Huge relief in Rosemount
Care cottages off the table but concerns remain
Locals have welcomed news that proposals for a controversial housing plan off Golf Course Road have been withdrawn by developers.
However, they have also expressed concerns that further attempts may be made to develop the site for residential use.
Aberdeen-based Sted Investments lodged an application with Perth and Kinross Council to build 10 semidetached care cottages on one-anda-half-acres of vacant land behind the Beech Manor Care Home in Blairgowrie earlier this year.
The application followed earlier attempts by another firm to create 16 properties – eight cottages and eight flats – in and around the same site.
The 2011 plan by Argus Construction, also based in Aberdeen, was rejected after complaints from neighbours. A similar plan was lodged and rejected 12 months earlier.
Council planners received approximately 30 letters and emails calling for the latest plan to be rejected and no letters in support of the scheme were received.
Those opposed to the proposals claimed the development would cause disturbance for care home residents, particularly in relation to an increase in traffic levels and a lack of parking at the site.
Questions were also raised about whether the scheme will provide the care services referred to in the application.
Commenting on the news that the application had been withdrawn, local resident Ian Brown said: “The residents who live adjacent to the Stonefield site have all expressed their relief that this planning application has been withdrawn and I am sure that this feeling is shared by all 27 objectors to it.
“It is our understanding that the withdrawal of the application was in anticipation of refusal by the planning authorities due to the traffic and noise issues it would cause.
“There is concern that yet another, a fourth, attempt may be made to develop this site with multiple occupancy.
“This in our view is inappropriate. Congestion around the nursing home exists today, as there was inadequate provision when this was designed, and so any development is going to cause a problem to neighbours and the nursing home residents.
“It would be difficult to reinstate the single house occupancy of the site due to the changes to the access road which the developers have made.
“Perhaps the best solution would be to convert the Stonefield site into a quiet walking area with paths where residents of the nursing home could go in peace and tranquillity?”