Draft Minutes Fossoway and District Community Council
7th January 2020, Fossoway Primary School

Attending: Community Cllrs Sarah Bruce-Jones, Angus Cheape, Trudy Duffy, Carol Farquhar, Carole Haigh, Michael Haigh, Graham Pye and Rob Young; P&K Cllrs Mike Barnacle and Callum Purves; Seven Members of the Public (MoP).
Apologies: P&K Cllrs Willie Robertson and Richard Watters.
Declarations of Interest: CCllr Young declared an interest in planning application 19/01826.

Police report: There was one incident to note in our area since the last CC Meeting from the Commander’s Reports received via Perth and Kinross Community Watch: Between 12:30pm and 1:10pm, Saturday 7th December, a wallet and fleece were stolen from a Kia Sorento parked in Vicars Bridge Road, Blairingone.

A MoP reported excessive speed of vehicles through Powmill. There was general agreement that installing 100 metre countdown markers leading up to the 30mph limit from the Crook of Devon direction would help. Cllr Barnacle will investigate if this could be done.

Cllr Barnacle has asked Inspector Kat Thompson of Police Scotland for a meeting to discuss local issues.

Minutes of the previous meeting: The minutes of the previous meeting were signed off without amendment.

Matters Arising
Rumbling Bridge Gorge Bridge: George Lawrie and other members of the TRACKS group have conducted a detailed site visit to assess water levels and produced a design that should ensure the bridge is safe from any future flooding. SEPA’s requirement is for there to be least 600mm clearance above their 1 in 200 flood level, and this design comfortably exceeds that. The bridge would have one span of 24 metres and one of 6 to 9 metres. The North landing point of the bridge would be in line with the gate. Copies of the proposed plan were circulated amongst those present.
Representatives of the Army Reserves have visited the site and they have subsequently expressed an interest in being involved in the project, but without committing to a timescale at this stage, although it would probably be a year away. This would approximately halve the construction costs.
SEPA believe that the proximity to the old site would remove the need to submit a planning application, although this is not the view of the TRACKS team. It would also be necessary to do a tree survey upstream of the bridge to check for any potential fallers.
Full costs (if the Army were not involved) would be £75-80k. TRACKS propose to construct a three car parking area which would be used for site office during construction.
The next step is to organise a meeting with the CC and other interested parties to agree the proposed site, followed by release of funds to fund structural engineer’s calculations of foundations, creation of drawings, submission of planning application, etc. Additionally, the landowners need to be consulted and their agreement obtained.
In response to a question, George answered that disabled access would be OK from the North side, and across bridge but it would of necessity be difficult on the Crook of Devon bank as there are steps. Cllr Barnacle suggested that an approach should be made to PKC’s Community Greenspace group to see if they can do something about the steps, hence making the bridge and paths generally accessible.

Powmill in Bloom: In November the group reported that PKC were not cutting the verges in Powmill. Cllr Watters investigated this, but was told that the verges are too narrow to be cut safely. CCllr Farquhar reported that the group has recently planted ten and half thousand bulbs!

Powmill Play Park: CCllr Farquhar reported that there is new equipment installed, and the site looks very promising as work continues.

Crook & Drum Growing Together: In November, Amanda James, chair of the group had contacted the CC requesting assistance with progressing planned work at the corner of West Crook Way. Cllr Watters took an action to look into this and as a result PKC’s Greenspace team met the Bloom group on 22nd November and the work has now been done.

Fossoway Area Transport/DRT: Cllr Barnacle reported that there have been two meetings to discuss this, but both were very poorly attended. There is a PKC wide transport forum on 16th January at LLCC. Cllr Barnacle aims to set up another local meeting in February.

A977 Mitigation: Cllr Barnacle noted that there’s still over £200k of identified projects to be executed, including B9097 realignment in February, School Road junction in March, and Gateway Features and Drum Signalisation in July. CCllr Duffy asked the Councillors how potholes were supposed to be fixed – Cllr Purves replied that the process is that they should be done properly by cutting out and filling, but urgent ones might be fixed temporarily.

Crook Moss Travellers Site: Cllr Barnacle, CCllr Farquhar and Mr and Mrs McGregor from the Traveller’s Site, had an informal meeting before Xmas – They decided that it would be useful to have an official meeting, which will be held at 10am on 14th January at 2 High Street, Perth, including Cllr Barnacle, CCllr Farquhar and the McGregors along with representatives from the police, PKC’s planning department and SEPA. The intention is to discuss outstanding planning issues and to try to address some aspects of the site’s appearance. It may be possible to explore the potential conversion of the site from a traveller’s site into an affordable housing site.

Blairingone War Memorial: An LBC application (19/01944/LBC) has been made by Profile Projects. See below.

Matters Arising with no update since last meeting:
Vegetation on Aldie Road, Cemetery Extension and Ivy Cottage Powmill : No information at present.

