CULTS BIELDSIDE AND MILLTIMBER COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Annual Report 2013
Organisation and Activities
Membership – The following councillors served during the year:
2013Mr Peter Reiss (chairman until 1 March)
Mr Guus Glass (secretary, chairman since 1 August)
Mr Peter Roberts (vice-chairman, planning liaison officer since 1 August)
Mr Derek Robb (vice-chairman since 1 August)
Mrs Christine McKay (planning liaison officer, secretary since 1 August)
Mr Graham Payne (treasurer)
Mr David Anstee (co-opted in June)
Ms Eleanor Brennan
Mrs Gillian Buchanan
Mr Norman Burt
Mr Colin Caldow (co-opted in June)
Mrs Tracey Davidson
Mr Martin Harris (until May)
Ms Harriet North-Lewis (until May)
Mrs Margaret Stewart
Mr Nigel Williams
5 vacancies
2 youth vacancies
In the past year we suffered the sad loss of our chairman Peter Reiss who passed away unexpectedly on 1 March. Peter had been a Community Councillor since 2006, chairman since August 2008. He was an inspirational leader, committed to the quality of life in the area. The Community Council sponsored a new community bench along the railway line path in Milltimber in his memory.
Martin Harris and Harriet North-Lewis resigned in May for health reasons and we thank them both for their contributions to community life in the past years.
The council has still many vacancies and efforts to find new candidates are continuing.
Meetings – The Community Council held 10 regular meetings, on the fourth Thursday of each month. No meetings were held in December and July. The venue for the meetings alternated between the Cults Academy or latterly in the adjacent Community building, and the Deeside Christian Fellowship Church in Milltimber, latterly in the adjacent new church office building. Members of the public attended meetings regularly to air specific problems with new building plans and developments.
Presentations - The Community Council received the following presentations during the year:
· Colin Gray and Keith Anderson, Grampian Resilience Advisers, informed the CC about the background and the preparation and application of community resilience plans.
· Rod Howat and Ross MacLennon of CALA briefed the CC on the essentials of the Planning Application in Principle for the Oldfold Farm Development submitted in March and answered questions on infrastructure issues.
· Ian Sutherland updated the CC on the plans to establish a ‘Friends’ charity for Allan Park. This would allow attraction of funds for the highly desirable maintenance and improvement of the park. CBMCC confirmed their support for this initiative.
· Jeannie Carlson of the Simeon Care Home in Bieldside briefed the CC on the re-development plans for the establishment that has strong connections to Camphill/Newton Dee.
· James Martin of the city’s Waste Aware group informed the CC on the future domestic waste management plans of the city.
· David Mayne, a Robert Gordon student, introduced the CC to his dissertation on the impact of household income on the use of public transport. Community Councillors fed back their views on this matter.
Correspondence – The Community Council received 321 items of mail during the year (discounting spam). Most mail was received by e-mail. Some 15% of these concerned Planning and Licence applications, 28% referred to CC activities mainly the Xmas Carol event.The CC sent out 47 mail items, again mainly by e-mail. Some 30% of these dealt with Planning and Licence applications, 38% with CC activities.
Participation in City and Country Associations – Guus Glass, Derek Robb and Margaret Stewart served as representatives on the Civic Forum.
Guus Glass retained his seat on the lead group of the Civic Forum.
Peter Roberts and Christine McKay represented the CBMCC on the Community Council Forum and were instrumental in reforming its Planning Sub Group in 2014.
Festival – The traditional MBC Festival was organised successfully in August by an independent work group with support from the Community Council.
Newsletter – The MBC News is an independent community newsletter, supported by the Community Council. Four issues were published in 2013, each including extensive news reports and subject contributions from the Community Council and the Elected Members for the area.
Relationship of the CC with the Churches
Local church leaders continued to attend the CC meetings, contributing to matters discussed as and when appropriate. Apart from the posting of CBMCC publications in the churches, no further steps have been taken so far to extend the involvement of residents through a closer working relationship between CBMCC and churches.
