Stonehaven and District Community Council (SDCC) held their regular business meeting on Tuesday 14th October 2025. The agenda for the meeting can be found here.
Ury Estate Update
The meeting opened with Rachel Frame, the new chair, introducing herself and her community involvement. Following the usual formalities Jonathan Milne then spoke about the latest plans for housing on the Ury Estate. The company are seeking permission to reduce the number of luxury homes and increase the smaller family homes. Manned public exhibitions giving details will be held on 28th October and 4th November at the Blue Lodge showhome, and all are welcome. He was then pressed on timescales for work being undertaken. He assured the meeting that work on the essential link road would begin in 4-6 weeks and would take 46 weeks to complete. Housing at East Lodge can’t be occupied until the link road is completed. He hopes to give a supermarket update at the next meeting.
Matters Arising from Previous Minutes
· A meeting has been arranged with Alan Ray on 25th November to discuss Education and Children’s Services Facilities hire.
· Quotes are being refreshed for payment systems for the beach toilets. So far 180 responses have been received to the public toilets survey.
· Kincardine Community Hospital (KCH) update. A public meeting will be held on Thursday 6th November from 3-7 at the community centre to discuss the hospital usage. There is also a survey which is available here. It was strongly felt that SDCC need a strategic response to preserving the facility and everyone was encouraged to take the survey and attend the meeting.
· North East Convention of Community Councils held a meeting in Stonehaven on Saturday 11th October to discuss the current planning applications for pylons, wind farms, solar arrays and Battery Storage (BESS) facilities across the north of Scotland. Three SDCC members attended and fed back to the meeting. This generated considerable debate, with a feeling that local communities are not being consulted meaningfully, and that they are suffering as the energy generated locally is exported.
· The latest Town Centre Health Check was discussed, as the community council felt it was both inaccurate and incomplete. Many businesses were missed or wrongly classified, and it was agreed to contact Tim Stephen, the area manager, with these concerns.
The police report was next on the agenda, and it was noted that in all categories Stonehaven was recording higher crime rates than other areas.
Energy Projects Subgroup
The deadline for responses to the application for the Kintore – Tealing overhead line proposal is 27th October. Members of SDCC discussed their approach, and after significant debate referred back to their meeting in January 2025, at which they agreed to object to the proposal. A vote was held, and by 14 votes to one, it was agreed to maintain this position, with one member commenting that their personal view was to support the proposal, but as a representative of the public, would object. It was also agreed to continue involvement with the Glenskinnan Renewable Energy Park project, in an information sharing capacity.
The SDCC website is currently being updated. This is a work in progress, and members are keen that the public engage with the surveys which are highlighted on the consultation page, which can be accessed here. The discussion about the Christmas tree and the Nippy Dip has been covered in a separate Bellman article.
In other business, a member of the public was concerned about the formation of “Loch Carron” at the outflow of the river. He was concerned about the flood risk, and the blockage of the outflow from the High Street drain. Councillor Turner explained that he had raised this with the appropriate department and been reassured that there was no risk involved.
There was discussion about the removal of grit bins within Stonehaven, and it was agreed to investigate costs for SDCC to adopt selected bins. The public are encouraged to identify bins they feel are most needed – see Grit Bin Adoption Survey.
The next meeting will be held on Tuesday 11th November at 7pm.