Today Formartine Area Committee convened at the Ellon Baptist Church – a meeting with a relatively short agenda.
For me, it was my first appearance since my illness issues flared up nine months ago – it was very nice to be back, and it was equally nice to be joined by our newly appointed acting Area Manager Amanda Roe.
With Cllr Davidson recording apologies, Cllr Taylor took the chair.

The opening item on the agenda was the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Report (1st October – 31st December) – which was presented by Willie Chisholm who as always gave a full and informative update for the period.
There were 80 incidents during this period including 3 accidental dwelling fires, 6 deliberate fires, 14 accidental fires and 41 false alarms.  Regrettably there were also 3 Road Traffic Collision casualties.
The majority of the high figure for deliberate fires were to Tree Scrub.
Six Mid Formartine properties received a Home Fire Safety Visit – with only one property deemed a high risk.
The Oldmeldrum team is currently sitting at 11, which is 1 over establishment, and there is also 1 in the system.
The service are also introducing a new post – Rural Full-time Watch Manager – which is aimed to support the cluster of Retained Duty Stations and will take in Oldmeldrum, with future similar vacancies planned over the next two years.

We then discussed the masterplan for the OP2 site a Bonnyton Farm, Pitmedden, which had been discussed previously by Committee on the 30th October.
This generated much debate – largely around the intention to re-open the B999/Ingleside junction beside the co-op.
The report to committee sets out the overall principles for the site in terms of design, layout, phasing and infrastructure – and there was a reminder that a masterplan is required for this site factoring in access to the B999 and open space beside the burn to the south.
It is allocated in the Local Development Plan 2017 for 64 houses.
The Masterplan does demonstrate a successful sense of place – and the planning service feel it is acceptable.
However, members focussed on the need for a second access – and the developer’s intention to re-open the Ingleside junction beside the school and car park.
Roads Development favoured this option which would involve either road signals or a roundabout – and possible a 20MPH speed limit.
It would also however remove the parking section often used as a loading bay for the shop – and a pedestrian crossing would replace the zebra crossing.
I enquired about utilising Bonnyton Farm road instead of this – however this option was ruled out due to the width, effectively houses would have to be bulldozed to make that road acceptable for the purpose.
The report also states that the removal of the loading bay area would require a formal Traffic Order and consent of the shop owner, a position of only “potential deliverability”.
The report states that the point of access “can be settled at full planning stage” – however members took the view that a masterplan should demonstrate what the committee felt was acceptable and not be in place to be challenged at a later stage.
When it came to summing up Cllr Adam moved that we don’t accept this masterplan, which I was content to second.

We had just one planning application on the agenda today – Planning Permission in Principle for Residential Development at the Former Auchterless Station near Turriff.
Much discussion was had on whether or not a former train station can be naturalised to the point where it is actually now classed as Prime Agricultural Land (the reason it had been referred to committee by the ward members).
With members divided on the acceptability of the plan – this one went to a vote in which a recommendation of a delegated grant be recommended to Infrastructure Services Committee was won after a vote by 6 votes to 2.

We noted the decision of the Local Review Body which was to dismiss an appeal against the refusal of planning permission in principle for the erection of a dwelling house, double garage and workshop at Killiebrae, Oldmeldrum.

Finally, we had a paper on Aberdeenshire Charities Trust – Financial Management.
In the next year, Mid Formartine will have a minimum grant of £100 and maximum of £500 for ‘the advancement of the arts, heritage, culture or science’.