Attending: Sandy Morrison, Alastair Lavery, Kevin Borthwick, Sheila Anderson, Trudy Duffy-Wigman, Cllr W Robertson and 7 Members of the Public (MoP).
Apologies: A Cheape, Rod Paterson, Cllr M Barnacle, Cllr Joe Giacopazzi, Cllr D Cuthbert
Declarations of interest: None
Community Policing: Community police officer (PC Riches) was not present, but sent a report – there are no incidents to report in this area. Speed checks continue to be made on major routes. PC Douglas Stapleton will be the Community Police Officer for the next three months.
Minutes of the previous meeting: There were no amendments so the minutes were signed off.
Matters arising:
• Blairingone War Memorial: Alastair reports this is still on-going.
• Crook of Devon Church Car Park: The Church is now progressing this.
• Signposting Core Paths and Rights of Way: Cllrs Barnacle, Cuthbert and Giacopazzi were not present to give feedback on this.
• Lambhill Wood Chip Plant at Blairingone: Calum Snowie will not be presenting to this meeting and will let us know when he will attend. SEPA have strongly objected to the application because run-off from building waste stored on concrete hard standing might contaminate water courses – this objection was not known about by the Planner. Cllr Robertson will write to the Planner to ensure he is aware of the SEPA objection. Gordon Banks MP had written to PKC asking for an update, PKC’s response included the information that the decision on whether an application was major or not could only be based on the area measurements provided by the developer. Also that the application will be handled under delegated powers due to insufficient objections and that part of the application will be treated as retrospective. The CC will send their objection to the Planners again, and reinforce the noise issue.
• Travellers’ Site at Crook Moss, Crook of Devon: Sandy reports that Phase 2 responses have been received to both complaints. Two of the objections have been upheld regarding incorrect information in the Planner’s Report and the next version of the Report will be updated to include the missing information, “the omissions will be flagged to insure that councillors are made aware of these errors”. There was considerable discussion on this item and those present reiterated their concerns regarding the department and the way the matter had been handled. The CC have decided not to elevate the complaint to the Ombudsman, but have arranged a meeting with David Littlejohn on 17th January to discuss the Community’s concerns regarding his department, and to try and develop a better relationship between the CC and the Planning Department.
• GlenQuey Quarry: Alastair reports that the CC received a letter asking for comments on the traffic implications, although the quarry itself is not in this CC’s area. The letter contained figures from a new traffic count taken on the road where the quarry access road would join it. The CC repeated its objections that the 80 heavy (20 tonne) lorry movements per day (figures provided by the developer) would impose an unacceptable load on the surrounding roads and bridges. The application is expected to come before the April Planning Meeting. Cllr Robertson will write to the Council asking for a traffic impact analysis before the Application is discussed. There was significant discussion on this item, particularly on access to the M90 going south.
• Crook of Devon water supply: The CC received several complaints about the quality of water. Kevin reports that a notice agreed with Scottish Water was put in the Crook of Devon notice board and the shop. Several residents contacted Scottish Water and the situation has now improved.
CC Business: A Special CC meeting was held to consider the Local Development Plan, from which several items have been submitted to the PKC councillors to be brought up at the full council meeting where the plan will be discussed: Strategic Planning does not address land for Employment, Education requirements, Transport infrastructure, Areas of Great Landscape Value. Emphasis should be made on using brownfield sites in preference to greenfield.
PKC Councillors’ reports:
Cllr W Robertson: Local councillors will be meeting to review submissions about the LDP and agree amendments to the plan to be submitted to the Council meeting on the 23rd of this month.
Scottish Government are encouraging the use of Gallic, and PKC will invest money, some from the Scottish Government and the rest from PKC, in providing Gallic on the website, road signs, responses to letters, etc.
Later this month PKC will publish a paper on “Green Roads” (roads made more suitable for cyclist, pedestrians and horses) regrettably the U222 will not be included because there is not deemed to be enough heavy traffic on it, and there won’t even be a weight limit. Cllr Robertson plans to propose an amendment to include the U222. It would help if the CC wrote to Gillian Robinson to support this, mentioning that heavy Lorries do use this route and a weight limit would be a sensible alternative.
Planning: No applications this month.
Correspondence: Full list was circulated to the attendees.
AOCB:
A977 Blairingone road closure (for two weeks) has been postponed to 11th March. The closure of the B9097 has been cancelled for the foreseeable future.
The details of the River Devon poisoning that happened 18 months ago has not yet been reported, possibly because legal proceeding are still outstanding. The CC will ask SEPA for information.
The Carnbo phone box has now been removed and the pavement reinstated, but not levelled properly, creating a trip hazard and a water trap. Discussions are taking place between PKC and BT over the financial responsibility before this can be fixed.
Draft Agenda for Next CC Meeting
• Welcome and apologies
• Declarations of interest
• Community Policing
• Minute of last meeting
• Matters arising
• Community Council Business
• Councillors’ reports
• Planning applications
• Correspondence
• AOCB
Next Meeting: Tuesday 5th February, 7:30 pm
Fossoway Primary School, Crook of Devon.
All welcome!
