Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Audrey Forrest, Amanda Hampsey, Daniel Hampsey, Willie Hume and Paul Kennedy.

There were no declarations of interest.

Report by Head of Development and Economic Growth

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting which was being held on a hybrid basis.  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 they would make presentations to the Committee.  Mr Jackson read out the names of those representatives and asked them to confirm their attendance.  Mr Jackson also clarified that there were no others in attendance today that wished to speak.

 

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, Tiwaah Antwi, Planning Officer, made the following presentation with the aid of power point slides.

 

The application before Members today is for the construction of a detached garden room ancillary to the main dwellinghouse on Eilean Da Mheinn, Harbour Island in Crinan. The Island is accessible via a short boat trip from the end of Crinan harbour road.

 

The application has attracted high volume of representations and was therefore referred to Members to be determined as per the Council’s agreed scheme of delegation.

 

Following the publication of the Report of Handling on 5 October 2022 and the initial supplementary report on 19 October 2022, officers have received a late consultee response from West of Scotland Archaeological Services and 8 further representations as noted in the secondary Supplementary report with copies made publicly available online. For the purpose of the record, I will just highlight a typographical error in the introduction section to the supplementary report. It is confirmed that the number of late representations should read as 8 and not one as stated. It is further confirmed that all the late representations have been addressed in section 4.

 

To provide a background information on this application, a similar proposal for a garden room on this site was presented to members at the April PPSL prior to the Council Elections. At the time, Members decided to have a site visit and hold a Hearing prior to determination, however, the application was withdrawn prior to the Hearing date. This was intended to address some of the concerns previously raised in objection to the proposal. Similarly, during the October PPSL for the current and revised application, officers considered that this is a straightforward householder application for an ancillary building within an established extended garden area of a dwellinghouse and therefore remained of the opinion that a pre-determination hearing would not add significant value to the planning process. However, after careful deliberation, Members decided to have a site visit on 29 November 2022 and hold a Hearing today prior to determination.

 

Slide 3:

 

Moving on with today’s presentation, officers seek to address two main key policy issues associated with this application; the first being the way in which officers have applied policy LDP DM 1 in the assessment of this application and the second being the proposals’ impact on the National Scenic Area though objectors have lately expressed agreement with officers on this.

 

In the context of the adopted Local Development Plan and the proposals map, policy LDP DM1 sets out the settlement strategy which indicates areas where development on appropriate sites should or should not be encouraged/allowed. The Harbour Island in this regard sits within a Very Sensitive Countryside Zone.

 

The LDP defines the VSC zone as an area which comprises countryside and isolated coast which has extremely limited capacity to successfully absorb development and as such only limited categories of natural resource based development is supported in these areas.

 

The VSC therefore generally, relates to high peaks and remoter coastal areas – areas that are generally devoid of human habitation for the main part and where human habitation is not expected to be encouraged/required. Accordingly, this policy ordinarily does not allow any new development in the VSC zone with the exception of specified few categories noted on the next slide but is not intended to restrict acceptable proposals which seeks to support established activity.

 

 

 

 

Slide 4:

 

Section F of policy LDP DM1 sets out the limited categories of development allowed within the VSC zone restricting them to renewable energy, telecommunication, development directly supporting agricultural, aquaculture, nature conservation or other established activity and/or small scale development related to outdoor sport and recreation.

 

In view of this, the main part of this policy to focus on is part (iii) of section F which refers to development directly supporting agricultural, aquaculture, nature conservation or other established activity – which forms the basis for officers’ assessment of the proposal before members today.

 

In practice LDP DM 1 F(iii) establishes that development which directly supports an established activity, including activities and land uses outwith those specifically identified elsewhere under section F, may be supported within the Very Sensitive Countryside zone, subject of course to compliance with any other relevant policies in the LDP.  

 

In the case of this particular application, the established activity is the residential occupation of the applicant’s dwellinghouse and their use of parts of the island for purposes that are ancillary to the residential occupation of the property.

 

Slide 5:

 

This photo depicts the existing dwellinghouse and its immediate curtilage and managed garden ground, the rising ground behind the house is part of the northern rock ridge area which is less managed on the island compared to the two valleys.

 

Slide 6:

 

This is a similar photo taken from the northern ridge looking back at the house and shows an area of lawn and some of the established paths which run through Harbour Island. The path in the centre of the screen provides the link to the application site.

 

Slide 7:

 

The proposed garden room is located approximately 70m to the south east within a sheltered valley which runs SW to NE and is enclosed by parallel rock ridges to the north and south. The floor of the valley includes  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.