The Community Council is a statutory elected body which meets to consider issues of relevance to the whole community. It deals with planning applications, traffic and road safety, public amenities and matters brought to the Council's attention by residents. The Council represents the community in dealings with Stirling Council and the National Park authority. Meetings, which are open to the public, are held on the last Wednesday of the months of September, November, January, March and May with the Annual General Meeting held in June. The dates can be discretionary therefore if wishing to attend please contact a member of the Community Council in advance.
Community Council Committee:Janey Fleming - Chairperson
Ian Dinwoodie - Vice Chairperson
Gerry McGarvey - Secretary
Chris Sheldon - Treasurer
Janet Billett - Planning Representative
Romma Davidson-Kelly - Committee MemberWayne Glasse-Davies - Committee Member
Anne Jackson - Committee Member
Meetings
The next meeting of Gartmore Community Council will be held at 8pm on Wednesday 29th May 2013 in Gartmore Church Meeting Room.
News - come to our next meeting to find out more. Headings in red have been recently updated*
*Bus Services. Stirling Council will be withdrawing the C11 Sunday bus service to Gartmore from 1st July 2013. If this will affect you, please contact the Community Council as soon as possible with your comments. Full details of these changes are available here.
There is no change to the Monday to Saturday services and there has been no news about proposals for improved connections at Balfron for services to Glasgow.The current timetable is available here. Please note that there has been an amendment to Service 511 since this timetable was published. The morning service to Balfron now leaves Gartmore at 08.20 to provide a better connection with the 8.49 B10 service to Glasgow (see 511 timetable). Please note the 511 service only operates on school days.
Demand Responsive Transport (DRT). The Trossachs DRT service has been extended to Gartmore in the evenings (19.00 - 22.00 hours only). Although primarily to allow access to evening activities at McLaren High School, this service may be used to travel anywhere within Trossachs Area scheme (see map). Passengers from Gartmore wishing to use the service at other times will have to take the C11 service bus to Aberfoyle for onward connection with a pre-booked DRT service.
DRT bookings should be made 24 hours in advance, although every effort will be made to accommodate passengers booking on shorter notice. Passengers pay the equivalent cost of a bus fare and Scottish National Entitlement Cards are accepted. Leaflets with further information are available in the village shop.
New booking contact numbers have been issued as follows:
Crescent Cabs: 01877 382587
J Morgan Taxis: 01877 330496
W Miller Taxis: 01786 850639
Leaflets are available in Gartmore Village Shop with further details.Bin Collections. The Community Council is concerned about the withdrawal of brown bin collections over the winter months.
Mr David Hopper (Stirling Waste Services) has confirmed that there will be no brown bin collections during the months of December, January and February as an efficiency measure. Householders will be supplied with a brown box (the same size as the blue box) to dispose of cardboard only, but until these have been issued in Gartmore the brown bin collection will continue.*Planning Applications. Gartmore Community Council has received notice of the following planning applications - click on the reference number for further information:
2013/0001/DET Renewal of planning permission Ref. 2008/0302/DET for formation of 4 timber holiday chalets and associated vehicular and footpath accesses. Bridgend Woods Land NW Of Crinigart Gartmore
12/00752/FUL Erection of one and a half storey extension to rear of property incorporating living room with bedroom above. Milton Cottage Gartmore FK8 3RY. APPROVED
2013/0003/DET Removal of Condition No.3 on planning permission 2012/0026/DET to remove requirement for access signage. South Lodge Kennels Gartmore Stirling FK8 3SB. N.B Gartmore Community Council has submitted an objection to the removal of condition 3.
2013/0016/DET Discharge of planning obligation associated with planning permission 2008/0302/DET Bridgend Woods Land Some 160M Nw Of Crinigart Gartmore. APPROVED
2013/0094/DET Erection of outbuilding. Walled Garden Gartmore House Gartmore FK8 3RS.
2013/0112/DET Demolition of existing garage and erection of funeral parlour. Building Adjacent To Guallan Gartmore Stirling FK8 3RP
*Broadband. Stirling Council has employed consultants FarrPoint to advise on broadband priorities for Stirling Council. Conclusions were published in their Broadband Strategy in March 2013.
