Happy New Year 2016

Wishing you all a Happy New Year

Storm Frank 30th Dec 2015 and the Big Flood

The Dunkirk Spirit was alive and well in Kirkton last night when the village and surrounding fields, rivers and burns were overwhelmed with flood water.

Please send in your photos of this historical event to kirkmahoe@gmail.com

These photos were taken at the start of the flood. Waters came right up the road, and fields around Kirkton were like an ocean.

Barrasgate succumbed early as the Barrasburn burst its banks, with all the little pensioner cottages on the side away from Dumfries, being flooded and elderly residents had to be evacuated. Billy McRobert and Gary Smith  along with some other young men helped carry out some of these folks before the fire brigade arrived with a sled boat. It will be many months before these people will be able to return to their homes, which will have to be gutted and redecorated. 

At one stage when the flood was at its zenith, the fire brigade was completely marooned in Kirkton, however the ladies enjoyed the terrible chore of taking out cuppas to the firemen LOL.

People were evacuated to the Village Hall where mountains of wonderful food miraculously appeared thanks to young Callum Tweedie whose birthday party food was evacuated to the Hall and to John Young who had made some lovely hot chicken noodle soup to help heat up the wet souls who had waded through the flood waters.There was quite a party atmosphere in the Hall which helped to alleviate the shock of the situation.

Trevor and Hugh were patrolling the village for hours making sure everyone and their properties were safe.  

Terri provided dry clothes and shoes for wet folks and as news got round of the emergency, those who lived neaby came into the Hall with offers of beds for the night for the refugees who had been evacuated. Medicines had to be taken from pensioners homes which were flooded, something which one does not consider when looking at a flood.

People were making calls to Social Services for help with some disabled pensioners and arrange appropriate transport for them to be taken to relatives.

Everyone made the best of the situation, with phone lines buzzing with concerned neighbours offering help to each other. Farmers coming out with tractors and farm vehicles to see how they could move folks through the waters.

Kirkmahoe Residents, Give yourself a big pat on the back for all your efforts to overcome Storm Frank's deluge, when the going gets tough, the tough get going - along with the Community Spirit.

Do not travel tonight for Hogmanay Celebrations unless you absolutely have to, as the rain is on again and with saturated ground we could have another flood at high tide again today. Be safe, stay at home.

And Lastly please send us your photos of this event to 
kirkmahoe@gmail.com

Flooding information

With Storm Frank poised to hit us and cause havoc Jean Muir has kindly sent us a useful Guide to Flooding  click on the link

Track Santa from here, Merry Christmas and Thank you Carol Singers

Track Santa

Click here for Merry Christmas

‘Thanks very much to all the carol singers and collectors who braved a blustery cold night, the members of the Hall Committee who put on such a warm welcome and lovely food and drink and to the people of Kirkton who generously donated £125 which will be divided equally between The Erskine Hospital and CRUSE Bereavement Charity’  

From Jean Muir

Rubbish Collection over the Festive period

Collections over the festive period

The household waste collection service will be operating as normal with the exception to those households whose waste is uplifted on a Friday.

Normal collection day	Collection day altered to
Friday 25 December	Sunday 27 December
Monday 28 December	No change
Friday 1 January	Sunday 3 January
Monday 4 January	No change

Beauly to Denny what SPEN has done to our Beautiful Scotland

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-35146301

Radio link re Beauly to Denny desecration by SPEN

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06s2b03#play

After seeing this you should have an idea of what lies in store for us, unless we do our best to prevent it. 

It is beyond comprehension how anyone can inflict these pylons on unspoiled and beautiful counrtyside.These are dinosaurs of the past, and it is unthinkable that this technology is even considered to being used in the 21st century. There are better ways of transporting power, that do not impinge on the countryside, and the people living there.

If they were erected in front of SPEN's directors home - wonder how they would feel then.

They just do not care, it seems all they are interested in is the cheapest way of getting power from A to B then charging the highest possible price for it. It beggars belief.

Keep writing to your elected representatives, and signing our petition.

Carol Singing 23rd Dec 6.30pm meet at pump

Come Carol Singing
On Wednesday, 23rd December
Meet at the village pump at 6:30pm
All welcome – young and older
Words provided
Bring a torch
Refreshments after in Kirkton Hall

Carol Singers Wanted and Invited to our annual Carol Singing around Kirkton Village

BBC article on pylons

BBC pylons report

Look at this carefully and see if you think that SPEN is not thinking about changing the plan about erecting pylons. Comments welcome below.

