Fossoway Community Council - May 2013 Minutes

Draft Minutes Meeting Fossoway and District Community Council
Tuesday 6th May 2013, Fossoway Primary School

Attending: Sandy Morrison, Trudy Wigman-Duffy, Alastair Lavery, Kevin Borthwick, Sheila Anderson, Angus Cheape, Cllr M Barnacle and 17 Members of the Public (MoP).

Apologies: Rod Patterson, Cllrs D Cuthbert, J Giacopazzi, and W Robertson

Declarations of interest: Trudy declared interest in Planning Application 13/00658/IPL.

Community Policing: PC Jim Pentley attended and reported that speed checks continue on major roads. Theft of two road rollers in Blairingone is being investigated – plant thefts are very prevalent at the moment, please take extra precautions. Community Speed Watch has been recommended for continuation, however with the new Police organisation it may take some time to reach the right people. Trudy notes that the Community would need to raise the funding for the equipment.

Minutes of the previous meeting: There were no amendments so the minutes were signed off.

Rumbling Bridge Hydro Scheme Update: Hugh Wallace of Glendevon Energy gave a presentation about the scheme. Output will be 500kW P/A, costs up to planning stage £170,000 final cost £2.5Million. Return of water type scheme with a 1.3km pipeline. SEPA specify a compensation flow – the amount of water bypassing the turbine and continuing down the river. In periods of low water the scheme will not operate. Intake weir will be just downstream of the deer farm, follow line of Devon Valley railway, running roughly parallel to A977 going underneath Rumbling Bridge road and finally re-joining the river SW of Rumbling Bridge close to Scottish Water pipeline. Test drilling to establish ground conditions currently taking place. The work involving Rumbling Bridge road can be compressed into 4/5 weeks to minimise disruption. The aim was to minimise disruption to landowners during the construction period, and have things in a better state than when the scheme commenced. There is a new opportunity for Community investment via the Scottish Government’s Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (the charity Community Energy Scotland can help with this) to borrow up to £250k, repayable over eight years, to invest in the project, however the originally proposed Community benefit is still on the table. Cllr Barnacle asks if it would be possible to reinstate the missing bridge as part of this scheme – that could be looked at, however the intake weir would be designed to enable it to act as a public crossing. Aim is to submit planning application in late May or early June this year. There was considerable discussion on the project, and contributions from various Members of the public. G Lawrie suggested that the CC should contact Glenfarg CC, who were involved in a community energy project. The CC’s position was one of general support but it required considerably more detail and regular updates to determine its position on community involvement.

Matters arising:
• Outh Muir Wind Farm: No CC member was able to attend the last meeting, and minutes have not yet been published. However a new wind farm is being proposed at Blairadam, there will be presentations about this on 20th May at Saline Community Centre between 2pm and 8pm, and at Kelty Community Centre on 23rd May between 2:30 pm and 7:30pm - the concern is that the two schemes might eventually expand to join each other.
• Blairingone War Memorial: Alastair reported that the developer has invited the CC to a site meeting to discuss the new location with the Planning Officer and PKC’s Graves department. It is important that the memorial’s new location is achieved before the significant anniversary of 2014.
• Crook of Devon Church Car Park: No news yet from the church about funding.
• Signposting Core Paths and Rights of Way: George Harley has not yet had the meeting with D Stubbs.
• Lambhill Wood Chip Plant at Blairingone: Nothing further to report, no response to CC’s letter.
• Travellers’ Site at Crook Moss, Crook of Devon: Still awaiting the application to be resubmitted. Cllr Barnacle has requested Nick Brian to meet with the four councillors to discuss the proliferation of Traveller Sites in this area – it would be a good idea if the CC was also represented at the meeting.
• Glenquey Quarry: No date for DMC meeting.
• Glendevon Pollution Incident: No progress to report.
• Local Development Plan: Is with the reporters unit, and 4 reporters have been assigned to consider the plan.
• Powmill Snack Bar: Sandy reports that correspondence had been received from the owner, who had been invited to attend this meeting. At the meeting the owner challenged the previous reports of litter, parking problems and closure of local shop. Sandy replied that the CC meetings are not secret and their minutes are published. Minutes are merely a recorded summary of comments made by attendees at these meetings. The CC was not taking sides with any party. It was purely recording concerns raised by members of the public. The owner asserted that there are currently no litter problems, no parking problems, and the business was not responsible for the closure of the local shop. MoP present observes that the litter at the site is now no worse than it was before the opening of the Snack Bar.
• Church Community Office: Angus reports that a new committee has been created. The original purpose of the Office was to enable access to computing, which is no longer a common requirement, but the Office is a very good resource for high quality and good value printing, and urged that the resources be utilised.
• PKC Ground Maintenance Review: Email sent to Community Green Space Team. No response as yet.
• Community Plan Consultation: Reply sent.
• Gritting and Snow Clearing: Response sent in line with the discussions held at CC meeting.
• Core Paths: George Lawrie has been liaising with local landowners about signage on behalf of PKC. Core path plan has now been approved by Central Government and is now fixed. Proposing creation of a Community Group to improve/create path through Craigton Wood – Funding can probably be obtained to finance this. The CC approves of this plan, and a sub-group chaired by Kevin Borthwick with an initial membership of Duncan Carmichael, Karen Heriot, and Sheila Anderson was set up. Other members from the community would be welcome to join the group.
• Green Routes: PKC have now received some more funding. A MoP has raised concern regarding the foot/cycle path between Aldie Road and Rumbling Bridge, since there is now no barrier between the path and the A977 – This concern was supported by the CC as the A977 was a very busy road for HGV’s, and the downdraught from these vehicles could de-stabilise a child on a bicycle. It was felt a barrier of some sort was necessary. This has come about because the previous verge has been removed to allow the path to be widened to 2.5m, which is a requirement for dual-use paths. Cllr Barnacle points out that part of the Green Route programme will be to lower some speed limits which should help allay this concern. Millennium Path: This will join core paths and old railway line to create a cycle path connecting Kinross and Crook of Devon – currently being researched and £300k needs to be raised. MoP thank George for all his (and his committee’s) efforts in creating paths, and raising funds. G Lawrie suggested asking Brian Cargill to the next meeting to discuss Green Routes.

