Council house plans approved despite late plea by objectors

Brechin: Damacre Centre set to be demolished to make way for 10 homes

Brechin’s first new council houses for three decades will be built on the site of the town’s Damacre Centre after a failed 11th-hour community bid to halt the project.

The last-ditch intervention to delay plans for 10 homes – two two-bedroom, seven three-bedroom and one four-bedroom – was branded “opportunistic” by critics at Angus Council’s development standards committee meeting in Forfar yesterday.

But the same objectors were also rounded on by some of the committee for their lobbying of local members, which forced two Brechin councillors to take no part in the discussion on the future of the building, which became surplus to requirements following the opening of the town’s multi-millionpound community campus.

Work is now expected to begin shortly on the demolition of a property the committee heard was not listed and could be knocked down at any time without planning permission.

The community representatives urged the committee to delay the planning decision to allow further

“Brechin will lose the most historically relevant building of our heritage after Brechin Cathedral. MARK ARBUTHNOTT

consideration of its future under the Community Empowerment Act.

Speaker Mark Arbuthnott said the town’s community council and 18 others had objected to the development and he highlighted issues including access and the feasibility of other sites.

“Brechin will lose the most historically relevant building of our heritage after Brechin Cathedral,” he said.

“This is opportunistic and of very little strategic value to the Brechin population.”

Montrose SNP councillor Bill Duff told objectors that he felt they had brought their objection to the wrong table, adding: “You should perhaps have been petitioning the communities committee which made the original decision to transfer the building to the housing account.”

Arbroath SNP colleague Alex King said he considered the lobbying of committee members on the issue to have been “totally unacceptable”.

“I am very said that two Brechin members have found it necessary to declare an interest and leave the chamber,” he added.

“Given some of the comments made in relation to this application, I quite honestly would have been referring those to our legal department, and possibly the police.”

Council leader and Brechin Independent councillor Bob Myles remained in the chamber, but failed to find a seconder for an amendment to refuse the application on grounds of access and infrastructure impact.

gbrown@thecourier.co.uk

Picture: Kris Miller. The former Damacre Centre in Brechin will be replaced by 10 council houses.