Community Council Minutes - November 2025 (AGM)

Fossoway and District Community Council

4^th November 2025 7.30pm

To be approved.

1. Attending: Community Cllrs Sarah Bruce-Jones, Adrian Carter, Angus Cheape, Tony Lamb, Nicola Marchant, Graham Pye and Kaye Williamson; Assoc CCllr Carol Farquhar; P&K Cllr Dave Cuthbert; 11 Members of the Public.

Apologies: PKC Cllrs Neil Freshwater, Willie Robertson and Richard Watters.

2. Minutes: Minutes of the 2024 AGM meeting were approved and signed off.

3. Chair's Report:

The members of the Community Council are as follows:

• Sarah Bruce Jones
• Adrian Carter
• Angus Cheape
• Tony Lamb
• Nicola Marchant
• Graham Pye
• Kaye Williamson

Carol Farquhar is an Associate Member of the CC.

The Community Council has had another very busy year with eleven scheduled meetings, additional meetings, consultations and correspondence. CCllrs have attended a total of fifty-two additional meetings in support of Fossoway; reviewed twenty-five planning applications, provided two responses to consultations and numerous, too many to count, responses to various bodies regarding wind farm applications. In addition, we took part, for the first time, in Science week after receiving a grant from the British Science Award. We partnered with the HEAT project to host an event where residents could learn more about renewable energy and making their homes more energy efficient.

Speeding: Speeding in our villages remains a source of concern. Temporary TROs for 20mph zones have been put in place in Blairingone, Powmill, Rumbling Bridge and Crook of Devon. It remains a disappointment that Carnbo was not part of this, but the CC has submitted to our Ward Cllrs and PKC Road Safety Officers our proposals for speed limits within our communities. These were also included in our registered Local Place Plan. As we end our year Drum village has received notification of consultation to extend the 30mph on the A977 to beyond the new traffic lights.

Kinross-shire Local Area Committee: Sarah Bruce-Jones is our representative on the Kinross-shire Area Committee. The Committee provides an opportunity to discuss challenges and opportunities with other Kinross-shire CCs, Ward Cllrs and PKC Officers.

Community Development Trust: The Community Development Trust has now been operating for 18 months and has a membership of over 80 members of the community. The first Community Action Plan (CAP) was completed in July 2025, and many projects are underway. A key outcome has been the Community Bus which was donated to the Trust by PKC and is managed and driven by Tony Lamb.

Transport: The Glenfarg 23 bus service continues to be a great success and in October we reported that passenger numbers for the combined 23 and 55 service had exceeded 2000 passengers in a six-day period. In addition, we continue to be indebted to Glenfarg Community Transport Group for their ongoing support.

Wind Farms: The CC's agendas for this and probably the coming years will be dominated by two large wind farm proposals near Carnbo. This year the CC has proactively engaged with PKC, the DPEA regarding Craighead and the Energy Consent Unit regarding Brunt Hill. We have continued to object to both proposals principally on the grounds of impact on the Ochils.

Local Place Plan (LPP): The CC held several consultation events to develop our LPP which has followed on from the CAP. At times there were strongly held contradictory views. Finally in July of this year our community led LPP was formally registered by PKC and can be seen on their website. This was an enormous undertaking, and I would like to give very special thanks to my colleagues and all residents who engaged with us. In recent months it has been rewarding to see our LPP has been taken into consideration by PKC Planning Officers when they review planning applications. In the coming year the Community will be consulted on the draft Local Development Plan 3 which should also take our LPP into account.

As this is my last AGM, I would like to sincerely thank my colleagues for their support and for the very significant efforts they have made in dealing with the work of the CC on behalf of the community. Many thanks also to our current local Councillors Cuthbert, Freshwater, Robertson and Watters, and for their significant support and assistance to the CC on numerous matters. Lastly a huge thank you to our local residents for supporting us and turning out to our monthly meetings.

In response there was general applause for the tremendous job that the CC has done over the last few years -- we will all miss the four of you very much.

4. Treasurer's Report:

This report is for the period from 1^st September 2024 to 31^st August 2025. The Administrative Grant of £650.05 from PKC topped the CC's funds back up to the maximum £700.00 allowed. I am pleased to note that PKC have announced that the annual grant will be increased to £1000 from the next financial year.

This has been a very busy year with responses to two major wind farm applications and the creation of our Local Place Plan. These activities have required us to hold more physical meetings for which we have to pay fees, many of which have unsurprisingly increased in price this year; consequently, we have spent £296 on accommodation bookings.

All Community Councillors are allowed to claim for any expenses they incur over the year for travelling to meetings, of which there have been many this year, and any other incidentals. Expenses claimed by Councillors totalled £221.29 this account period.

After all the transactions over the year have been tallied the CC has a closing balance at year end of £182.71 and I will be applying for this year's grant once this meeting has approved the accounts.

Approval of the Accounts was proposed by CCllr Bruce-Jones and seconded by: CCllr Marchant.

5. Office Bearers:

This has been an election year; hence the current CC will be dissolved after this meeting, and a new one formed at the start of our next meeting on 2^nd December. Office Bearers will be elected as part of that meeting.

6. With no other business, the date of the next AGM was set for 6^th October 2026 and the meeting ended at 7:40 pm.