Planning permission will allow a fourth phase to be dug and operate for seven years, with no more than ten blasts taking place each year. Planners had recommended that permission be granted.

Councillor Owen raised concerns about the volume of traffic which might potentially pass through Ellon town centre as a result of these new excavations, and assurances were received from the planning officials present that there would be no increased in traffic resulting from the new development. The subject of lorries already using Ellon town centre as a thoroughfare was also raised, and further assurances were received from planners that they were monitoring the situation.

One letter of representation had been received from Colin Tawse of Kinharrachie House, Ellon which raised concerns about the volume of traffic which might potentially pass along the minor road connecting the A920 at Mains of Esslemont with the Ardlethen junction at Tarves, recommending the installation of passing places to mitigate this increased volume.

However, planners assured councillors that the company was already paying a road levy to cover the costs of increased damage to the roads, and that this would go some way towards covering the costs of any passing places which may or may not need to be installed.
Councillor Johnston asked the committee to look into the possibility of making planning consent conditional on the washing of mud from lorry wheels which, he said, was a significant problem on the roads.
Councillor Storr urged the committee to defer judgement until the committee had market reports which were not supplied to the meeting.
Planning was granted by eight votes to two.

In other business, permission was also granted for the construction of a dwelling-house on the site of the Old Balmedie School at Hill of Keir.
This was met with some surprise when councillors discovered that the house was to be built on the site of the former school which, it turned out, had been completely demolished, despite representations from planning authorities. Councillor Gifford proposed that the planning be refused, as the new house was an insubstantial building replacing a building of historic and architectural value. Planners pointed out, however, that because the building had not been listed, there were no constraints on the developers to maintain the school building.
Permission was granted by six votes to four.

Further, the council moved to adopt Portsoy Crescent, Portsoy Grove and Portsoy Place as public roads. Councillor Owen raised concerns regarding the state of the roads and whether they were fit to be adopted, and received assurances from planning that the roads were indeed fit to be adopted. A site meeting is to be scheduled.
Councillor Robertson raised concerns about the amount of open space which had been allocated for informal football matches: assurances were received from Keith Newton, head of local services, that there were already operations underway to level out suitable areas of land for the provision of informal football space.

Planning permissions were also granted for a new industrial yard at North Meadows Industrial Estate, Oldmeldrum, a change of access at Lindisfarne, Oldmeldrum and discharges of Section 75 agreements at Burngrains Croft and Newmill, Foveran.