Council says Perth home extension ‘unsafe’ due to loss of footpath

The scheme would have led to the 'unacceptable' removal of a path next to a roundabout.

By Stephen Eighteen

August 16 2023, 11:37am

The Windsor Terrace property on the junction with Queen Street, Perth. Image: Google.

Perth and Kinross Council has branded a proposal to extend a Craigie home ‘unacceptable’.

Ross Cameron’s application to build onto open space to the side of the Windsor Terrace property was refused.

The plan involved the formation of garden ground and a retaining wall with fence above.

But Perth and Kinross Council planners felt it would be “unacceptable from a road safety point of view” due to a loss of a footpath.

Proposed loss of footpath on Perth street

The decision report said: “The extension of the garden ground into an area of open space will mean that a short section of footway on the corner of Queen Street and Windsor Terrace will be removed, and permanently lost.

“This is not acceptable as regardless of private ownership.

“This footway forms part of the public road network and as such any changes require consent from PKC as roads authority under the Roads (Scotland) Act, and such an application for its permanent removal will not be supported.

“Some of the recent activities on site have resulted in the footpath being unavailable for public use between Queen Street with Windsor Terrace.

“Without this linkage, members of the public currently have to walk within the live carriageway of the adjacent roundabout to move around the corner.

“Or to use a footway for the full crossing, pedestrian users would have to cross the main road twice – which increases the risk to both pedestrians and road users dramatically.”

Perth and Kinross Council refuses extension

There was also concern at the height of the wall, given the fence would have been erected on top.

It was planned to reach a combined height of 1.9m along Windsor Terrace and a height of 2m along Queen Street.

“These fences will block the visibility splay of the roundabout, where no objects should be present that exceed 1.05 metres above the height of the carriageway,” the council’s response noted.

“The existing area of open space provides the necessary visibility at the roundabout which ensures a safe interaction between both road users and pedestrians – and this proposal will remove that.”