Apologies Community Police Officer; Jenny Watson

Ward Councillor Sandy Wallace

Members of the Public Mrs M Stewart; Mrs M Tindall; Ms N Chambury (Crathes School Board)

Representing Drumoak Young People Charles Tait; Jason Brown; Donna Duguid; Phillipa Bradley

The previous meeting minutes were accepted. (J Hopkins proposed, Ron Stark seconded)

Matters Arising

The safety barrier at the foot of the path from Sunnyside to the main road has been replaced with a metal unit. There is some concern as to the longevity of the item as it disappeared on the first night, only to be replaced again the following day!

A meeting with Mr Stiles was arranged to discuss the state of the trees adjacent to the War Memorial – however due to a diary mix-up the meeting did not take place – a further meeting will be arranged by Jill Hendry.

The location of the recycle bins was again discussed. The issue now seems to be on the ownership of the car park adjacent to the Drumoak Hall, and therefor who has responsibility for ground improvements /location decisions. Sandy Wallace agreed to take the matter and to establish the role of Aberdeenshire Council.

There has been some concern expressed about the scale of the proposed housing developments in Woodlands of Durris as shown in the Aberdeenshire Local Plan. Whilst housing in Kirkton has been withdrawn from the plan by the planners, development potential in Woodlands has been increased. As was agreed David Hirst wrote to Woodhill House on the Woodlands housing planning issue but to date has received no reply. An enquiry is unlikely to take place before the Autumn. It is probably not worth CDDCC attending the pre-enquiry as this will be addressing administrative arrangements only.

Mark Leigh gave a brief summary of the Community Council Forum held at Viewmount. Generally useful and in particular the willingness of the Council to engage with the community and other partners (Fire Service, NHS, Police etc) in a future "Planning For Real" exercise. A meeting to discuss the way forward of this process is planned for 29^th May, details to follow.

Correspondence

David Hirst has received information on potential grant sources – the Carnegie Trust which deals solely with Village Halls will be sent to the Village Hall Committees. It was noted applications for grants from the Aggregate Levy are not currently being processed due to a change in the responsible organisation.

A discussion with representatives of the young people in Drumoak was held with regard to possible grant applications for facilities for the youth of the community. The children had identified and provided preliminary costings for a number of possible projects including provision of an all weather football pitch, provision of football nets for The Glebe or the purchase and siting of low-impact meeting points in Keithmuir Park and in Sunnyside.

It was agreed in principle that the meeting points were the most pragmatic and achievable projects to undertake – these are called "Twin Youth Centre" and "Low Level Teen Village", both of which could be purchased and erected for around £10,000, although additional support from local businesses may be sought at a later stage.

CDDCC and Councillor Wallace warmly welcomed the energy and motivation of the youth in the community and the following steps were agreed as being required prior to fund applications

• Survey of local affected people
• Preparation of survey document complete with site maps and pictures

Hohn Hopkins and Donald Keith agreed to help the representatives on 6 March so that the survey could be undertaken weekend 8/9 March.

It was also agreed that John Hopkins was authorised to spend up to £100.00 for reprographic and related survey document costs.

It was noted that the Deeside Piper is interested in this type of local initiative, but on the basis of the contribution being made by the young people concerned. Contact details for this were exchanged.

The committee discussed the required content of the minutes. It was noted that they do need to reflect the general areas of discussion to help future conversations, and that as the meetings are public, we do not need to be overly worried about disclosure of "planning tactics". It was also noted that the minutes are not required to be verbatim records.

It was agreed that an "Action List" be developed as this may assist in tracking progress against specific topics. The Minutes Secretary agreed to put this list together (Attached)

It was noted that some CC's pay for a Minute Clerk – Hamish Taylor agreed to investigate this possibility.

Whilst no conclusion was reached, the committee discussed the possibility of developing some consistent process or record of potential good causes or local people worthy of formal recognition. A general request was made to think about this – all suggestions will be gratefully received!

Related to this, congratulations were made to Drumoak Sub Post-misstress Margaret Tindall on her recent "International Women's Day" award for "unsung heroines" throughout Scotland. From each Parliamentary Constituency in Scotland two women who work in their local communities are chosen for recognition and invited to attend a reception in Edinburgh hosted by Helen Liddell. The committee wished her a good day for the award ceremony in Edinburgh on 6 March.

It was agreed that it would be useful to invite representatives from the School Boards to the CDDCC meetings. David Hirst will contact Durris, Jill Gow will invite Drumoak. They have been added to the minutes distribution list. Other possible links could be with the PTAs.

Ms Chambury noted that whilst the campaign to resist closure of Crathes Primary was succesful, there remains a desire to close many of the small primary schools in the area. It was recognised that we need to involve the parents of the young children in the area in the debate. The proposed "Planning For Real" exercise may be a suitable forum for this.

Please note that the Aberdeenshire website now lists all objections to the Finalised Aberdeenshire Local Plan (FALP), plus the official repsonse to those objections.

Park Quarry

There is concern that many exchanges of letters on the subject have taken place with resolution no nearer. Donald Keith has proposed we request a formal consultation carried out by a small working party, with a formal minutes being available following the discussion. The CDDCC agreed to revert to DK with any comments on his draft letter requesting the meeting by 11^th march. In relation to the points to be brought up, it was noted that we need to plan our rebuttal points carefully and Ronald Stark agreed to examine possible technical areas of weakness in the forthcoming dust survey report.

A point was raised concerning littering of the path adjacent to Park Shop – it was not generally agreed there was a specific problem in the area – perhaps this was a one-off incident?

A short discussion was held around the problem of CDDCC straddling two Aberdeenshire administrative areas. Whilst it was desirable to only have to deal with one, it is unlikely that a resolution to this can be found in the short term.

There was a discussion about the possibility of broadband use in the rural area. It was felt that under the current BT arrangements, we are never going to reach the trigger point of users to justify the upgrade of the exchanges. Alternatives such as broadband by satellite are not currently robust. A cheaper ISDN ("midband") offering from BT may be on the way. It was felt that efforts should be made to widen internet access for the community on "narrow band" as this will provide greater benefits. John Hopkins agreed to contact BT re future connection schemes.

John also agreed to modify the text on the website relating to ownership of garden land on the old railway line – this is in fact legal title, and not aquired by stealth as suggested in the existing text.