Residents object to cottages plan
Approach “death by a thousand cuts”
A group of Rosemount residents has urged Blairgowrie and Rattray Community Council to back their fight against a controversial housing plan off Golf Course Road.
Aberdeen-based Sted Investments has lodged proposals with Perth and Kinross Council to build eight semi-detached cottages on one-and-a-half-acres of vacant land behind the town’s Beech Manor Care Home.
Over 20 objections to the plans have been submitted to the local authority since the application was received in February.
And local residents spoke to members of Blairgowrie and Rattray Community Council at their meeting in March to ask for their support, describing the developer’s approach as “death by a thousand cuts”.
Speaking at the meeting, Stuart Robertson, who lives on Golf Course Road near the proposed site, said: “This is the third time that we have tried to stop a proposed development behind the care home.
“This planning application is for eight cottages and 16 parking places but there is some confusion around the status of the cottages which
in previous applications have been described as care cottages.
“The care home had no knowledge of this latest application.
“The previous two applications have failed and we would appreciate the community council’s support.”
Mr Robertson said that two of the main issues were parking and access to the site, which is by a narrow lane just three metres wide that goes past the existing cottages and the care home.
He said: “There are already problems with a lack of parking at the care home, with increasing amounts of parking on Golf Course Road itself.
“On any given day it can be quite intense there.
“The developer in my view has made a big mistake in buying the site and is trying to minimise his costs at the expense of the existing residents.”
Ian Cruickshank is a member of Blairgowrie and Rattray Community Council.
He said: “The biggest problem is not the cottages themselves, it’s the width of the access road.
“There would also be an expansion of the problem of parking which is already an issue there.
“Even the construction traffic will have problems getting up there.”
One member of the public pointed out that the parking issue has been further compounded since the previous application was made in October last year as two parking spaces had been removed at the care home.
Mr Robertson added: “These issues were all raised last time.
“It seems as though it is death by a thousand cuts the developer is just going to keep going until he gets somewhere.
“There are guidelines in place but they just get ignored.”
Members of the community council unanimously voted to support the residents.