Blairdrummond house bid is turned down

Plans to build a house and garage near Blairdrummond have been rejected by Stirling Council planners.

Mr R Duff wanted to develop land next to and north of Carsedyke in Sommers Lane, Ochtertyre to build the one-and-half storey house.

However, planners said the proposal did not fill the policy criteria for“infill” development.

The site is 74 metres northeast of Carsedyke Cottage – and immediately adjacent to its tennis court - and 63metres south of Mid (Burnside) Cottage. Both properties are located on the west side of Sommers Lane.

Planners said both existing properties are set sufficiently apart, physically and visually, so could not be said to be viewed as an obvious pair within the landscape.

In their decision, they added:“The principle of a single house of one and a half storeys plus garage on this site has been determined [in policy] which supports development for new dwellings when they occupy an infill situation relative to existing rows of houses. The applicant has in fact relied on the‘infill’criterion in his submission in support of the current application, claiming that a single dwelling would infill the gap between Carsedyke Cottage in the north and Mid (Burnside)

Cottage to the south.

“Infill development criterion allows for development of up to two dwellings in a gap that exists between two existing houses or other permanent buildings of equivalent residential size, occupying separate and discrete plots and fronting a road or access lane on the proviso that the existing buildings are closely related physically and visually, are capable of being viewed as an obvious pair within their landscape setting, are intervisible and demonstrate a close relationship and, are not excessively spaced apart.

“The properties to which the applicant refers and relies on do not meet this infill development criteria. For example they are not intervisible because they are spaced too far apart to be mutually visible from their respective garden areas. Rather, their relationship within their landscape setting is characteristic of a typical rural dispersed settlement pattern where properties are spread out over a wide area on large tracts of land with plots that are irregularly-shaped and bordered by trees.

“Similarly, taking account of Tigh Beag Cottage (the property opposite Mid (Burnside) Cottage), all three properties collectively would not constitute a building group (under policy).”