Minutes of Meeting of Cleish & Blairadam Community Council

7:30pm, 22^nd October 2022 – Cleish Village Hall

Present:

• Fran Principe-Gillespie
• Charles MacLaren
• Fred Whalley
• Sean Gordon
• Cllr Willie Robertson (via Zoom)
• Cllr Dave Cuthbertson
• Cllr Neil Freshwater

Apologies:

• Margaret Traylor
• Cllr Richard Watters
• Jamie Leishman

Minutes of the previous meeting were accepted.

The Chair recorded that we’re all very saddened to hear of the sudden death of Nigel Robertson. He was a very active member of the Community Council for many years. He will be missed by the Community and his input to the Community Council will be missed.

Police Report

PC Ben Sampson was unable to attend, so PC Arthur, PC McWilliam stood-in to report on Community Policing.

Speeding

Speeding in Cleish & Blairadam areas – Community Officers and Response Officers in the area are aware of the complaints and regularly get out to check the area. In addition, Traffic Officers from Perth are patrolling the area and have issued multiple traffic tickets in recent months. These Officers will continue to patrol the area going forwards.

Concerns were raised by the prevalence of speeding by delivery vans in the area, and this appears to be a common experience across the whole area.

Crime Reports

As of 3^rd September, there was a total of 18 calls to the police from the Cleish & Blairadam area and no crimes have been reported on police systems.

Police Engagements

Last month, the Community Police Officer visited Cleish Primary School to engage with the children and staff around road safety.

Coffee with a Cop Events

These have proved popular in other areas, so are being offered locally as an opportunity for the public to engage with Police Officers informally, ask questions and raise any issues or concerns.

Speed Watch

There was some interest in resurrecting this program as it has been in abeyance since the merger of the separate Police forces into Police Scotland. Previously purchased equipment was absorbed when Police Scotland was created, so communities would need to seek funding to purchase the necessary equipment. The attending Police Officers confirmed that the community Speed Watch programs were effective when they were operating.

Correspondence

Community Investment Fund Scheme

This was identified as a potential source of funding for a projector and screen to enable a better experience when hosting hybrid Community Council meetings where we have a combination of in-person and remote attendance.

Community Council will approach this scheme for funding for this purpose.

Till Hill

Community Council has submitted a request to Till Hill for the Community Council to be considered as a stakeholder in their long-term forest plan. The Forrest Plan governs the future management of the forest and is coming up for renewal; the plan covers areas such as felling, planting, drainage, community access.

Having the Community Council as a recognised stakeholder in this plan will allow us to represent the views of the community as this plan is developed.

Gairney Plantation

A question was raised regarding this plantation which was felled around 6 years ago and was meant to be replanted but has not been planted nor has it mean managed in the intervening time. Cllr Neil Freshwater took an action to follow up in this.

Rules, clarification, nominations for the CC

Elections

Sean Gordon, Charles MacLaren, Francis Principe-Gillespie, Margaret Traylor, Fred Whalley have been elected to the CC for the next term, and this leaves us with 3 vacancies where the CC will seek to co-opt additional members. The co-opting process cannot start until 6 months after the election.

Planning Objections

Cllr Dave Cuthbertson highlighted that at the last full Council meeting a new process was approved that means if a Community Council objects to a planning application, this will automatically trigger referring that application to the full planning committee.

This was welcomed by the CC as a recognition of the relevance of the role of the CC as a strong voice to represent the view of the local community.

Road Safety

There are approximately 877 outstanding areas of work in the local area relating to road safety, so the Council is looking for assistance from the Community Councils in helping to prioritise these areas of work based on local knowledge. This would include areas like the cutting of verges on corners, potholes and clearing of road gullies.

Broadband Update

Blairadam Area

Sean Gordon reported that the Local Community Fibre Project has received a quote from Openreach for the 67 properties in the Keltybridge area, and that the next stage was to challenge the Openreach assessment of the existing line speeds for most of the properties in the area to ensure that we have sufficient funding from the Scottish Government Broadband Voucher Scheme to fund the entire project. This work us underway, but the process of proving that the Openreach data is incorrect is extremely slow. Working with Andrew Mitchell from Scottish Government we have for example successfully challenged the line speeds of every single property in Middleton Park and had all these challenges accepted, so we are hopeful of being able to move this project forwards to the next stage with Openreach and Scottish Government funding.

Financial Update

Draft Statement of accounts has been issued for audit, with the current balance being £395.56

Planning

Hillview, Kinnaird

Application approved – Change of use from open space to form extension to garden ground, access and parking in retrospect.

Land 100 metres NE of Blair Fordel Farm

Application refused – Siting of two static caravans or welfare storage use, erection of an animal shelter and associated works in part retrospect.

The Willows Blairforge

Application refused – Change of use from agricultural land farm extension to garden ground interaction garden buildings. In retrospect.

Residential development 140 metres in northeast of the bungalow Benarty Rd.

There is an in-principle application to build a housing development on the site of the colliery along the road to Loch Ore Country Park.

CC will request a Development Brief from the developer to understand how the developer plans to protect the amenity of the area.

2 dwelling houses southwest of 14 Main St, Keltybridge

Application to erect two tall, narrow houses on a restricted site and next to listed buildings and various other single-story building in Keltybridge. This has so far had 16 objections from local residents. The Community Council has objected to this application.

Siting of an accommodation unit at Blairfordel Farm

This was a temporary consent (now expired) for a caravan for a farm worker. The new application is for a permanent accommodation unit on the same site on the edge of the farmyard.

Village Updates

Blairadam

Ongoing problems with cars and trucks parting on the pavements in Keltybridge, where there is damage to multiple parts of the pavement.

Cleish

Update on the school – There was supposed to be an interim project to improve the facilities in the existing building which has not happened so far. Cllr Neil Freshwater is going to follow up on this issue.

Next CC Meeting

It was agree to hold the next Community Council Meeting on 5^th December, at 7:30pm in Cleish Village Hall.

Minutes of AGM of Cleish & Blairadam Community Council

8:30pm, 22^nd October 2022 – Cleish Village Hall

Present:

• Fran Principe-Gillespie
• Charles MacLaren
• Fred Whalley
• Sean Gordon
• Cllr Willie Robertson (via Zoom)
• Cllr Dave Cuthbertson
• Cllr Neil Freshwater

Apologies:

• Margaret Traylor
• Cllr Richard Watters
• Jamie Leishman

Chairmans Report

It has been my privilege and pleasure to serve as Chair of Cleish and Blairadam Community Council for another year. I wish to thank all of the Community Councillors for their continued diligence, support, guidance and for the time and effort that they give freely to our local Community.

Our role as members of Cleish & Blairadam Community Council is simply ‘To represent the views and wishes of the residents within the environs of Cleish & Blairadam’. Whilst this can lead to opposing points of view, these views are always welcomed and regardless of personal opinion, it is and remains our role to reflect those views in a balanced manner. 

I have really appreciated the full and conscientious support of all our local Councillors. Their continued support and swift implementation of requests have always assisted our Community and we look forward to seeing how we can all work together in the Kinross Local Committee.  They all have my thanks.

It has been a difficult year for many and whilst there seems to be light on the horizon with regard to more social meetings, we should remain ever aware that there are many in our midst who are struggling and it is our role to also represent them.

My sincere thanks also goes to all The Community Councillors for giving so much of their time, support, effort and diligence for free to the local community.

Last and most important my thanks also go to all those members of the community who attend our meetings, read our notices and minutes and participate in the ongoing discussions.

I wish you all success in your endeavours for the coming year.

Treasurers report.

Account balance – £395.56