Blackthorn Place plans slammed
Residents unsatisfied by council’s response to bid
Officers from Perth and Kinross Council and Hillcrest Housing Association were left in no doubt last week about the strength of feeling of local residents towards the proposed development at Blackthorn Place in Blairgowrie.
Representatives from the local authority’s housing and planning departments, as well as affordable housing provider Hillcrest, attended a meeting for neighbours of the site of the proposed development of 71 homes, which was held at Blairgowrie Community Campus on Tuesday last week.
Around 40 local people were at the meeting, which was also attended by the three councillors for the area and members of Blairgowrie and Rattray Community Council.
The local community council had organised the event in an effort to give residents an opportunity to raise their concerns with the development to the council and to Hillcrest.
A number of issues were raised, including the percentage of affordable housing within the development, the number of parking spaces allotted to each property at the site and infrastructure at the site, including capacity at the school, and existing problems with congestion and drainage.
One resident asked that if there were no issues with the access road to the site and an increase in the amount of traffic there, why had the developers included another entrance just for emergency vehicles.
But the main concern of the residents who were at the meeting was the number of properties on the site and the density of the housing proposed, which is almost double the number proposed in initial planning applications for the site several years ago.
They also claim that it is twice as much as is recommended in the local development plan for the area.
Speaking at the meeting one member of the public asked: “Why are PKC’s planning department getting away with this? How can they bulldoze through a plan that doesn’t look anything like the local development plan?”
He went on: “The density for this site is far too high for the size of area here.
“The fact that we are in this situation is all down to the incompetency of the council and their policy of an opt-out policy for housing developers.
“If the council hadn’t repeatedly allowed previous developers to buy their way out of having a percentage of affordable housing in other developments we would not be having this discussion now.
“But it’s no wonder the council let them opt out, it’s so much money for them.”
Another local resident commented; “I’m not a NIMBY, I don’t mind if social housing gets built so long as it’s done in the correct way.
“It’s about the balance - the 25 per cent affordable housing is reasonable - and not letting other developers buy their way out, it’s not fair.
“The council don’t seem to be bothered about the quality of life of people already living here.
“This proposed development does not fit with the existing development and you know damn well it doesn’t.”
Nick Brian, the interim head of planning at PKC, was at the meeting.
He said: “We are duty bound to deal with the application that has been lodged.
“The local development plan sets out a figure but it is up to the applicant to apply for a number that is above or below that and then it is up to us to decide on that individual application.
“The application will be reported to the council’s development management committee but we are still in the process of assessing the application on its merits before making a recommendation to that committee.”
He added that although the formal consultation period for the application had now closed, groups such as Blairgowrie and Rattray Community Council were able to submit comments on it.
And he stressed that documents submitted by the developers would be scrutinised by council officers and “not just taken on face value”.
Mr Brian also moved to reassure those at the meeting that the 100 or so objections to the proposals would be read and the points raised in the department’s report to elected members of the council who would then have the final say on the application.
He added that council officers themselves had not yet come to a final view on the application as they were still “gathering information”.