Kinross-Shire Independent Councillors' Update
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161013 Independent Flyer:Layout 1 13/10/2016 16:20 Page 1 Kinross-shire Independent Councillors’ Update - Autumn 2016 Since Dave’s election and Mike’s re-election for a fourth term in May 2012, your Independent Councillors have been working hard Mike Barnacle together for the people of Kinross-shire. Dave Cuthbert Both believe in consensus rather than confrontation and work with Kinross-shire, Almond and Earn Action Partnership other political parties to deliver community aspirations. Action Partnerships have been formed throughout Perth and Support from other Councillors is also needed in order to get Kinross. The aim of these is to identify inequalities in the area, things done and one of the changes since the election is that the with a view to prioritising these and getting all the local services to four Kinross-shire Councillors are working closely together. work together to tackle them. This Update is to let you know some of what we are involved in Inequalities are not defined and can focus on almost anything. locally as elected members. Examples might be a drop kerb on a pavement, the 20 minute call It is in no way a complete list as that would fill a book, there is so out time for an ambulance in Kinross and Milnathort, a lack of much going on! employment opportunities for local people... You name it! If you tell us what is not working in the Kinross-shire Ward, we will Kinross-shire’s historic claim of right on its borders successful pass these on to the powers that be and will see if we can get The LGBCS began carrying out a review of Local Authority Ward some action on making them work. Boundaries in February 2014. Our contact details are on the back of this leaflet. This was an initiative started by the Scottish Government in order to balance the number of voters each Councillor had to represent Kinross-shire Forum of Community Councils due to population changes. Dave and Mike called for the formation of a Forum of all the The Scottish Government decided that a focus would be put on Community Councils in the ward. This forum has now been increasing the number of Councillors in deprived areas at the established. The chair of the forum will sit on the local Action expense of less deprived areas. Partnership for the next twelve months and will act as a conduit to In January 2015, the LGBCS decided that Perth and Kinross Council and from the Action Partnership to the Community Councils. should be reduced from 41 to 40 Councillors using a rather Roadworks, roadworks and yet more flawed model. roadworks! This was in spite of the fact They can be pretty annoying when you that Perth and Kinross have are trying to get about and there have one of the fastest growing been a lot of them this year. populations in Scotland! As local members, we have two views on At the same time, the LGBCS these. On the one hand, like everyone came out with a proposal that else we get caught up in the queues and get frustrated by the Kinross-shire would be delays. On the other hand, we are often the instigators of getting reduced in size and its Councillors reduced from 4 to 3. the works done and see it as a success when so many upgrades are Following a strong campaign from your local Independent going on. Councillors and over 200 local people, the LGBCS changed their Anyway, apologies if you have been delayed. proposals for Perth and Kinross and in May 2016 recommended to Scottish Ministers that Kinross-shire should remain as it is, whilst Footpaths - The Rural Access Committee of Kinross-shire (TRACKS) recommending that the North Perth ward should be cut from 4 Following the successful completion of the Loch Leven Heritage Councillors to 3. Scottish Ministers accepted this proposal on the Trail in May 2014, TRACKS have completed new footpaths between 14th September. Easter and Wester Balgedie, Drum and Aldie Road and Vane Farm So the good news is that Kinross-shire’s historic claim of right has to Lochore Meadows , they continue to work on many new been heard, it has not been subdivided and remains with 4 footpaths. We would like to congratulate them on this. Councillors representing you. The Heritage Trail now attracts large numbers of tourists to the Our thanks go to all of you who area, with 250,000 visitors a year. Dave and Mike have suggested took the time to object to the consideration of a visitor centre at Kinross Pier area to build on original divisive proposal for Kinross-shire. this success. Blooming Marvellous What a fantastic job our local Bloom Council Footpaths Meanwhile the Council budget for new footpaths no longer exists, Committees do. which has been put down to financial pressures. Dave and Mike Dave and Mike would like to thank all have serious concerns about this. those involved. We respect the work you We succeeded in getting £300,000 allocated to Road Safety do. We have been and continue to be initiatives in the Capital Budget. happy to support you in any way we can. Our aim is to get funding in the Council’s Revenue Budget for Road What you do makes our towns and villages look so much better. and Path upgrades. Two new Bloom Committees have been formed and are looking for As new developments continue to get planning permission within helpers. These are Powmill in Bloom and Crook & Drum Growing the area, pressure is growing on the existing infrastructure. Together . If you would like to help, give us a ring and we will put Our view is that the surrounding infrastructure has to be funded if you in touch. (Our phone numbers are on the back.) Thank you. these new developments are going to work properly. 161013 Independent Flyer:Layout 1 13/10/2016 16:20 Page 2 Perth and Kinross Council (PKC) Local Development Plan (LDP) 2014 - 2024 (adopted February 2014) All new building developments in Perth and Kinross are decided on the basis of whether they fit with the Council’s first Authority wide LDP. Dave Cuthbert Mike Barnacle The Council meeting where this was discussed (January 2013) was dominated Planning by debates on issues relating to Kinross- Talking about population growth, Kinross-shire has a lot of new shire, as your four local members worked development going on. hard to introduce amendments which Over the last year there were 66 new house completions. This is improved the plan for residents of the set to increase quite dramatically over the next few years as two Ward. new large developments have been given consent and others are These included: protecting the routes of former railway lines, with in the pipeline going through the planning process at the moment. a view to bringing a rail link back to Kinross-shire, removing the Former Kinross High School Site housing development known as H46 which would have isolated The first of these is the former Kinross the children’s play park at Davies Park in Kinross and mitigation High School site. measures for the A977 between Kinross and Blairingone . Following the previous unanimous Landscape Designations refusal for this site, a new application Part of the LDP is contained in guidance. with a number of key changes that Areas of Great Landscape Value Supplementary Guidance was local members had sought was dropped between the previous Local Plan and the new LDP. When granted consent at the Council’s consultant proposals came out for Local Landscape Areas, they Development Management meeting (DMC) on the 8th of June for excluded from designation the former AGLV’s of the Cleish Hills 91 units. Dave asked for this to be deferred until a conservation and the River Devon gorge, which Mike and the community had officer’s report was produced and a parking survey completed as it campaigned succesfully for at the previous “Kinross Area Local was his belief that parking would become a real problem for Plan” enquiry in 2004. Mike subsequently twice moved in Kinross following the loss of the High School site. committee for their inclusion, but on both occasions lost the vote This motion was supported by Willie Robertson, however the by a small margin. We see this as a major flaw and will continue to other Councillors present on the committee failed to support this. lobby for this decision to be reconsidered. Lathro Farm Development Mike has also made two calls for the Ochil Hills to be declared a At the DMC meeting of the 14th September, permission was Regional Park, with written support from Glenfarg Community granted for 300 units to be built at Lathro Farm (opposite the Council . Community Campus) in Kinross. Local Development Plan Two (from 2018) Your Independent Councillors asked for a contribution from this The World doesn’t stand still and therefore planning for the future development toward infrastructure in Kinross and this translated also has to keep moving. into the following condition: “No part of the development shall With this in mind, work on LDP2 started at the Council before the commence until a Section 69 Agreement (Local Government Act ink was dry on the first one. 1973) has been agreed between the applicant and the Council for Forward Planning at the Council are currently reviewing the many a financial contribution towards a road improvement scheme that comments which were submitted during consultation on the Main mitigates the impact of the proposed development on the local Issues Report, identifying issues and potential sites for road network.” development.