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THORNHILL & BLAIR DRUMMOND COMMUNITY COUNCIL
1st of September at 7:30 pm Online meeting
AGENDA
1. Present and apologies Scott Patterson Chair (SP), Hector Muir -Vice-Chair (HM), Gabriela Ingle -Secretary (GI), Elaine Blanchard - Treasurer (EB), Al Rawlinson (AL), Sam Campbell (SC), Heather Westwood (HW), Christine Baur (CB), Cllr Martin Earl (ME), Cllr Jeremy McDonald(JM),Yvonne Dickson - Minutes (YD),
Apologies: Sheena Stewart (SS), Andy Greig (AG), Cllr Evelyn Tweed (ET), Joanne Ingles, (JI)
Approval of minutes of meeting on the 9th of June 2021 Agreed (HM) Seconded (GI)
2. Matters arising – no matters arising
3. Reports – External:
a. Transport Scotland re Traffic Alleviation at Safari Park – HM forwarded main correspondence to Evelyn Tweed – another crash last week just past Safari Park
b. Police Scotland - sent out via email to all
c. Stirling County Councillor – Ringo Cashless car parking coming to Stirling - Full council meeting Oct 7th –
Covid recovery money – there is money in the fund, 12-14 million to support Covid recovery, some of this is internal, some to new posts i.e. social work. There will be money left and conversations on how this is spent. This may be available for things such as Active travel, Health and Wellbeing and Improvements to Infrastructure. (ME) says it will be worth looking into (may be opportunities)
This month you will see changes to bin collections, grey and blue bins will move to monthly in September. You will have received a leaflet. Zero waste Scotland report says 57% of grey bins is recyclable. This is an old report (ME) is continually annoyed at how this is done and will still fight this.
4. Reports – Internal:
a. Chair – thanked everyone for coming along tonight – nothing to report.
b. Secretary – (GI) nothing to report as she passes all emails to CC
c. Treasurer – (EB) £1680.16 in bank account and £721.61 admin grant to be paid in soon. Invoice for £200 for TCP to be paid
d. Planning- sent planning document around – nothing major to report
e. Thornhill Future Group (AL) in talks with SC about broadband rollout. Those of us not in village centre are at a disadvantage. Scottish Gov R100 programme check if your area what is being done. We are encouraging folks to test and see if they are getting what they expect. Sean Marley – there is a small sum of money
available for planning and development for the village. Duncan SC - The use of properties and development business looking to see if there is money available. (ME) Are they mentioning vouchers from DCS . (AL) we need to make people aware of options and funding. Questioning decisions about where these updates are and why. (ME)Broadway partners have put wireless in Brig of Turk , Strathard and Kinlochard, they are worth looking at. David Johnstone and Balqhuidder is a contact for this. Action (ME) will send contact details
Thornhill Community Trust (EB)We had a TCT/Futures/CC introductory meeting with SC Planning Policy Team. Here is the summary of the meeting: Mark Laird and Charlotte Brown explained they are working through the slow process of the new National Planning Framework 4. This community meeting was one of their first in their quest to gather evidence for the Local Development Plan. They are awaiting the publication of regulations in relation to Local Place Plans due out in October this year. It's not clear at this point what will be 'prescribed matters' in terms of Place Plans, but Charlotte's view was the LPP needs to represent who we are as a community and what our needs are.
Local Place Plans will not need to be registered until 2024. I'm hoping the notes will include the slides which were shared with us about stages and timescales. Charlotte’s view was we were well on track in preparing our LPP including the work on our boundary! Mark made mention of 'evidence base' at many points so that was a good reminder. There was much made of the requirement in the act to 'having regard to' which in practice means we need to keep in touch with Planning Policy Team to share information/progress and vice versa. Practical support however would be limited
to helping to prepare maps for a public event and signposting us for information. They would like to come for a walk around visit later on which welcomed. In summary this meeting felt to me like a top down, with legislative drivers, meets meets bottom up with more urgent aspirations! Very useful none the less! Action (EB ) will send out minutes.
TCT are going Online membership
f. Blair Drummond Community Hall- nothing to report
5. Community Council Business
a. Dunsire and Partners’ development in Thornhill: (GI )– no further progress
b. Windfarm – Shelloch development in Gargunnock – (GI ) no further progress we have time to comment on this but the link isn’t working to view the changes. – email from SC with attachment Action (GI) will forward this to all. (ME)
encouraged everyone send an email to Christina Cox to say link isn’t working.
