Draft Minutes Fossoway and District Community Council
3rd April 2018, Powmill Moubray Hall
Attending: Community Cllrs Cameron Brown, Angus Cheape, Jennifer Donachie, Trudy Duffy, Carol Farquhar and Graham Pye; P&K Cllrs Callum Purves, Willie Robertson and Richard Watters; 5 Members of the Public (MoP)
Apologies: Cllr Mike Barnacle.
Declarations of Interest: None.
Police report: Unfortunately no officer was able to be present at the meeting. There was one incident to note in our area in the last month from the Commander’s Reports received via Perth and Kinross Community Watch: On Friday 16th March 2018 into Saturday at Tullibole Mill Farm, Drum an Ifor
Williams white box trailer was stolen.
Minutes of the previous meeting: As a paper copy of the February minutes was not available at the March meeting they were instead signed off at this meeting. There were no amendments to the March meeting minutes so they were also signed off.
Matters Arising
Blairingone School Estate Transformation: The decision to close the school has currently been deferred until the next Lifelong Learning Committee meeting in eight weeks’ time. Cllr Barnacle is known to be keen to resolve the issue of whether development proposed to be included in LDP2 will take place in Blairingone, which might justify keeping the school open.
Lambhill: Local residents have noticed that large numbers of HGVs are waiting outside the site in the mornings, suggesting that the site is still operational, contrary to planning.
Dollar Equestrian Centre: At the LRB meeting held earlier today, the planners’ decision to refuse the application to retain the wooden stables (17/01337/FLL) was upheld.
A977 Mitigation: Community Consultations about how the A977 money is to be spent were held on 10th and 13th March – the meetings were not as well attended as hoped considering the longstanding interest in this subject. Final proposals will be presented by PKC at the next CC meeting based on feedback received so far, and this will be the last opportunity to comment on the proposals. Cllr Robertson pointed out that this is the only road in P&K receiving this level of attention and it’s important to ensure that we get the maximum benefit from this one off opportunity.
Hydro Scheme Fund: CCllr Duffy reported that the first application for funds has been received and is being considered by the Hydro Committee. Between £50k and £55k should become available from the remainder of the contingency fund in stages over the year. The public consultation showed that restoring the bridge over the gorge would be a very popular project, but as it is too big a project for the Hydro Committee to run on its own, CCllr Duffy suggested approaching TRACKS to see if they can help. The meeting approved of this suggestion, and CCllr Duffy agreed to make contact.
Crook and Drum Growing Together: A fund raising event in conjunction with the school will be held on 28th April. Both this group and the Powmill in Bloom group are currently waiting for the weather to improve.
Fossoway Area Transport: Contrary to an impression that may have been given in last month’s Kinross newsletter, this CC is not critical of the current DRT service, and especially not its operators, however we are critical of the lack of public transport in this area.
Matters Arising With No Update Since Last Meeting
LDP2, Crook Moss Travellers Site, Ivy Cottage Powmill and Blairingone War Memorial.
New Business:
40 mph Limit Drum (B9097): Cllr Duffy has examined the proposed plans and they seem to be appropriate. Cllr Robertson noted that the proposal was approved at the Environment and Infrastructure Committee on 21st March.
Community Council Business
Meetings Attended: CCllr Farquhar was unable to attend the Sports Hub meeting in March as it was cancelled due to the bad weather.
CCllr Pye attended a Stakeholder Engagement Workshop with SSE in February at which SSE detailed their business plan targets and their achievements.
SSE also described the Priority Service Register – a list of customers who need extra help during power cuts, either because of age (>60), having young (<5) children, disabilities or medical reasons, and non English speakers. Scotland has 113,000 households (13%) on the register. High priority members of the register may be helped to move to another location or provided with emergency power. CCllr Farquhar informed the meeting that she had found the Priority Service very good during her husband’s earlier illness. Potential applicants to this register should first check that SSE is the actual provider of their supply, known as the Network Operator, as opposed to who they pay for it, called the Supplier, at: https://www.ssepd.co.uk/WhoIsMyNetworkOperator and then contact SSE’s Careline on 0800 622 838.
