Minutes of Meeting of 3rd July

7:30pm, 3^rd July 2022 – Cleish Village Hall

Present:

• Fran Principe-Gillespie
• Fred Whalley
• Sean Gordon
• Margaret Traylor

Apologies:

• Charles MacLaren
• Cllr Dave Cuthbert
• Cllr Neil Freshwater
• Cllr Willie Robertson
• Cllr Richard Watters

Previous CC Meeting

Matters Arising

A number of actions were noted in the previous minutes, and these were covered in the relevant sections of the CC meeting.

Minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted.

Crime Prevention & Police Report

Crimes of Note since Last Meeting (17/04/23)

• 18/04/23 – 19/04/23 – Theft of quad bike (Blairforge) [Subject to live investigation]
• 24/04/23 – Fly-tipping (unclassified road near to Shank Burn in Cleish) [Subject to live investigation]
• 23/06/2023 – 26/06/2023 – Vandalism (Cleish Primary School) [Subject to live investigation]
• 01/07/2023 – Assault to injury (Unclassified road between B9097 & B996 near Cleish) [Subject to live investigation]

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

Traffic units have been carrying out speed checks in the area and have issued several tickets since the last meeting.

Broadband Update

Cleish Area

Update provided by Cllr Freshwater

• The June 2024 rollout date seems to be a bit of a red herring as progress does still appear to be being made at several sites. It is understood that some houses on Hatchbank Rd (also “June 2024”) have already been able to sign up to fibre services. A similar situation exists in Tillyrie with the same date, but actual progress. Andrew Mitchell has been as helpful as ever but agrees the ‘next few months’ is the best timeline, and you can check for planned Openreach works on www.roadworksscotland.org and when the property on www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com  has “WBC FTTP” listed it is essentially live. So, whilst June 2024 seems to remain the official date, it is an extremely liberal estimation and things are moving quicker.
• In addition, complaints were received of road debris being dumped in the ditches, on the Watergate-Carsegour stretch, suspected to be Morrisons/Openreach. This is a flood risk area as we know. Openreach have been responsive and there have been complaints for elsewhere too. Cllr Freshwater visited last weekend and there were still some pieces remaining, but Openreach have today said they will visit the site to remove.

Blairadam Area

There are still 16 properties which are not yet enabled, so the Community Fibre Partnership will continue to work to get Keltybridge and Blairadam to 100% coverage.

Openreach are still in the process of producing a detailed quotation for the project and creating a formal offer which it is hoped will be available in 2-3 weeks’ time, and which will include the exact costs for the project.

It is hoped that we can move ahead with the final phase of fibre broadband in Keltybridge in the near future, as it includes the installation of fibre to the Tabernacle Hall which would allow future CC Meetings to be held in Keltybridge.

Financial Update

Hall fees for the last 3 CC meetings have now been paid, along with the WordPress fee for the CC web site (https://cleishandblairadam.org.uk). This leaves a current balance of £447.90

The annual subscription for Zoom (to host the virtual CC meetings) is due for renewal – the CC Secretary will investigate alternatives and costs.

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.

Applications Under Review

• 22/01025/IPL – Residential development (in principle) | Land 140 Metres North East Of The Bungalow Benarty Road Kelty
  • This application was referred to the Local Review Body which has refused permission and dismissed the review.

Applications Approved

• 22/01334/AML – Erection of a dwellinghouse, garage, workshop, wall, fence etc.
  • Land 60 Metres North West Of Craigbank House Cleish
• 23/00034/FLL – Erection of a dwellinghouse and garage/ancillary accommodation (revised design)
  • 5 Boreland Steading Cleish Kinross KY13 0LT
• 23/00210/FLL – Erection of replacement garage
  • Dunandrew Benarty Road Kelty KY4 0HR
• 23/00425/FLL – Renewal of permission 20/00524/FLL (Erection of 4 dwellinghouses and associated works)
  • Land 45 Metres South Of Hillcrest Maryburgh
• 22/01446/FLL – Erection of a dwellinghouse and associated works
  • Land 30 Metres South East Of Gairney Bridge Farm Cottage Gairneybridge

