Download meeting minutes as PDF below:

Minutes of Cleish and Blairadam Community Council Meeting, 7:30pm, 4^th December 2023 – Cleish Village Hall

Present:

• Fran Principe-Gillespie
• Charles MacLaren
• Fred Whalley
• Sean Gordon
• Cllr Dave Cuthbert
• Cllr Neil Freshwater

Apologies:

• Margaret Traylor
• Cllr Willie Robertson
• Cllr Richard Watters

Previous CC Meeting

Matters Arising

• Keltybridge Pavements – There was a site visit by PKC Roads Manager Garry McConnel where it was discovered that the pavements in Keltybridge have not been adopted by PKC.
• Keltybridge Drainage – The drain at Borrowdale remains blocked. Scottish Water closed the excavation as the drain runs under the nearby private road and so is not within the jurisdiction of Scottish Water or PKC Roads Department.
• Cleish School Sign – The PKC Education committee is looking at removing the sign and replacing with one which is more appropriate for the area.

Minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted.

Crime Prevention & Police Report

Crimes of note since last meeting:

• 25/09/23 – Driving whilst unfit and careless driving (B9097, Cleish Road). Driving while unfit through drugs / failure to negotiate left-hand bend and left road into a field.
  • 1 Person charged and reported to the Procurator Fiscal
• 20/11/23 – Wilful Fire-raising (Fruix). Motor vehicle set on fire. Subject to an active investigation.

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 recently been carrying out speed checks in the area most notably on the M90 at junction 5. During this period tickets have been issued for speeding and a driver charged with driving under the influence of drugs.

Broadband Update

Blairadam Area

The final phase of the Keltybridge and Blairadam Fibre Project is now underway, with funding secured to connect the remaining 12 properties. Openreach has started the survey work and will be providing an update in the near future on estimated timescales. There are 2 remaining properties in the area which are excluded from this project due to being part of the R100 rollout scheduled for later in 2024, however it is hoped that these properties will be pulled into the new Openreach project as they are served by the same access point.

Cleish Area

Deployment is progressing, but there are a small number of properties around Cleish Castle which may not yet be connected.

Kinross-shire Committee

The CC Chair provided an update from the latest meeting:

• PKC is adopting a “No Mow” strategy in PKC Parks and Verges to reduce costs and improve the environment for wildlife. The CC raised concerns that verges at junctions would still be mowed to ensure safety for vehicles. Advice was to use the PKC Portal to report any junctions where growth on the verge was causing a road safety issue.
• A future meeting will be looking at the planning process and how the community and CCs can engage with the planning process.

Drainage

Cleish

Flooding in the village resulting from water and mud run off from a nearby potato field has resulted in extensive erosion of the recently repaired road surface leading to Cleish Cemetery, raising health and safety and access concerns. Resultant water build-up in the cemetery car park endangers the stability of the stone wall, already in a poor condition due to tree root damage. PKC are liaising with landowners  with a view to improving flood resilience going forward. However, it is noted that saturation of the ground is currently preventing remediation work being carried out.

Keltybridge

The entrance to Middleton Park regularly floods during heavy rain as the nearby drain appears to be unable to deal with the volume of water. The drain appears to be partially blocked, or restricted as the water does eventually clear after about a day.

Despite intervention and excavation by Scottish Water during November and December 2023, the flooding problem remains as water is not flowing away from the drain on the main road at the corner with Borrowdale.

Financial Update

Financial balance is £604.06 which includes the PKC top up of £290.38 received into the bank account on 7th November.

Wind Turbine Applications on the Ochil Hills

Charles Maclaren provided a report from a meeting with the local windfarm group where a successful community organisation in East Ayrshire presented how they had grouped together the 9 local Community Councils to negotiate collectively with the windfarm developers to provide the best benefits for all the local community areas. It was clear that the local community councils in the Kinross area can learn from the approach taken by the East Ayrshire group. The Cleish and Blairadam Community Council will canvas the local community to gauge interest in joining a similar local initiative.

Local Place Plan

Sean Gordon attended the PKC Planning Users Forum where the Local Place Plan was discussed. 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 will canvas the local community to gauge interest in developing a Local Place Plan for Cleish and Blairadam

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 Pending

23/01695/FLL – Erection of a dwellinghouse

• Land 15 Metres East of Borrowdale Blairadam Keltybridge
• The Community Council will object to this development.

23/01655/FLL – Change of use, alterations and extension to ancillary accommodation to form dwelling house – The Flat 6 Main Street Keltybridge Kelty KY4 0JH

23/01565/LBC – Installation of replacement roof window and garage roof covering – 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

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

• This land is already subject to multiple enforcement orders for PKC for unapproved development.

23/01706/FLL – Change of use of woodland to form extension to garden ground and erection of garage – 8 Abbot’s Wynd Keltybridge Kelty KY4 0JS

• This land is subject to enforcement notice.
• The Community Council will object to this development.

Applications Approved

23/01281/FLL – Erection of a garage – East Locharn House Blairadam Kelty KY4 0HU

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

23/00112/FLL – Erection of a dwellinghouse and formation of vehicle access – Land 140 Metres North East Of Hardiston Farm Cleish Kinross Cleish

Applications Refused

23/00532/FLL | Erection of a dwellinghouse and associated works – Land North Of 31 Main Street Keltybridge

• This application was opposed by the Community Council and attracted a large number of objections from the local community. The refusal has now been referred to the PKC Local Review Body and is on the agenda for the December 18^th Meeting.
  • This site is also subject to an enforcement notice as a condition of the planning consent of the previous development of No’s 29 & 31.

Blairforge

The land around here is subject to a number of enforcement orders by PKC for breaches of planning.

Residents of the development known as Purple Meadows raised concerns about their interactions with PKC planning, particularly in relation to the recent attempt to enforce the removal of unauthorised structures on this land. The advice given was that any attempt to develop or build on this land must have the appropriate planning permission from PKC, so any developments should be applied for so that the relevant planning process and legislation can be followed.

The local councillors also suggested that the residents submit for a pre-planning enquiry for the whole site to understand any planning concerns.

Village Updates

• A number of properties still have not received their grey lidded recycling bins, but it is understood from the attending councillors that the distribution of these bins is still a work in progress.

Next CC Meeting

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

It is hoped that with the imminent arrival of fibre broadband at the Tabernacle Hall in Keltybridge that the CC can once again begin meeting there on alternating dates in 2024.

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.