A housing developer says that it will appeal a decision to refuse its plan for 39 houses in Crosshouse.
East Ayrshire Council's planning committee approved officials' recommendations based on assessments around the potential noise and smell from a neighbouring farm which were deemed unrepresentative of the issue.
The application, for 30 private and nine affordable properties built near Holm Farm, resulted in 50 objections, including Crosshouse Community Council, Crosshouse Neighbours Placemaking group and the council's Environmental Health services.
At Friday's meeting, councillors heard from six objectors including the owner of Holm Farm, residents of adjoining homes, the community council and placemaking group.
They claimed that Dawn Homes were trying to fit too many houses onto the site, often within a few metres of existing properties, questioned road safety, accused Dawn Homes of 'ghettoing' affordable housing into one area of the development, contrary to guidelines.
They raised concerns about the proximity to up to one million litres of potentially dangerous slurry and providing a noise and odour survey that was unrepresentative of the issues.
Two of the objectors claimed that the developer was putting 'profit over people'.
Environmental Health stated they witnessed noise from a generator and animals during one of their visits.
They said: "During this visit, we established that the farm remains operational."
And they added that the assessments for noise and odour were made before cattle and horses being moved from pasture back into the farm in November and were not a true representation of conditions.
However, Dawn Homes representatives pushed back against some of the complaints and even the planning department itself.
Jim Ravey said that the developer had been working closely with planners for the last 20 months and had understood that, having made alterations to the proposals, they would meet council policy demands.
He added that Dawn Homes had commissioned noise and odour assessments when the objections were made. He acknowledged that there were no animals present when these were undertaken, adding that environmental health officers 'could detect no odour' from the farm during a site visit.
Mr Ravey argued that there was no evidence that, had the animals been there, there would be a justified reason to refuse the application.
He concluded: "The evidence provided in response to independent reports has not been justified, in fact the reason is given that it 'may' result in injurious or amenity impacts and in our opinion should not be the basis for refusal."
After the decision, Dawn Homes managing director, Martin Egan, said that the company would appeal the decision.
He said: “At a time when the provision of good quality homes across Scotland and in East Ayrshire is so important, we are disappointed our proposals for 39 homes, including nine much-needed affordable homes, in Crosshouse, have been refused by the planning committee.
“We carefully considered the viability of this site, aligning with the council’s own Local Development Plan which allocates this land for residential development."
Mr Egan also doubled down on the company's use of a 2017 business case to indicate that the farm was not operational.
He continued: “It’s particularly frustrating that the refusal is based on Holm Farm being operational when a publicly available report, produced by the farmer himself in support of the promotion of his own land interests, describes the farm as a “white elephant” which cannot be sustained.
“In addition to creating and sustaining local jobs, this development would strongly enhance the existing neighbourhood bringing more quality homes within walking distance of Crosshouse Hospital.
“Fortunately, the Scottish Government has procedures in place to allow us to appeal this decision, which we fully intend to utilise.”
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