Draft Minutes of Fossoway & District Community Council

Tuesday 6^th February 2024 – 7.30pm, Crook of Devon Village Hall

Attending: Community Councillors (CCllrs) Nicola Marchant (Chair), Sarah Bruce-Jones, Adrian Carter, Graham Pye; Assoc CCllr Carol Farquhar; Perth & Kinross Councillor (Cllr) Richard Watters; 10 members of the public (MoP).

1. Apologies: CCllrs Angus Cheape and Tony Lamb; PKC Cllrs Dave Cuthbert, Neil Freshwater and William Robertson

2. Declarations of interest: None

3. Community Police report:

From 2^nd January 2024 (last meeting) there have been 48 calls to Police from the Fossoway area and 3 crimes recorded on Police systems.

Between 30^th and 31^st January, three sheep were stolen from Solsgirth, Blairingone. Investigation is ongoing.

On Saturday 3^rd February 2024 traffic officers were on mobile patrol on A977 Main Street, Powmill where they recovered a stolen vehicle.

Over the last month local officers from Kinross have been carrying out speed checks at Crook of Devon and Carnbo amongst other areas. During this tickets have been issued for various road traffic offences as well as drivers spoken to and warned.

Update: Two men, aged 31 and 22 will be reported to the Procurator Fiscal in connection with offences relating to the intention to commit theft after a series of incidents at farms in the Kinross area. The incidents happened at various farms across the area in April 2023 involving the males driving a blue van. The 22-year-old man has been arrested and charged. The 31 year-old will also be the subject of a report to the Procurator Fiscal. The incident received a lot of local attention at the time and PC Samson would like to thank the members of public who contacted police to report incidents and with information.

CCllr Pye noted that the Solsgirth incident had also been reported by the Rural Alert system, which several present were not aware of. To sign up visit: https://www.ruralwatchscotland.co.uk/#SignUp

4. Approval of minutes of the last meeting: Minutes were approved without change and signed off.

5. Progress & matters arising

Windfarms

The CC held a public meeting on the 30^th Jan 2024 at 7.30pm in Carnbo Village Hall where the results of the wind farm survey were shared. The meeting was attended by 10 MoP and Cllr Watters. The results have been posted on the CC website https://www.fossoway.org/ and the posters were made available to view at this CC meeting and will also be available at the next CC meeting in Moubray Village Hall.

The conclusion of the report notes that the survey was distributed to all households in Fossoway District and 110 responses were received equating to 11.7%. The majority of households who responded support renewable energy but opinions were strongly divided on onshore wind farms in the Ochils; with opponents concerned about the impact on the landscape and supporters believing they are essential to halt climate change.

The findings have provided good insight into residents' concerns during construction and operation of any wind farms that receive planning permission. This information will inform all Community Council responses to any planning application. If any application is successful the survey findings on possible use of community benefit funds will be used in any discussion with planners and developers.

CCllrs Bruce-Jones and Marchant listened to the Planning and Place Making Committee meeting on 10^th Jan where the Committee was made aware of the PAN application for the Craighead wind farm. This was purely to make the committee aware of its existence and there was no actual planning discussion. The CC had sent an email CC'd to our Cllrs regarding concern of cumulative impact and how other wind farm proposals would be considered that did not go through the PAN process and also to raise awareness of our survey. Cllr Cuthbert raised this and asked planning officers to liaise with us as we had a lot of information from local residents.

Two other Cllrs made comments - concern regarding how construction traffic would be managed, light pollution; and the visual impact as this Cllr believed the area could become “blighted” with these tall turbines.

The report has been circulated to other CCs in the area, the currently active developers (Galileo and ePower) and Local Councillors.

Mike Barnacle cautioned the CC not to take too much notice of the survey given the small percentage (12%) of respondents, although as the survey showed that 62% of respondents were not previously aware of the proposals that is a useful result. There were a number of deficiencies of in the questions, including failure to mention the history and cumulative effect. Mike Barnacle encouraged the CC to press Local Councillors to arrange a public enquiry.

The seven Community Councils in the area surrounding the proposed wind farms have formed a “Sustainability Group” with the intention that a combined approach to the Wind Farm developers will enable a more substantial community benefit to be achieved. As yet the group is in the early stages, CCllrs Bruce-Jones and Lamb have attended the startup meeting, and although the group has drafted a Memorandum of Undertaking for the membership, this CC does not think it is ready to be agreed yet. We will feed back comments to the Group.

Community Development Trust

The Trust has been awarded funds by PKC for the development of a website and community engagement prior to the start of the Community Action Plan and Local Place Plan process which we anticipate will also be funded by PKC. The Blairingone school project is progressing, and meetings have been held with DTAS and PKC to support a financial feasibility study. We are still waiting for PKC to provide a valuation of the property for lease or purchase.

