Draft Minutes for Fossoway and District Community Council (FDCC) meeting

Tuesday 3rd January 2023, Crook of Devon Village Hall

Attending: Community Councillors (CCllrs) Trudy Duffy, Nicola Marchant, Sarah Bruce-Jones and Faiza Hansraj-Jackson; Assoc. CCllrs Angus Cheape; Perth & Kinross (P&K) Councillor Richard Watters; 9 members of the public (MoP).

Apologies: CCllrs Graham Pye and Assoc. CClr Carol Farquar; Perth & Kinross (P&K) Councillors David Cuthbert, Neil Freshwater and William Robertson.

Declarations of interest: None

Police report

• The police send apologies for not being able to attend the meeting in person and sent a list of local incidents of note from the previous 4 weeks. The police report has no crimes of note since the last FDCC meeting on 6th December 2022.
• Community officers are aware of regular areas where there are complaints about speeding in and around Fossoway and have added these areas to their speeding matrix as well as continuing to carry out speed checks across the area during patrols.
• Since 6th December 2022, there have been 12 calls to the police from the Fossoway area
• Updates on police activities can be found on Twitter by searching “#KinrossCPT” or by following “@PerthKinPolice”.

Minutes of the previous meeting: The minutes of the previous meeting were reviewed and signed off.

Matters Arising

Road Safety in FDCC Area (Including A977 Mitigation and Carnbo)

• PKC provided the FDCC with a list of outstanding work in Kinross-shire; following discussion at the FDCC meeting in November 2022, the FDCC have proposed a matrix to categorise the work and used this to prioritise the list provided. The prioritised list was made available at the meeting for CCllrs and MoP, who were asked to email any comments to the FDCC.

• PKC provided an update as follows:

  • The lowering of the speed limit at Carnbo, from 40mph to 30mph, was identified as a community priority at the Ward meeting with the Kinross-shire Councillors.  PKC reported on 9th Dec that they are working on the creation of this Traffic Regulation Order (TRO).  It is anticipated that this will come into effect from April 2023.

    • The FDCC and residents of Carnbo reiterated that despite this being due for completion in March 2022, it had still not been carried out and should therefore be a priority 
  • There are also three outstanding projects from the A977 Mitigation Measures programme in the vicinity of Crook of Devon/Drum. 
  • The two priority projects (as agreed with the PKC Cllrs and FDCC) were the signalisation of the School Road junction and the realignment of the A977/B9097 junction.  The traffic signals were reported to be installed at School Road, (FDCC note: this has not yet been done) and there is still work to be done to complete the footway links. The junction realignment project still has to be designed and costed.  To date, PKC have not had the staff resources to progress either of these schemes as resources have been directed to other priorities of work. It is hoped that these can be delivered in the next financial year.        

  • Upon completion of these two projects, and provided funding was still available, the third project was to be undertaken; this involves the signalisation of the Drum crossroads, the removal of the Puffin crossing (as a pedestrian phase would be incorporated within the traffic signals) and a reduction of the speed limit from 40mph to 30mph.

    • FDCC and MoP note: concern has been raised about the loss of the existing pedestrian crossing as there is no footpath on any section of the roads at the crossroads so adding pedestrian lights to crossroads will make it less safe for children crossing to get to school – this was one of the main purposes in putting in the pedestrian crossing in the first place 
• MoP and FDCC are of the opinion that these projects need their priorities to be reassessed, so urgent projects can be completed without waiting for others to be completed first.
• FDCC have compared the update from PKC with the minutes from Kinross-shire area committee and the prioritisation matrix (which has been discussed in previous FDCC meetings) to identify dates for completion of projects and priorities
• FDCC are due to meet with CPKC representatives later in January to discuss progress and appropriate prioritisation for all these issues and will report back at the next FDCC meeting

Speeding and transport issues

• The Speedwatch project is progressing, albeit very slowly. The local sergeant has informed the FDCC that CCllr Duffy has to visually confirm that the photograph is of a particular person, and then the sergeant or the community police officer have to sign off that they know CCllr Duffy. The police apologised for this extra bureaucracy.
• In March 2023 the FDCC will find out if we have been awarded a grant for the Speedwatch equipment.

Safer cycle route between Crook of Devon and Kinross

• There is a call for the setting up of a paths group in Fossoway and there is money, help and equipment for loan available.
• This would be a group that keeps paths open to the public by cutting back vegetation and generally improving accessibility of our walkways. The cycle path from Aldie Road to Drum and the “Walk Around Lovely Crook” both have overgrown vegetation and would be good candidates for such a group.

• Recently a member of the public approached us with ideas and questions for bus transport; she purported to be interested in cycle routes. We have invited her to follow that up.

  • FDCC are looking for volunteers to take the lead on this (contact Cllr Robertson for details)

Brunt Hill Wind Farm

• On 14 November 2022, Epower Limited on behalf of Brunt Hill Ltd (the Applicant) submitted a request for a scoping opinion from the Scottish Ministers for the proposed section 36 application for the Brunt Hill Wind Farm. The proposed development is for 26 wind turbines with an estimated blade to tip height of 220 metres and associated infrastructure, located approximately 4.5km north-west of Kinross in the planning authority area of Perth and Kinross Council, in line with regulation 12 of The Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017.
• The documents are available at: https://www.energyconsents.scot/ApplicationDetails.aspx?cr=ECU00004654
• The FDCC has been given the opportunity to respond to questions posed by Brunt Hill Ltd on the scoping document for Brunt Hill Wind Farm (Oct 2022) by 9th Jan 2023. In the past we have objected against all and any turbine planning application on the grounds that the cumulative effect of turbines is never taken into the equation.
• FDCC have drafted a response to this scoping proposal; a version of this was shared and discussed at the meeting, and comments from MoP present were included in the response. Once this summary response has been submitted, it will be shared on the FDCC Facebook page and on noticeboards.

