Plant hire firm appeals order to replant

Perthshire plant hire business Morris Leslie has asked the Scottish Government to consider overturning a council order to replant trees its workers are said to have removed from an area opposite Grange, near Errol, without proper permission.

Council officers have twice previously refused to grant the company part retrospective consent to form a car park for commercial vehicles at the site, understood to be known locally as Gourdiehill, where the trees were taken out of the earth.

The local authority served an enforcement notice on Morris Leslie last month requiring it to rip out hardstanding laid at the site and plant new poplars to“remedy”the planning harm it considers has occurred through the unauthorised development.

The council also demanded the company remove a quantity of soil said to have been deposited within remaining woodland at the site “ensuring no mechanical damage is incurred to existing trees during the process”.

However, chartered surveyors DM Hall have now appealed against the enforcement notice remaining in effect on behalf of Morris Leslie saying the steps PKC have asked the company to take to resolve the situation are“excessive”.

They have told the government: “This [notice] requires an area of hardstanding to be removed. However, some of that hardstanding already existed prior to the recent work taking place, albeit it was in a poor condition, with a different surface finish.

“The soil that has been deposited in the remaining woodland is not considered to be having any detrimental impact upon the trees.

“A felling permission application has anyway been submitted to Scottish Forestry for the remaining poplars to be felled and replaced with mixed deciduous woodland.

“It is nonsensical to replant poplars, which are non-native trees, have no commercial value and have little, or no, biodiversity interest.”

DM Hall also claims PKC has not given Morris Leslie enough time to comply with the enforcement notice and argues the company ought to be allowed more time to see whether their appeal or their felling permission application is granted.

It has told the government:“The notice gives 120 days for compliance. However, more time than this may be required depending upon how long this appeal takes.

“A delay would also allow the felling permission application to be determined, and a further planning application to be prepared and submitted setting out an alternative future for the site.”

The government’s planning and environmental appeals division has said it expects to have determined Morris Leslie’s appeal by the end of November.