Community Council, Scarecrow Festival

NKRCC - North Kincardine Rural Community Council The North Kincardine Rural Community Council con:nues to be ac:ve in your area, although for obvious reasons things have been a bit quieter recently. We ventured into the 21st Century recently with our first Zoom commi`ee mee:ng to which members of the public were invited. It was good to see some familiar faces aaer so long and I think it worked pre`y well, despite a few gremlins!

As ever, we welcome the involvement of local residents who would like to aSend the meeEngs. Details are on the website or the Facebook page. We believe the Community Council serves a useful purpose, and it needs to be a strong voice for the local community.

Covid

The main issue that has recently affected all our lives hardly needs any comment; there is certainly some “covid faEgue” out there. But I think the various iniEaEves taken by the Aberdeenshire Council and the local communiEes have been well adverEsed and are easily accessible by those who need them. My only comment is that as we are a diverse and rural community, there is not the same opportunity for us to do “crate at the gate” or food banks, but I think there are many doing these sort of iniEaEves which are helping to support those around them. I have been involved in a number of calls among Community Councils and one of the main issues is isolaEon. I am hopeful that this is not too great a problem among us, as my impression generally is that we are a close-knit community who are looking out for each other, especially at this difficult Eme.

Roads

The Community Council conEnues to keep an eye on the programme for repairs to the local roads over the coming year which has been proposed, hoping for a decrease in potholes. I would recommend that residents conEnue to report potholes that need to be repaired – it does help if a number of people report the same hole, as this will push it higher up the priority list! However, it should be said that budgets are extremely Eght, so repairs may take longer than usual.

Planning

All local planning applicaEons are reviewed at our monthly meeEngs. Where required, these are discussed and may result in a leSer of concern, objecEon or support being sent to Aberdeenshire Council, depending on local views. You will find copies of all of these submissions on the NKRCC website. Of interest recently are the possibility of a 40-mph limit around the South Deeside Road/MillEmber Brae juncEon, an Aberdeen City applicaEon for houses, linked to the Banchory-Devenick proposals by the Comer Brothers and the on-going Park Bridge closure.

NKRCC Mee:ngs

Community Council meeEngs are currently being held on Zoom, but we will hope to meet as soon as we can, back at the Lairhillock School. Henry Irvine-Fortescue – Chair

SCARECROW FESTIVAL! Scarecrows appeared around Chapelton throughout the month of August. This year the fes:vals theme was “Movies and Cinema”.

Visitors were invited pop to Teacake and make a donaEon to pick up a ballot paper (funds to Cairnhill Allotments, the Chapelton defibrillator project and the Newtonhill out of school club). Then wander around Chapelton and choose your favourite scarecrow before nipping back to Teacake to put your ballot in the box. For anyone shielding or trying to go contactless during the corona pandemic we introduced a new virtual scarecrow tour and online voEng system available via our website at hSps://cairnhillallotments.uk/.

Social distancing was observed by all our wonderful visitors and this year a whopping 2813 votes were cast! Chapeltons 58 fesEval entries weathered two storms to raise an incredible £1600 which means we now have enough raised to have the defibrillator installed which is a fantasEc achievement as well as providing a great donaEon to the Newtonhill Out Of School Club and enough for the annual maintenance at Cairnhill Allotments.

During the last week of August our esteemed judges Caroline Fyfe (Elsick developement Company), Concillor Ian Mollison and Heather Edmond (Newtonhill out of School Club) made their rounds to choose their winner-a very difficult decision as the standard was so high this year!#chapeltonscarecrowfesEval Why not join our Facebook group @chapeltonscarecrowfesEval to keep up to date with all the latest scarecrow news and pictures of the amazing creaEons as well as being the first to find out about next years fesEval plans! We have been very grateful to receive some wonderful prizes from Legasea, Teacake, Brio, Lathallan Scool, Flowers by Lauren Mackay, Tesco and Asda.

Here are your winners for the Chapelton 2020 Scarecrow FesEval!

Judges votes: 1st place-MacDumbo, 2nd place-Paddington, 3rd place-Marty Mcfly, Junior winner-Mary Poppins (junior entry), Best in Theme-Woody and Slinky, Wooden Spoon-Mrs Doub{ire, Allotments choice, Facourite-Ghostbusters, Most CreaEve-House of Lannister, Public Vote- 1st place-MacDumbo, 2nd place-Mary Poppins (Individual Entry), 3rd place-Forest Gump, Junior winner-Mr Potato Head, Group winner-Postlady Allison