Pylons from Community Relations Team Read this carefully please.

SP Energy Networks received more than 1,600 responses to the first round of consultation on the Dumfries and Galloway Strategic Reinforcement Project.

 

Given the extension to the consultation period and the number of responses received, we want to ensure we have fully considered all the issues raised before reaching a decision on which corridors and siting areas will be taken forward to the next stage. As a result of this, we are now planning to publish the report on the first round of consultation in January 2016.  Prior to extending the consultation period by 5 weeks, we had planned to publish the report before the end of 2015.

 

The report will be published on our project website http://www.spendgsr.co.uk/ and hard copies will be made available at local libraries and information points. We will also send a leaflet summarising the consultation report and next steps to every address within a kilometre of the preferred route corridor and substation siting areas.

 

If you would like to be taken off the email distribution list at any point, please just email the word “unsubscribe” to dgsr@communityrelations.co.uk.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Community Relations Team

Dumfries & Galloway Strategic Reinforcement

E: dgsr@communityrelations.co.uk

T: 0800 157 7353

Pylons Update from Planning Applications Committee

Dear Kirkmahoe resident,

I’m pleased to confirm that at the Planning Applicatons Committee meeting last week the decision was made to submit some comments to SPEN at this stage. The 7 comments are shown below.

1.   The present statement of why the project is needed is inadequate and relies too heavily on the fact that it is included in NPF3. The Council would expect SPEN to publish the Need Case for the project as soon as possible and certainly in advance of the 2nd public consultation.

2.   The Council would expect SPEN to take into account the views of local communities likely to be impacted by the route/options and to include residential amenity in their assessment.

3.   The Council would expect SPEN to more fully detail the economic impact, both positive and negative, of their proposals, with reference to the Council’s Regional Economic Strategy. Information on future maintenance (including health and safety issues) should be addressed.

4.   The Council would expect SPEN to take full account of the importance of the regional landscape quality of Dumfries and Galloway, and to give cognisance to the Council’s Landscape Character Assessment (plus associated guidance within the Dumfries and Galloway Wind Farm Landscape Capacity Study) as the Council considers that it is insufficient to refer only to national and European designated areas as key landscape constraints.

5.   With regard to the above, the Council expect SPEN to adopt all possible mitigation to avoid any adverse impact on the region’s sensitive landscape areas, including undergrounding and other routeing options, such as undersea routeing.

6.   At this stage, the Council expects SPEN to have an open mind on alternatives other than just the route corridor options shown in their consultation, and to fully assess and appraise options at this early stage rather than ruling them out. There is insufficient justification at this early stage for SPEN’s preferred corridor and the Council would urge them at this stage to undertake a fully open and transparent options appraisal.

7.   The Council requests that SPEN allow sufficient periods of time for the submission of comments during the second and third phases of public consultation and that the consultations should be undertaken in accordance with the National Standards for Community Engagement.

I need not tell you that this decision by the committee is a good step forward in the campaign against pylons. In addition to MPs and MSPs, the planning officers and councillors have also now recognised the concerns of local residents and will formally present the above comments to SPEN. As you would expect, SPEN had observers at the meeting and will be aware  already of the position now taken by the council.

A reprint of the "Dumfries and Galloway Unspoiled" 2016 calendar has been ordered as all current stocks are exhausted. If you still wish to order calendars please email Barbara Webb on webb473@btinternet.com or call her on 01848 332554 or email no2pylons@gmail.com. Please give your name, address, email address, and the quantity required.

Christmas cards from Kirkmahoe Against Pylons are being delivered to each household in the parish, and hopefully you’ll find them both seasonal and amusing. They have also been sent to each MP, MSP, local councillors, SPEN CEO, etc.

Thank you to everyone for your efforts, and for your suggestions and words of support over the past six months. It is of course still early days, but I believe the various communities and groups opposing pylons end the year having made a good deal of progress. Remember to also follow the Dumgalagainstpylons site where you’ll find lots of information and updates. http://dumgalagainstpylons.org/news/

Merry Christmas everyone - and lets hope for another good push forward in 2016.

Carol

Rural 11th Dec

Race Night Reminder 4th Dec Kirkton

KCC Minutes November 2015

KCC Minutes November 2015

Daytime Social Club 10th Dec 2015