Milnathort Placecheck 2011 Updates
November 2011 Update
Victoria Avenue
Victoria Avenue will be changing to one way. Consultation will be
conducted in due course by the Council's roads section and it may
take one year to complete the process and enact traffic orders.
Burleigh Road Junction and Westerloan area
The improvements to the Western Loan area and the Burleigh Road
junction are due to start in February 2012, these works are
weather dependant.
Gateways to village
The new signs at the gateways to the village have been installed
and the Bloom Committee are looking at options for planting to
enhance these gateways. The 40mph limit between Milnathort and
Kinross will be lowered to 30mph to make it safer for school
children at Loch Leven Campus and a 40mph buffer will be introduced
on Perth Road.
South Street improvements
A Zebra Crossing is to be installed on South Street to allow
children to cross safely to Donaldson Park and on to Milnathort
Primary School.
Burleigh Road
The footpath at Burleigh Road was recently resurfaced and
various options are still being investigated to lower vehicle
speeds in the area.
Greenspace Projects
Jessie's Park
The park at Back Loan is to be renamed Jessie's Park in memory of
the late Jessie Porter who was a well respected member of the
community. The Council will work with the community to put up a new
sign and some new planting in the park. This small play park has
been improved with a new seesaw and multi unit and an improved
entrance. Donaldson Park The Primary 4 class from Milnathort
Primary took part in a wildflower planting afternoon on the 26th
May where they learned about improving biodiversity. Areas of grass
in Donaldson Park are to be cut less often and the wildflowers will
be allowed to grow. This activity was part of the National
Biodiversity Week and each child was given a packet of wildflower
seeds. In October a group also planted bulbs there.
A range of improvements have now taken place in Donaldson Park
including installing a youth shelter, a springie, a roundabout,
landscaping, planting and the entrance is to be upgraded. This
youth shelter is for people to sit on and is not a piece of play
equipment to be climbed on, therefore there is no safety surface
underneath. As well as being used by teenagers, the youth shelter
has received unexpected popularity with local dog walkers who are
enjoying a new place to meet! Some improvements have been done to
the war memorial area and the Bloom group will be involved in
future planting.
Ba' Hill Improvements
Landscaping has been done and the new seats are now in place at Ba'
Hill so people can take advantage of admiring the great view from
this viewpoint.
Auld Mart
Trees were planted on the open space area at Auld Mart. We are
going to be adding supports to the new trees to try and stop
further wind damage. We had planned to also add seating to the area
but decided the seating would be too close to the housing and users
could disturb residents in the area.
Disruption During Placecheck Works
Perth & Kinross Council is planning to undertake the works
detailed in this newsletter this financial year. Regrettably, there
will be some inconvenience to surrounding premises during the
works. However, every effort will be taken to maintain access to
the properties and to keep any disruption to a minimum. We would
respectfully request your co-operation while the work is being
carried out as this will allow us to complete the works as quickly
as possible. Should the proposed works cause you any particular
concerns please do not hesitate to contact Traffic & Road
Safety on 01738 477387 to discuss the matter.
September 2011 Update
We have been asked by some members of the community why we have
left areas of long grass in Donaldson Park. As part of the
Placecheck Initiative, improvements were proposed to the park. In
the proposals shown to the public, were areas of long grass with
wildflowers and bulbs aimed at improving the park and discouraging
teenagers from hanging around on the hill. These proposals were
exhibited in May 2010 for two weeks. A positive response was
received to the proposals. The Community Council have been involved
with the Placecheck process since the beginning and also have
raised no issues with the proposals.
As part of the process a class from the Milnathort Primary
School and a Community Council member helped plant 660 wildflower
plugs in the long grass area in May 2011 and on the
26th October we hope to work with another class to plant 500
bulbs.
Wildflowers, bulbs and fruit trees will take time to establish
before coming a fixed part of the parks character. Maintenance is
key in establishing wildflowers, the plan is to cut and lift once a
year and this cut will be conducted over the next month depending
on the weather. The idea of lifting the cut grass is to reduce
nutrients in the soil and help spread the seeds of the wildflowers.
This will be done with a farm bailer, however with community and
children's involvement in establishing wildflowers as part of say a
eco school project, PKC could cut the grass and the community could
help rake the grass into piles which PKC could easily lift.
There can be a view of long grass as messy, holding litter and
dog mess or the other more positive view is to see it as
creating habitat for wildlife, adventures for play and enhancing
the space from a green desert.
Dog mess is the responsibility of the owner and we encourage
residents to advise our dog section details of who and what time
these individuals are allowing dog fouling.
July 2011 Update
We have now got the go ahead from Jessie Porter's family to
rename the "wee park" at Back Loan as "Jessie's Park" in her
memory. We hope to work with the community to have a new sign made
for this park.
