Planning permission for the new Hillside primary school was granted by the Kincardine and Mearns area committee this afternoon. Another hurdle cleared. All the councillors welcomed and supported the plans. It is regrettable however that the council was not able to buy more land to give the school more breathing space. But if landowners don’t want to sell, then you have a problem. Nonetheless this is good news and building can get under way once road access is available – which hopefully will be in the next few weeks.
The committee also accepted proposals for new catchment zones for Hillside, Portlethen, Fishermoss, Banchory Devenick and Newtonhill primary schools. This will give a better balance to each school (some had too many pupils while others had too few) while creating a catchment zone for Hillside.
More details can be found at Item 9 on this link to the committee papers.http://committees.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/committees.aspx…
Have a look at the first .pdf (Portlethen consultation final report) and there is a map which shows the catchment zones.
This will now go to the education, learning and leisure committee in August with the recommendation that the the proposals be accepted.
There were a couple of other local matters. Planning permission was granted for further development at the refuse transfer station north of Hillside. And an application to convert Cammies at Cammachmore into eight flats was turned down. Planners had recommended refusal on the grounds of over-development and design.
The other item of note was an attempt by Labour and SNP councillors to remove North Kincardine councillor Carl Nelson from his post as chair of the Kincardine and Mearns area committee. No reason was given for the move. This went to a vote, and on a casting vote the motion was lost. Cllr Nelson remains in post.