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Minutes of Meeting of Cleish & Blairadam Community Council
7:30pm, 5th February 2024 – Cleish Village Hall
Present:
- Fran Principe-Gillespie
- Charles MacLaren
- Fred Whalley
- Sean Gordon
- Cllr Neil Freshwater
- Cllr Richard Watters
Apologies:
- Margaret Traylor
- Cllr Willie Robertson
- Cllr Dave Cuthbert
Previous CC Meeting
Matters Arising
None
Minutes
The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted.
Crime Prevention & Police Report
Theft from a container on Hatchbank Road, Gairney Bank
Criminal(s) broke open shipping container and stole two off-road motorcycles. This crime is subject to live investigation.
Crime Update
Two men aged 31 and 22 will be reported to the Procurator Fiscal in connection with offences relating to the intention to commit theft after a series of incidents at farms in the Kinross area.
The incidents happened at various farms across the area in April 2023 involving the males driving a blue van.
The 22-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with the incidents. The 31-year-old will also be the subject of a report to the Procurator Fiscal.
The incident received a lot of local attention at the time and Kinross community officer Police Constable Ben Samson would like to thank the members of public who contacted police to report incidents and with information.
Traffic Update
Community officers are aware of regular areas where there are complaints about speeding in and around Cleish and Blairadam. These have all been added to our speeding matrix and we will continue to make efforts to carry out speed checks across the area during our patrols.
Traffic units have recently been carrying out speed checks in the area most notable on the M90 at junctions 5 & 6. During which tickets have been issued for speeding and a driver charged for driving under the influence of drugs as well as other traffic offences.
Neighbourhood Watch Scotland
PC Samson encourages members of the public to sign up to their local neighbourhood watch alerts. Police post localised updates and information requests that might not otherwise be posted on Facebook or Twitter.
Sign up at www.neighbourhoodwatchscotland.co.uk.
Correspondence
None
Broadband Update
Blairadam Area
The final phase to connect up the remaining properties in the Blairadam area has moved into the design and planning stage with Openreach. The next update on the project is due from Openreach in April and it is hoped that the project will be completed later this year.
Drainage
Cleish
There has been no progress to remediating the drainage problems raised at the last meeting; this has been due to the continued bad weather and poor ground conditions.
In addition to the flooding referred to above there may also be a blocked culvert in an adjacent field – the CC will investigate and speak to the landowner to see if this problem can be rectified.
A fresh drainage issue has been identified in Cleish main street where a recently repaired gully has stopped draining water and is now flooding, and causing further problems as the road around the gully is eroding. This issue was raised with Cllr Watters who attended the meeting and inspected the problem.
It has been noted by several members of the community that the drainage problems are causing problems with access to the church and graveyard.
Keltybridge
The gully at the foot of the Dullomuir Farm Road continues to cause problems with flooding, and during winter this area of the road and pavement was completely iced over, leading to one of the residents of Keltybridge falling and being seriously injured!
The Community Council sent best wishes for a speedy recovery!
Sean Gordon spoke to the PKC Roads Department in early January, and they agreed that the drain needed to be repaired so that it functioned correctly. Cllr Watters will speak to the Roads Department to determine a likely date for this work.
Financial Update
Financial balance is £604.06.
Planning
Under the new guidance, an objection by the Community Council automatically refers an application to the Planning Committee; otherwise, it requires 6 objections from separate households to refer an application.
Awaiting Decision
- 24/00095/LAW – Alterations to dwellinghouse, erection of garage and formation of driveway (proposed) 6 Blairadam Grove Keltybridge Kelty KY4 0JU
- 23/02135/FLL – Erection of a dwellinghouse; Land 20 Metres South Of Hillview Kinnaird Blairadam Kelty KY4 0JB
- The CC has objected to this application.
- 23/02102/FLL – Erection of 2 dwellinghouses; Land 50 Metres South East Of Craigton Gardens Cleish
- 23/02039/PAA – Erection of an agricultural building; The Willows Blairforge Kelty KY4 0JD
- 23/01695/FLL – Erection of a dwellinghouse; Land 15 Metres East Of Borrowdale Blairadam Keltybridge
- The CC has objected to this application.
- 23/01655/FLL – Change of use, alterations and extension to ancillary accommodation to form dwellinghouse; The Flat 6 Main Street Keltybridge Kelty KY4 0JH
- 22/02018/FLL – Siting of 2 holiday accommodation units, stable building/log store, 3 sheds and garage, formation of access road and associated works (in retrospect); Land 190 Metres North West Of Blairfordel Farm Kelty
- The CC has objected to this application.
Approved
- 23/01565/LBC – Installation of replacement roof window and garage roof covering at Middleton House Blairadam Keltybridge Kelty KY4 0JG
- 22/02113/IPL – Erection of a dwellinghouse (in principle) Land 30 Metres North East Of Craigbank House Cleish
Withdrawn
- 23/01706/FLL – Change of use of woodland to form extension to garden ground and erection of garage
- The CC objected to this development
Planning Committee
- 23/00532/FLL | Erection of a dwellinghouse and associated works | Land North Of 31 Main Street Keltybridge
- The PKC Local Review upheld the decision to refuse planning permission for this site.
- The CC objected to this development
Local Place Plan
As noted in the minutes from the previous CC meeting, the CC would like to explore the possibility of creating a Local Place Plan for Cleish & Blairadam, to reflect the views of the community on how they would like the community to develop over the coming years. The Local Place Plan is the most effective way that a local community can express their vision for the future of their local area as the council is required to take into account any existing Local Place Plan when looking at planning applications.
The Local Place Plan for Cleish and Blairadam would need to be submitted by September 2024 to be considered as part of the next PKC Local Development Plan which will run from 2027 to 2037.
The Cleish and Blairadam Community Council plan to canvas the local community in the coming months to gauge interest in developing a Local Place Plan for Cleish and Blairadam, and in the meantime if you have an interest in helping develop or contributing to this plan please reach out to the CC at: cleishandblairadamcc@gmail.com
Wind Farm Community Benefits
The CC attended a meeting with the sustainability group which is looking for a way to have the local Community Councils work together to coordinate our negotiations with the wind farm developers in relation to the benefits and community funding which is made available as part of any windfarm development. There are good examples from around Scotland where groups of Community Councils have come together to collaborate and to negotiate a better deal for the community, and the Cleish & Blairadam Community Council would like to explore this option. With this in mind we will shortly be surveying everyone in the local area to understand how the community would like to proceed, and to gauge the interest in our CC joining with the nearby CCs for the overall benefit of the community.
The goal will be to complete the survey before the next CC meeting where the results of the survey will be shared, and a decision will be made on how to proceed.
Next CC Meeting
It was agreed to hold the next Community Council Meeting on April 22nd, at 7:30pm in Tabernacle Hall in Keltybridge. Please note the change of venue as we are now restarting the practice of holding the CC meetings in alternating locations to better serve the community.
Cleish and Blairadam Community Council 