Progress over adopting Hillside roads

I was asked by a Hillside resident to find out when Aberdeenshire Council will adopt roads in their area. This was prompted by faulty street lights, the responsibility of the developer for the moment. There is good news on the horizon.

Council officers have given me the following update:

1) Mosside Avenue has an outstanding ponding issue at the access to Duffshill Drive. This has been brought to the attention of the developer, Stewart Milne, who has indicated that it will be resolved as soon as possible. The section of road will then be able to progress onto a 1 year maintenance period after which time, and assuming no further problems, it will be adopted by the Council.

2) Duffshill Drive, Duffshill Way (part), Duffshill Place and Haremoss Avenue (part). Recent site meetings have taken place and a remedial works list has been agreed to bring the road up to adoptable standards. These works will start in the week commencing 30th October. It is expected that the full package of works will take around 2 months to complete assuming reasonable weather conditions. We have however made the Developer, Persimmon Homes, aware of residents’ immediate concerns about the lack of street lighting and requested that this is attended to urgently. If however the developer fails to complete the lighting works, the Council can step in to do the work and recharge the developer for this.

3) Haremoss Drive, Haremoss Avenue (part) and Duffshill Way (part). These roads are about to undergo a pre-adoption walkover with the developer, Bett Homes. Assuming that they still meet appropriate standards they will be adopted by the Council.

The council officers assure me that they appreciate that the time it has taken to complete the outstanding works has been frustrating to local residents and the Roads Development team will continue to make every effort to ensure that the housing developers fulfill their obligations in accordance with the Roads Construction Consents granted by Aberdeenshire Council.

Newtonhill meeting looks to the future

A very lively meeting tonight of Newtonhill, Muchalls and Cammachmore Community Council to discuss the next Local Development Plan and residents’ vision for the area.

More than two hours were devoted to the many issues, assisted by three Aberdeenshire Council officers. Much of the discussion was sparked by the current proposals by Barratts for houses to the south of Newtonhill, though time was also devoted to Cammachmore, Muchalls and Bridge of Muchalls.

In other matters …

– Aberdeenshire Council’s landscape services will fell a number of trees in Newtonhill Park which are on the boundary with Cliff View. This is in line with the wishes of a number of residents there, though the community council would rather they were trimmed.

– The community council and Newtonhill Village Association are working together to draw up a list of play equipment to be installed in Newtonhill Park. It is hoped this can be financed in part by developer obligation funding.

– Local libraries are to distribute free of charge contactless credit/debit card protection holders. There is more information at http://www.aberdeenshirecommunitysafety.org.uk/contactless_…

– Newtonhill resident Laura Ironside was co-opted on to the community council. There is still a vacancy in Cammachmore.

– Further work is to be undertaken to see if it is feasible to bring the cattle underpass beneath the A90 into use for pedestrians. It is flooded, full of weeds and litter, and difficult to access. The community council is to speak to neighbours on St Michael’s Road
and to landowners as a first step.

– The arrangements for Newtonhill’s Christmas lights are in hand.

– The community council has decided to stay with the Royal Bank of Scotland even though it has closed its Stonehaven branch.

– The next meeting is on 15 November at 7.30pm in the Skateraw Hall.

Warning of road closures

UPDATE (30 October) – The work has been postponed as the Burnhead road (the C5K) did not reopen today as scheduled. It did not pass a safety audit.

Two sections of the U63K country road at Kirkton of Maryculter will be closed while work is being undertaken by Aberdeenshire Council staff.

Landscape Services will be carrying out verge trimming works to the north of the community on 30 October for one day.

The following day (31 October) the Roads Service will be carrying out essential road repairs to the east of the hamlet. This work will last for four days.

Positive report for nursery

A Care Inspectorate report for Portlethen Primary School Nursery has now been published. The report is very positive with the following gradings:

Quality of care and support 5 – Very Good
Quality of environment 4 – Good
Quality of staffing 5 – Very Good 
Quality of management and leadership 4 – Good

Council officers assure me the school will address any minor points raised through their established improvement planning processes.

If anyone wishes to see the full report, please let me know. I’ll need your email address.

Westminster seats to change

It looks as if we can say goodbye to the Westminster constituency of West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine at the next general election, and hello to the new seat of Kincardine and Angus East.
The Boundary Commission for Scotland published its revised proposals for UK Parliamentary constituencies this morning for a final eight-week consultation period.
The commission says the changes affecting Aberdeenshire from the initial proposals are as follows:
“Summary for constituency groupings of Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus and Dundee City Council areas
“From our initial proposals we have amended the boundary in Aberdeen by Rosemount and extended the proposed Aberdeen North constituency to include Balmedie, Belhelvie and Potterton in Aberdeenshire.
“We have amended the Aberdeen South constituency to include Drumoak in Aberdeenshire.
“We have designed two constituencies in Angus Council area named Angus South and Dundee East and Kincardine and Angus North to replace the constituencies of Angus Glens and Dundee East, and Kincardine and Angus East from our initial proposals.
“We have amended the boundary of the proposed Banff and Buchan constituency by Newburgh and Methlick, and the proposed Gordon and Deeside constituency by Banchory.”
The consultation will run until 11 December and views can be submitted on the commission’s portal www.bcs2018.org.uk. Further information can be found on the commission’s website www.bcomm-scotland.independent.gov.uk/2018_westminster/
Nationally, Liberal Democrat, SNP, Labour and MPs have demanded that the plans are dropped. Under the plans to redraw the political map of Scotland the number of Scottish MPs would be cut from 59 to 53 as part of a move to reduce the total number of Westminster seats from 650 to 600 ahead of the general election.

Highlights from rural community council

Tonight’s North Kincardine Rural Community Council changed venue from the primary to across the road at Lairhillock Inn because of the school holidays.
As ever, an interesting meeting with many local topics discussed. Here are some highlights:
– There was discussion over whether to ask AWPR representatives to attend a future meeting. Post completion of the project it is expected the council and Aberdeen Roads Ltd (the consortium responsible for the AWPR) will “slug it out” over bringing local roads back up to standard.
– A letter of thanks is to be sent to Aberdeenshire Council over the high standard of road works recently on the B979.
– Great progress is being made with the availability of broadband. Much more to do, but the roll-out was welcomed.
– The community council account with the Royal Bank has now been closed, and transferred to the Bank of Scotland.
– Two wreaths have been ordered for remembrance day ceremonies, for laying at the Cookney and Maryculter war memorials on Sunday 12 November.
– Aberdeenshire Council is to be pursued over making the 30mph limit permanent on the South Deeside Road in the vicinity of the Mill Inn at Maryculter where the AWPR work is underway. That would be the community council’s preference at the South Deeside Road / Milltimber Bridge junction, however 40mph would be acceptable.
– Community liaison officer Duncan Gardiner is leaving the AWPR team.

Sign on cul-de-sac

I was told by council officers that a “No Through Road” sign had been erected at the entrance at Cairnhill Walk in Newtonhill.

I had asked for this some time ago after a resident told me that more and more traffic enters their street “day and night because drivers do not realise that they were entering a no-through street.”

It matches the sign in Cairnhill Place, a street which also catches out drivers unfamiliar with the locality.

These things matter … we often get lost drivers coming into our cul-de-sac.