Received from PKC’s Community Greenspace manager on 27 April
Crieff Comrie Core Path
- We have been trying to finalise the path agreements and have been answering the land manager’s queries ad comments in that regard. We feel we have now reached the point where they have had enough time and information to either sign the agreements or at least write to us and confirm they are willing to agree in principle and list any outstanding issues.
- We agreed at the last Project Group meeting on 8 April with the partners that we’d write to the land managers in those terms and remind them of the benefits of the agreement approach but say that we will need to move to the Path Order process shortly if they don’t get back to us.
- We will have another Project Group meeting in around a month to discuss the responses and agree if we want to move to the Path Order process. Clearly that’s a big step and not what anyone wants to do but there has to be a limit to how long we can wait.
- Martin Bonnar retired at the end of March but handed over to Doug Cook during that month. It is an interim arrangement for now and Doug has responsibility for the whole Policy and Projects Section within Community Greenspace. He has made good progress already and we have also been able to back fill for Doug and appoint another Landscape Architect to fill a long term gap in the team. This will all help with progress but we do need to give Doug a chance to get fully up to speed.
- We have also been working closely with the planners on submitting the planning application and have agreed to do an additional study on the ecology and an update on the flood assessment. This is being done now with a view to submitting the planning application as soon as possible, whether we have Path Agreements or not.
- Our current updated programme tabled at the Project Group meeting is as follows:
| Estimated Completion at July 20 | Estimated Completion at April 21 | Main task |
| Winter 2020 | Late spring 21 | Landowner agreement – Path Agreements concluded |
| Aug 2020 – Summer 2021 | Mid-summer 21 | Planning Application submission |
| Aug 2020 – Summer 2021 | Autumn 21 | Planning permission secured |
| Aug 2020 – Summer 2021 | Summer/Autumn 21 | Community Fundraising |
| Spring 2021 | Autumn/winter 21 | Construction design completed |
| Summer 2021 | Winter 21 | Path build – Funding secured |
| Autumn 2021 | Winter 21 | Path build – Tendering and Procurement Processes |
| Winter 2021 – Summer 2022 | Spring-Autumn 22 | Path build – Phased Works |
| Summer 2022 | Autumn 22 | Path Open |
Shaky Bridge
- We are finalising the bridge improvement specifications and tender documents with an intention to do the work over the summer. There have been some delays due to SEPA having to approve everything and limits on them because of the cyber attack which affected all of their systems.
- Enhanced access and picnic area – I have no further information on this but I would need to be community led in addition to the bridge works. They can run separately and PKCT would be happy to help if that was of interest.