An encouraging meeting tonight of the Portlethen Sports Hub.

There’s to be an expression of interest put to Aberdeenshire Council in a community asset transfer of the proposed sports area (planned for a football pitch) to the west of the Causey Mounth opposite Hillside School.

Also among the discussions were the Portlethen Gala, archery (there are 100 people on the waiting list) badminton, running, courses, the website and grant applications.

More volunteers are being sought to run the hub. Anyone?

The next meeting is on 7 November in the academy, starting at 7.15pm.

http://www.sportlethen.org.uk/

Some excellent news tonight. I hear that the potholes in the car park at the Rowanbank Road shops in Portlethen are to be repaired.

It has taken a long time to bring this about, and meanwhile the potholes have become craters.

The car park is privately owned, as part of the shopping complex.

Newtonhill Road is in a much better condition now that a road sweeper collected many of the loose chippings this morning and the rain subsequently came on.

You can see where the tar and chips have adhered to the surface to seal it where cracks were appearing. The cracks would have become potholes in due course during winter.

At the risk of reopening the debate on Facebook, I’ll share what the roads service advised me this morning about the work which was undertaken on Friday: “This is standard practice for this type of road surfacing work (spray patching), and if road users observe the numerous red triangle warning signs, there should not be an issue.”

Owing to tree felling in the interests of public safety the C30K country road near Blairs will be closed from Blairside to Kiln Burn on Saturday 30 September for two days from 8am to 6pm.

I have asked Aberdeenshire Council officers for an update on when the lights outside Portlethen swimming pool will be repaired.

I understand that the exterior lighting has been faulty for some time, possibly because of water ingress. The high level columns with the CCTV cameras on them have had the lamps turned off.

I have asked for an update on when the lights will be operational again

Quite a few people have complained to me about the council’s surface repairs on Newtonhill Road in the village.

Yesterday a squad of council staff sprayed tar and spread chips on parts of the road which which were showing early signs of distress and breaking up. If water gets into the cracks when temperatures drop the ice cracks open the surface and potholes appear. Accordingly the council’s roads service took action to prolong the useful life of the road.

However many residents are unhappy because the loose chips can be a skid risk if drivers go too fast. Furthermore speeding drivers throw up chips which can damage paintwork.

It is not a popular method of sealing road surfaces, but is becoming used more and more by local authorities as they try to make best use of the funds they have.

Council officers tell me that “surface dressing is a process where a thin film of hot bitumen emulsion is spread on the existing surface and then a layer of dry uncoated chippings are spread over the bitumen film. This process provides a cost effective method of maintaining basically sound roads while improving the surface texture. On high speed roads or where there is heavy turning traffic a higher specification of the bitumen emulsion and chipping helps to reduce damage and improve skid resistance.”

A similar treatment was given to Bruntland Road in Portlethen last year. At that time a senior roads officer told Portlethen community council that in an ideal world they would prefer to provide a Rolls Royce repair, but the financial situation means it has to be a Ford Focus.

I have asked council officers to give priority to sweeping up the loose chippings.

This morning Hillside Primary School was officially opened with ceremony, including the unveiling of a commemorative plaque by Provost Bill Howatson.

The star turn though – setting aside the school itself – was a performance by all the pupils. Their singing was so good they were asked to perform the song again at the end of the ceremony.

Head teacher Lesley-Anne Munro welcomed guests, and as well as the pupils’ performances there were speeches from Councillor Gillian Owen, who chairs Aberdeenshire Council’s education and children’s services committee, and the director of education and children’s services, Maria Walker.

The £12.4 million primary accommodates up to 350 pupils. There are 13 classrooms, a two-court gym hall, a large dining area, and space for music and drama as well as a life skills area.

Free workshops are being offered to community groups and social enterprises who are involved in raising funds for projects.

These workshops are aimed at anyone who is considering a new project or who has been unsuccessful in completing funding applications in the past, or just wants to gain more knowledge and experience in applying for funding.

There will be six workshops on the following topics:
• Project Planning – Wednesday 20 September, 6.30pm – 9.30pm, Stonehaven Community Centre
• Getting Things Right for an Application -Tuesday 10 October, 10am – 12pm, Portlethen Community Centre
• Evidencing Need – Date and venue TBC
• The nuts and bolts of a funding application -Saturday 18 November, 10am – 12pm, St James Church Hall, Stonehaven
• Monitoring and Evaluation -Tuesday 28 November, 7pm – 9pm, Portlethen Community Centre.
• How to find funding – Funding Fair – February 2018, details to follow.

Beware of changes on the A90 at Stonehaven. The traffic is to switch from the original road bridge (which is to be demolished) to the newly-built longer bridge.

The Mearns Leader has more. http://www.mearnsleader.co.uk/news/transport/a90-roadworks-next-phase-of-demolition-to-begin-this-weekend-1-4545194