Good news! Portlethen Library is increasing its opening hours!

The new opening times are:
Tuesdays 10am – 6pm
Thursdays 10am – 5pm

They will also be offering Click and Collect by appointment on:
Wednesdays 1pm-5pm
Saturdays 10am-2pm (alternate Saturdays starting 26 March)

For all the details please see the Live Life Aberdeenshire website www.livelifeaberdeen.org.uk

Meanwhile Newtonhill Library reopens in the Bettridge Centre on Wednesday 6 April, from 3.30pm to 6pm. It will also be open on Fridays thereafter from 1pm to 3.30pm. If there’s sufficient demand, the hours may increase.

I hear that Scottish Water’s contractor Caledonia Water Alliance is due to complete the work on Newtonhill Road by Friday 22 April, although potentially it could be slightly earlier.

That’s still four weeks the access southbound off the A92 into Newtonhill will be closed. The sooner the work is completed the better.

Free lateral flow testing kits for people without covid symptoms can be collected from Aberdeenshire Council staff next week at the following sites in Kincardine and Mearns.

Monday 28 March
Stonehaven: Market Square Car park, 10am – noon.

Tuesday 29 March
Portlethen: Asda car park 10am – noon.
Laurencekirk: Scotmid High Street 10am – noon.
Inverbervie: Fire Station 1.30pm – 3.30pm.

Wednesday 30 March
Stonehaven: Market Square 1.30pm – 3.30pm.

Friday 1 April
Portlethen: Asda car park: 10am – 12.30pm (closed for lunch half hour) 1pm- 3.30pm.

North Kincardine Rural Community Council met this evening, via Zoom. As usual, much of interest. As well as community councillors and Aberdeenshire councillors, the meeting was joined by two Chapelton residents, Blair Moir and James Leadbeater, and Portlethen resident Mel Sullivan.

SCHOOLING – The plans for providing a primary school for Chapelton children were briefly discussed. A new Chapelton primary will grow within Newtonhill School to transfer to a new building in the new town. Secondary children will continue to go to Portlethen Academy. We heard that Lairhillock School had held a festival of colours, Holi.

POTHOLES – A number of temporary repairs have been carried out in the rural area. Permanent repairs should take place in the new financial year when contractors will be brought in.

BROADBAND – Work taking place including from Bridge of Muchalls to Netherley and around Cookney.

WAR MEMORIALS – Community councillors discussed applying for grant from Aberdeenshire Council to improve the various war memorials in the area.

PLANNING – Community councillors discussed current applications, of which there were few. They also considered the application for houses at the former Mill Inn site at Maryculter – comments have already been submitted and the community council may ask to address the area committee.

VACCINATIONS – The meeting noted the transfer of the vaccination centre for Kincardine and Mearns from Stonehaven Town Hall in April to Invercarron Resource Centre in Low Wood Road in the town. Concerns were expressed about parking.

GRAVEYARD -The state of the Templars’ chapel and graveyard near the Maryculter House Hotel is to be discussed at the next meeting.

WANT MORE? – The next meeting is on Monday 18 April at 7.30pm.

As everyone who lives in Newtonhill will know, Scottish Water is installing a new mains into the village. I’ve just received an update from the company about what will happen when the work reaches the A92 southbound carriageway.

Here is what Scottish Water has to say: “Phase four of the work on Newtonhill Road is about to begin, and this will involve the closure of the southbound A92 slip road entering Newtonhill from the North. This is to prevent any possible back up of traffic onto the A92 caused by the temporary traffic lights near the top of Newtonhill Road and to allow a safe working area for the works next to the slip road.

“A diversion will be in place via the Stonehaven junction on the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route. The southbound exit from Newtonhill onto the A92 will remain open.

“This phase of works will start on Monday 28 March and last approximately four weeks.”

There are now notices from Aberdeenshire Council at bus stops advising of the impact on local buses.

It says that southbound services will be affected. During the closure the X7 buses will stop at the former bus stop on the dual carriageway outside Tesco. Traffic leaving the village to go to south will have to beware of these buses.

Otherwise the southbound exit from Newtonhill on to the A92 will remain open as normal.

As well as closing the southbound access into the village, it will affect the three afternoon buses returning from Portlethen Academy. See the letter displayed below.

UPDATE 22 March:

We received an addressed leaflet via Royal Mail today with information from Scottish Water about what they are going to do. Presumably every household in the village received a copy.

I raised the length of the closure with council officers today. Officers have been urging Scottish Water – and their contractors – to move as quickly as possible and reduce how long the access from the A92 will last. However it is up to Scottish Water.

Council officers have provided the following update on how children from Chapelton will be accommodated at Newtonhill School (until there is a primary built in the new town), and at Portlethen Academy.

There is nothing particularly new here, but it confirms the direction of travel. The information comes via Kincardine and Mearns area manager Bruce Stewart.

“With over 4,000 houses proposed new town of Chapelton is Aberdeenshire Council’s largest housing allocation, and it is key for housing delivery in the region, located in the southern strategic corridor.

“As part of the vision and masterplan, education facilities and many other facilities have been planned into the development and in line with the Section 75 planning agreement a primary school is to be provided after the 489th house is completed.

“We would highlight that the programme for the delivery of the school is linked to housing delivery on site at Chapelton and this may create some fluidity in the programming.

“Further to continuing conversations and meetings held with the developer, Aberdeenshire Council including the relevant services such as education and the experience Aberdeenshire Council have from other locations it has been identified that an appropriate way forward would be to ‘grow’ a school at Chapelton.

