09 06 02

Crathes, Drumoak & Durris Community Council (CDDCC)

Minutes of Meeting

 

Tuesday 2 June 2009 – Irvine Arms, Drumoak from 19.30 hours

 

1. Sederunt

 

Community Councillors: Jean Downie, Jenny Watson, David Morrish (Chair), Diana Robertson, Nicola Chambury, Geoffrey Atkinson, John Baillie, Ann Ross

Aberdeenshire Councillors (Ward 18):  Graeme Clark

Aberdeenshire Councillors (Ward 16): Linda Clark

Apologies: Tony Butcher, John Hopkins; Karen Clark; Doug Allstaff

Guest Speaker: Tony Archer (Aberdeen Forward)

Members of the Public:  Don Keith, Brian Smith

 

Minute Secretary: Diana Robertson

 

 

2. Introductions and Welcome 

 

 

3. Previous Minutes

 

The minutes of May 2009 were proposed by David Morrish and seconded by Jenny Watson and accepted as an accurate record. 

 

 

4. Myrebird Junction: Sightlines

 

Jenny Watson had spoken to Jim Craig of the Roads dept. that morning to establish what the situation was regarding removal of vegetation from the garden at the Myrebird junction.  This has been deemed necessary to improve visibility for traffic turning out of the junction onto the A93.  Jim Craig confirmed that a third letter has been sent to the home owner, who has agreed verbally to removal of the vegetation but who is required to give permission in writing to the council.  It is this written permission that is holding up the work.

 

Local resident, Brian Smith, explained that 18 months ago, there was a serious accident at the junction where one of the cars involved was shunted into the area where school children wait for the bus. The driver of vehicle exiting the junction was charged with undue care and attention, despite visibility at the time only being 75metres and not the required 200metres. The same charges were given to a tractor driver involved in a similar accident some years ago. The likelihood of similar incidents is high due to the poor visibility caused by overgrown vegetation. There is also a danger to children crossing the road at this point to catch the school bus as their view of the road is obscured as is the driver view when approaching this area. The home owner has agreed verbally to removal of vegetation to improve visibility to 120 metres.

 

Action: Nicola Chambury – to contact home owner as soon as possible and establish why there is a hold up in the written permissions.

 

 

5. Myrebird Junction: Safety lights/ transponders trial

 

The operation of these lights was reviewed from information published in the Piper and from local knowledge. The school children activate the lights using the transponders when they are close to the junction. The lights flash, warning drivers that this is school pick up point.  This should mean drivers slow down in this area and children can cross the road with greater safety.  However the lights go off after a short time and have to be reactivated by the transponders. It was pointed out that only children carrying the transponders would have this added safety feature and this is likely to only be when they are attending school.

 

Pupils now have to wait for the bus between the two light posts and this may be a particularly vulnerable position given the problems with the junction. Nicola Chambury suggested that the children could be encouraged to stand in the gate opening and Graeme Clark said that hard standing could be put down to define a safer position for waiting.  This had happened for a pupil on the South Deeside Road.

 

Action: Graeme Clark -to find out how this light trial is to be reviewed and when results will come back to the community on the two trials set up in Aberdeenshire. Also to investigate the possibility of a hard standing area.

 

 

6. Community Composting: Aberdeen Forward talk by Tony Archer

 

Tony Archer described ‘The Green Bag’ Scheme which is being trialled in Drumoak, and is due to be expanded to Banchory and Aboyne.  It is a membership scheme run in co-operation with Aberdeenshire Council and currently mainly funded by the Shire. The Green Bag Scheme is instead of a brown bin scheme, which is deemed by the Shire to be too costly. Members of the community can join the scheme for a payment of £6 with a fortnightly collection from April to November.

 

The aim is to be totally run by the community, in under two years as the council do not have funds to support the scheme indefinitely. Tony Archer then described the situation in Johnshaven where local volunteers pick up the waste from member households, organise turning of the compost heaps and then distribute the composted material.  He anticipated an annual charge of £10 would be needed to cover safety equipment for volunteers and tools.

