Community Councillors - Don Keith (Acting Chairman), David Hirst, Ron Stark, John Hopkins, Jean Downie, Molly Atkinson, Julia Mackay

Ward Councillors – Sandy Wallace

Members of the Public – Philip Dean, Peter Dawes, Mark Hagger, William Bowman

Apologies – Cllr. Jenny Watson

1. Minutes of Meeting of 1 December 2003

The minutes were proposed as a faithful record by David Hirst and seconded by Ron Stark. There was no demur.

2. Matters Arising from Minutes of Meeting of 1 December 2003

To write to Duncan Wright and Patrick Frimpel asking for any cash funds of the Drumoak Youth Project from 2003 to be sent to him for banking (Action: John Hopkins)

Don Keith reported that he had contacted Peter Gibson of the Survey Company running the Citizens Forum. The latter had stated that responses had been received from some 800 of a desired sample of 1,200 from the 14,000 who had been sent mailshots. The purpose of the Forums was as input to the process of community planning.

Peter Gibson would be happy to receive responses from individual members of the Community Council. To contact Peter Gibson on 0800 027 2245 to provide responses (Action: Individual CC members).

Philip Dean noted that this still left unanswered the question of the respective roles of the Citizens Forum and the Community Councils. To write to Mr Campbell posing this question (Action: Don Keith)

3. Deeside Way

Don Keith introduced Mark Hagger and Peter Dawes to the meeting, to make an informal presentation on progress with the Deeside Way.

Mark Hagger said that a Deeside Way long-distance footpath had been an aspiration virtually since the Deeside Railway was first closed. The present position was that:-

• the remaining missing sections were planned to be completed piecemeal over the next five years or so
• the Culter to Drumoak section was now being actioned
• Aberdeen Council were reviewing action on the short section westwards from Peterculter which fell in their area
• funds currently permitted the Dalmaik Crossroads to Drumoak section (plus a short extension onwards to the west) to be implemented
• the Aberdeenshire Council preferred the southerly routing between the old Manse and the centre of Drumoak, with the route then proceeding westwards along North Deeside Road and rejoining the line of the railway between East Lodge and Park
• Peter Dawes had obtained the agreement of Park Estate (Mr Foster) to this routing
• the section from Drumoak to Milton of Crathes was expected to be actioned in 2005

It was noted that the Council’s preferred route into and through Drumoak was circuitous and involved a section on the busy North Deeside Road. Molly Atkinson asked if there was no chance of the alternate route across a corner of the Park Estate. This would completely obviate the need for the North Deeside Road section. Peter Dawes indicated that the Park Estate had refused to agree to this.

John Hopkins observed that - if there were truly no prospect of negotiating this route with the Park Estate - then the choice of the route past the Glebe was a lengthy and unnecessary detour. The route from the old Manse via the access road adjacent to the Caravan Park was much shorter.

Peter Dawes stated that the residents did not wish the path to run past their houses. It was, however, noted out that this section was a right of way. John Hopkins suggested that – at the very least – it be signposted as an available alternative.

Don Keith suggested that Aberdeenshire Council required a three-year Plan, with moneys allocated to each section of the Deeside Way during this period. Sandy Wallace agreed that this would be ideal, but unfortunately the Scottish Executive only allocated such funds on a short-term basis.

The Appeal allowed by the Scottish Executive had led to a detailed planning application by Stewart Milne for 72 houses covering the two earmarked sites in Drumoak. Surprise was expressed that the applications were for 72 (as distinct from 60) houses, that they all appeared to be three-bedroomed and that they were understood to include no affordable housing.

Sandy Wallace observed that the Planning Committee would - given the circumstances and recent history – almost certainly approve the application. It might be better to concentrate on negotiating some of the less-attractive aspects of the proposal, such as the lack of affordable housing.

Don Keith and Sandy Wallace were concerned about the road safety hazard created by the proposed southern site layout forming a staggered junction at the end of a fast straight. Better alternatives could include:-

• aligning the estate access road with Sunnyside Drive and forming a roundabout here on the line of the North Deeside Road
• speed limit countdown markers, which were – however - said to be inappropriate where the speed limit sign itself was visible from a distance (although Sandy Wallace had been able to point to a precedent for this)

To follow these issues up with Aberdeenshire Planning and Roads departments and CDDCC (Action: Sandy Wallace).

Philip Dean suggested that – in the light of the Deeside Way discussions – the new estate should contain more paths. It was noted that the creation of paths (which were "nobody’s property") could increase opportunities for vandalism.

Don Keith suggested that what was required was a public meeting about the planning proposal in Drumoak. The question was whether Stewart Milne and/or Willie Munro should also be invited. Sandy Wallace opined that Willie Munro would not wish to attend. Ron Stark advocated that Stewart Milne be invited to present their plans at the meeting, as a way of informing the public debate.

It was felt that – if the desire was to negotiate – it was important to avoid an adversarial situation. It was not clear to CDDCC whether participation by Stewart Milne would lead to a more- or a less-adversarial mood. On balance, CDDCC did not support Ron Stark’s proposal.

