A Blairgowrie businessman is contesting an order from Perth and Kinross Council to remove waste including “rotting” vehicles.
Stuart Coupar is appealing the council’s enforcement notice to shift material at the front of Blair’s Laundry on High Street, Rattray.
The council has ordered the business to get rid of tyres, car parts, scrap metal and vehicles from the parking area fronting the main road.
Councillors say they have been receiving an increasing number of complaints about the site, with one claiming that vehicles there “are just rotting with the tyres collapsed on the hard standing”.
But Mr Coupar, who has been involved in running the laundry business for more than 20 years, believes the council is guilty of “targeting” and “unreasonable behaviour”.
Blairgowrie site in use for ‘over a century’
“The site is commercial, rated as non-domestic and been in continuous use as such for over a century,” he wrote in his appeal submission.
“The residential properties on each side and opposite have high privacy fencing erected decades ago.
“Heras fencing is erected within the yard to the front of the workshop doors to screen the area and restrict access for safety.”
He continued: “We typically operate around eight delivery vehicles.
“Due to the nature of our trade customers can require service seven days a week, so we require duty standby and backup.
“We operate vehicles and equipment that we can maintain.
“This does allow us to economically justify running older assets that have proven durable and reliable beyond the age at which a council or larger organisation with massive capital budgets may choose.
“The steps required by the planning authority are excessive.
“The items in the yard all have a purpose.”
Mr Coupar is also unhappy that the enforcement notice was served to more than one party.
It was addressed jointly to himself, two other members of his family and the laundry as a whole.
“The notice is defective,” he wrote in his appeal submission.
“Failure to serve a notice properly can be construed as ‘targeting’ and is unreasonable behaviour.”
Councillors want vehicles to be removed
But the council’s notice has been backed by at least two members of the local authority.
Cllr Caroline Shiers wrote in her submission: “Increasingly complaints have centred on the effect on the amenity of local residents and environmental concerns.
“One vehicle is in a lower area of the site and is now almost subsumed by shrubbery.
“Many vehicles are just rotting with the tyres collapsed on the hard standing.
“The stretch of footpath in front is a busy one and it is really sad that this historic
part of old Rattray is being allowed to fall into disrepair.
“The vehicles are not stored in a secure environment and I worry that they could become the focus of vandalism.”
Fellow Blairgowrie and The Glens councillor, Bob Brawn, wrote: “Whilst these vans may be sited on the owner’s curtilage, they are to the detriment of the amenity of the area.
“Over the years the number of these derelict vans has steadily increased, to the annoyance of all who live around the site.”
He called for “the said vehicles removed from the site with immediate effect”.
A planning reporter will decide whether to overturn the council’s enforcement notice.
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