Education and planning dominated today’s meeting of Kincardine and Mearns Area Committee.
The head teachers of the three academies commented on how well senior pupils are doing. Neil Morrison told councillors he was very pleased with the continued improvement at Portlethen. He paid tribute to his fantastic staff who have been working very hard to achieve these results. However S6 remains an area for improvement. He also said that the staff value feedback from pupils, and the pupil parliament has been revamped. In common with North East schools there are vacancies – in maths, languages and home economics.
The council has received a report back from the Scottish Government’s planning directorate on the new Aberdeenshire Local Development Plan. After completing the examination there are no changes to the proposals for Portlethen, Newtonhill, Muchalls, Cammachmore, Banchory Devenick, Kirkton of Maryculter, Lairhillock, and Netherley. A minor change was put forward regarding road infrastructure at Chapelton. There were some amendments to the council’s policies though, the most significant being that the housing numbers on allocated sites are being changed from “no more than XX” to “indicative”. This means that in the new plan a site to the south of Newtonhill will no longer be capped at 70 homes as preferred by the council. The “recommendations” of the government’s reporters are virtually binding on the council.
We spent 1 1/2 hours discussing a Scottish Government consultation on changes to the planning system. Our comments will be passed to the Aberdeenshire-wide infrastructure services policy committee to collate a response from the council. The public can comment too. The deadline is 4 April. http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/01/3486
Planning permission was granted for the erection of a replacement house at Rowacks, Blairs. The original house was destroyed by fire.
Full planning permission was granted for a 800mw 60m (to hub) wind turbine east of Broomhill Farm near Bridge of Muchalls.
Full planning permission was given (with conditions delegated to officers) for boarding kennels at Mill of Monquich farmhouse, Netherley.