Kincardine and Mearns Area Committee met via Skype today. Here are some of the key points put before the nine councillors present.
HILLSIDE HOUSING UPDATE
The planning service intends to bring a report to committee on 26 April about a planning application for 175 houses at Hillside. A rezoning exercise for local primary schools has not been successful.
Councillors were told today that the planning service is working with the Education Service “to model the impact of different variations of housing completions per year on Hillside Primary School capacity.”
FAR TOO MANY EMPTY HOMES
At July last year there were 2589 long-term empty properties in Aberdeenshire. Of these 841 have been empty for more than two years. In Kincardine and Mearns, the corresponding figures are 321 lying empty, with 98 homes empty for more than two years.
From 2015 properties which have been empty for more than two years are subject to an additional 100% council tax charge.
I asked officers about these shocking figures, to try to understand why so many are lying empty, particularly when there are people on housing waiting lists. The committee heard that officers are to survey owners of these properties in the coming months to find out what support the council can offer to help bring these houses back into use.
CHAPELTON SCHOOL PLANS AND PORTLETHEN ACADEMY CAPACITY
We heard that it is proposed to open a new primary school at Chapelton in the 2025/26 school session, with it growing initially within Newtonhill Primary School.
The report says that “Newtonhill School is expected to exceed capacity in 2026. There will be a requirement for a school at Chapelton in due course, and plans for this are in development. This will then relieve the pressure at Newtonhill School.”
The developers are expecting an increased uptake in housing occupations. The planning permission conditions state that a school should be provided after the 489th house is built. That is expected in 2025 or 2026. Very much a fluid situation.
The situation at Portlethen Academy was also addressed in the report: “Portlethen Academy has a rising roll due to continued house building within catchment. Officers are working with the school management team to identify ways to manage pupil numbers within the existing footprint of the building in the first instance.
“The extent to which Portlethen Academy will exceed capacity is in part related to the speed of delivery at Chapelton. This is being carefully monitored to assess future requirements.”
Portlethen Academy has received out-of-area requests and these placing requests are now being refused, apart from exceptional circumstances.
In the interim there could be a reconfiguration of facilities within the academy to accommodate more pupils. More information will be made available as progress is made.
The projected school rolls are shown below.
Lastly, the reports before councillors can be found here: https://committees.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/committees.aspx?commid=8&meetid=19926
