Thumbs up for flats plan despite concerns
Neighbour claims his garden will lose its privacy
A Kinross man’s claims a development planned next to his property would let strangers peer into his garden, have been dismissed by a council committee.
The council’s planning and development management committee was advised last week to approve a group’s bid to convert the town’s old Kirklands garage into two new properties plus build a block of four flats behind it despite residents raising concerns it would look odd considering the site is in a conservation area.
But neighbour Ged Mullen told the committee last Wednesday the flats would sit only a metre away from his property and said he feared what looked like windows on the applicant’s drawings would let people see into his garden.
He said: “I don’t believe that this is an appropriate development in its current state,.
“I think there are some changes that need to be made ... before it becomes an appropriate development.”
However Councillor Tom Gray was unconvinced the applicant’s intent was to create windows overlooking Mr Mullen’s property and went on to praise designs submitted which showed much of the old garage would be retained under the proposal.
“I think the retention of the frontage is satisfactory to maintain the conservation aspect and whatever is happening [behind it] is of minimal consequence,” he said.
Councillor Barnacle said Mr Mullen might have been onto something however, and suggested the committee defer taking a decision until members had visited the site to see where the block of flats was going.
But this was resisted by interim development quality manager Anne Condliffe who said she was concerned about councillors visiting sites despite agreeing to let members defer two applications concerning the old Murray Royal Hospital in Perth earlier in the meeting for the same reason.
“There is concern about members going [on] site visits,” she said. “It’s always been made very clear that members should be looking to visit sites prior to [coming to] committee.
“On the first application at Murray Royal it was a different story ... but I’d
The former Kirklands Garage in the town’s High Street be concerned if we were going to be coming to every committee and looking for a site visit.”
She added: “A decision has to be made on what has been submitted by the applicant.”
This forced Councillor Barnacle to recommend the application be refused but most members of the committee sided with officers who had recommended the application be approved.