Extension to care home is given the nod
Permission given despite residents’ and community council’s concerns
Balhousie Luncarty Care Home Balhousie Care Group has won permission to extend Luncarty Care Home despite residents and the village’s community council having raised concerns about the scale of the proposed development.
At a meeting this week councillors were told that the care provider’s latest bid to extend the property towards the village’s Yew Gardens to add extra rooms and en suite facilities was “very similar” to an earlier application which was approved back in 2010.
However, this statement appeared to be at odds with Luncarty, Redgorton and Moneydie Community Council’s objection to the scheme which said the proposal had more in common with yet another earlier application which was actually refused further back in 2009.
Introducing a report recommending the extension be approved PKC planner Joanne Ferguson said the application was “very similar” to the 2010 application with only some “minor changes”.
But the community council had said in its objection to the proposal: “The footprint of the extension in this application has reverted to a similar size of that of the original application made in 2009.
“The application was refused in 2009 for health and safety issues due to the proximity of the proposed extension to the public path. This current application should be refused for the same reasons.”
And making a deputation to the council’s development management committee on Wednesday local resident Graham Powrie, who claimed in his objection the extension would be “the equivalent of a prison block” overlooking his house and garden, again made his case for the application to be refused.
Claiming the extension would tower over his property blocking out sunlight and invading his privacy he also pointed out that when a previous owner of his property had applied to convert the attic the council had refused the application saying it would have a “significant impact on the visual amenity” of the area.
An incredulous Mr Powrie asked the committee how it could be that this application was refused on those terms but yet Balhousie’s proposal was not being recommended for refusal for the same reason.
Strathtay councillor John Kellas then
Councillor John Kellas took up Mr Powrie’s case and asked the architect responsible for the latest layouts of the listed building a series of questions concerning how close the extension would bring the home to neighbouring properties and the path the community council had concerns about.
The architect, Sam Wilson, insisted computer modelling had shown that sunlight would continue to fall into neighbouring properties grounds and that he had taken care to keep the proposed extension as far back from other landscape features as possible.
Unconvinced of this Councillor Kellas then moved a motion to refuse the extension, saying the recommendation to approve the application contradicted a previous decision to refuse a similar application. “It seems crazy we’re now looking at a much bigger change to the area,” he said. “This brings the building far too close to [the neighbouring] properties. This is something which [will lead to] a change to the environment which is more than I find acceptable.”
However, Councillor Kellas’ motion to refuse the extension failed as no other councillor supported his
stance.