New houses will‘shatter’ privacy for neighbours

Housing developer CALA has been given a month to come up with a better solution to access a new housing development on the outskirts of Linlithgow.

Councillors on the Development Management Committee lined up to reject an offer of moving the access to the 60 house development on Deanburn Road by a few metres to address the concerns on residents living opposite the planned T-junction access road.

Speaking on her own behalf and also for her next door neighbour Emma Gordon told the committee that the development would “shatter our privacy.”

CALA was seeking final approval to develop the field on Preston Farm. The proposals faced more than 30 objectors from residents on Deanburn Road, the local community council and Civic Trust, elsewhere in the town and even one from a woman in Bishopbriggs who is a regular user of the canal which the estate will also border.

Mrs Gordon said that the T-junction access to the new estate would be in front of her home: “We’ll have headlights shining into our windows as cars come downhill to use the junction”

She pointed out that what is currently a quiet county road would become clogged with heavy construction traffic during the building process and then by a huge increase in traffic once the sixty homes had been developed.

The development would also mean the loss of Deanburn Verge a hedgerow maintained by volunteers in the town.

Planners had supported the development with a range of conditions.

Neighbours of Mrs Gordon said the proposal to move the T-junction would not benefit them or anyone living in the road in small bungalow homes. Added to that the open views would disappear and be replaced with a sea of huge showhome properties. The only beneficiaries said one would be CALA.

The lengthy debate heard from objectors and CALA representatives who said their plans had “benefited from engagement with the public.”

But committee members lined up to voice their scepticism. Council Leader Lawrence Fitzpatrick was unhappy with the T-junction and loss of the Verge.

The Provost Tom Kerr said: “Like it or loathe it the plan to develop this site has been agreed. It’s in our Local Development Plan but I think it is totally unacceptable for us to approve a development where there would be a serious loss of amenity to these households, to have headlights blasting through into their windows on a dark nights.”

Councillor Stuart Borrowman thank the Provost and council leader for homing in on the real issue with the development. He said: “I cannot look these residents in the eye and say your loss of amenity doesn’t matter in the bigger picture. I too wish a solution had been arrived at before this.”

Councillor David Tait said the committee risked making the same mistakes it frequently made considering controversial planning applications, where issues should have been dealt with before the application reached the committee.

He said: “All of this, or a hell of a lot of it could have been sorted out before we ever got here. Relationships with communities have to be strengthened. We have to talk earlier with communities and find out what they think about things.”

Describing the committee hearing he said: “I think the whole process is undemocratic and somewhat tokenistic. The way [the plans]it is presented it was as if it was going to whiz through. I don’t think that’s good enough for the council or for anyone else. I’m disappointed that community opinions have not been more rigorously sought.

Head of planning Craig McCorriston suggested the decision could be delayed until the next monthly meeting to give the developers the opportunity to find a solution.

Councillor Charles Kennedy chairing the meeting agreed: “There must be some compromise that can be reached.”