The latest attempt to get planning permission for an unauthorised Travellers site in the Mearns has failed at the first hurdle.
A fresh bid to get planning permission for the vast North Esk Park site at St Cyrus – which was built without permission in September 2013 – was lodged last Wednesday.
However, Aberdeenshire Council has rejected the application on the basis that it didn’t contain all the required information.
Permission has previously been refused for the development on the basis that it sits on a flood plain.
Aberdeenshire Council started enforcement action against 16 residents who live at the vast site at the start of September.
Three people appealed the enforcement notices to the Scottish Government in October and they were told that a site inspection would be carried out.
After lodging the latest retrospective planning permission application with Aberdeenshire Council last week, an attempt was made to delay the Reporter’s site inspection until after the application was considered by the council.
However, the Reporter decided that a new attempt to gain planning permission was not sufficient grounds to delay the inspection and this was carried out at the site on Thursday last week.
The decision by the Reporter on the validity of the enforcement action taken by the council will not be known for several weeks.
A neighbour who lives near the site said she was glad the Travellers had not been successful with their latest “delaying tactic”.
She said: “The latest application has not been validated so that the delaying tactic has been defeated though no doubt there will be others to drive us to distraction.”
An Aberdeenshire Council spokesman explained: “The planning applications were submitted, but not validated, which usually means not all the required information was submitted at the time.
“Officers would ask for the necessary information to be completed/submitted prior to validation of the application, at which point it enters the system.
“We have contacted the applicants’ agents and requested the necessary information in this case.
“The Reporter considering the appeal against the enforcement notices served at the development carried out an accompanied site visit last week, with Aberdeenshire Council officers and the applicants themselves.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said they would not comment on the issue as it was a “live appeal”.