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Approved Minutes of the Meeting held on Tuesday 14th of March 2023
7.30pm in The Reading Rooms
Present: Scott Crawford, Barbara Ross, Margaret Beaton, Derek Shanks, Christine Stewart.
Attending: Councillor Rosemary Fraser & 7 members of the public.
Apologies: Robert Clubb & Sarah Hill.
Minutes of the last meeting: (13/02/2023) were approved (proposer – Margaret Beaton, seconder – Barbara Ross).
Police Report: (1.) On the evening of 7 March 2023 there was a fire at a domestic property. Unfortunately, this proved fatal to one of the occupants. There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding this incident. (2.) Reports of a male acting suspiciously one evening within the grounds of a farm. It is suspected that he was there for the purposes of committing theft. Several units were deployed however unfortunately the male made good his escape. No items were reported as stolen. (3.) A resident was victim of an online fraud having transferred money to another believing this to be a friend. Please remain vigilant while online and confirm identity of friends by speaking with them, especially when being asked for money. (4.) Reports of a child (early teens) cycling on the A811 on the early hours of 5 March 2023. Thanks to calls from the public, the female was traced and returned home safe and well.
Community Council Elections 2023: Just a minor amendment from the notes last week. Next month will see the last meeting of the current Kippen Community Council.
Correspondence: N/A
Planning: WSC has sent in an objection letter to Planning re the Dawn Homes amendment to the application to change two of the houses as building work has already started. The application has been approved. Whilst looking into the application there is another house shown on the plan mirror imaged from what has already been approved. Residents have had ongoing issues with the houses, especially the heating systems. There is also an issue with mail not being delivered as there is another estate called The Meadows in Stirling and mail is going there instead. WSC had previously been approached to ask if the estate name should be changed.
Earlesburn Wind Farm: Keith Geddes and Adam Patterson presented. Community consultation – Section 36 Application which means that it’s up to the Scottish Government to decide whether the application will be approved. Stirling Council will send in their thoughts on whether to approve or reject. Several meetings and presentations have taken place. There have been discussions on what Kippen may receive from this and a suggestion has been put forward for a Community Hub. Over the course of its lifetime, there is the possibility of £12million investment. Various Community Councils could get together to have a shared EV Minibus or other facility. Fintry purchased one of the turbines the last time is this something that communities could do? It’s something that could be discussed. This is a joint venture and work started 2 years ago. It was selected due to its wind resource
Kippen Community Council
c/o Reading Rooms, Castle Hill, Kippen FK8 3DN
kippencommunitycouncil@gmail.com and transport links to deliver the components. A Scope was agreed with various groups and surveys have been completed. They hope there won’t be any environmental impacts as a result of the development. Would there be a possibility of solar panels to be put on buildings in Kippen? That was something asked by Carron Valley Community Council and could be a possibility if the Community Councils wished to go ahead with that. The traffic shouldn’t affect Kippen too much except closer to Stirling at the Cambusbarron turn off. 40- year operational life. 11 turbines of approx. 5 megawatts each. Has to comply within noise limits and shouldn’t hear further than 1.5km’s away. Not an ecological site so should have low impact on animals. Windfarms could effectively be cheaper if the unit price wasn’t linked to gas.
Kippen Green: We’re hoping to have the whole process complete by April 2023. Hopefully sourced some new trees to go in. The Woodland Group have access to some trees also. The local Cubs have been contacted to help put the trees in. There are trees overhanging and encroaching onto the path that would good to get it cleared for better access.
Graham’s Dairy: There were two applications submitted – one for an AD plant and one for a Robotic Dairy. The Dairy is now under construction. The Dairy now requires a shed for silage and yet another application has been submitted but the work has already started even though the planning permission hasn’t been granted yet. This has now turned into an extremely large site. The planning department should have the ability to ask them to stop the building work? The original application stated it was “Phase 1” which would suggest further development on the Carse. There are potential issues with increase in heavy traffic. An e-mail of comment will be forwarded to the Planning Department. Cllr Fraser has sent over a query.
Local Place Plan: Any part of the local community can put forward a local place plan. BR and RC attended a Zoom call. The general feeling was there wasn’t going to be much support and the support that is going to be given seems to be weighted to other villages. There was a Webinair that gave some great information and links showing multilayered mapping. Access cannot be given to everyone. They also spoke with Neil Fergusson a Kilmadoc re LLPs who was really helpful – especially in gaining support from the community. Planning in April to have a student looking into Air Quality conducting a presentation in April. If the drop in could be linked to the local place plan. W/b 24th of April might be a good date. Buses and travel links could also be reviewed as part of this. Would need to find out the needs of the Community to work forward.
Risk and Resilience: There was Defib Training that ran in the Reading Room. Well attended. Treasurer’s Report: The only expenditure was to reimburse Treasurer for invoices for webhosting.
- Contact Helen Robb to see if she would sign off our accounts this year following the retiral of John Fulton (DONE – she has agreed to do so)
- Contact Jean Cowie to ask about possible funding She replied by email to the KCC mailbox on 14/02 and for the most part funding is generally on available on one time applications – not ongoing concerns.
- Contact Jeremy Gaywood re Kippen Cuppa and defibrillator training (NOT DONE – I forgot to do this. However, the defib training went ahead and I believe volunteers made donations as ‘payment’ for the hall/heating. Re the Kippen Cuppa I’m not sure what is expected of the Community Council. RC had previously offered to apply for funds from the Winter Warmer Scheme but wasn’t given the go-ahead to do so.
We have our community grants and the CC has used them in the past for community projects – small grants up to £1500. The community should have a plan in place for maintaining their common land, including the trees.
Are there local volunteers who would help to do that (obviously would need to be covered by your insurance). We might consider some new signposting/interpretation but again we would be looking for you to have a plan about how it would be maintained longer term. The shed – we might contribute to a replacement shed if it is needed and yet again, look for you to maintain longer term.
Awards for all or Baillie Gifford might consider the signage or the shed, but you would need to be able to say what the benefit was to the community, and how the community get involved in the common land and use the common land, the shed etc.
Is there a way you can generate income from your common land; if the whole community uses and enjoys the space, the shed, etc could there be fundraising for it or a donations box somewhere. Who uses it and how is it used – if people value it they should be prepared to help towards its upkeep; are there fundraising activities that could take place on it, eg gala days, sports days?
Councillor’s Report: Cllr Fraser – the budget that went through 2 weeks ago – Labour Minority Council. There is a £17million deficit. There have been rearrangements with School Contracts. Instead of paying over 25 years, will now be paid back over 40 years. The money has to go into improvements. Voluntary Redundancies were put through at the end of the year. There is a 7% council tax rise. There are reductions in Nursery Hours in Fintry and Aberfoyle. The Big Noise budget has been reduced by Scottish Government will put some money towards it. There may be rollbacks on some of the changes if extra money is found. One of the potential cuts was to the Springkerse Park and Ride but that is now undecided. There are some refurbished buses due to start on the X10 run shortly once they have been delivered.
Round Table/ Any Other Competent Business: Will there be a Coronation Party or similar in the village? No known plans.
The meeting closed at 9.45pm.
Next meeting: Tuesday 11th of April 2023 at 7.30pm in the Reading Rooms.
kippencommunitycouncil@gmail.com