Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Fiona McCallum Tel. No. 01546 604392 

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Audrey Forrest, Donald MacMillan BEM and Sandy Taylor.

2.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Minutes:

Councillor Alastair Redman declared a non-financial interest in planning application reference 21/01679/PP.  He advised that he’d had many conversations with his constituents, both for and against this proposal and as such he considered that these conversations may prejudice his decision in respect of this application.  In fairness to all, he confirmed that he would not take part in the hearing and he left the meeting at this point.

3.

SOUTH ISLAY DEVELOPMENT: ERECTION OF NEW COMMUNITY HUB TO REPLACE THE FORMER PAVILION, RELOCATION OF PLAY AREAS, UPGRADED ACCESS AND PARKING, INCREASED MOTORHOME STANCES, CONSTRUCTION OF NEW TOILET/SHOWER BLOCK, SITING OF 5NO. STORAGE CONTAINERS AND TEMPORARY CHANGE OF USE TO FACILITATE HOT FOOD TAKEAWAY VAN: PORT ELLEN PLAYING FIELDS LAND ADJACENT TO FILLING STATION, CHARLOTTE STREET, PORT ELLEN, ISLAY (REF: 21/01679/PP) pdf icon PDF 365 KB

Report by Head of Development and Economic Growth

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting which was held remotely in line with the Council’s current approach to the Covid-19 guidelines.  For the purposes of the sederunt Iain Jackson, Clerk to the Committee today, read out the names of the Members of the Committee and asked them to confirm their attendance.

 

In advance of the meeting today interested parties confirmed that they would make presentations to the Committee.  Mr Jackson read out the names of those representatives and asked them to confirm their attendance.

 

The Chair, having explained the hearing procedure that would be followed, invited the Planning Officer to present the case.

 

PLANNING

 

On behalf of the Head of Development and Economic Growth, Derek Wilson, Planning Officer, made the following presentation with the aid of power point slides.

 

The main purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the detailed Report of Handling (RoH) and to offer background commentary and visuals to aid members in their considerations and recommendations.

 

The RoH examines the spatial strategy of a diverse proposal which has main elements of community facilities, tourist facilities and improved internal infrastructure. The principle concerns are an examination of a loss of open space and the suitability of the commercial tourist uses within the site.

 

The cross financing from tourism income to subsidise the community facilities is also an important aspect of the viability of the project.

 

The current application has attracted 37 representations raising objection to the proposal and accordingly officers identified that it would be appropriate for Members to consider whether or not to hold a discretionary hearing which was agreed.

The application is a submission by South Islay Development (SID) to upgrade the facilities at the recreation grounds which are around the existing facility of Ramsay Hall, which is not part of the proposal.  The overall site of the building and infrastructure area is 1.1 Hectares. The site sits between the town centre and the distillery with no housing in its immediate surroundings, the nearest being at North Bay and Livingstone Way.  

The whole of the site is within the key settlement of Port Ellen. Further designations of the site are an Open Space Protection Area and an Area For Action which seeks environmental enhancement. The area to the east (purple) is an Established Business and Industry Area. This area currently has four motor homes which were permitted in 2015 (15/02481/PP) sited behind the filling station and which are part of this application. The site has other small scale businesses and an electricity substation.

 

Policy LDP DM 1 sets out general support for appropriately located development of up to ‘medium’ (under 2 hectares) scale. The new buildings and the enhancement of existing community/playing field facilities is supported in principle by policies LDP 8 (Supporting The Strength Of Our Communities) and SG LDP REC/COM 1 (Sport, Recreation and Community Facilities). Islay is a tourism development area and the extension of an existing motorhome site by 8 additional berths would cumulatively fall within the definition of ‘medium’ scale development.

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The site is mainly located within an Open Space Protection Area (OSPA) where policies LDP 8 and SG LDP REC/COM 2 (Safeguarding Sports Fields, Recreation Areas and Open Space Protection Areas) seek to protect playing fields and other valued recreational areas. In this instance the creation of the motorhome site will result in the temporary loss of an existing equipped play area within the OSPA. The equipment is planned to be moved to the former putting green area to allow its site to be prepared for the motorhome site. So part of this open space is required to develop the motor homes aspect of the proposal. The play equipment will be moved before further development of the wider site but will necessarily result in a short term loss of the use of the equipment and is deemed a small net loss of public open space at completion of the overall development.

 

The relocation of the playpark is intended to increase the safety of users as it will be overlooked by the new pavilion and its decking/landscaped areas. Additionally, although the playpark will be fenced for safety, the availability of surrounding undeveloped land affords the option to extend this facility while retaining its security and the general amenity.  

 

This is a picture of the previous pavilion building on site and which has now been taken down in the interests of care and maintenance.

The existing site map shows the relatively undeveloped nature of the present site regarding buildings and infrastructure. We will now move onto the context and detail of the proposal.

In June 2021 SID were advised by Argyll and Bute Council that a planning application for the development required to be withdrawn due to a technical issue with the design of the extended motorhome area. This new proposal includes the revised existing motorhome site.

 

The motorhome site expansion will be retained in community ownership as the grant funding allows for any disposal of land to be at the market price. As land prices are unlikely to reduce, any disposal would be at a cost to SID as monies would require repaid to the funding agencies. A condition regarding the burden this places with regard to disposal requiring council consent is attached to the main report. It is in place to ensure that the approved motorhome site is retained as part of the wider community ownership and management of playing field and community facilities.

 

Revenue from the motorhome development will be used for upkeep and development of the site as a whole. It is considered that the wider community benefit are sufficient to justify a minor departure to policies LDP 8 and SG LDP REC/COM 2 (Safeguarding Sports Fields, Recreation Areas and Open Space Protection Areas) subject to appropriate safeguards being secured on the replacement of the equipped play area and long-term inter-relation of the motorhome site and other community owned elements.

 

The proposal comprises the following elements: 

 

A new  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.