• venue Drumoak Church Hall in late Jan/early Feb (since arranged for 28 January at 19.30)
• chaired by Don Keith
• not involving Stewart Milne
• involving Willie Munro if available (Action: Sandy Wallace to ascertain/invite)
• no attempt would be made at the meeting to answer questions: instead, the questions raised by the public would be noted down
• answers to these questions would subsequently be sought by CDDCC from Stewart Milne and the Council and fed back to meeting attendees postally for their reaction
• a list of names and addresses of attendees would be collected at the meeting
• advertising would be via door-to-door delivery of A4 double-sided flyers
• to produce artwork for flyers (Action: John Hopkins)
• to deliver flyers (Action: Jean Downie, Julia Mackay and via Drumoak Primary schoolchildren)
• to determine cost of printing flyers (DONE: 4p per double-sided A4 sheet i.e. £16+VAT for 400)

In the light of profound dissatisfaction with the Local Plan process as it has affected Drumoak, the need was also seen to get the electorate of Drumoak engaged in the question of proactively planning how/where Drumoak should develop in future, rather than simply reacting to the "salami-slicing" that has been a feature of previous developments. This might take the form of a "Planning for Real" exercise. It was agreed that a public meeting was required, to initiate this process. There was genuine uncertainty, however, as to whether it would be possible/desirable to link this general meeting with the more specific meeting about the present planning application. On balance, it was agreed that the general meeting should be de-coupled and held at a later date.

1. Drumoak Youth Project

Don Keith noted that Willie Munro wished to convene a meeting in the near future to put the Council’s weight behind this project. This was welcomed by CDDCC.

The public debate had been turning against youth shelters, but was not necessarily well informed, e.g. there were fears about the effect of floodlighting (which had never been part of any proposal). This was all the more disappointing since extensive efforts, including door-to-door questionnaires, had been deployed.

It was felt that, as soon as Willie Munro’s meeting had taken place, a further public meeting was probably necessary. Acting upon the outcome of the Willie Munro meeting, to produce artwork for a flyer for a public meeting (Action: John Hopkins). The flyer would – if at all possible – be delivered simultaneously with the Drumoak Housing flyer.

 

 

2. Park Quarry

To write once more to Cllr Howattson - enquiring whether he would object to the correspondence between him and CDDCC being published (Action: Don Keith).

Philip Dean noted that he had made specific complaint about noise from the Park Quarry. It had irked him therefore that the Council’s officers had publicly misled the Planning Committee by claiming that there had never been any noise complaints. At his insistence, Aberdeenshire Council had investigated this issue and now agreed that this was an untrue statement.

Jean Downie also recounted specific noise complaints that she had made. Anecdotally, there had been many other noise complaints over the years.

CDDCC agreed that even if the statement that there had never been noise complaints during the operation of Park Quarry had been made inadvertently, it had nevertheless been substantively prejudicial in the circumstances in which it was uttered. This was because, at that time, the public were gagged by the Planning Committee’s Standing Orders and prevented from revealing the truth. It was little wonder that a public disturbance had occurred.

The effect on this particular Planning Committee decision of proven mis-statements by Council Officials is now, of course, only a matter of conjecture. Nevertheless, to reduce the extent of such miscarrying in the future, it was important to follow up this point. To pursue his discussions with Willie Munro on this matter and to report back to CDDCC (Action: Sandy Wallace).

Ron Stark asked that Sandy Wallace also attempt to discover what mechanisms existed within Aberdeenshire Council for investigating errors of fact and limitations in competence, particularly in areas such as health. Community Councillors agreed that this needed to be investigated. To so do (Action: Sandy Wallace).

 

3. Housing at Woodlands of Durris

Philip Dean noted that there had been a vacant plot at Woodlands, earmarked for years as being for affordable housing. The site had recently been advertised for sale, but without mention of affordable housing. Intrigued by this, he had requested documentation. This had explicitly stated that the affordable housing condition could be bought out by "£4,572 paid to the local community".

This raised several questions, including:-

• if the site was zoned for affordable housing, what was the justification for ignoring this?
• if the site was not zoned for affordable housing, what was the justification for extorting a payment?
• why was the local community not informed?
• should the local community review any planning gain?
• given that the difference in profit between affordable housing and premium housing would be expected to be much greater than £4,572, why did the Council’s officers apparently agree such a small figure?

To follow this up (Action: Don Keith and Sandy Wallace)

1. Brodie Countryfare

No further news had been received of the likely publication date for the result of the Appeal.

 

2. Traffic on South Deeside Road west of Durris Bridge approach

Julia Mackay reported that the residents on Deebank were having problems with the speed of traffic approaching Durris Bridge and had asked the Council for a "Slow Down" notice. In the interim, they had erected one of their own. To follow this up and revert to Julia Mackay (Action: Sandy Wallace)

JFH

10 January 2004

MOM 04 01 06.doc

CDDCC Councillors (by email)

Councillor Jenny Watson (by post)

Councillor Sandy Wallace (by email)

Mr W Munro, Area Manager, Kincardine & Mearns (by email)

Mr L Allen, Area Manager, Marr (by email)

Crathes Hall Notice board (by post)

Banchory Public Library (by post)

Durris Hall Notice board (delivered by Sarah Hopkins)

Drumoak PO (delivered by Don Keith)

Park Shop (delivered by Don Keith)

Rev Jim Scott, Durris Manse, Durris, Banchory AB31 6BU (by email)

Community Police Officer (Drumoak) - PC Allan Tennant c/o Banchory Police Office (by post)

Community Police Officer (Durris) - PC Kevin Skivington c/o Banchory Police Office (by post)

Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator - Mrs Lesley Moore, "Patchways" Drumoak AB31 5HA (by post)