Today’s Kincardine and Mearns Area Committee included a number of issues affecting the North Kincardine ward. Here is a summary.
– The Evening Express reports tonight that there has been an increase in deliberate fires, from three in 2015/16 to 10 in 2016/17 in Kincardine and Mearns. That is true, however at the meeting we heard that seven of the 10 were grass or rubbish fires. The fire service has been visiting S4 and S5 pupils in the three academies to emphasise the safety message. https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/…/report-shows-rise-in-de…/ I also asked whether the fire service had been able to establish the cause of the fire which destroyed Hillside House on 26 August last year. A response was promised in due course.
– Landscape services presented their plans for the coming year. As well as on-going maintenance in open spaces, parks and pitches, the following will take place.
PORTLETHEN: Additional drains in Burnside Park; a new footpath to play equipment in Viking Place; wildflower seeding in Nicol Park; and improved biodiversity in Burnside Park and Broomfield Road. Tree work in Viking Place, Thistle Drive and the Boswell area. I asked about drainage in Nicol Park and this will be looked at further.
NEWTONHILL: A new gravel footpath is to be created in Newtonhill Park towards the Cliff View houses, bulbs are to be planted in the park, and some trees are to be removed from behind neighbouring properties in the park, plus improved biodiversity in the Coastal Park.
OLD PORTLETHEN: The play items are to be repainted.
– The roads maintenance programme came before the committee for approval. Here is what is planned for this year in this ward.
RURAL: B9077 at Tilbouries high stress dressing, C30K at Clochandighter conventional dressing.
OLD PORTLETHEN: Broadhaven Road and Craigmarn Road new footway.
PORTLETHEN: Nicol Place footpaths to be slurry sealed.
A fuller programme of reserve works is also planned, should funding become available, across the rural area (C13K, C14K, C24K, C25K, C30K, C34K and the U147K) and in Portlethen (the Asda roundabout, Thistle Drive, Claymore Avenue, Piper Place, Viking Place, Ninian Place and Argyll Place.)
– Councillors voted by 7 -5 to agree in principle that a commercially run music event can use the Market Square car park in Stonehaven from 30 December to 1 January.
– Checks elsewhere in Aberdeenshire on domestic landfill bins show that a third of that waste should be in the food recycling bin. Currently only 41.6% of domestic waste is being recycled.
– Some 90.9% of street lighting faults in Kincardine and Mearns are repaired within seven days.
– It takes on average 40.8 days to relet a council house. The time is used to refurbish the house. This could include fitting a new kitchen, rewiring or improving the insulation.
All the papers for today’s meeting can be found at http://committees.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/committees.aspx…