A rival developer has come forward with plans for 125 new Forfar homes on a site abutting land where a 175-house plan is yet to be determined by councillors.
North-east based builder Scotia Homes has lodged a proposal of application notice for the near 20-acre chunk of farmland at Westfield Loan in the latest expansion bid for the west of the town towards the A90 Forfar bypass.
The site sits opposite the existing Westfield Place and Westfield Gardens developments.
To its north sits another large area of ground which is at the centre of a Muir Homes proposal for housing which will border the A94 Glamis Road leading out of Forfar.
Scotia is currently in the midst of a 100-house project on the site of the former Princess Alexandra House Guide Dogs for the Blind training centre in Forfar’s Dundee Road.
Angus development standards councillors will receive the report on the proposal of application notice at their meeting next week.
Because of the coronavirus restrictions, a public consultation event will not be staged in the town, but Scotia is planning a live online event on the evening of March 25.
Planning rules dictate that the firm cannot submit a formal application for the scheme before April 15.
175-house scheme yet to be considered
Councillors have yet to determine the 175-house Muir Homes application, but it sparked controversy over a historic link to an anthrax burial site in the vicinity.
Carcases of livestock, which may have been infected, were buried at Westfield around the 1940s or 1950s.
The company previously said the area of possible contamination is outside the application site and would be 120 metres away from the nearest proposed home in their development.
Council officials have also ruled out a risk to human health.
The Muir Homes application was submitted in September 2019 but has yet to be decided by councillors.
Community consultation was carried out, including a Reid Hall public presentation on the plan.
An extended council determination deadline of January 25 has now passed.
Land allocated for 300 new homes by 2026
Almost 40 hectares of land beside Westfield Loan have been allocated in the Angus development plan for the delivery of around 300 homes in the next five years.
However, there remains local concern about the scale of the development to the west of the town.
Forfar objector John Webster said: “Forfar does not need several hundred extra new houses, most of which will be unaffordable to the average local resident, on top of the hundreds of others built around the town in recent years.
“Will the council not be satisfied until every inch of land in Angus is covered in concrete?
“Developments such as these are to do with money.
“Money for the developers, money for the council, money for the landowners. No consideration appears to be given to anything else.
“It is time to call a halt to large scale housing schemes on farmland around Forfar,” he added in opposition to the Muir Homes plan.
Land has also been safeguarded for further expansion of the town beyond 2026.
The scale of future development may include consideration of a new town primary school town and additional business development land.
Major residential development is also currently underway on the north side of the town where local developer Guild Homes is involved in a £50 million, 240-house project between the community campus and the A90.