c. Slow down sign/flashing light on A873 after B8031 (near Coldoch Road) towards Stirling – (CB)(ME) thanked Martin Earl for organising meeting. A873 and Coldock road – we are not eligible to be considered for a 50ml speed limit – add a slow road marking and improve with a couple of bollards. We were hoping for signage for people crossing roads and make traffic aware of children crossing. In a letter SC has said a child has been refused transport to Callander High. (CB)Looked at the policy from 2010 /11 and a review at 2019. They all say that they are worthy of consideration. Something to make people slowdown
(JM) rumble strips are starting to appear. Gartmore and Lochearnhead have had complaints about motorbikes being loud and fast spoke to the public safety and
police Action (JM) Martin and I will speak to the police about what can be done (ME) legislation that sits around exhausts, these are illegal but it is impossible to do anything about this. Write to Bruce Reekie in Traffic Management and there is another issue that brings in safer routes to School contact is Bryony Monahan in Education – quote the reference about the narrative about widening a driveway. (GI) mentioned her son has to cross road to get school bus, have to cross with a 8 yr. old and a 5 yr. old so it’s not only the high school (ME) improvements for the presence of young people and the issues they are experiencing. Focus on the safety access.
d. Sommers Lane – (ME) Angela did a review of the lanes around Blairdrummond, travelled around and took a snapshot. Sent the report out to everyone. 16-20 household had the report sent to them. Options to go from 60 to 40 mile an hour limit a walking cycling friendly route Watson lane to Chalmers lane. Implement an amenity weight restriction. Two farms on Summers Lane. Reinstate give way road markings at Summers Lane secure funding to improve Summers Lane i.e. widen it and passing places. (ME) Pleased with this report as opposed to the previous one. (SP) suggested CC show full support for the report. (ME) has had a few
reply’s some people would have preferred 30 to 40 mph. A request that traffic should enter and exit (not through Summers Lane), signage for residents only, speed bumps. Action (JM) re - sat navs - will send report through to GI (ME) if CC can officially record its report for the recommendations to go ahead as quickly as possible with a review to monitoring these improvements. These should be captured in the minutes. CC supported these options by majority
Junction of Main Street and Kippen Road / Road B822 from Thornhill to Kippen- (EB) –Decided against the yellow lines suggested by Daniel De
Rossi, the SC Traffic Management Officer as the village consensus was it would restrict parking. I followed up and asked about pedestrian crossings across Main Street and at the the school. This was his reply:
In regard to the enquiry for a possible pedestrian crossing at the narrowest section of Main Street, I can advise that this project would take away a considerable amount of existing parking space and we are not sure how much it would be used since the road is 20mph and it would be situated at the extremity of the village. However, we have agreed to keep the existing situation monitored.
For your second request, I can address you to Mrs Cleland, the head teacher with whom I dealt with more than a year ago when this request was made also. An assessment was carried out to see if a possible crossing could have been installed on Kippen Road. The response was as follows:
“Following our meeting dated 22nd January 2020, and the subsequent request for a zebra crossing, I can advise that two locations on Kippen Road were considered. The first in the section of road between Low Town and Black Loan and the second at the road narrowing outside the play Area..
Unfortunately, the first location does not meet the minimum design requirements due to the close proximity of the junctions and the second location also does not meet the minimum design requirements due to the lack of footway on one side and the insufficient
visibility distance between this location and the bend in the road on the southern approach.”
e. Resurfacing Kippen Rd – (EB) no updates Action (GI) if someone drafts an email Gabi will send an update email to Stephen Blythe
f. Speed check in Thornhill – (JM) and (ME) are having a meeting with the police and will raise this. (ME) use Trossachs and Teith email address and you will get a more direct response Action (ME) will send email to (GI)
g. Floral tubs in Thornhill –nothing has changed.
h. Debris at the newly-constructed bridge over the Boquhapple Burn at the western entrance to Thornhill – Andy got in touch with someone at SC –last we heard we had agreed the tidying had not met requirements.
i. Fence around the play park in Thornhill – (GI) reply from SC saying they will come up and look at the drain, there are no plans to upgrade equipment at this present time. Keep on the agenda
j. Slow down sign/flashing lights at A84 near the Kincardine in Menteith School Can’t see sign saying there is a school. There is no visibility and signs or flashing lights increased traffic in the mornings and afternoons. Not a SC road. Contacted schools and parent council for support and will send to Scottish Gov. (SP) get Evelyn Tweed involved what (ME) thinks. Kincardine and Menteith primary should have a safer routes to travel plan. Would expect the school and parent council to involved in. His suggestion would be parent council get hold of the school travel plan and see if it is current. This would be the most effective way into the debate to get back up. Use the document to say this is what we want. Action (GI) will start to write this up and we should remove from agenda
6. Residents Forum (EB) Just outside the lion and Unicorn Cone over Black drain lid on the pavement it is broken and almost caused an accident to a resident’s child. Mother has sent in a letter of complaint to SC (ME) please note when calling the council always ask for a reference number and this can be quoted by councillors etc. Action (EB) will send (ME) a photograph. A traffic sign is facing the wrong way, been like this for about a week now. Thinks it may have been hit by traffc (ME) says Stephen Blythe is the contact for this (he has replaced Michelle, Community Liaison officer).
7. AOB- none
8. Date, time and venue of next meeting: Wednesday, 13th of October 2021 at 7:30pm. (proposed to meet in Thornhill Hall if this is okay with SC Covid restrictions).