Proposal for new woodland

• RTS Forestry have a scoping proposal for new woodland at Barnhill. The 32.5-hectare site will be mostly diverse conifers with some native broadleaf species. The FDCC is broadly in agreement with this proposal

Drum Flooding

• CClr Bruce-Jones reported that after the most recent heavy storms there was significant flooding on local roads (A977 and B9097) and all surrounding fields
• Drum residents have been cleaning their own ditches and machines have been spotted sucking up sewage from some sites, but the roads aren’t draining well and hold too much surface water

• After these storms no properties were affected this time and whilst ditches and burns are all extremely high, they appeared to be coping. There have also been reports from residents in Drum around issues with sewage.

  • FDCC will contact residents who have reported this and contact SEPA and Scottish Water around mitigations

Crook and Drum Growing Together

• The community orchard is progressing well, and lots of work has been carried out to plant native plants to make the site a haven for pollinators. The next stage of planting trees will be done in March.

Matters arising with no update since last meeting: Fossoway Area Transport, Noise disturbance linked to play areas at Fossoway Primary School, Blairingone War Memorial, Community Development Trust

Consultations

There are two consultations still open for the public to comment on:

• Scottish Government - Small Landholdings Modernisation: https://consult.gov.scot/agriculture-and-rural-economy/small-landholdings-modernisation/ Closes 14th January 2023
• Your Police 2022-2023: https://consult.scotland.police.uk/strategy-insight-and-innovation/your-police-2022-2023/ Closes 31st March 2023

New Business: Fossoway Memories is a Facebook page for members of the community (or former members) to share their memories of Fossoway past and present, with thanks to Colin and Di Dawes (Hilton of Aldie) for this initiative. A link to this can be found on the FDCC’s Facebook page.

Community Council Business

Appointing associate members of the FDCC

• Angus Cheape (with a special focus on the Kinross-shire Committee Fund) and Carol Farquar (with a special focus on Crook Moss travellers site) were appointed as associate members of the FDCC

Meetings attended

• CClr Marchant attended the engagement meeting with PKC CEO Thomas Glen and his Snr Officers in Kinross. FDCC were disappointed to see that they were the only community council present alongside other community organisations e.g. KYTHE, Broke Not Broken and other charities.
• The focus of the discussion was on transport infrastructure, building sustainable communities, engagement with communities and communication. The PKC team will discuss these topics further. There was also a discussion on the evaluation and operation of the Kinross-shire Committee; in particular how this worked with respect to the Local Area Partnership and the Kinross-shire and Glenfarg Stronger Communities. There was a view that boundaries and responsibilities were unclear and that for the Kinross-shire Committee to continue and to be more successful a stringer framework was required.
• A decision on the future of the Committee will be made by the end of the financial year. It was evident that PKC Officers would find it challenging to support all of the committees/partnerships.

P&K Councillors’ Reports

• P&K Cllr Richard Watters reported that PKC are seeing a significant deficit on the budget over the next 3 years which will have a substantial impact on the services which are delivered. PKC officers are working hard to minimise the impact of this budget deficit.

Planning matters for period 05/01/2022 – 03/01/2023

Planning applications

• The FDCC were not notified of the submission of any new planning applications.

Planning Decisions

• 22/01791/FLL - Renewal of permission 19/01568/FLL (alterations to garage) Larch House, Carnbo, Kinross KY13 0NX

  • Application approved, FDCC had made no comment

• 22/01577/FLL - Siting of 2 storage containers, Land 50 Metres South West Of Cairnwell, Drum

  • Application was refused, FDCC had made no comment

Planning Appeals

• 21/02133/AML - Erection of 10 dwelling houses, 6 garages and associated works (approval of matters specified in conditions of 18/01855/IPL) Land 70 metres west of Innerdownie, Crook of Devon

  • PKC have advised that they will forward all representations to the DPEA CC has already objected to the planning application and has chosen not to add any further comments

Development of LDP3

• CCllrs Duffy and Marchant have started engaging with PKC around development of LDP3, and further engagement with the community will commence in Spring 2023, starting with the community development trust. This is to ensure that there is engagement with local residents to establish what the local communities need (engagement will be carried out with the primary school, Crook Moss travellers site etc)
• LDP3 is due for submission in 2026

AOCB: The FDCC were approached about the A823 to Muckhart road with the complaint that it was overgrown and the vegetation encroached on the road. CCllr Duffy recently saw that there has been some work done.

Draft Agenda for Next CC Meeting: Declarations of Interest,** Community Policing, Minutes of last meeting. Matters arising: Access to Cash in Kinross, Community Development Trust, Fossoway Area Transport, A977 Mitigation, Crook Moss, Carnbo Speeding, Speedwatch, Community Council Business, PKC Councillors’ Reports, Planning, Correspondence, AOCB

Next Meeting: Tuesday 7th February 2023

Carnbo Village Hall. All are welcome!

Correspondence December 2022