Conditions for Townhill homes ‘not reasonable’
Fife Council drops flood-risk request
THE building of 59 houses next to Townhill Country Park have moved a step closer after Fife Council agreed to drop a request that was “not reasonable”.
Lochay Homes’ plans to develop four hectares of agricultural land were approved back in March subject to 29 planning conditions.
But councillors concerned about a possible flood risk at the site, between Kent Street in Dunfermline and the park, added an extra one, requiring the applicant to undertake a “CCTV survey of a culverted watercourse” across the road from their site.
Any flood mitigation measures deemed necessary after that would have to be completed before any houses could be built.
At the west and central planning committee, that condition was removed.
After a letter from the applicant’s engineer, planner and case officer Katherine Pollock told councillors: “It’s considered that condition 30 is not necessary in order to make the proposed development acceptable and it’s not reasonable in that it requires the applicant to conduct a survey that’s not physically possible and would require access to land that’s outwith their control.”
She added that, due to height differentials, it was now accepted the proposed development “would not be at risk from overtop flooding of the culvert” and this would also be the case should a blockage occur.
The engineer had explained that “any overtopping would flow into the country park access road”.
A previous application, for 92 homes on the site, was approved after an appeal to the Scottish Government in July 2020.
It had previously been refused by the council, but flooding was not one of the concerns.
Dunfermline North councillor Gordon Pryde said he was “concerned about the removal of the condition”.
However, Ms Pollock said the development would not connect to the culvert and continued: “The culvert exists just now.
“It’s not being created as part of the development and it’s not for this development to fix flooding elsewhere.
“If this development was contributing to flooding that would be a whole different scenario.”