Website – The CC funds 50% of the CBM Community website (the other half being funded by MBC News) and maintains most pages. Towards the end of the year plans were discussed for a rigorous review and update of these pages.
Xmas Carol Event – In December the CC organised the traditional Xmas Carol Event on the Cults Square. Rain abated and approximately 250 people attended. As in previous years, Kelly’s provided mince pies and the Cults hotel served soup thus keeping attendees warm. The ministers, the Morven Choir, the Bon-Accord Silver Band, the Rotary club members and all other helpers put in a tremendous effort to make the event a success. A collection of £360 was donated to the charitable Christmas events in Aberdeen City organised by the VSA.
Community Issues
The Community Council addressed the following issues arising within the CBM area during the year. The subjects are listed alphabetically.
Countesswells Development – This development has slowed down unexpectedly and after cancellation of a scheduled information meeting early in the year nothing much has been heard from the Countesswells Consortium. The intended Planning Application in Principle has not been submitted this year as the developers appear to have been in protracted negotiations with the landowners. The community council approves of this delay as it would allow firming up of infrastructure plans before building starts.
The masterplan for the Countesswells development is expected to be submitted by Stewart Milne for approval in March 2014, to be followed shortly by the planning permission for the first phase of development which will be around 1000 homes. The final size of the development is expected to be around 3000 homes plus commercial units.
Friarsfield, Craigbank and Sunnyside Development - Permission to build the first phase of 73 houses and 8 flats continued to be withheld during the year while legal and financial agreements on a number of essential elements of the development and contributions to infrastructure were discussed. Full approval was finally issued in December and construction work has now commenced.
The legal agreement between the developer CALA and Aberdeen city covers many aspects of the development. Of particular interest is the agreement that the ‘spine road’ between Kirk Brae and Craigton Road must be ready and operational after completion of house 161. This may not be before 2018 and is much later than the Community Council had been advocating.
The Community Council is concerned about the application approval process which set many prohibiting conditions on primary aspects of infrastructure provision. These were decided upon without involvement of elected members or other public scrutiny and CBMCC have made representations to the city planners about this procedure. The city’s response confirmed existence of a less than satisfactory situation.
During the year the Stewart Milne Group, co-developers with CALA also submitted a surprise planning application to start building 72 houses of phase 3 of the development.
This is out of line with the agreed Development Framework and will cause a number of infrastructure concerns/conflicts. The Community Council has made representations to the City to not allow additional Friarsfield building until all infrastructure issues have been firmly and legally agreed.
Local Bus Service – The Community Council collaborated with Culter CC to pursue the latter’s initiative for creating a local ‘up-and-down’ feeder bus service in the lower Deeside area. The aim of the route being to better serve residents that have a steep incline between their residence and the North Deeside Road. Discussions are continuing.
Local Planning Highlights
There was a slightly larger number of planning applications submitted in 2013 than in 2012 for the Lower Deeside Ward with a total of 193 planning applications reviewed, of which 166 pertained to Cults, Bieldside and Milltimber with the remaining 27 concerning Peterculter. Comments were made and submitted by the Community Council on 6 applications. These were:
- The Cala Oldfold Farm development for 550 houses
- The Stewart Milne development at Friarsfield of 72 houses
- The erection of a second wind turbine at South Lasts farm, Milltimber
- The erection of a new house within the curtilage at 469 North Deeside Road – no objections but some comments on access; application has been approved
- The erection of 3 new houses on greenbelt land adjacent to Pitfodels Station Road
- The erection of a second new house in the plot at 11 Baillieswells Road
The three major housing developments for the area, Countesswells, Friarsfield and Oldfold Farm, all progressed to some degree and the details on these are covered in their separate sections.
Work continued on the development of a Planning protocol for discussion between Community Councils and Aberdeen City Council Planning Department on planning applications. A draft has been submitted to the Planning Department and discussions are expected early in 2014.
Lower Deeside Resilience Plan – The Community Council reviewed the draft Culter Resilience Plan and as many issues are of a wider application it was agreed to pursue the idea of a holistic Lower Deeside Plan based on the excellent Culter work.