New Business:
Bartholomew McLaughlin: The CC was contacted by a member of the Shetland Community Trust, who is researching the history of Bartholomew McLaughlin, also known as Bert McLaughlin, who was the minister of Blairingone Church from 1939 to 1958. The Trust would be interested to hear from anyone who knows anything about Mr McLaughlin. MoPs suggested several locals who might know of him, and they will be contacted.
Proposed 40mph Speed Limits on A977: PKC intend to create two new sections of 40mph limit: (1) East of bend after Blairingone, where 30mph limit ends, to just past Craigend junction. (2) West of Crook of Devon, from end of existing 30mph limit to just past Briglands Farm access. Comments were needed by 6th December, however as the CC was not constituted at that time it was not possible for us to comment. However it was thought very likely that this would meet with general approval, and hence the previous CC members did not think it necessary to ask for an extension to the comment period.

Community Council Business
CCllr Cheape attended a meeting of the Kinross-shire fund on the 2nd December – two grants were made to other areas, but CCllr Cheape pointed out that the fund has a healthy balance available for applications. CCllr Duffy reminded the meeting that other sources of funding are available.
CCllr Farquhar said there was to be a meeting of the Sports Hub on 9th January but she was unable to attend.
CC Political Impartiality: During the run-up to the last General election the CC posted an announcement of a public meeting by one of the candidates on our Facebook page. We were advised by PKC’s Community Planning Policy Team Leader that this could be considered to be an endorsement of that party and it should be removed. On seeking further clarification from PKC it was agreed that events such as hustings open to all parties could be advertised by the CC, and after an election notification of surgeries of sitting Members would also be acceptable.

P&K Councillors’ Reports
Callum Purves: Cllr Purves noted that annual budget process has started, although the current difficulties with the timing of the Westminster budget may cause some problems.
Mike Barnacle: Cllr Barnacle has been discussing with other members a proposal to review the budget in two stages, firstly to hear proposals from the Officers, and then a week later vote on them, which would allow time for sensible discussion. He believes that there may be a fairly wide degree of support for this idea.
The Local Councillors wrote to the Scottish Minister about the conduct of the Local Plan review by the Reporter. Unfortunately the response failed to address any of the stated issues.
Cllr Barnacle distributed letters to 100 residents of Blairingone to see if there was any enthusiasm for acquiring the school for the community. Regrettably there were only three replies. Consequently it appears there is no local interest in retaining the building, so PKC can choose to dispose of it.

Planning Matters
19/01760/FLL Erection of a dwelling house and garage at land 50 metres south-west of Mitchell House, Main Street, Crook of Devon. No CC Comment.

19/01826/FLL Demolition of agricultural buildings, erection of a dwelling house and extension to stable at land 20 metres north-west of Coach House, Tullibole Mill Farm, Crook of Devon No CC Comment

19/01881/IPL Residential development (in principle) at Land 80 metres north-east of Powmill Milk Bar. The CC will object on grounds of being outside LDP2, flood risk and road capacity.
Several MoPs present at the meeting had also objected to this proposal. Cllr Barnacle had spoken to the planners and they are intending to refuse the application under their delegated powers, although there is still the possibility of the applicant appealing to the LRB. A MoP asked how they can prevent the applicant continuing to make applications to develop this land. Cllr Barnacle suggested that creating a Community Development Trust would definitively record the views of residents, and possibly enable the land to be acquired for the Community’s benefit.

19/01921/FLL Alteration and extension to dwelling house and formation of raised decking area (in part retrospect) 3 Riverside Lodges, Main Street, Crook of Devon. No CC comment.

19/01944/LBC Relocation of war memorial and associated works at Blairingone Church, Blairingone FK14 7NY. The CC will write in support of this application.

19/02066/FLL Erection of a dwelling house (plot 1) at Land 30 metres south of Crook of Devon House, Main Street, Crook of Devon. This application only arrived on the afternoon of the meeting so will be discussed by email.

Decided Applications
19/01512/FLL Alterations and extension to dwelling house and erection of replacement garage Smiddy, Main Street, Blairingone. Approved – The CC did not comment.

Appeals
19/00473/IPL / TCP/11/16(615) Residential development (in principle) at land 110 metres south-east of 3 Birkfield Park, Rumbling Bridge. Dismissed at 12th November LRB - The CC had objected to this application.

Correspondence - All correspondence was available for viewing: The CC received copies of some objections to application19/01881/IPL ; The Gannochy Trust are holding a fund raising roadshow between 9:30 and 11:30 on 16th January at Kinross Parish Church – see https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-funding-roadshow-event-5-kinross-tickets-82955978565 to book. There are also other locations.

AOCB: CCllr Duffy has information about creating a Community Development Trust – interested parties should contact her to start the process going. Cllr Barnacle has experience of, and some information, from other trusts.
A MoP suggested that as we no can longer hold meetings at Blairingone School that we are perhaps restricting our locations too much and we should consider holding meetings elsewhere. The CC welcomed proposals from anyone as to how we should best geographically distribute the eleven meetings each year, with the only restriction being that school premises are only available during term times.

Draft Agenda for Next CC Meeting

Welcome and Apologies, Declarations of Interest, Community Policing, Minutes of last meeting.
Matters arising: Rumbling Bridge Gorge Bridge, Powmill in Bloom, Powmill Play Park, Crook & Drum Growing Together, Fossoway Area Transport, A977 Mitigation, Crook Moss Traveller’s Site, Blairingone War Memorial.
Community Councillors: Meetings Attended, PKC Councillors’ Reports, Planning, Correspondence, AOCB

Next Meeting: Tuesday 4th February 2020 at 7:30 pm
Carnbo Village Hall
All Welcome