Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and advised that his first task would be to establish if the Members of the Local Review Body (LRB) felt that they had enough information before them to come to a decision on the Review.

 

Councillor Freeman commented that this was only an entrance and appeared to be a minor amendment.  He said that he certainly sympathised with the Applicant and felt that reading through the paperwork it would be beneficial to actually see the site.

 

Councillor Colville referred to the description of the road breaking up.  He said that it was his own view that this went against the natural justice of someone.  He advised that he would like to find out from the Applicant if he has tried to secure an agreement with the landowner.  He also advised that he would like to know if the Roads Authority had any other powers to enable the works to be done.  He said again that he felt this went against natural justice but he was not sure if there would be any benefit from having a site visit.

 

Councillor Blair commented that it was not often that Roads had any comments to make.  He said that the standard the road was to be upgraded to appeared to be high which, he felt, seemed to be too much for a country road in Argyll.

 

Councillor Colville sought advice from Mr Reppke as to what the LRB were being asked to consider.

 

Mr Reppke advised that the Applicant was challenging condition number 2 of the planning permission which was asking for the access serving the site from the public road to be surfaced for a distance of 5m back from the channel line of the public road.  He said that he understood the Chair’s comments about natural justice.  He suggested that the LRB could ask Planners for photographs showing the current condition of the road.  He stressed that there was a need to ensure that road safety was not jeopardised.  He added that the LRB could ask the Applicant if he had secured any agreement with the owner of the road and actual costs of the development could also be requested.

 

Councillor Freeman sought and received clarification from Mr Reppke on what was meant by the LRB taking a de novo approach.

 

Councillor Freeman advised that it was his concern that the proposal was not going to increase in anyway the traffic on this road and that, in his opinion, this was where it was unreasonable to ask the developer to upgrade that section of the road.  He said that even although these were minor works, this was still unreasonable.  He commented that he could not imagine there would be much traffic on the road.  He said that he believed this was an unreasonable condition in the circumstances.

 

Councillor Blair confirmed that he was in agreement with what Councillor Freeman had said and advised that this was a rural location and not Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow.  He said that it seemed to him that the Officers were making a recommendation without taking into account the wider economic issue.  He added that there was a need to take a more holistic approach as a Council to encourage development.  He advised that this was not a busy road environment and, in his opinion, a high end road was not required for this location.

 

Mr Reppke advised that Roads were asking for this condition on the grounds of road safety and that the LRB needed to make a judgement on that against the request for an upgrade to 5 metres of the road.  He confirmed that the LRB would need to have a justification for removing a condition.  He suggested that the LRB could enquire as to whether or not the Applicant had tried to get the main owner of the road to do this work or share costs as it appeared from the information submitted by the Applicant that the main owner made the most use of the road.

 

Councillor Freeman asked, if instead of undertaking a site visit, could the Planners be asked to provide photographs of the current condition of the road.  He also asked if it would be possible to find out if Roads had any other authority/powers to get the road upgraded rather than using planning.  

 

Councillor Blair advised that it would be useful to get a count of the number of vehicles using the road on any particular morning.

 

Decision

 

The Argyll and Bute LRB agreed:-

 

1.    to request from Planning the following written information -

 

a)    photographs taken at various angles showing the junction where the private road meets the (B8073) public road in order to show the current condition of the road surface which has prompted the inclusion of condition 2 attached to the Planning consent, and

 

b)    the total cost of the overall development;

 

2.    to request from the Applicant the following written information –

 

a)    the total cost of upgrading the 5 metres of road, and

 

b)    confirmation as to whether or not he has approached the land owner to discuss the works requested and to ascertain whether or not they would consider sharing costs;

 

3.    to request from Roads the following written information –

 

a)    a count of vehicles using the road on any particular morning, and

 

b)    confirmation as to whether or not the Roads Authority has any powers under the Roads (Scotland) Act which can enable them to enforce a land owner to improve the surface of a private road; and

 

4.    to adjourn the meeting and reconvene at the earliest opportunity.

 

The meeting of the Argyll and Bute Local Review Body reconvened on Thursday 5 October 2017 at 10.00 am in the Council Chamber, Kilmory, Lochgilphead

 

Present:           Councillor Rory Colville (Chair)

                        Councillor Gordon Blair

                        Councillor George Freeman

 

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

                        Fiona McCallum, Committee Services Officer (Minutes)

 

The Chair established from the Members of the LRB that they had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.