‘Vendetta’ claim in game farm dispute
Council took enforcement action
The Scottish Government has been urged to ignore a man’s claims of a conspiracy in his defence of a company that built a game farm in Perthshire without proper planning permission.
Perth and Kinross Council has asked the government to pay no heed to the man’s claims as it considers an appeal lodged by Glenshee Pheasantries after the local authority took enforcement action against the company earlier this year.
The council told Glenshee Pheasantries to clear structures from its site at Myreriggs Road near Blairgowrie back in March. It followed complaints from locals about the scale of the operation and staff starting work there far too early in the morning but the company has argued it has no right to do this.
Several locals have also written to the government’s Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) to raise the same complaints again as it considers the appeal but one man, a Mr Alexander Matossian, has also written in to claim locals are conspiring against Glenshee Pheasantries.
He reckons a retrospective planning application the company has lodged to “regularise” the development should be determined before any decision is made on whether enforcement action should be taken.
In his submission, he states: “There appears to be an organised vendetta against Glenshee Pheasantries and a determination to sabotage their living.
“The objectors have clearly banded together to include among their list of ‘issues’ a host of exaggerated, invented or false ones, generally designed to be emotive.
“It is obvious that the band of objectors have considerable spare time and have allotted a significant amount of time to conspire in preparing seemingly plausible objections.
“In my view, for an independent unbiased view of the reality in this ongoing saga, the ... objections should be disregarded and only established facts and possible solutions should be considered.”
But PKC planning enforcement officer Paul Kettles has since told the DPEA: “The writer [Mr Matossian] considers that there is a vendetta by local residents against the appellants, and the objections raised are spurious and emotive.
“The writer has submitted comments as an individual who benefits from the appellant’s business, but who is not affected by the impact of the appellant’s business, and seeks to deride and discredit comments made by residents living adjacent to the business activities.”
Moving on to address claims made by Mr Matossian that Glenshee Pheasantries has sought to work with PKC on “regularising” the development and making it more acceptable to locals, Mr Kettles continued: “For the record, and to refute assertions made by Mr Matossian, there has been no genuine attempt or desire to discuss and agree on amicable solutions.
“Any dialogue that has occurred with the appellants or their agents, either through the planning or enforcement process, has been instigated by the local planning authority, or as a statutory requirement.”
Mr Kettles concluded: “In summary, the writer has set out to entirely discredit the content of the letters of representation received, at a late stage ... and considers that the outcome should be made through the planning process.
“We consider that had it not been for the intransigence of the appellants, a determination may well have been made of a planning application before formal enforcement action was considered necessary and expedient.”
The Scottish Government reporter assigned to determine the appeal, Sue Bell, is said to be finalising her decision on the matter with a target date set for July 6.