Council to get tough over chalets project
But landowner wins legal row about road bond
A controversial landowner’s bid to build chalets on his Stirlingshire estate has hit another bump in the road.
Spectrum Properties Scotland secured conditional approval last September to build 12 chalets north of Barns Knowe in the grounds of Sauchieburn House, owned by William Roddie, despite suggestions the area had been run down in order to justify development.
A condition attached to the approval by Stirling Council that the developer must pay a road bond to secure repair of the private road to the site is now being called into question.
In a report to go to the council’s planning panel on Tuesday officials say: “Such a legal mechanism has not been concluded between the council and the applicant.
“The applicant’s agent has submitted a letter commenting there is no legitimate or lawful means by which such a road bond can be secured in relation to any works on a private road.
“The council’s legal advisor has confirmed that a road bond normally means a bond to secure the completion of a road by a private developer, for instance for completion of newly-formed roads within a housing development.
“A road bond would be inappropriate in the current circumstances where there is an existing road and it is not a public road.
“The advice further confirms that the requirement to have the road repaired would be more appropriately dealt with by a one-off repair secured through planning condition.
“With this in mind it is therefore appropriate to revisit the terms of the planning condition that deals with this matter to ensure it is sufficiently robust to ensure any roads repairs are carried out.
“Were the repairs not to be carried out and the chalets used for holiday letting then there would be a breach of planning condition.
“To provide further security it is recommended that the condition be altered to require that the development cannot commence on the fifth or sixth chalet until the agreed roads repairs have been carried out.”
The site of almost 2.3 hectares is within the grounds of the estate, between one and two miles south-west of Chartershall and the Battle of Bannnockburn Visitor Centre.
Six objections were submitted to the original application, raising concerns including inappropriate location and adverse impact on the natural environment.
At the hearing last September Spectrum’s planning consultant Andrew Bennie said the development could be blended successfully into the landscape and there would be no impact on existing woodland.
He added that it was “not in the applicant’s commercial interests” to do anything which restricts access to the site and it was “unreasonable to suggest or imply that would be the case”.
Carron Valley and District Community Council secretary Dorothy Breckenridge spoke on behalf of objectors, referring to changes made to the site in recent years and adding that if the applicant’s insistence that these were unintentional was taken on board it would call “the whole planning process into disrepute”.
Panel member Chris Kane said: “The applicant here has demonstrated a history of abusing the system to meet his own wants and I see no reason he will stop doing this in the future.”
Committee clerk Iain Strachan added: “We don’t know what the applicant has or hasn’t done. We need to be clear on that. We can only determine the application on material considerations.”
No panel members wanted to move the recommendation to approve but they eventually approved the application subject to a strengthening of the conditions, with Councillor Kane asking for his dissent to be recorded.
Were the repairs not to be carried out and the chalets used for holiday letting then there would be a breach of planning condition