Oldfold Farm Development – A Planning Application in Principle was finally submitted in March. The application is for a development of 550 homes and includes a primary school and space for a small commercial development. The community council – in consultation with a team of Milltimber residents - submitted extensive comments on the application highlighting:
- The importance of a proper timing of completion of the proposed new primary school
- The desire to create a single Milltimber community centre
- General concerns about traffic load in the area.
- The need to include North Deeside Road junctions in Cults in the transport assessment.
- Suitability and state of repair of local roads
- Concerns about affordable housing
- Concerns about drainage and sewerage plans
The timing of building the new school and the validity of the traffic assessment in view of other development taking place in the area, were still being discussed with the City at year end. The formal planning permission is expected to be granted in February 2014. The Community Council has submitted comments to the Planning Department requesting retention of traffic signals at the junction of North Deeside Rd/Binghill Rd/Beaconhill Rd.
Police Matters - The Community Council was informed about incidents and crime in the community by a selection of Community police officers reporting in most monthly meetings. In two meetings the City Wardens were also represented, at times submitting a written report when absent.
Promoting Well-Being – A Community Council representative participated in discussions on this subject initiated by the Community Learning and Facilities Group. Awareness of the effects of extended stress situations on mental health needs to be promoted and a first article in the MBC News is planned.
Traffic Flow in Cults Village – The majority of proposals for improvements to the road markings and traffic light arrangements had been rejected by the City in 2012. The only agreed improvement (‘Keep Clear’ markings at the Millden Road junction with North Deeside road) was carried out early this year.
The problem of traffic using the Mews as a ‘rat run’, to avoid congestion and traffic lights on North Deeside Road at the junction with St. Devenick’s Place, was brought to the attention of the Community Council in 2012. Despite the efforts of the local City Councillors no solution has yet been identified.
City Issues
The following, citywide issues which would impact on the CBM community were also addressed during the year:
Access from the South – Representatives from CBMCC visited the public exhibition on the three concepts worked out for a new bridge over the Dee. This is the most significant of the road transport interventions. The Community Council agreed that a new parallel bridge immediately adjacent to the existing Bridge of Dee is it’s preferred option out of the 3 considered.
Access from the North – Representatives from CBMCC visited the public exhibition of the proposed A96 upgrading. No effects on the local traffic situation are envisaged.
Masterplanning and Infrastructure – During the year CBMCC concluded its discussion with the Aberdeen City planners on the requirement for greater transparency and detail around the planning of infrastructure. CBMCC wish to ensure it is properly aligned with future housing development.
CBMCC sent a detailed response to get further clarification on some of the points highlighted in the extensive letter received last year from the leader of the Masterplanning Team. The response also emphasised the view of the Community Council that deferment of some of the developments would provide the only opportunity for the local authority to properly address the infrastructure issues.
In their final reply the city’s masterplanning group clarified several of the issues to satisfaction, leaving others e.g. the provision of the road infrastructure at a less concrete level. The Community Council remains doubtful that the road matters are under control.
Scottish Planning Policy & National Planning Framework - CBMCC responded to the consultation by the Scottish Government on the Planning Policy and Framework emphasising the requirement for a mix of energy sources, provision of affordable housing and the need for a modern national transport framework.
New Strategic Development (=Structure) Plan – CBMCC submitted comments to the final proposed SDP of Shire and City emphasising the need for properly planned infrastructure and seeking re-assurance that building on areas prone to flooding will be limited to brownfield sites with adequate measures in place. During the final approval process the City Council provided further information on these points to the Scottish Government. Final SDP approval is expected in the first quarter of 2014.
New Local Development Plan – CBMCC generated basic input to the LDP update process using the toolkit provided by the City including maps and photographs. After publication of the first results from this process the Community Council immediately clarified its position that early provision of infrastructure is a pre requisite for development and also taking the opportunity to express its concern about the wave of new developments proposed by land owners and developers. Efforts appear to have been successful as the Main Issues Report now out for public consultation shows none of these proposals.