A request for start-up funding has been submitted to the Kinross-shire Fund. Next meeting of the CDT is 20^th February.

Road Safety in FDCC area including A977 mitigation measures

Drum Crossroads

The traffic lights are now operational, and appear to be making a difference. Sarah has asked for the 30mph limit to be extended to the start of Drum, which is currently progressing through the legal process. There have been some negative comments on social media about the new lights, so the CC proposes to make a statement about the thinking behind the mitigation measures. The time is now right to look at the performance of the currently implemented measures and decide what might be done next. It would be very useful to ask PKC to study the makeup of the traffic and whether it is local traffic or through traffic.

Speed Watch

Due to the unfortunate loss of the previous approvals of the volunteers, progress has been held up pending the Police re-doing the approvals.

Fossoway area transport – 202 bus service

The 202 bus continues to run hourly; however, as Stagecoach have now decided to extend the route at Dollar to the Ness turning circle, services are being seen to be running later than scheduled. This adds up over each morning and afternoon schedule to some delay. However, the bus does usually arrive at some point and the tracking system is operative for most services. There is an intention to replace one of the busses with a model that is more suited to rural roads. CCllr Lamb attended meetings with Fossoway CDT and also Glenfarg Community Transport and continued discussions as to a way forward for a more reliable and efficient transport service in the near or distant future. Discussions with these parties as well as PKC continue.

Yellow Grit Bins – The previous requests are being processed, but there is no guaranteed timescale.

6. Matters arising with no update since last meeting - Power capacity in Fossoway District and Crook Moss Travellers site.

7. New Business

Potholes – The CC encourages the Community to report them directly using this link to PKC’s website: https://my.pkc.gov.uk/service/Report_a_fault_or_an_enquiry_on_a_road_or_street

8. Consultations

Financial Conduct Authority

Access to Cash

The CC will be responding to this consultation with a focus on how assessments to access to cash services are performed in locations which cover a wide geography with limited public transport.

PKC: No new consultations this month.

Scottish Government

Democracy Matters Phase 2

The consultation paper proposes communities get together to discuss how they want they community to develop and how they engage with organisations like PKC. As we have already formed a Development Trust and last summer organised several Big Place Conversation engagement events the CC has decided not to respond.

Proposals for a Heat in Buildings Bill

Like many other countries, Scotland has a legal target to reach “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions, which cannot be achieved without changing the heating systems in the vast majority of our buildings. The CC is preparing a response, but urges the public to submit their own views too. The survey closes on 8^th March, and can be found at: https://consult.gov.scot/energy-and-climate-change-directorate/proposals-for-a-heat-in-buildings-bill/

9. Community Council Business – meetings attended

CCllr Lamb attended the following meetings regarding public transport: 4^th January – Fossoway CDT; 11^th January Glenfarg Community Transport.

10. PKC Business – Councillors reports

Richard Watters: Kinross-shire Committee were funding a core paths master plan for the whole of Kinross-shire, but in fact Tactran have now agreed to fund it, although overall control of the plan remains with the Committee.

11. Planning Matters

Planning Applications

23/01562/FLL Part change of use of garage to short-term let accommodation unit, erection of ancillary building/kitchen and installation of wood fired hot tub (in part retrospect) at Chapter House, Fossoway, Kinross, KY13 0UP. No CC Comment (Discussed by email as comment date was before this meeting.)

23/02142/FLL Siting of 2 holiday accommodation units and associated works at Chapter House, Fossoway, Kinross, KY13 0UP. The CC objects as contrary to NPF4 Tourist Policy 30 – not compatible with surrounding area.

23/02082/FLL Erection of a dwelling house and associated works at land 30 metres north-west of County Fabrics, The Water Mill, Crook of Devon, Kinross, KY13 0UL. No CC Comment.

Planning Decisions

23/01961/FLL Erection of a dwelling house and associated works at land 250 metres south-west of Broomhill House, Station Road, Crook of Devon, Kinross, KY13 0PG. Application was rejected – The CC had objected.

12. Correspondence – The CC has received a request from a BSc student at Edinburgh University to distribute survey about the population’s understanding of conservation of Scottish Rainforests. The survey can be accessed at: https://sruc.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/public_survey

13. AOCB – Huw Wallace reported that the hydro scheme is working well and generating 15% more power than expected and hence the community benefit will be correspondingly larger. A new group will be set up later this year to manage the benefit.

A Carnbo resident observed that the proposed 40mph limit and pavement seems to have fallen off the radar. The CC will do a new review the spreadsheet of traffic items next month.

NEXT MEETING TUESDAY 5^th MARCH 7.30PM

CARNBO VILLAGE HALL.

ALL WELCOME

Correspondence Received January 2024