Objections over holiday unit plans
Plans for 11 holiday units at a Perthshire farm have been put on hold by Perth and Kinross Council.
Councillors on PKC’s planning and development management committee met to scrutinise the plans on October 20.
Road safety concerns led the committee to call for a deferral.
George and Margaret Gunn applied to PKC to convert agricultural buildings at West Gormack Farm, Kinloch near Blairgowrie into eight holiday units and to build three separate holiday homes.
A separate application to create three passing places on the section of the U115 road from Main Road, Kinloch to Middleton, Kinloch - on land within their ownership - was approved under delegated powers in July 2021.
Andrew Barrett presented an objection on behalf of 34 residents - who signed a petition objecting to the application - to Wednesday’s meeting of the committee.
He described the road as “extremely unsuitable” for additional traffic from holidaymakers.
Mr Barrett told the committee: “There have been many collisions over the years. Black skid lines underline this.”
Almond and Earn Conservative councillor David Illingworth questioned how significant the accidents had been.
Mr Barrett said he had not heard of any involving “significant personal injury” but said there had “certainly” been damage to vehicles with two involving his own family whom he described as “fairly careful drivers” who know the route well.
Councillors were told of the risk of having to reverse into a blind bend or a ditch if meeting another vehicle.
The applicants’ agent Robert Johnston from Mackenzie Strickland Associates told the committee the application had taken “quite a bit of effort to get to this stage.”
Councillors were informed the initial design had been amended following dialogue with PKC’s planners, to get to a stage where planning officers recommended the application for approval.
He said the “primary concern” was the road and they had taken on board those concerns and submitted plans to install passing places along the route on the land the Gunns control.
Concerns were also raised about the Cateran Trail which passes in front in one of the proposed holiday units and whether or not this section of the popular walking trail would need to be closed whilst the development took place.
Mr Johnston said: “The proposal is to build a temporary road in the field south of the Cateran Trail so that particular unit can be developed without the Cateran Trail being closed.
“Eventually that road would revert back to field and the Cateran Trail would be upgraded to permit vehicular access.”
He explained this was needed to allow access for emergency vehicles and to get the septic tank emptied.
In terms of road safety, he said: “I actually find people who are not familiar with roads take more care than people who are familiar with roads. People who are not familiar drive along at a snail’s place.”
He said the development was a “really nice way to expose a nice historic build swallowed up by a gigantic steel shed” which he said had been erected “pretty brutally” in the ‘70s or ‘80s.
A council officer carried out calculations which estimated the development would present a 29 per cent increase in road use.
He said: “I would see there’s plenty of capacity on the road for the development to be accommodated.”
Liberal Democrat councillor Willie Wilson moved to defer a decision for more information about road access and safety as well additional information about a business plan and the commercial benefits of the development.
This was seconded by Conservative councillor Mike Barnacle and was ultimately voted through.
The paper was concluded with a decision on the West Gormack Farm application being deferred.