The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Girlguides’ fight as office space set to become flats
Welcome to Planning Ahead – our weekly round-up of the latest proposals across the north-east.
Wetherspoons is carrying out some work to enhance the employee areas in its Justice Mill venue on Aberdeen’s Union Street.
Spoons’ bosses want permission to create the new staff room on the second floor by converting a meeting room.
Last September, the Justice Mill’s plans for a new rooftop garden were approved by the council.
Work is taking place on the 423-425 Union Street building at the moment, with scaffolding erected around the front.
Meanwhile, in Inverurie, Ozan Kaya wants to turn the former Butterfly Fabrics textiles shop at 48 West High Street into a cafe.
The local business went fully online this summer, leaving the unit beside the Marmaris takeaway empty after more than a decade.
Blueprints show that, after the proposed change of use, it would be equipped with a barista machine and a panini maker.
An Aberdeenshire twitcher is having to retroactively apply for planning permission for a bird-watching marquee in her field.
Mrs P Lynch, who lives at Ythanbank near Ellon, wants to have the tent out from April to October at her New Milton of Schivas home. The property was sold for £180,000 last December.
In Aberdeen, plans for dozens of new council houses at the former Craighill Primary School site are moving forward after being paused.
Work at the Kincorth spot was put on hold amid soaring construction costs, while the council retendered the contract.
Now, a pair of separate plans have been lodged seeking fresh consent for 87 homes there. A reduction from the 99 originally envisaged, with three-storey blocks now being built instead of four.
And it’s a similar story with the new council housing plans lodged (for the same reason) at the former Kincorth Academy site.
The number of homes is going down from 212 to 195 under the new proposals.
And four-storey blocks are being chopped down a level there too, while there will be fewer terraced houses.
A St Fergus guesthouse will be turned into a house after owners failed to find a new taker for the business.
The Keyhead Guesthouse and Caravan Park, just off the main road between Peterhead and Fraserburgh, had been on the market for more than four years when the proposals were lodged.
A Stonehaven sensei is bidding to secure a new base for his martial arts group.
Malcolm Evans, of Lions Den TCK, wants to take his band of high-spirited highkickers into office space at Bankhead Drive. It’s currently based at the Arduthie Business Centre on Kirkton Road but he wants to branch out into neighbouring Portlethen.
Plans for a new dream home in the grounds of a 10-acre “oasis” at Pitfodels have been quashed by the council.
The recent plans for a modern home off Inchgarth Road were lodged by Lucy and Declan Slattery – whose family own the huge Drumgarth House site.
The spot, with its own historic windmill, was sold for £1.5 million in 2019.
The decision relied on a few factors, with concerns about the affect on bats. The local authority also oppose the loss of the greenbelt land, and cite a high risk of flooding.
Plans to turn unwanted Aberdeen offices into a block of new flats, with a townhouse at the rear, have come under fire from an unlikely source.
But when it came to the development beside their Victoria Street HQ, Girlguides’ leaders felt compelled to act.
The former home of Mackie Ramsay Taylor Architects was put up for sale after the firm moved out. Developer Lionstone Investments filed the plans for the spot soon after.
The Aberdeen and Shetland branch of Girlguiding Scotland hired legal firm Brodies to lodge an official objection with Aberdeen City Council.
Brodies argued that some of the ground floor would be on their clients’ land, among other problems.
Planning chiefs have now issued a decision on the matter. With developers agreeing to reduce the size of the double garage, and erect a new boundary wall between the site and the Girlguides’ land, it has been rubber-stamped.