Today’s Kincardine and Mearns Area Committee took a number of important decisions.

• The headline issue which will no doubt be reported in the media tomorrow concerns planning applications for a travellers’ site at St Cyrus. The caravan park – which already there without permission – is built on the flood plain. Councillors voted by 8-2 to support the planners’ recommendation that the application be refused. The final decision will be made by the full council.
• The upper guideline limit for the area committee budget was upped to £4000, from £3000. This is the fund that groups can apply to for grants.
• Administration grants for the three community councils in my North Kincardine ward were agreed: Newtonhill etc £677, Portlethen etc £1418, North Kincardine Rural £475. It is based on the size of the electorate.
• Senior police officers reviewed key statistics between April and December 2014. In North Kincardine housebreakings fell from 20 in 2013 to 14, but the detection rate is down to 7.1%. Inspector Stuart Ednie is retiring (far too young!).
• The proposals by Aberdeen City Council to exclude Aberdeenshire children from Cults Academy met with strong opposition from councillors. I called on our officers to beef up their submission to the consultation, saying that the best interests of the children should be uppermost, and that is to continue with the existing arrangements. If the city council proceeds, the children would go to either Mackie Academy or Portlethen Academy when they leave Lairhillock Primary School.
• Roads officers put forward their programme for the coming year. I also raised the state of the roundabout at the east end of the Badentoy flyover. Further work will take place to tackle the rutting. Officers are having weekly meetings with the Aberdeen western peripheral route team about the impact on local roads: “we want to get plenty of advance warning.” It was also agreed that the barrier on the Bervie Braes at Stonehaven would be painted green.
• The general maintenance budget in K+M is £981,000, and this includes the following in the North Kincardine ward: Resurfacing – Milltimber junction (B9077)

Surface dressing – Cookston Road, Portlethen – high friction dressing; C25K from the junction C12K west to Backhill; U59K from Jockton House to Mid Ardoe; U145K from the junction with the B979 to Blackburn; and U145K from Inch of Ury southeast to East Blackburn. Footway works – slurry seal outside Banchory Devenick Primary School, Marine Terrace and Dunnyfell Road in Muchalls; South Headlands Crescent, Hillhead Road, Old Mill Road, Newtonhill Road, Windyedge Court in Newtonhill; and in Portlethen Viking Place, Bruntland Road, Glebe Court, Badentoy Road, Schoolhill Road, Cairnwell Drive, Glebe Court, Cairnwell Drive, Ninian Place, Barclayhill Place, Craighead Avenue, and Craigmarn Road. Lighting column replacement – Dunvegan Place, Rowanbank Road, Muirend Road and Berrymuir Road in Portlethen.

• Scottish Ministers have grants an appeal for two houses to the north of 44 Downies Village. Councillors and residents had concerns over the scale and height of the houses.

The public meeting due to be held tomorrow evening (25 March) in the Mill Inn at Maryculter has been postponed. It was being held by Michael Saunders of www.Digs2go.co.uk who has a planning application lodged with Aberdeenshire Council for a workers’ camp related to the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route.

Mr Saunders said that “due to circumstances beyond my control I have to cancel the Wednesday meeting at short notice. I have asked the planning authorities to hold the application on the Old Mill or extend the public consultation period for a further two weeks, so as not to prejudice the position of any objectors.

“The car park information has also been held back to prevent the clock from starting.

“I apologise for the short notice but I have no control over the present situation, which is not work related.

“I will re-arrange the meeting upon my return to the office.”

Royal Mail this week owned up to an identity crisis in Muchalls after giving the village a postbox bearing the English crown instead of a Scottish one.

I spotted the error and contacted the company. I saw the shiny red postbox at the end of Dunnyfell Road and the mistake just shouted at me. I know some people think this is of no consequence, but out history is important. To have the wrong crown on a Scottish postbox is unfortunate, and indeed insensitive to our history.

The Scottish crown has been used on postboxes north of the border following protests over the Elizabeth II insignia being introduced in 1952. After EIIR postboxes appeared in Scotland there was an outcry from nationalists because the new queen was the first Elizabeth to rule over the United Kingdom.

When the first EIIR postbox was unveiled in Edinburgh it was daubed in tar. The following year it was blown up. Many others were vandalised. In 1953 it was decided that to avoid further trouble, new postboxes would instead display the Scottish crown.

