Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and invited the Members to advise whether or not they felt that they had sufficient information before them to come to a decision on the Review.

 

Councillor Taylor advised that the paperwork submitted left him with a lot of questions and appeared to be devoid of context.

 

Councillor Currie confirmed that based on the paperwork provided he did not feel he was in a position to make a decision.

 

The ABLRB agreed at this point to view the video submitted by the Applicant.

 

Councillor Taylor said that he had expected the film to be helpful.  He stated that it was unclear to him what the nature of the road was eg which users did it serve? where did it lead to? was there any conflict on it?  He advised that it also was not clear to him why the Applicant was being asked to upgrade such a length of road.  He commented that he thought any improvements to the road should be shared by successive developers rather than left to the one developer.  He said that he needed confirmation of the types of vehicles that travelled on the road in order ascertain whether or not the passing places were adequate eg they may not be if the road was used by HGVs.

 

Mr Reppke suggested to the Members that they could request further information from both the Roads Officer and Planning Officer to address the issues raised by Councillor Taylor.

 

Councillor Currie advised that it would have been helpful if the video had been accompanied by commentary from Planning and Roads in order to explain what had been presented.

 

Councillor McNaughton said that he did not think it was fair to over burden the Applicant with the upgrade of the whole road.  He questioned why a request was only now being made for passing places and queried why the road had not been upgraded before now.  He pointed out that while viewing the film he noted there were at least 2 laybys suitable for lorries and up to 12 passing places.  He acknowledged that some of these passing places looked to be ‘homemade’.

 

Councillor Currie asked if the road led to the landfill site.

 

Councillor McNaughton advised that it was his understanding that the number of vehicles on the road would not increase and he stated that this needed to be clarified.  He said that he would be prepared to go on a site visit if this was the wish of the other Members.

 

The Members agreed that a site visit would be beneficial and that it was also important that they receive further information from both Planning and Roads Officers in order to address the concerns that they have raised.

 

Councillor McNaughton said that he thought this condition was too severe an imposition to place on a charitable group. 

 

Mr Reppke confirmed to the Members that this would not be a justification for removing this condition.  He stated that if the Members wish the condition removed they would need to have a clear understanding of any road safety issues if the terms of the Council’s Roads Standards specifications were not met.

 

Decision

 

The ABLRB agreed:-

 

1.    to hold an accompanied site inspection at the earliest opportunity in order to view the current condition of the road and the location where the improvements to the road have to be made as detailed in condition 3;

 

2.    to request from Roads the following written information –

 

i)      an explanation detailing why this condition was necessary,

 

ii)     an explanation detailing why these additional passing places had not been constructed before now,

 

iii)    details of the types and sizes of vehicles that currently use the road and the types and sizes of vehicles anticipated would use the road in the future.

 

2)    to request from Planning written information explaining why this imposition is being placed on this developer and not incrementally by others; and

 

3)    to adjourn the meeting and reconvene at the conclusion of the site inspection.

 

 

The Argyll and Bute Local Review Body reconvened on Thursday 26 January 2017 at 9.45 am in Kilmory, Lochgilphead

 

 

Present:	Councillor Alex McNaughton (Chair)
	Councillor Robin Currie	Councillor Sandy Taylor
Attending:	Charles Reppke, Head of Governance and Law (Adviser) Fiona McCallum, Committee Services Officer (Minute Taker)

 

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and it was established that the Members had sufficient information before them to come to a decision on this Review today.

 

The Chair invited the Head of Governance and Law to read through the minute taken at the site inspection held on 20 December 2016 (attached as Appendix A to this Minute).

 

Councillor McNaughton advised that he found it difficult to go against the technical advice given by the Roads Officers but he hoped that a competent motion could be found to allow this development to go ahead.

 

Councillor Taylor confirmed that he had found the site inspection very helpful.  He stated that it was clear to him that it was the Roads Officer’s opinion that the road up to the site has been inadequate by design to cope with the current traffic for some time.  He felt that if this has been the case for some time then the onus should be on the Council to make these improvements and that it should not be left to the Applicant.  He advised that he would welcome a compromise to lessen the burden on the Applicant whilst addressing the concerns of the Roads Officer. 

 

The Head of Governance and Law pointed out to the Members that following discussion with Iain Jackson who attended the site inspection on his behalf, he was advised that it had become apparent to those present that the request to widen the B8073 road to 5.5m wide for the first 15m before the B882 junction was not physically possible as a width of 5.5m at the junction was not achievable.

 

Councillor Currie advised that he thought the request for improvements to so  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.