‘Kids will suffer if houses go ahead’
Opposition to plans for old hospital site
A community council has claimed schoolchildren will suffer if the Scottish Government lets a developer press on with plans to convert the city’s old Murray Royal Hospital into housing.
Bridgend, Gannochy and Kinnoull Community Council (BGKCC) believes a government employee’s stated intention to allow two appeals from Rivertree Residential and grant the company consent to create 58 flats will lead to lengthier traffic queues forming at Bridgend junction.
The group argues buildups will in turn expose youngsters who walk along the Dundee Road to get to and from Kinnoull Primary School to even greater levels of air pollution than they are forced to endure at the moment.
Members reckon Dan Jackman, the reporter who assessed the appeals, , did not fully consider this point ahead of publishing paperwork stating he intends to grant consent for the scheme following Perth and Kinross Council’s failure to determine two planning applications for the project 16 months ago.
The group has now written to the government’s Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA) re-emphasising its belief Rivertree Residential’s case for approval rested on a traffic assessment “riddled with errors”.
It is urging Mr Jackman to reconsider his position before he issues his final written judgement.
The group’s letter to the DPEA said accepting the appellant’s traffic assessment established “a new low” for planning submissions.
It adds: “Despite a daily plethora of traffic assessment numbers being presented during [hearings held in June 2019], the real saturation level of Bridgend junction has not been established and no credible information has been provided to counter the views and evidence provided by PKC and BGKCC that the junction is already saturated at peak periods.
“The reporter seems to accept that adding traffic to a congested junction can go on indefinitely, provided the volumes are small.
“This view, provided by the appellant’s expert, flies in the face of well-established queuing theory where it is shown that travel times and queue lengths increase exponentially as traffic increments are added.”
The letter went on: “There is clear evidence to show the impact of air quality on community health. Equally, it has been clearly shown that traffic congestion is the major contributor to poor air quality.
“There is no recognition in the reporter’s notice [of intention] that Kinnoull Primary School is unusual in that it is one of very few in Scotland that is adjacent to a major trunk road, and that this road suffers major congestion during most of the period when children are attending school and when they are walking to and from school.
“It is notable that the
A community council has claimed children at Kinnoull Primary could be exposed to dangerous levels of pollution if the old Murray Royal is turned into homes
school has a well established walk to school scheme in an effort to promote a healthy life style. It is ironic that the children are being exposed daily to health threatening traffic fumes and that the reporter’s intentions will exacerbate this situation.”
And the letter concluded: “Our community council feels strongly that the reporter is removing a hurdle to future developments by giving his blessing to the appellant’s traffic assessment. Ideally, we would wish for the reporter to request that the
assessment is repeated using the appropriate model and valid assumptions.
“As a minimum, we would ask that the reporter endorses the view of PKC’s transport planning manager that the planning application submitted in support of the next phase of development is supported by a valid and professional traffic assessment study.”
Case officer Marie Buchanan has since written to Rivertree Residential and PKC and asked them to respond to BGKCC’s remarks.