Applications Pending

• 22/02113/IPL – Erection of a dwellinghouse (in principle)
  • Land 30 Metres North East Of Craigbank House Cleish
• 23/00493/FLL – Erection of a dwellinghouse and associated works
  • Land 100 Metres North West Of Craigton House Cleish Kinross KY13 0LQ
• 23/00532/FLL – Erection of a dwellinghouse and associated works
  • Land North Of 31 Main Street Keltybridge
  • The Community Council has objected to this application.
• 23/00934/FLL – Alterations and extension to dwellinghouse, alterations to driveway, formation of parking area and landscaping, installation of oil tank and associated works
  • Darnley Cottage Blairadam Kelty KY4 0HU
• 23/01024/FLL – Erection of porch and formation of raised terrace
  • Carsegour Farm Cottage Kinross KY13 0LG

Applications Withdrawn

• 22/02027/FLL – Erection of dwellinghouse
  • Land 15 Metres East Of Borrowdale Blairadam Keltybridge

Planning Enforcements

• 23/00186/ALUNDV – Alleged unauthorised land engineering
  • Borrowdale Blairadam Keltybridge Kelty KY4 0JG
  • Status: Pending Consideration
• 23/00147/ALUNDV – Importation of waste and unauthorised structure at site
  • Blairfordel Farm Kelty
  • Status: Pending Consideration
• 23/00112/UNAUSE – Use of ancillary accommodation as separate dwellinghouse/flat
  • Bridge House Main Street Keltybridge Kelty KY4 0JH
  • Status: Pending Consideration
• 23/00011/PLACON – Alleged non-compliance with condition 3 on approved planning permission 20/00201/FLL
  • Plot Adjacent To 27 Main Street Keltybridge
  • Status: Pending Consideration

Village Updates

Blairadam

• Keltybridge: Kinross County Sign – Keltybridge may have the only remaining Kinross County signs and there was a suggestion that this should be cleaned and preserved. The owner of the land where the sign is located has been contacted and is supportive of keeping the sign and of restoring it. The Councillors are alsosupportive of the cleaning and longer preservation this sign.
• Keltybridge: Fly-tipping on the Maryburgh road – Reports of fly tipping on the Maryburgh road, these were very quickly removed by PKC once the issues had been reported. It was suggested that the use of CCTV cameras may be an option if the problem continues.
  • Cllr Robertson will investigate the options for this.
• Keltybridge: Condition of Pavements & Parking on Pavements – Ongoing problems with parking on the pavement in Keltybridge, and the collapsed pavements in Keltybridge.
  • Cllr Robertson will look again at what options there are to address this.
• Keltybridge: Dog Poo Bin – The Keltybridge Dog Poo bin on the Sawmill Road had degraded and fallen off the post – this has now been replaced with a new bin.

Cleish

• Cleish Primary School – An initial phase of work is being carried out before the main project; this consists of the addition of an inside toilet facility.
  • The Community Council expressed concern that no planning applications have been submitted for the work being carried out on Cleish School, which is particularly concerning as the school is a listed building.
  • CC Chair to contact Cllr Freshwater for clarification.
• Road Condition on Hill Road – The condition of the road at the Fife County boundary is extremely poor. This probably requires collaboration between both councils to remediate this.
  • The problem will be reported on the PKC portal.

Any Other Business

• Publication of CC Minutes in Kinross Newsletter – April minutes not published.
  • CC Secretary will contact the Kinross Newsletter to update the CC contact details and to ensure that future minutes are submitted for publication on time.

Next CC Meeting

It was agreed to hold the next Community Council Meeting on 11^th September, at 7:30pm in Cleish Village Hall.

Download meeting minutes as PDF below:

Minutes of Meeting of Cleish & Blairadam Community Council 7:30pm, 5^th December 2022 – Cleish Village Hall

Present:

• Francis Principe-Gillespie
• Charles MacLaren
• Fred Whalley
• Sean Gordon
• Margaret Traylor
• Cllr Dave Cuthbert
• Cllr Neil Freshwater

Apologies:

• Cllr Willie Robertson
• Cllr Richard Watters

Previous CC Meeting

Matters Arising

Cllr Freshwater is following up regarding a question which was raised in a previous meeting, in relation to the Gairney Plantation. This was felled around 6 years ago and was meant to be replanted but has not been planted nor has it been managed in the intervening time.

Minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted.

Crime Prevention & Police Report

Officers were unable to attend the meeting but did highlight the need to keep sheds and outbuildings locked, and equipment out of site as there have been reports of suspicious vehicles driving around the area during the hours of darkness.

Correspondence

Vehicle Activated Signage (VAS)

Plans have been circulated to all Community Councils with proposals created for the placing of 2 signs in Cleish. The CC will provide input into the location of these signs, but there are constraints around where the signs can be placed.

