Report by Regulatory Services and Building Standards Manager
Minutes:
The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. In line with recent legislation for Civic
Government Hearings, the parties (and any representatives) were given the
options for participating in the meeting today.
The options available were by video call, by audio call or by written
submission. For this hearing the
Applicants opted to proceed by way of video call and joined the meeting by MS
Teams.
Jen Swift, Objector opted to proceed by way of written submission and
had asked the Committee to refer to her original objection contained within the
Agenda pack for this meeting.
The other Objectors to the application either declined to attend or did
not respond to the invite.
The Chair invited the Licensing Standards Officer to speak to the terms
of the report.
Thereafter he outlined the procedure that would be followed and invited
the Applicants to speak in support of their application.
APPLICANT
Mr Lee advised that he lived in England but was brought up in Scotland
and had been coming to Mull for the last 60 years. He said that this project was 10 years in the
making. He and Ms Dean were both
Architects and he advised that they wanted to make something special. He referred to staying in some basic bed and
breakfast establishments, and said that they wanted to provide somewhere that
could be enjoyed in all weathers.
He said that he had been slightly shocked at the nature of the
complaints. He commented that the
suggestion of anti-social behaviour and too many cars was alien to how they saw
their operation running. He said that
they had lots of friends who would be coming to enjoy nature and the quiet and
beautiful countryside. He said that he
hoped that they had made something special.
He advised that when they invited friends to stay they did ask that they
be respectful of neighbours.
He advised that he did not realise parking was an issue. He said that he expected that there would
only be one or two cars and that they would be offering a discount to anyone
travelling via public transport.
He advised that they were doing something to be close of nature -
something different that people could enjoy from indoors. He said that it was a shame that some of the
Objectors had not come visit to see what had been built. He referred to receiving lots of support from
other neighbours.
Ms Dean advised that she had nothing further to add.
MEMBERS’ QUESTIONS
Councillor Green sought and received confirmation from the Applicants
that they would be content with the occupancy of the premises being restricted
to 7 people.
Councillor Forrest noted that the Applicants did not live locally and
she asked if anyone local to the area could be contacted if there was a problem
needing to be dealt with on a day to day basis. Mr Lee confirmed that their neighbour and
friend would have a key and could be called upon. He also advised of 2 ladies that lived at a
nearby farm who would look after the place and be in charge of the changeover
of guests.
Councillor Brown sought and received confirmation from Mr Lee that
between their neighbour and the 2 ladies, there would always be someone on call
to deal with any issues that may arise.
Mr Lee said that he would be very surprised if there were any issues as
they would carefully vet anyone that would come to stay.
Councillor Brown referred to concerns raised about parking and
commented on the photographs supplied in the Agenda pack which showed 2 cars,
with one butting out onto the road. Mr
Lee said that there was plenty of space to park properly off road and manoeuvre
safely. He hoped that cars would be
parked behind the byre.
Councillor Armour referred to comments made by Objectors that there had
been instances of near misses with cars reversing out on to the road and asked
if this was a regular occurrence or just a one off. Mr Lee said that this was a very quiet road
and advised that in theory it was possible to drive at 60 mph as the speed
limit was not controlled. He commented
that he did not think anyone should reverse out onto even a quiet road. He said he was not aware of any incidents and
suggested this may have happened during construction. He advised that now that the property was
completed the right course of action would be to follow the Highway Code. He said there was enough room to drive
straight in and reverse into the area close to the byre. He added that there would be no need to
reverse onto the highway.
SUMMING Up
Applicant
Mr Lee said that they would not be dealing with this from afar and that
they would be visiting as often as they could.
He commented that lots of family members were queuing up to visit.
Mr Lee and Ms Dean confirmed that they had received a fair hearing.
DEBATE
Councillor Forrest advised that she had considered all the information
before her and had given weight to the objections. She confirmed that with conditions
recommended applied she would be happy to grant this licence.
Councillor Armour said that his main concern had been road safety and
that he had noted the explanation given by Mr Lee. He advised that, like Officers, he saw no
reason to object to this application. He
commented that he was disappointed the Objectors had not attended as he would
have liked to have heard their objections first hand. He confirmed that he would have no hesitation
in granting the licence.
Councillor Brown agreed that it would have been good to have heard from
the Objectors. She advised that she saw
no reason to object to this application.
Councillor Green noted that the Applicants were content to restrict
occupancy to 7 people. On that basis, he
said he would be happy to support the application.
DECISION
The Committee unanimously agreed to grant a short-term let licence to
Mr Lee and Ms Dean subject to the inclusion of the anti-social behaviour
condition as set out at paragraph 6.3 of the report, along with the mandatory
conditions and to the occupancy of the property being restricted to 7
people.
It was noted that written confirmation of this would be issued to the
Applicants within 7 days.
(Reference: Report by Regulatory Services and Building Standards
Manager, submitted)