An eventful Kincardine and Mearns Area Committee today. Here are some of the topics we discussed, ranging from grants to planning applications and school rolls.
Newtonhill Community Hall Association is being given a grant of £2000 for a new server and power supply for the Bettridge Centre. The total cost is £4100.
Newtonhill Out of School Club was awarded a grant of £725.94 to purchase chairs and a trolley, replacing the current chairs which are in a poor condition. Total cost will be £1200.
Solstice Nurseries is being awarded £5000 towards the £80,000 cost of a garage, storage space, workshop and heated potting shed at its wholesale nursery on the South Deeside Road. The social enterprise provides placements for people with or recovering from mental illness. They had applied for £7000, but my motion to support this was defeated by six votes to four.
Aberdeen Aeromodellers Flying Club was given a £1575, half the cost of a project to repair the ground near Banchory Devenick.
The Skateraw Fair was awarded £494, half the cost of purchasing a commercial barbecue, table and chairs, which will also be used by Newtonhill Village Association.
Some 97.1% of street lighting faults in Kincardine and Mearns are repaired within seven days.
Planning permission for demolition of an existing garage and erection of a double garage on Newtonhill Road, Newtonhill, has been turned down by the local review body. The grounds were that it would have had an overbearing and overshadowing impact on neighbouring properties.
New school roll forecasts show that Hillside School could be at 175% capacity in 2022. The 2018 roll will be 371 (the figures are based on September rolls), but the capacity is 350. Clearly something has to be done. In comparison Fishermoss School will be at 77% capacity in 2022, and Portlethen Primary 69%. Education officers are working on solutions, such as rezoning the catchment areas, or adding extra classrooms (Hillside was designed with this in mind). Out-of-zone requests are already being turned down. Another option is a reconfiguration to create more teaching space. I asked officers to provide updates on progress.
Plans for the erection of a workshop to the south west of the Newtonhill flyover were rejected by eight votes to three. The 12m high grey building would have been built next to West Monduff, and conditions would have been attached regarding noise and lighting. However the plans for the access road were designed so that long commercial articulated vehicles might have to either mount the pavement or overhang the centre line of the carriageway as they turned left to leave the site to head towards the Chapelton roundabout. This concerned me greatly and I moved that it be refused.
The reports before the committee can be found at http://committees.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/committees.aspx?commid=8&meetid=18836