A bid to build a housing development within one of Perth’s most prestigious residential areas is likely to be rejected.
Edinburgh property group Edinmore will put revised plans for the 5.7 hectares of fields it owns on the lower slopes of Kinnoull Hill before councillors tomorrow.
It aims to set out and seek approval for the principle of a residential development on the site before returning with detailed plans at a later date.
However the proposals have resulted in an avalanche of objections being submitted to Perth and Kinross Council and there has also been opposition from the community council and Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland.
And they are recommended for refusal by council officers and development quality manager Nick Brian, who believes they are at odds with the Perth Area Local Plan and will damage an area of considerable landscape value.
The application has been years in coming before members of the council’s development control committee.
A previous plan for the creation of four large family homes, each with substantial landscaped gardens, was refused under delegated powers last June for what were described as “policy reasons”.
The site on Kinnoull Hill home to stunning scenery and some of the town’s most impressive homes sits adjacent to Bellwood Park and Fernhill House, and near to the newly extended boundary of the Kinnoull Conservation Area.Access issueIt sits outwith the settlement boundary of Perth and comprises two fields owned by the developer, to which access is something of an issue.
Residents would enter from Fernhill, requiring the crossing of a burn via a small bridge and the cutting down of trees within the conservation area.
Bridgend and Gannochy Community Council has objected to the proposal as it is contrary to the local plan and raised misgivings about access.
A further 43 letters of representation have also been received from 31 households, all objecting to Edinmore’s plans.
They have been joined in opposition by the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland, which has objected specifically to the impact it would have on an Area of Great Landscape Value.
Concerns raised by residents are on a number of grounds, including unsuitable access, effect on wildlife, trees and habitat, effect on the conservation area and overlooking.
Continued…
In a report to go before councillors tomorrow Mr Brian gives a number of reasons for the recommendation they reject the principle of housing on the site.
“The proposed development is contrary to Policy 24 in the Perth Area Local Plan 1995, which seeks to protect the character of conservation areas and in this case the loss of an important visual and open space will seriously harm the setting of the conservation area,” his report to the committee states.
“The council’s policy on housing in countryside specifically discourages development that breaches other local plan policies and does not support new development on sites where there is no natural containment and where further extensions to development would be more difficult to contain and control.
“The proposal involving one of two adjacent fields would be hard to limit under this policy and would be directly contrary to it.”
In addition, he says, “The engineering operations involved in forming the new access road and bridge through a residential area would involve the close proximity of an access road to houses and a significant loss of trees, which would seriously impair the visual and residential amenity of the neighbouring properties and seriously harm the character of the area.
“The proposal is contrary to the development plan and there are no material considerations to justify a departure therefrom.”