Broadband Update

Blairadam Area

Sean Gordon reported that the Local Community Fibre Project has been impacted by data quality problems due to inconsistencies of data between Openreach, Scottish Government and Ofcom. The latest refresh of data has overwritten a lot of the Keltybridge Voucher Entitlements and we are working with Openreach and the Scottish Government team to correct this.

Hatchbank

Openreach has been at work in the Hatchbank area continuing the fibre deployment in that area.

Drainage

Cleish

The verge has been cleared around several gullies to make them more obvious when the council comes to clean them out. In the past some of the gullies have been missed due to being overgrown or not obviously visible.

The problem with the gullies has been raise via the PKC portal, but the item is immediately closed say that this is part of a planned work schedule, but to date the gullies have not been cleared.

Several the gullies are blocked around Borland.

Keltybridge

There is only one drain in Keltybridge which is unblocked – all the other drains are completely choked. This has been raised with PKC on a number of occasions, but the drains have not been cleared.

Cllr Cuthbert took an action to raise the problem with the Roads Engineer in relation to Bridge House in Keltybridge, which is at risk of flooding due to the blocked drains.

Financial Update

Accounts have been audited, signed off and submitted to PKC.

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.

Planning Decisions

22/00707/FLL – Siting of 2 static caravans for welfare/storage use…

Siting of two static caravans for welfare, storage use, erection of an animal shelter – Land 100m Northeast of Blairfordel Farm (In part retrospect). This was refused by the planners, but a review of this decision has been sought by the applicant.

22/01264/FLL – Erection of garden building (in retrospect) | 1 Blairfordel Steading

Application Approved.

22/01333/FLL – Alterations and extension to dwellinghouse

Application Approved

22/01707/FLL – Erection of 4 dwellinghouses and 3 garages

Application Refused – The Community Council had supported this application because it was being built on a brownfield site.

Applications Pending

• 22/02113/IPL – Erection of a dwellinghouse (in principle)
  • Land 30 Metres Northeast Of Craigbank House Cleish
• 22/01025/IPL – Residential development (in principle)
  • Land 140 Metres North East Of The Bungalow Benarty Road Kelty
• 22/01284/FLL – Erection of 2 dwellinghouses
  • Land 25 Metres South West Of 14 Main Street Keltybridge
  • The Community Council will object to this development
• 8/00694/FUL – Erection of a dwellinghouse
  • Cleish Mill Farm Cleish Kinross KY13 0LS
• 22/01924/FLL – Erection of garage building
  • 8 Middleton Park Keltybridge Kelty KY4 0GZ
• 22/01446/FLL | Erection of a dwellinghouse and associated works
  • Land 30 Metres South East Of Gairney Bridge Farm Cottage Gairneybridge
• 22/01792/LAW | Erection of a storage building for domestic use (proposed)
  • 8 Abbot’s Wynd Keltybridge Kelty KY4 0JS
• 22/01793/FLL | Extension to dwellinghouse
  • The Flat 6 Main Street Keltybridge Kelty KY4 0JH
• 22/01812/FLL | Extensions to dwellinghouse
  • The Thrums Cleish Kinross KY13 0LR
• 22/01945/FLL | Erection of dwellinghouse and associated works
  • Land North Of 31 Main Street Keltybridge
  • The Community Council will object to this development

Applications Withdrawn

• 22/01410/FLL – Erection of garage building
  • 8 Middleton Park Keltybridge Kelty KY4 0GZ

Village Updates

Blairadam

• Problems with drainage covered earlier in the meeting.
• Ongoing problems with fly tipping in Maryburgh.

Cleish

• The Cleish School project was raised at the last Education Learning Committee, and it has been confirmed that the funding is still available, with construction scheduled to start in 2024.
• Community Investment Fund (CIF) application has been submitted for acquiring equipment to improve the accessibility of the CC meetings, particularly for those people accessing the meetings remotely. There is still some debate about what funding is going to be released by the Council for the CIF.

Any Other Business

• There are still problems with the historical Cleish and Blairadam parish boundaries causing problems when searching for applications in the Planning Public Access portal as there are 2 separate boundaries in the system. One before and one after the boundary change. CC will raise this problem with the PKC planning team as properties are being missed from the weekly planning list updates.

Next CC Meeting

It was agreed to hold the next Community Council Meeting on 6^th of February, at 7:30pm in Cleish Village Hall.

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