The long-awaited development of Strathmartine Hospital has cleared its final planning hurdle.
And there are hopes the diggers will move in soon to start work on more than 200 homes there.
But councillors say lessons must be learned over the saga surrounding the sprawling site.
It has drained emergency resources for decades.
Strathmartine has been a magnet for firebugs and vandals since NHS Tayside finally shut its doors in 2003.
The one-time Baldovan Institution for “imbecile and idiot children” has witnessed hundreds of incidents.
The latest occurred as recently as last week.
Masterplan approval
Angus development standards committee considered the detailed masterplan for 212 new homes on Tuesday.
Permission for the conversion, restoration and extension of the hospital administration block and cottage into 12 houses has already been approved.
There will be 28 affordable homes built on the Ashton Terrace side of the site.
An additional £700,000-plus is being commuted for more social housing elsewhere in Angus.
And the education contribution from the scheme will be almost £2 million.
A large part of that will go towards increasing the capacity of Strathmartine primary school.
Almost 240 trees will be felled on the site – around half of those for health and safety reasons.
But councillors heard replacement planting will eventually see almost 1,000 trees added.
The project is to be phased over six years.
Planning agent Robert Evans said Miller Homes and Chamberlain Developments welcomed the conditional approval recommendation from officials.
“It has been a long, winding and bumpy road,” he said.
And he said the developers had tried to respond positively to local objections.
It has included increasing parking in the area of Ashton Terrace and dropping a plan for construction traffic to use that road.
Lessons to be learned
Montrose SNP councillor Bill Duff said lessons must be learned from the saga of the brownfield site.
“We often talk about win/win situations, but I think here we have a quadruple win,” he said.
“The NHS has obviously received a significant bounty for the site.
“There is a plus for the council with social housing and significant money going in to primary and secondary education.
“And there is a win for the fire service and police because Strathmartine Hospital has been a huge burden on both of those with fire-raising and vandalism over many years.
“But when the NHS leave a site they just lock the door, employ a security guard and leave the council and the emergency services to deal with all the problems.
“I don’t think that’s particularly acceptable to me.
“If it was a steel plant or a chemical plant they wouldn’t be allowed to do that.
“I think that’s a thing we need to think about – a bit of joined-up thinking.
“But I’m very pleased to see this and I wish them every success to get the job done.”
Planning convener’s delight
Councillors unanimously backed the official green light recommendation.
And planning committee chairman David Lumgair said the timing of the approval could not have been better.
“I have been on development standards for 23 years so I was here at the outset of this planning application,” he said.
“It has been a long and bumpy road,” said the Arbroath West and Letham Conservative.
“But I always hoped this would come before me before I retired.
“I am retiring from the council in May, so it gives me great pleasure to move this for approval.”
