Housing bid rejection is welcomed
A community council has welcomed a decision by the local authority to refuse planning permission for a housing development north of Overtown.
Intelligent Land Investments Group PLC, based in Hamilton, applied for permission in principle to build a residential development on land west of Overtown Road, and east of Dimsdale Road, Pather.
The site near Waterloo is sandwiched to the north and south by rail lines.
North Lanarkshire Council’s planning committee met last Thursday to decide on the application and rejected it.
The council received 34 letters of representation, from 33 individuals and one from Overtown and Waterloo Community Council. All were objecting to the proposed development.
Stuart Chidley, chairman of the community council, welcomed the decision, saying: “The community council is pleased that councillors have rejected the application and have considered the number of comments that were added to the planning portal.
“The number of planning applications for huge numbers of houses in our small community doesn’t make sense when you look at the infrastructure.
“We are at capacity with the schools, our roads were never built for the intensity of traffic and [there is] pressure on our natural environment.”
Council officers deemed that while the proposed site did fall within an area designated as a Community Growth Area (CGA) in the adopted local plan, the proposal did not form part of a comprehensive plan for the development of the CGA as required by the relevant policy and supplementary planning guidance.
The proposed site lies within a Green Belt area and officers didn’t consider it a satisfactory extension to Overtown village due to the barrier formed by the railway line and the site’s limited access to public transport.
The proposed development would also have led to the loss of a sizeable area of woodland.
Planning permission has already been granted for a controversial 620 home development in Overtown at Wemysshill Farm, which was eventually granted despite fierce opposition from the local community.