NMCC
2008-2009 (1018-1024)
Thursday,
28th May 2009
Members:
Mr Mike
Taylor ( Chair 2008-9 &Sec) [MT]
Mr Alexander Buchan
[AB]
Mrs Fiona
Duncan (Treasurer) [FD] Mr Martin Morley, JP [MM]
Prof Roy
Bridges (Minute Sec.) [RB]
Mrs Pamela Young
[PY]
Mr Gordon
Murray
[GM] Mr Robert Loughridge [RL]
In attendance ex officio: Councillors Dr
Martin Ford [CllrMF]; Nan Culllinane [CllrNC] and Fergus Hood [CllrFH]
Abbreviations:
AC = Aberdeenshire Council; NMCC = Newmachar Community Council
Apologies were recorded for: Messrs Mike Taylor, Martin Morley and Robert
Loughridge
In attendance as visitor(s): PC David Calvert; PC Craig Carry; Ms Annette
Holland (Aberdeenshire); Mrs Sue Brown; Mrs Shane MacGregor; Dave Lee; Graham
Geddes.
In the absence of the Chairman, it was agreed that
the Chair should be taken byRB.
Minutes
The Minutes of the meeting of 23rd
April 2009 were accepted as a correct record.
1018. Election 2009 (See Minute
1008)
(i) Unfortunately, too few
nominations had been received to make an election necessary. Hence
it was noted the new Council will consist of the existing members with the
addition of Mr Graham Geddes.
(ii) The ‘manifestos’ produced by
the candidates will nevertheless be published in the Newsletter.
(iii) It was agreed that the existing
Council remains in office for the May and June meetings;
the new Council comes into being with the meeting of 27th August.
1019. Police Matters
(i) PC David Calvert reported, for
the last month, three thefts, three attempted thefts, one vandalism case, one car theft case and one case of
indecency. Charges have been made of one male with the three attempted
thefts, one of the thefts and the indecency.
Minor problems involved
playing football on the main road and threats and bullying at New Machar School. The vandalism case
concerned the Hall; unfortunately fingerprints could not be obtained and the only means of redress against the
suspects would be civil action against
them by AC.
(ii)
The Police had responded to NMCC’s worries about traffic speeds on Hillbrae
and discovered when they investigated
observance of the 30 mph limit that the average speed was 48 mph with one vehicle recorded as
reaching 76 mph. Efforts to catch
offenders would continue.
(iii) David Calvert further reported
that another restructuring operation was in progress in Grampian Police.
Newmachar would remain under an Inspector based in Inverurie.
1020. Community Hall (See Minute
1010)
Grahem Geddes and GM were invited
to report on the current position.
(i) The Hall Association AGM had
taken place. Nigel MacLean had resigned
from the Committee but his place had
been taken by Martin Morley while at least one other person had shown sufficient interest to be
likely to be co-opted.
(ii) Funds stand at £77k with £12k
being reserved for planning and design costs.
Fund raising would go on.
(iii) A meeting of user groups had
produced useful information on what facilities were believed to be needed.
Ideal provision had to be balanced against what was likely to be affordable. It seemed that the original ideas would prove
to be not far wrong. It was noted that a café was to be included. Annette Holland pointed out the need for
multi use of facilities by
different age groups.
(iv) Applications to grant-giving
bodies would now go ahead with the help of Martin Morley . A business plan
needed to be produced. It was noted that
Planning Gain resource
availability could be time limited and this needed to be taken into account.
(v) The position over the land on
which the Hall was to be built probably needed to be formally settled with AC.
1021. Youth Project: The Position with Respect to
the Portacabin. (See
Minute 1009)
(i) Mrs Brown and Mrs Macgregor reported on the situation they faced
in attempting to use the portacabin
for the Breakfast Club, the After-School Club and the Holiday Club. All the
furniture had been ruined after damage done to the building by burst pipes
following freezing weather and new
pieces were needed.
(ii) A report by an AC surveyor was
awaited. AB asked why there was no
insurance cover. However it emerged that it was by no means clear that AC had
any responsibility for the building. It was agreed that the situation should be
investigated by means of a letter to the Area
Manager.
(iii) The lack of regular adult
supervision continued to make it difficult for the original aim to use the portacabin as a youth café to
be realised. It was noted with
gratitude, however, that Annette Holland,
despite now being formally based in Ellon, would continue to try to get the youth cafe established.
1022. Aberdeenshire Council Matters (See Minute 1011)
(i) CllrNC announced that a doorstep
waste cycling service will begin for Kingseat on 18th June.
(ii) Attention was drawn to the very
large puddles which had begun to appear on the so- called ‘
1023. Local Development Plan (See Minutes 1016
and 1017)
(i) It was agreed that no formal
response to the Main Issues Report (MIR) should be made until after the public meeting organised for 2nd
June by AC had taken place. PY was thanked for her efforts to publicise the
coming meeting.
(ii) RB suggested that although
aspects of the general policies adumbrated in the MIR and the subject of Questions 1, 2 and
10-19 on the Response Form might be covered in NMCC’s
detailed comments on the local position, the responsibility for commenting on the various policies as such should be
undertaken by the Garioch Forum of Community Councils. He pointed out that the general principle set
out in the preliminary pages of the MIR
on matters such as infrastructure services and building design quality were
very important and hoped that the
Forum would accept the principle that these should not be varied in general nor
in relation to any particular development bid without the relevant community council being consulted. This was agreed.
(iii) NMCC then passed on to
consider the particular arrangements for Newmachar recommended by Aberdeenshire planning officials. The interim
position of the community council
was that they did not wish to add any sites to those shown on the map at page G14.
Though regretting that they had not received any presentation by those
wishing to develop site G8,
they tended provisionally to favour the planners’ choice of the three preferred sites, G8, G128 and G138.
(iv) Discussion then ranged over
various points which might be included in the formal response including infrastructural problems consequential upon
Newmachar acquiring 563 new
houses.
(v) There was a brief review of the
MIR recommendations in relation to F33 (Kingseat); G27-8 (Whiterashes) and G22-3 ‘North Dyce’ and in none of these
cases did NMCC see any reason to query
the planners’ recommendations. However,
it was agreed that ‘North Dyce’ was
a confusing and inaccurate name for an area which is part of Aberdeenshire and of Newmachar parish; the proper name,
Parkhill, should be retained.
(vi) The meeting then went on to
consider three submissions sent in to the Secretary/Chairman
by local residents. Mr Bestwick wished
to reject any further development
in Newmachar and complained of his own potential loss of amenity. NMCC thought
it impossible to reject all development and doubted whether loss of a pleasing
view would be accepted by
planners as a reason for rejecting a development. Dave Lee had referred
to the ‘Small Glebe’ development as an example of a developer going beyond what
had been originally notified to the
community as the density and scale of a housing site. NMCC
agreed with the view that such practice ought to be disallowed by AC. Jackie Hothersall’s
submission was chiefly concerned with the effects of more housing on transport into and out of
1024. Date of Next Meeting
In view of holiday and other
unavoidable absences, it was agreed that the next meeting, when the MIR response would be formulated,
would be re-scheduled for 18th June.
There
being no further business, the meeting closed at 2202.