2025-08-04 CC Meeting Minutes

Minutes of Meeting of Cleish & Blairadam Community Council

You can download the meeting minutes in PDF format using the link below:

7:30pm, 4^th August 2025 – Virtual Meeting

Due to the bad weather forecast on the day of the meeting, it was decided that in the interests of safety the Community Council Meeting would take place as a virtual meeting.

Present:

Fran Principe-Gillespie
Charles MacLaren
Fred Whalley
Sean Gordon
Jes Bunce
Cllr Neil Freshwater

Apologies:

Cllr Willie Robertson
Cllr Dave Cuthbert
Cllr Richard Watters
PC Samson

Previous CC Meeting

Minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted.

Matters Arising from Previous Minutes

An action was taken by Cllr Freshwater to investigate reports that the Blairadam Forestry Depot would be closing. Cllr Freshwater committed to follow up.

Crime Prevention & Police Report

Since the last CC Meeting there have been approximately 31 calls to Police from the Cleish and Blairadam area and 2 crimes recorded on Police systems.

Traffic

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 the Police speeding matrix and they will continue to make efforts to carry out speed checks across the area during patrols.

Roads Policing officers have been carrying out speed checks notably on the M90 whereby they have reported numerous drivers for offences including speeding, having no insurance and drink driving.

26/06/25 – Roads Policing officers were on patrol in Gairneybank when they stopped a vehicle which had no MOT. The driver was issued with a conditional offer (ticket) for this.

30/06/25 – Roads Policing officers were on patrol in Cleish when they stopped a vehicle which had no MOT. The driver was issued with a conditional offer (ticket) for this.

Correspondence

The CC received correspondence from a local resident raising concerns about the works being carried out on the Black Road to widen the cycle & pedestrian path. This has resulted in a significant reduction in the width of the carriageway, and in conjunction with the fact that the old (now off-centre) road markings have not been removed has made this section of road more difficult to navigate, with several near-misses being reported.

This section of the roadway falls under Fife Council, so Cllr Freshwater took an action to raise the issue with the relevant person in Fife Council Roads Department.

Financial Update

After paying invoices for Hall rentals, the closing balance was £87.76, with one invoice outstanding for hall rental.

Due to the current state of the Community Council funds, the decision was taken to postpone renewing membership of the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland until the next financial year.

The Bank of Scotland have this year started to charge a monthly fee for Treasurer’s accounts such as the one used by the Community Council. Cllr Robertson took an action at a previous CC meeting to contact the PKC finance organisation for advice on how Community Councils can avoid bank charges. This has been done, but we are still waiting for a response from PKC Finance.

Planning

The following planning applications have been added or updated since the previous Community Council meeting.

New Applications

24/01751/FLL – Change of use from agricultural land to form extensions to storage facility including erection of 5 buildings containing 36 storage units, formation of bund, hardstanding and associated works (in part retrospect)

Applications Approved

25/00595/LBC – Installation of gates at Cleish Primary School Cleish Kinross KY13 0LR

Applications Pending

25/00441/FLL – Erection of an agricultural building for free range egg production with separate manure store building, siting of residential caravan (for a temporary period), formation of vehicular access and associated works at Land 300 Metres North Of Mawmill Farm Bungalow Cleish Kinross KY13 0LN
25/00333/FLL – Renewal of permission 21/02257/FLL (Erection of salesrooms, workshops, formation of parking, access road and associated works; erection of replacement domestic stables, storage building and associated works) at Land 90 Metres North Of Nivingston West Cleish

Applications Refused

24/00938/FLL – Formation of seven residential caravan pitches each with ancillary facilities building, septic tank, ancillary touring pitches, vehicle parking and access, erection of one stable building and associated works at Land 180 Metres North of Hawthorn Wood Benarty Road Kelty KY4 0JH
25/00433/FLL – Siting of residential caravan (for a temporary period) (in retrospect) at Hillview Kinnaird Blairadam Kelty KY4 0JB

Blairforge Planning Enforcement

Concerns were again raised in relation to the enforcement of planning decisions by PKC, and in particular the lack of progress on enforcement of the planning violations at Blairfordel Farm which appears to be leading to the unconstrained growth of a settlement where there are increasing numbers of structures without planning consent.

Community Action Plan and Local Place Plan

The Community Action Plan (CAP) has been reviewed by the Community Council and will soon be available for public review. As part of the consultation process the CAP will be shared with all the adjacent Community Councils to allow them the opportunity to comment.

The CAP gathered a lot of good information from the local community which will be extremely helpful when the Local Place Plan for Cleish and Blairadam is developed later this year.

One area for improvement identified in the CAP was the fact that the core paths in our area are not in a good state of repair and are not well known.

Village updates – Cleish

Cleish Church, Associated Cottage and The Glebe – A SCIO (Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation) has been successful in their Right to Buy application to acquire the Church, Cottage and Grounds for community benefit. The SCIO is currently fundraising for assets that are likely to be available in the short term.
Drainage – PKC Roads will attend Boreland soon to clear the gully there in an attempt to address the going drainage problems in that area. If this cleaning does not resolve the problem, the council will consider installing a larger storm gully to more quickly remove the surface water.

Any Other Business

Cycleways and Pathways

Concern was raised by a resident about the lack of footpaths and cycle pathways on the B996 North of Blairforge. These have been identified as areas for future improvement by PKC; however, the works are currently very low in the prioritisation list. This is disappointing, as the pedestrian and cycle links from Blairadam to Kinross are non-existent, with the B996 being very dangerous for both foot and cycle traffic.

Lack of Road Markings at Junction of B9097 and B996

Concerns were again raised about the lack of road markings at this junction – it is a clear safety issue, as traffic approaching from the B9097 has no clear indication of where the junction is. This problem will only get more dangerous as the winter months approach and the nights are darker.

The problem has been raised with PKC roads, but no action has been taken yet – The CC will monitor the situation to see if it is resolved, and if not it will be escalated with PKC Roads.

Your Community Council Needs You!

3 members of the current Community Council will be standing down this year, and without sufficient members there is a danger that the Community Council will fold, so we need new members to keep the Community Council running!

The Community Council is an important organisation that represents our community, so it is important to ensure that it keeps running and continues to represent our community.

The Community Council elections will be held in November this year – if you are interested in helping represent your community, please take a look at the PKC Community Council website – https://www.pkc.gov.uk/communitycouncils, or e-mail the Community Council at – cleishandblairadamcc@gmail.com

Upcoming CC Meetings

The next Community Council meeting will take place on Monday October 6^th, at 7:30pm in the Tabernacle Hall, Keltybridge.

The Community Council AGM will be held directly after this meeting

Virtual / On-line CC Meetings

The Community Council uses Microsoft Teams for the on-line meeting. Details of how to join the virtual CC meeting will be published in the normal way, and if you are interested in attending virtually, please e-mail the CC Secretary for details (cc-sec@blairadam.net)

CC Web Site

All information relating to the activities of the Community Council are published on our web site – https://cleishandblairadam.org.uk/where you can also subscribe to receive updates whenever any new information is published on the site.