So I was surprised to see the wrong insignia on the Muchalls box, and wondered if standards had slipped since Royal Mail was privatised.

But no. I am told it was an error by a new engineer. Apparently engineers are being briefed to ensure this does not happen again.

Local councillors have given their backing to a cycle/footway between Bridge of Muchalls and Stonehaven parallel to the A90. But the challenge will be to secure funding for the missing link.

In a report to Aberdeenshire Council’s infrastructure services committee director Stephen Archer said that a feasibility study jointly funded by the sustainable transport charity Sustrans estimates the scheme would cost approximately £1 million.

The report says that “The project will not be taken forward as a bid for construction until it can be demonstrated what the cost benefit is likely to be.”

I called at the Aberdeen meeting for the cost benefit analysis to be carried out as quickly as possible so that the project could move forward. I was assured by Ewan Wallace, head of transportation, that officers are working with Transport Scotland and Sustrans on this. The council is “pushing the boundaries” to take this forward.

Stonehaven councillor Graeme Clark described the cycle/footway as a missing link, with the current narrow path only feet from fast-moving traffic on the A90. He described the existing path as a mess.

He was aware of residents using the path to cycle from Stonehaven to work in Portlethen. More people would do that if it were a safe, well-maintained route.

Fellow Stonehaven councillor Wendy Agnew questioned whether local farmers had been approached to see if the land would be available. She was assured by Mr Wallace that this had been done and much of the land is already owned by the council or Transport Scotland.

A further report will go back to the infrastructure services committee in July.

Our two North East local authorities agreed today to work together to secure some £2.9 billion from the UK and Scottish governments to invest in our local infrastructure. The councils will now open direct negotiations with the two governments to secure an Aberdeen City Region Deal.

I was pleased to be able to speak in the Aberdeenshire Council debate this afternoon, highlighting the fact the the proposals sensibly include making better use of our rail line. Among the stations to be re-opened would be Newtonhill, Cove, Aberdeen Airport/AECC, and Kittybrewster. Light at the end of the tunnel?

https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/news/release.asp…

Aberdeenshire Council today launched a Park Smart campaign to address concerns over irresponsible parking at  schools. I have had complaints about this over many years at Newtonhill, Fishermoss and Portlethen.

Complaints are increasing with teaching staff, school users and the public voicing concerns. Police Scotland is supporting the project which aims to tackle potentially dangerous parking habits by educating road users and enforcing best practice.

There is more information at http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/news/release.asp?newsID=3948

A lot of unhappy parents tonight at Cults Academy over the proposals by Aberdeen City Council. The city council wants to change the catchment area for Cults Academy to exclude pupils from south of the Dee (i.e. Lairhillock Primary School) from 2016. This is to make space for pupils in the city who will be coming from a new housing development at Milltimber, and so on.

Lairhillock is in Aberdeenshire, so our local pupils would no longer be welcome.

Parents were not backwards in letting the city council officers aware of their views. Feelings at the public meeting ran high, understandably. A number of them had moved to the area so that their children could attend Cults Academy, which is one of the best in the country.

Good to see Newtonhill being included in the plans for new railway stations, as revealed in today’s Press and Journal coverage of a £2.9bn growth plan for the Aberdeen area. There is even a photo of a train passing Newtonhill signal box on Page 5. This would part of the City Region Deal which will hopefully be backed by the UK and Scottish governments.

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/…/proposal-bus-roads-bri…/

Everyone in Kincardine and Mearns should already been contacted about the changing to the household collection service. Starts next week. But in case anyone is still in the dark and not received their letter, read on (this is the news release from the council) …

As part of new arrangements for recycling and waste across Aberdeenshire, a new food waste recycling service starts in the Kincardine and Mearns area next week. (w/b March 16)

Food waste containers and an information booklet are being delivered to homes this week. (w/b March 9)

A short agenda but a long meeting today for Kincardine and Mearns Area Committee.

The headline must go to the item on the Chapelton new town. The developers have applied to modify the planning conditions which would reduce the contribution to the Strategic Transport Fund from £8.16 million to £287,000. Councillors supported the officers’ recommendation that this be refused. It now goes to full council. I did not take part in this discussion, and neither did two of my colleagues. That is because we can all attend Nestrans board meetings, and Nestrans is the body that administers the Strategic Transport Fund. There would be a conflict of interest if we took part.