 

There are currently 50 houses involved in the scheme in Drumoak with the hope that another 50 could be involved by 2010.  The waste material goes to Easter Anguston for composting but more sites may be needed in future as more households adopt the scheme. Diana Robertson suggested it was something that the National Trust for Scotland could be involved in as these properties already have substantial composting facilities. Linda Clark suggested that it would be an opportunity to involve other partnerships such as the Scolty Centre, or the Green Gym.

 

Graeme Clark said that most green waste collected at recycling centres currently went to a facility at New Deer but that there were plans to open another facility at Portlethan. He also said that the ideal was to get everyone composting at home and that compost bins were heavily discounted to facilitate this.

 

Action: Linda Clark – to find out if the Crow’s Nest might provide a composting facility in the long term.

It was suggested that a newsletter article on the Green Bag scheme would be helpful to local residents and Donald Keith agreed to do this.

Contact Details: Tony Archer, Project Officer, 01224 213736; mobile 07977 589383 or email: composting@abzforward.plus.com

Aberdeen Forward Ltd. 2 Polnernook Road,Aberdeen, AB11 5RW; www.aberdeenforward.org

 

 

7. Police Matters:

 

There were no police present at the meeting but a brief report had been submitted by Wayne Smart. This will be e mailed around committee members. Action: John Hopkins. – email police report to CC members.

 

There were no major incidents that warranted discussion.

 

A letter had also been received detailing the new setup for police liaison and enhanced local contact giving e mail addresses, who is based where, areas of responsibility, and who they report to.  This might be useful information to the local community and it was agreed that this letter should also be circulated to committee members. Action: John Hopkins – to decide the best way of communicating this information.

 

Neighbourhood Watch Action from last meeting deferred for John Hopkins to attend to on his return.

Glebe incident reported at last meeting: Action deferred for John Hopkins as above. 

 

 

8. Planning, Strategic & Local 

 

8.1 Main Issues report – CC Action: Forum Meetings in Stonehaven were attended by Jean Downie and John Baillie and those for Crathes by Nicola Chambury, Doug Allstaff, and David Morrish.

 

Main Issues meeting is on 9th June in Banchory and individual representation forms have to be in by 6th July with Community Council representations in by 20th July.

 

David Morrish asked what role community councillors feel the CC. should take and what action is needed.

It was felt that the Banchory meeting will be focussing on larger settlements and may not be of benefit to small villages.

 

David Morrish suggested that the CC role is to engage with the local community and to help ensure that local people know what the process involves and what issues are being highlighted. He suggested that this should take the form of local meetings and others commented that this would be best done as a question and answer session rather than a presentation. There was a danger of overload as local communities had already been involved with presentations by developers and  CC questionnaires and meetings.

 

Piers Baxter was asked if he had taken the results of a local questionnaire into account when drawing up the main issues report and the audience were told that these results were not necessarily considered at this stage, but that councillors could use the questionnaire results at a later stage in the planning process.  Planners are not duty bound to consider the views of the community and the green, amber and red zones were based purely on planning criteria.  Graeme Clark emphasised that if there are concerns about the designation of these areas, then these are questions that should be put to the planners at the main issues meetings.

 

John Baillie put forward that as the planners were only considering representations on technical planning grounds, large numbers of people putting in representations on the same grounds was not worth the effort.  Linda Clark however felt that the more people know and take part in helping form the future of these plans, the better.  A discussion on the form layout, difficulties in filling it in and lack of inducements for completing the form, followed. Councillors reiterated the need to have public views in writing not just the knowledge of local opinion.

 

Summary of Action: It was decided that David Morrish would structure the meetings, based on a question and answer session, primarily to give advice on what can be used as an objection. Councillors were keen to attend and landowners and developers with planning proposals would be welcome to attend to answer relevant questions.

 

John Baillie and Geoffrey Atkinson would assist and would book meeting rooms and arrange a time. An advert would be placed in the P & J and the Piper.

 

The Community Council view is to be collated by David Morrish after the public meeting and circulated to CC members for comments.  It will then be sent as a comment from the CC for each area to Piers Baxter.

