Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made.  He then invited the Head of Governance and Law to advise why this case was being brought before the Argyll and Bute Local Review Body (LRB) to be reheard.

 

Mr Reppke explained that this case was previously considered by the LRB on 17 August 2016 and the decision to refuse was the subject of an application for Judicial Review.  That application was disposed of by means of a joint minute which has resulted in the matter being returned to the Council for a fresh determination of the request for review.  He asked the LRB to note this and to treat this meeting as a first calling of the LRB.  He then asked the LRB to receive into the process a statement submitted by the Applicants about this matter.  He said that when new information is provided the regulations state that all interested parties must have the opportunity of commenting before any deliberation by the LRB.  He added that the Applicants will also be given a further opportunity to comment once any comments are received from interested parties.

 

The LRB agreed to take this statement from the Applicants into the process and copies were circulated to the Members.  The LRB then considered whether they required any further information before coming to a decision on this Review.

 

Councillor Colville advised that he thought a site inspection would be beneficial and he also sought clarity from Transport Scotland regarding the visibility splays at both the eastern and western junctions which would connect the application site to the A83 trunk road. 

 

Decision

 

The Argyll and Bute LRB agreed:-

 

1.    to accept the written statement into the process from the Applicants, noting that this would be issued to all interested parties for comment;

 

2.    to hold an accompanied site inspection at the earliest opportunity in order to view the location of the proposed dwelling house and the surrounding landscape;

 

3.    to request from Transport Scotland written information on the suitability or otherwise of the visibility splays at both the eastern and western junctions which would connect the application site to the A83 trunk road;

 

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

 

The Argyll and Bute Local Review Body reconvened on Monday 3 April 2017 at 10.30 am in Kilmory, Lochgilphead.

 

Present:	Councillor Alex McNaughton (Chair)
	Councillor Rory Colville	Councillor Roderick McCuish
Attending:	Charles Reppke, Head of Governance and Law (Adviser) Fiona McCallum, Committee Services Officer (Minutes)

 

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made.  He referred to the further information requested at their meeting on 22 February 2017 and to the earlier site inspection (note taken at Site Inspection attached as Appendix A to this Minute) and advised that his first task would be to establish if the Members of the LRB felt they had enough information before them to come to a decision on the Review.  Councillor McNaughton confirmed that following the site inspection he felt that he did have enough information to make a decision.  Councillor Colville confirmed that he too was satisfied that he had enough information before him.  Councillor McCuish agreed with this colleagues and said that the site inspection had been valuable and gave him a clear indication.

 

Councillor McNaughton pointed out that one of the main points that had required clarification was the access to the site and he said that it was quite clear to him that the access required attention.  He also said that it had been pointed out previously that land ownership was also a problem in respect of access to the site.

 

Councillor McCuish stated that it was his opinion and also the opinion of the Trunk Roads Officer that the access was unsuitable and that he agreed wholeheartedly with the main problems of the access.

 

Councillor Colville said that he also tended to accept the problems there were with the access.  He accepted the point made by the Applicant that he did not require to have access rights before submitting a planning permission as that was a well understood principle.  Councillor Colville then referred to Policy LDP DM 1 which within the countryside zone lends particular support to proposals which constitute infill development, rounding off, redevelopment or change of use of existing buildings.  He said that he had been aware of a similar case a few years ago in respect of a proposal for a house in a rural location.  He advised that the difference with that proposal, which constituted an infill development, was that the gap between buildings was just metres apart.  He said that he could understand what has been said by Planners in respect of this current proposal in terms of the distances involved between buildings and that he tended to agree with the Planning assessment in this case.

 

Councillor McNaughton referred to reasons 2 and 3 contained within page 48 of the original agenda pack and suggested that these two reasons for refusal were still applicable in this case.  He pointed out that in his opinion the private access regime was currently not what was required to serve this proposed development.

 

Councillor McCuish advised that he agreed that he did not think anything had changed since these reasons for refusal were first put forward and that he was more guided towards that view after the site visit today.

 

Councillor McNaughton referred to policy SG LDP HOU 1 not having been addressed by Planning in their original assessment of the case but noted it was referred to in the recent submission by Planning and that therefore he had the following Motion to put forward for consideration to address the consideration of this policy also.

 

Motion

 

The application site lies within the ‘Countryside’ development management zone delineated by the ‘Argyll and Bute Local Development Plan’ (2015) and is subject to the effect of policy LDP DM1 of the Development Plan and policy SG LDP HOU1 of the adopted Supplementary Guidance (March  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.