We are going to be adding supports to the new trees at Auld Mart to
try and stop further wind damage. We had planned to also add
seating to the area but decided the seating would be too close to
the housing and users could disturb residents in the area.
The Greenspace projects are now completed with the upgrading of
Donaldson Park with the addition of a youth shelter, the
refurbishment of Jessie's park, tree planting at Auld Mart and the
new seating at Ba' Hill. The youth shelter has received unexpected
popularity with local dog walkers who are enjoying a new place to
meet! It is hoped that all the roads improvements will be completed
this financial year.
Community Celebration: Park Reopening: Thursday 26th May
2011
Over 100 people came to a celebration on Thursday 26th May
to officially reopen the play area at the small park off Back Loan.
This took place from 3.30pm. There was a free barbecue for the
children kindly provided by the Thistle Hotel and Councillor
Robertson cut the ribbon. The park is to be renamed "Jessies Park"
after a well known member of the community, the late Jessie
Porter.
From 6pm to 8pm there was a celebration for the teenagers
at Donaldson Park to celebrate the new teen shelter built there.
Councillor Baird cut the ribbon. There was a variety of
activities including street football, games, arts activities and
wildflower planting.
Prior to the opening celebrations, the Primary 4 class from
Milnathort Primary School planted wildflowers in Donaldson park to
encourage biodiversity in the area. All
the events were part of Scottish Biodiversity week and
there was some free seeds and bookmarks given away to the
children.
Community Tree Planting: Tuesday 5th April 2011
We are currently carrying out improvements to the parks and
greenspaces in Milnathort as part of Milnathort Placecheck. The
areas currently being improved are Donaldson Park, Back Loan Park
and Ba' Hill. As well as installing the new play equipment we are
planting new trees, including fruit trees, in Donaldson Park
and the greenspace at Auld Mart. The trees will enhance the
arboriculture richness of the park with more interesting and varied
trees. The contractor was on site on Tuesday 5th April and
residents were welcome to help with planting.
March 2011 Update
Due to technical difficulties and adverse weather conditions the
street improvements planned for Milnathort Placecheck have been
delayed. The team are currently working on resolving some drainage
issues and once these are rectified the works will go to tender and
if within budget they will hopefully be completed by the end of the
year. The contracts have been awarded for the work to the parks and
greenspaces. The work has started and should
hopefully be completed during May.
We are keen to progress the redesign of the West Loan area as
per the plans shown at the exhibition but are currently trying to
resolve issues regarding the location of the planned trees and have
met with some of the residents directly affected in that
area to discuss this further.
There was a Placecheck display at the Better Place to Live Fair
at Loch Leven Campus on Saturday 5th March 2011 to allow people to
see the designs for the play areas where the work is due to
commence and discuss other Placecheck plans.
Plans can be viewed on the main
Milnathort Placecheck page.
February 2011 Update
Milnathort Placecheck started with a community event in August
2009 where the community had the opportunity to walk around the
Milnathort area with Council Officers and identify what they liked,
didn't like and wanted to improve. This was followed by an action
planning session in September 2009 and an exhibition of
designs during May 2010. Since then there has been a great deal of
work done by the community and the Placecheck Design Team carrying
out projects to meet the priorities identified, working on the
designs for further improvements and ensuring the community are
happy with the designs. Now that the designs are finalised we are
now at the stage of putting the work programmes out to tender and
finalising the time scales.
We would like to thank the community of Milnathort, especially
members of the Community Council for their help so far with the
consultations and for delivering the newsletters. Thanks to the
Bloom Committee for continuing to keep Milnathort looking great.
Thanks also to Orwell and Portmoak Church Office for allowing us to
display Placecheck information for the public to view.
We planned to undertake the major works from February 2011 but due
to the impact of the recent severe weather conditions, all
construction work has been delayed. Regrettably, there will be some
inconvenience to surrounding premises during the
works. However, every effort will be taken to maintain access
to the properties and to keep any disruption to a
minimum. We would respectfully request your co-operation
while the work is being carried out as this will allow us to
complete the works as quickly as possible. Should the
proposed works cause you any particular concerns please do not
hesitate to contact Traffic & Road Safety on 01738 477387 to
discuss the matter.
During the works in the vicinity of the bus stops at and
opposite the Royal Bank of Scotland on South Street, passengers
will be requested to use the stops that are located at and opposite
the War Memorial on South Street. For the other works that are due
to take place at the bus stops on New Road, temporary bus stops
will be provided as near to the existing stops as possible to
hopefully minimise the disruption to passengers.
We hope that you are happy with the improvements as they start
to take shape. Further details can be seen in the January 2011
newsletter which has kindly been delivered to all homes in
Milnathort by the Community Council and is also available
on the main
Milnathort Placecheck page.