CC Business: No meetings this month.

PKC Councillors’ reports:

Cllr M Barnacle: Track between Naemoor Road and River - PKC has funding to resurface this, but landowner is currently refusing access to the contractor.
Carnbo Post Box – Could not be returned to its original location due to increased traffic, and boxes are no longer put in walls. Royal Mail replied that where there is no local Post Box, then post can be handed to delivery staff.
U213 Passing Places – meeting to discuss these with various PKC Officers, local residents and Councillors will be 28th or 29th May.
Alan Briscoe’s complaint about litter has been passed to the appropriate departments in PKC.

Planning:

13/00658/IPL Erection of a dwelling house (in principle.) Land 40 metres West of Devonlade Main Street, Crook of Devon. CC notes that it’s not qualified to comment on detailed flooding issues, although there was robust discussion about this amongst the MoP present. Following the meeting, PKC’s the Report of Handling for 12/01189/IPL was reviewed. This confirms that previous applications were rejected on grounds of road safety at the access point on to the A977. However, new Government regulations and the reclassification of the A977 in 1996 remove these grounds for refusal. While the CC has consistently disputed the “local network” status of the A977, it is clear that there is no valid abjection on grounds of road safety would be recognised by the PKC planners.
Recommendation. No CC comment.

Profile Projects sent details of a proposed new house east of Blairingone. This was noted and the CC will take no further action till an application is submitted.

Correspondence: Full list was circulated to the attendees:
Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust is looking for two people to join the board.
Kinross Community Learning and Development Group will be holding an Open Night at 7:30pm on Thursday 16th May at Loch Leven Community Campus.
There was a request from Paul Phare from Energy4all to give a presentation regarding 2 proposed 250kW turbines on 2 sites in the Fossoway Area. Due to the already full agenda an invitation was sent to attend the next meeting.

AOCB: There seems to be a shortage of signs for Powmill. Alastair explained that there is an agreed hierarchy of towns which are signposted on major roads; sadly it appears that Powmill didn’t make the cut…

Draft Agenda for Next CC Meeting
• Welcome and Apologies
• Declarations of Interest
• Community Policing
• Minutes of last meeting
• Matters arising:
Outh Muir Wind Farm , Blairingone War Memorial, Crook of Devon Church Car Park
Signposting core paths and rights of way, Lambhill Site Blairingone , Travellers’ Site Crook Moss
Glenquey Quarry, Glendevon Pollution Incident, Green Routes.
• Community Councillors - Meetings Attended
• PKC Councillors’ Reports
• Planning Applications
• Correspondence
• AOCB

Next Meeting: Tuesday 4th June, 7:30 pm
Moubray Hall, Powmill.
All welcome!