Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence intimated.

There were no declarations of interest intimated.

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 sufficient information before them to come to a decision on the Review.

Councillor Blair and Councillor Moffat both stated that after studying the requested further information from the Planning Department that they were in a position to come to a decision today as did the Chair.

Councillor Moffat felt the additional information give her a clear idea about the location of the site in respect of the surrounding buildings so she was able to appreciate that the proposed windows would not emulate the style of windows in every other building in the cluster of properties where the property is situated.  This she felt was compounded by the fact that the property is a listed building and is in a conservation area.

The Chair agreed that Officers had provided the LRB with the information they were looking for, as the cluster of building surveyed showed that all windows in all the properties in the surrounding area were made of timber,  which made him realise the importance of fitting timber to these buildings.

Councillor Blair confirmed that he felt that whilst there is a need to encourage people to live in buildings fitted with modern materials he was happy to support the Officers decision as outlined in the report of handling by reason that there needs to be a consistency in listed properties in conservation areas as previously discussed by the Chair and Councillor Moffat.

Mr Reppke confirmed that in line with Argyll and Bute Council’s policy on protecting conservation areas, any changes made need to be neutral or enhancing to the area.

Decision

Members of the Argyll and Bute Local Review Body, having considered the matter de novo, unanimously agreed to refuse the application for the reasons stated in the report of handling.

(Reference: Notice of Review and Supporting Documents and further information and comments, submitted)