In this document they have predicted the likely broadband coverage that might be achieved from UK/Scottish Government finance under the Step Change 2015 procurement, and the additional coverage that might be achieved with top-up funding from Stirling Council. Although only their best guess, it does not predict a favourable outcome for Gartmore and most other rural communities in Stirling.
The report estimates that in the Stirling Council area Step Change 2015 will provide Next Generation Access (high speed broadband) to 75% of premises. This will enable exchanges in urban parts of Stirling City and surrounding towns to be upgraded. This is much less than the 85-90% coverage promised by the Scottish Government in their Step Change 2015 Procurement Plan. The reasons for this are unclear.
The additional £600k already set aside by Stirling Council would be enough to upgrade Callander and Balfron. It predicts that £1.77m of funding from Stirling Council would be required for 91% coverage to allow exchanges such as Aberfoyle to be upgraded and notes that this level of funding does not give positive value for money!
It will be some time before plans become clearer, but based on this report the outlook for an improvement to the broadband service for Gartmore seems unlikely.
If you are interested in further information, please download the Broadband Strategy from the link above and draw your own conclusions. As always Gartmore Community Council welcomes your comments and feedback on broadband. Use the contact us tab on the village website, speak to any member of the Community Council or better still come to our next meeting.
*Road Closures. The A81 will be closed from 27th to 31st May between Ward Toll and Ballat Crossroads.
Stirling Council has published their road maintenance programme for 2013/14. There are a number of local closures including Gartmore Main Street, A81 and A811. Further information and provisional closure dates are available here*Trossachs Area Network. Download the latest newsletter here for interesting news and some exciting events.
Negotiations between Gartmore Community Council and Banks Renewables have resulted in an agreement to increase the proportion of the Community Benefit Fund allocated to Gartmore, should the development go ahead. This increase, from 30% to 45%, is in recognition of the high visual impact of this development on the community of Gartmore. Further details on the Community Partnering Proposals are given below.
Wind Farm. Banks Renewables have delayed their planning application submission. For information on the reasons for this delay please see their email dated 17 May 2012 (below).
As the elected representative body, Gartmore Community Council maintains a strictly neutral position regarding the proposed Ard Ghaoth wind farm at this stage. A community survey will be conducted by the Community Council once plans have been finalised. The following principles will be followed for the survey:
- The Eligibility is set by the January 2012 electoral roll as viewable in Stirling Public Library, including all those who will be 18 years old before May 31 2012.
- Anyone who does not receive a survey return but believes that they are eligible should notify Janey Fleming and be prepared to show their Stirling Council election voting card and/or recent addressed utility bills to prove eligibility.
- All listed households will receive an envelope containing one survey return for each registered member, and an SAE in which to return the surveys.
- All survey returns are randomly numbered to assure anonymity. No record of these numbers will be kept.
- The survey will take place immediately after the submission of a planning application, not before. A time period will be allocated by which returns must be made.
- The survey will ask a simple question: "Are you in favour or against the proposed Ard Ghoath wind farm?" Respondents will be asked to put a cross in one of 3 boxes marked For, Against and Undecided. As in voting ballots, incorrectly marked returns will be declared invalid. The Community Council will report all categories separately, the total number of respondents and all appropriate percentages. There will be no conflation of respondent groups.
- Results of the survey will be reported in the Community Council response to the planning application.
Documents provided by Banks Renewables, the developer, are included here to help inform readers of Banks' plans and public statements. Readers should be aware that there is a great deal of opinion which contradicts the developer's statements; we would encourage anyone interested in the issues to research more widely than these pages alone allow.
Community Survey Report - Oct 2011
Banks letter - 20 Oct 2011
Banks presentation - 15 Dec 2011
Community Partnering Proposals (Version 2) 15 Dec 2011
Energy Costs
Onshore Wind Facts
Banks Email - 17 May 2012
Click on the minutes below to view
Minutes 25/1/2012
Minutes 28/3/2012
Minutes 30/5/2012
AGM Minutes 20/6/2012
Minutes 20/6/2012
Minutes 26/9/2012
Minutes 28/11/2012
Minutes 30/1/2013
Minutes 27/3/2013