 

8.2 Eco village consultation: Nothing had been heard from Chap. Action: Jean Downie – to phone agent for a follow up on the environmental statement promised by the company at the public meeting.

 

8.3 Garage; A93:  Councillors considered tha application on the 19th May and had decided a site visit was necessary. This took place on 2nd June. The committee will make a final decision on Tuesday. There had been 30 letters of support but also objections.

 

8.4 SSPCA Welfare Centre: Alterations had been made to make the noise report more understandable. A bund of 3 metres to include trees was proposed to screen residents and reduce noise.  Geoffrey Atkinson commented that a higher bund would be needed as the land fell away in the direction of residents houses.

 

8.5 Recent Planning applications: None in Drumoak; information not available for Durris and a small hut to be added into the guide camping field at Crathes.

 

 

9. Other Items

 

In view of the large amount of time devoted to the earlier items, David Morrish proposed that only pressing matters under the remaining headings should be considered.

 

9.1 Roads

 

Ann Ross asked for continued action over the Slug Road and the Deeside Way, with ongoing issues over speed and overtaking.  Linda Clark said that those with concerns should e mail her and she will use these e-mails to highlight the problem.  It was suggested that concerns should also be directed to local MSP’s.

 

9.2 Youth Amenity (standing item)

There were no comments. 

 

9.3 Schools (standing item) 

The school council had commented on the proposed site for the new school and it’s proximity to the power station. A qualified parent had completed a survey on behalf of the school council and had found that the radiation levels were very low so this objection to the proposed site had been removed.  The report was forwarded to the planning dept.

 

9.4 Health Services (standing item)

There were no comments.

 

10. Engagement of CDDCC with its Constituents (standing item)

This was covered under planning. 

 

 

11. AOCB

 

11.1 Registration of Septic Tanks. David Morrish had contacted SEPA to find out what happens if a resident has not registered a septic tank.  The answer was ‘nothing’. However the registration document is required when selling the property.

11.2 Planning permission for storage units at The Neuk, Harestone – the units were for storage of domestic items by the residents themselves.

11.3 Crathes planning application : had been turned down by the planners. (Additional accommodation on single plot.)

11.4 St Ternan’s fair takes place on 13/14th June.

11.5 Comment on need to include cycle lanes as part of all new developments

11.6 Collection boxes to allow the community to make contributions to retirement gift. 

 

12. Forthcoming Meetings and details of Presentations

 

·        7 July, Irvine Arms, Drumoak – no presentation scheduled

·        4 August, Irvine Arms, Drumoak – includes presentation by Linda Grey on Community Learning

 

Note that July meetings have often been cancelled in recent years, because of the difficulty of raising a quorum at holiday times, but the July date will be kept under review, in the light of the progress on the Structure Plan / Local Development Plan

 

All meetings to commence at 1930 hours

 

 

DR  5/6/09 

 

Distribution

Email

Email

Email

Post

Other

CDDCC Councillors (excl. Jenny Watson)

Danny Law (Deeside Piper)

Insp. Andrew Todd

Jenny Watson

Website http://www.durris.net/ (also for previous minutes)

Cllrs. Linda Clark, Karen Clark, Jill Webster (Ward 16)

Leanna MacLarty (Press and Journal)

Insp. Jim Gordon

Crathes Hall Notice Board (via David Humble)

 

Cllrs. Peter Bellarby, Graeme Clark, Mike Sullivan, Wendy Agnew (Ward 18)

Kirkton of Durris Hall Notice Board (via Sheila Watt)

PC Wayne Smart

Drumoak Public Hall Notice Board (via Ian Pirie)

By Hand

Mr W Munro, Area Manager, Kincardine & Mearns

Rev. Jim Scott, Durris Manse, Durris

 

Banchory Public Library

Park Shop (via John Hopkins)

Mr L Allen, Area Manager, Marr

Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator – Alister Bisset

 

Drumoak Church Hall Notice Board (via Morag Keith)

Drumoak Post Office (via John Hopkins)