“This approach would also include a virtual school being formed within Newtonhill Primary that would support the growth of the school and be timetabled accordingly with the new build programme, so that on the opening of the new school there would be classes of pupils established and ready to start at the new school. The virtual school process has been successfully used at Hillside Primary also in the south of Aberdeenshire.

“The entire process from virtual school to new build opening on site at Chapelton, will be programmed in conjunction with the housing delivery numbers and the projected pupil yield to ensure that the process is smooth and to manage the capacity at Newtonhill Primary. Aberdeenshire Council recognises the importance for a community to being fully involved in the unique experience of developing a new school and the community will be invited into the process in due course.

“There are many opportunities and benefits to this process which will ultimately shape the future for all learners within a newly created catchment zone.

“The Learning Estates team in collaboration with property colleagues have developed a strong brief which has shaped our primary school new builds in the last 8 years, and council project officers have been developing a proposed schedule of accommodation which is linked to the primary school design brief for Chapelton. This has enabled indicative whole life project costs to be assessed which in turn has fed into the initial stages of the required project governance.

“Regarding capacity at Portlethen Academy, the calculation of capacities for secondary schools is complex. It’s based on an aim for 80% occupancy in Aberdeenshire, so there are always extra teaching spaces available, but we also base it on ensuring we can deliver an effective mix of practical (20 pupil maximum class size) and non-practical (30 max) subjects.

“The stated capacities are what we call ‘published’ capacities which only account for main school buildings, where as our ‘working’ capacities include non-linked units. Practical teaching areas like technical often require fixed equipment so it can sometimes be that the overall capacity of a school is limited until we reconfigure spaces.

“This is where ‘planning’ capacity comes in. From year to year and where there are pinch points in our secondaries, our learning estates team works closely with schools to ensure they have ample space to deliver the right mix of subjects on behalf of their learners.

“We set annual secondary limits and reserved spaces and will not accept placing requests from those out of area when we need to limit numbers. Right now, none of our secondary schools, including Portlethen Academy, are over working capacity and where we are expecting school rolls to increase, we are planning ahead.”

The following new applications in the North Kincardine ward can be viewed on the Aberdeenshire Council planning register: https://upa.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/online-applications/.

APP/2022/0452
Date validated: 15 March 2022.
Site address: Broomhill, Netherley, AB39 3SN.
Applicant: Messrs c/o Christopher Farquhar, Savills (UK) Ltd, Elm House, Cradlehall Business Park, Inverness, IV2 5GH.
Application: Prior notification for the erection of agricultural building.
Public comment expiry date: Not applicable for this type of application.

APP/2022/0523
Date validated: 14 March 2022.
Site address: Garage/store to east of, Nether Ashentilly Cottage, Maryculter, AB12 5GQ.
Applicant: Mr M Bhatti c/o Duncan Bennett, Bennett Architectural Design Limited, Commerce House, Commerce Street, Aberdeen, AB11 5FN.
Application: Full planning permission for the conversion and alterations of garage/store to form a dwellinghouse.
Public comment expiry date: 14 April 2022.

I have reported the growing pothole on St Crispin’s Road at the junction with Newtonhill Road. It wasn’t filled along with other potholes as Scottish Water workers were at that spot.

The Roads Service tells me it has been logged as “Lower Priority Programmed Repair” following an inspection. Officers say it requires further intervention and defects in this category “will often be repaired when a programme of planned work can be organised which maximises efficiency as resources become available and may take much longer to complete.”

Officers add that they are unable to provide an estimated completion date.

I hope this means it will be added to the list of outstanding repairs – including those in Cairnwell Road – which I have been promised will be carried out in the new financial year.

Meantime it would help if residents would continue to report potholes: https://online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/apps/roadfaults/

People are still being asked to do a lateral flow test twice a week and to also test before meeting someone at high risk. And of course, report the test result – even if it’s negative – either on line or phone 119.

Full details here: https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/covid-19/community-testing

You can get free lateral flow tests by:
– Ordering online at https://www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests
– Phoning 119 (7am – 11pm daily. Calls are free).
– Collecting from an Aberdeenshire Council mobile centres. In Kincardine and Mearns they are at the following locations:
Monday, 21 March
Stonehaven – Market Square – 10am until noon.
Tuesday, 22 March
Portlethen – Asda car park – 10am until noon.
Wednesday, 23 March
Stonehaven – Market Square – noon to 3.30pm.
Friday, 25 March
Portlethen – Asda car park – 10am – 12.30pm/1pm – 3.30pm (Closed for 30-minute lunch break).

Library services will resume in Newtonhill from Wednesday 6 April, after a two-year closure.

Staff will be operating from a new base within the Bettridge Centre as part of partnership working.

Public browsing and the Click & Collect service (for those who would prefer to collect a bundle of pre-selected books) will be available twice a week on a Wednesday 3.30pm – 6pm and Friday 1pm – 3.30pm.

Bookings for Click & Collect can be made by calling the Live Life Aberdeenshire helpline on 01467 532929 or via the website https://livelifeaberdeenshire.org.uk/. The library team will also look at providing outreach activities in Newtonhill.

This could include Bookbug sessions, homework clubs, memories groups or whatever the community requires to meet its needs. This will be carried out as soon as there are additional staff in place.

The library service will be unable to provide public access computers in the new space at this time. They will review this if there is sufficient demand for the service.

Hearing aid batteries, food waste bags and other services will also be available to the public when they visit the new base: customers just need to ask the staff.

The former library building in the Coastal Park is in a sorry state and it has been a losing battle for years to try and keep it wind and water tight. Sadly, it is simply no longer fit for purpose. It was, after all, a temporary building.