Agenda and minutes

 

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and advised that no person present would be entitled to speak other than the Members of the Local Review Body (LRB) and Mr Reppke who would provide procedural advice if required.

 

The Chair advised that his first task would be to establish if the Members of the LRB felt they had sufficient information before them to come to a decision on the Review.

 

Councillor Devon advised that she felt she did have enough information before her adding that plenty of detailed information and facts had been provided.  She stated that she had no objection to this proposal as the wind turbine was only 34.5 metres high to blade tip and complied with the terms of the Council’s Wind Energy Capacity Study.  She referred to the 11 x 100 metre high wind turbines further up the hill which had been approved on appeal by the Scottish Government Reporter.

 

Councillor McQueen concurred with the points made by Councillor Devon.

 

Mr Reppke advised that if the Members were minded to approve this application they would not be able to do so today as they would require conditions and reasons which were normally requested from Planning to allow the LRB to consider them and the Members would also require time to form a competent Motion.

 

Councillor Kinniburgh advised that he was not sure that there was sufficient information.  He noted the comments made by Councillor Devon in respect of the 11 x 100 metres wind turbines at Freasdail approved by the Scottish Government and stated that it would assist him if confirmation could be sought from Planning on whether or not this decision made by the Scottish Government represented a material change in circumstances which would have led the Planners to reach a different conclusion on this proposal.

 

Councillor Kinniburgh added that it would also be beneficial to receive revised ZTV plans from the Applicant for the single turbine using the same scale applied to the ZTV plans provided for the original two turbines.  He also advised that he believed a site inspection would be helpful.  He referred to the Planner’s concerns about the views of the turbine shown in photomontages 1, 3 and 5 and stated that a site visit to these particular view points rather than a visit to the site of the proposed turbine itself would be beneficial.

 

Councillor Devon stated that she did not think it was necessary to hold a site inspection advising that never before had she seen so much paperwork produced for a LRB and that she was minded to approve this application.

 

Mr Reppke reiterated the point about the need for model conditions and reasons and a competent Motion if the Members were minded to approve this proposal.

 

Councillor Devon expressed concern about the amount of time it had taken the Planners to reach a decision on this application and stated that the Applicant had adhered to everything that was asked for from Planning on time.  She advised that she appreciated there was a need for a competent Motion and conditions and reasons.  She also advised that bearing in mind the decision reached by the Reporter on the Freasdail application, she agreed that the LRB had no option but to look hard at the Freasdail decision and get a view from Planning on this.

 

Mr Reppke confirmed that if the LRB wished to request further information before reaching a decision this would delay the process for up to a further 6 weeks to allow for this information to be received and then commented on before reconvening the LRB.

 

Councillor Kinniburgh advised that it would be helpful to him to have site inspection to see where the site would be in relation to the Freasdail development.

 

Decision

 

The ABLRB agreed to:-

 

1.        request from Planning their view as to whether or not the decision made by the Reporter to grant planning permission for the windfarm at Freasdail (planning application ref: 12/02150/PP) which had previously been refused by the PPSL Committee, was a material change in circumstances which would have led Planning to reach a different conclusion on this proposal;

 

2.        request from the Applicant revised ZTV plans for the single turbine using the same scale applied to the ZTV plans provided for the original two wind turbines;

 

3.        request from Planning appropriate conditions and reasons to attach to any consent if the LRB were minded to approve this application;

 

4.        to hold an accompanied site inspection in order to view the location of the site in relation to the location of the Freasdail windfarm and to observe the proposed wind turbine site from viewpoints provided in photomontages 1, 3 and 5;

 

5.        To invite the Applicant, Applicant’s Agent, Planning and Objector to this site inspection; and

 

6.        To adjourn the meeting and reconvene at the conclusion of the site inspection.

 

The meeting of the Argyll and Bute Local Review Body reconvened on Thursday 3 July 2014 at 12.15 pm in the Whitehouse Village Hall, Whitehouse, Tarbert, Argyll

 

Present:          Councillor David Kinniburgh (Chair)

                        Councillor Mary-Jean Devon

                        Councillor James McQueen

 

Attending:        Charles Reppke, Head of Governance and Law (Adviser)

                        Fiona McCallum, Committee Services Officer (Minutes)

 

The Chair welcomed all those present to the meeting.  He referred to the additional information that was requested at the previous meeting and was now before the LRB for consideration and established that the Members now had sufficient information before them to come to a decision on the Review.

 

Councillor Devon referred to the site inspection (note of site inspection attached as Appendix A to this Minute) which the LRB had attended prior to the start of this meeting and also to the additional information submitted and advised that she struggled with the reasons Planning had given for refusing this application.  She stated that the proposed wind turbine would not be prominent apart from the view point on the Skipness Road which looked south from the entrance to Taigh Na Cuilce.  She pointed out that the Council’s  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.