the Renewable Energy policy on windfarms.
Golf Driving Range – An invitation has been received from the new owners to participate in a forum on their plans. Rob mentioned that we had not received a reply from W Munro regarding our letter on the right of way.

Westside -Maryculter– Nothing further.

Blairs – Rob said that the current application was for 202 houses and 79 flats, hotel, conference centre etc. The Appeals hearing will take place on March 25 if the traffic impact assessment is complete. Rob said we had written to ask for the meeting to be postponed.

 

3.         FINANCE

Funding Applications – no new applications had been received

200 Club Draw –  March - £5 no. 217 L Keeler, £10 no.224 A Lindsay and £50 no. 105 J Gaskill.

 

4.             CORRESPONDENCE

Police report: There were few people reported for driving offences but the Community Council’s concern increased traffic and reduced driving standards on the B979, Portlethen/Durris and South Deeside Roads had been passed to traffic division. Any dangerous driving should be reported to the police so that action can be taken. There was a break-in in Cookney on 18 February and two attempted break-ins at Blairs.

 

 

6.         AOCB

Kincardine and Mearns Community Council Forum 27 February 2003

 Philip reported back from the fourm which NKRCC had chaired.

The main topic for discussion at the meeting was Community Planning and was presented by Francis Greaves (Community Planning Officer).

Community Planning consists of the council, public sector partners, voluntary and private sectors along with community members agreeing a strategic vision for the area to coordinate and improve services by providing a process for consultation to identify the needs of the community. The Local Government in Scotland Act ( coming into force on 1st April, 2003) will require councils to facilitate community planning and to involve voluntary and community groups as well as key public sector organizations eg. The NHS, police.

At present the principles are : Inclusion, communication, participation, accountability, evidence based and partnership. Sustainability and equality should also be considered.

There are four main themes with the relevant public sector group in brackets: Community well-being (NHS), learning (Council Education and Recreation Service), a sustainable environment (Scottish Natural Heritage), jobs and the economy (Scottish Enterprise Grampian).

Future focus will concentrate on joint community consultation, using existing structures such as the Citizens Panel to help take the planning from strategic to local levels and sharing resources to reduce costs.

There is a small fund provided by the Scottish Executive/ Shell Expro of two thousand pounds to promote Community Planning. Francis suggested that the next Community Council Forum could be used to meet with other groups involved in Community Planning. It was felt that a Saturday might be more suitable for a meeting than a mid-week evening. It was decided that as well as hearing from some of the public sector partners it would be advantageous for the various community groups to identify key areas of interest in their communities and give the meeting more relevance. This should be done at the meeting in March and sent to William Munroe asap. A request was made and endorsed by almost all present that the use of simple language and clear examples would be welcomed.

Willie Munro also gave an update of Matters of Interest

Plant Sale – May 19th – proceeds to South Deeside View. Mike suggested a composting talk at that meeting.

Litter Collection – No official campaign this year but Mike has agreed to have his telephone number published in the South Deeside View if anyone wishes to contact him regarding an informal tidy up.

Meeting layout – Mike felt that the present seating arrangements may inhibit full participation. It was agreed to try a U shape layout for the next meeting.

 

DATE OF NEXT MEETING

            21 April 2003 at 7:30 pm

            19 May 2003  at  7:30 pm   PLANT SALE

 

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