SSE has a Resilient Communities fund which makes grants to help communities be more resilient, e.g. Defibrillators, emergency generators and lighting, etc. Awards range from £200 to £20,000 totalling £505k last year. Applications are open now at: https://www.ssepd.co.uk/RCF/Scotland/
Finally SSE explained some of their ideas towards addressing the change in electricity generation and usage in the future as more solar panels, wind farms, hydro schemes and electric vehicles come into use.
P&K Councillors’ Reports
Callum Purves: The Health and Social Care board exists to help integrate the NHS and Council services, however their decisions appear to be somewhat limited by the Council’s prior policies, which seems to make the board rather toothless, however it fulfils an important role in co-ordinating the two Services.
Willie Robertson: Now that roadside hedges have been trimmed, it’s possible to do litter picking. Cllr Robertson has requested that the A91 be litter picked, especially the east end. The Vehicle Activated Speed signs seem to be working. Blairingone school is likely to be closed, and hence will lose its only community facility and Cllr Robertson is very concerned about that, and asked the CC to write to the Education department and stress the importance of the school as a location for Community activities. CCllr Duffy agreed to do that.
Richard Watters: The Action Partnership has met, and two new members have been appointed, although there is still one vacancy, preferably to be filled by someone outside Kinross – anyone interested should contact Cllr Watters for more information.
Cllr Watters has been working with Visit Scotland and Historic Scotland Kinross-shire to take full advantage of the tourism opportunities presented by the film Mary Queen of Scots due to be released in September.
Planning Matters – New Applications:
18/00343/FLL Erection of a dwelling house and alterations to existing dwelling house to form a workshop/store and ancillary accommodation unit. Craigton Bungalow, Rumbling Bridge, Kinross KY13 0QF.
No CC comment.
18/00364/FLL Erection of a dwelling house at land 50 metres North of Mellock House, Fossoway.
No CC comment.
18/00410/PNA Erection of an agricultural building, Rivendell, Blairingone
No comments can be made to PNAs.
Decided Applications:
18/00058/FLL Change of use of children’s nursery to dwellinghouse, Glenbank Cottage, Powmill.
Approved – the CC did not comment.
Correspondence: All the correspondence was available for viewing: On 10th March a coach got stuck in the entrance to the Scout Camp, apparently the driver was folling his GPS on a short cut to Dollar, and had nothing to do with the Camp or its users on that day.
AOCB: Cllr Robertson reminded the meeting that Kinross-shire is a fair trade area, and PKC is a fair-trade county, he has window stickers to advertise this fact.
MoP reports that the Fossoway.org website has some problems, including a broken link to the School Council – Although the CC doesn’t own it, it has edit access to the pages covering the CC. CCllr Pye undertook to look into the problems.
MoP reported that there is a pile of material in the Moubray Hall car park, perhaps left by Council staff working on the car park surface, which is impeding access to some of the spaces. Cllr Robertson will contact someone in PKC to get it removed
MoP notes that the Blairingone forest area is being actively developed by Forestry Commission, especially paths and tracks which are now much improved giving potential for good walks.
CCllr Duffy met with members of Crook of Devon Village Hall Committee, and it was agreed that they don’t work as well together as they should. There is a proposal to try and resurrect the Fossoway Gathering in June 2019. CCllr Duffy will be meeting with the Committee tomorrow to initially discuss it, and anyone interested should contact the CC. PKC has a fund for rural events, which may be a source of money for this event.
Draft Agenda for Next CC Meeting
Welcome and Apologies, Declarations of Interest, Community Policing, Minutes of last meeting.
Matters arising: A977 Mitigation, Blairingone School Estate Transformation, Hydro Scheme Fund, Crook & Drum Growing Together, Powmill in Bloom, Lambhill.
Community Councillors: Meetings Attended, PKC Councillors’ Reports, Planning, Correspondence, AOCB
AGM and Next Meeting: Tuesday 8th May 2018 7:30 pm
Fossoway Primary School
All Welcome
