Plans for a £15million distillery project for Stirling have been narrowly rejected on appeal.
An application for the Wolfcraig Distillery on a site at Craigforth was refused planning permission in March last year.
But a Local Review Body appeal has now also refused the plans following months of deliberations and hearing arguments for and against, as well as making a site visit.
At the meeting last week, LRB chair Councillor Douglas Dodds said he and his two fellow members, councillors Margaret Brisley and Jen Preston, had had the opportunity to look at all the paperwork “in depth”.
Planning officials told them that, should the original decision to refuse be overturned, Scottish Ministers would be notified to allow them to decide whether to call in the application for a final decision by them, particularly given the LRB would be going against the advice of a national agency, namely SEPA.
SEPA had recently lodged a holding objection and were now asking for a revised flood risk assessment to be submitted before they could considered lifting their objection
A council solicitor said the applicant had suggested the new response from SEPA (Scottish Environment Protection Agency) highlighting that the site was now considered a future high flood risk, should not be taken into account by the review body under rules about consideration of new information.
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But the solicitor added the panel could also consider whether SEPA’s revised response could be considered allowances for exceptions.
He added: “It does relate to flooding, which is a matter which was before the appointed officer at the time; it’s just that a new policy has intervened and you have to decide whether to take that policy into account.”
A Wolfcraig Distillery spokesperson had written to planners saying: “The SEPA letter raises a new matter, that is concern over the future (but not current) flood risk. This issue was not in front of Stirling Council at the time the decision on the application was made. SEPA could have raised this issue before the decision was made. Therefore, in line with the LRB regulations, it is considered competent that the LRB cannot have regard to the SEPA comments in making its decision.
“The applicant wants to reassure the LRB that should permission be granted it is willing and keen to work with SEPA and Stirling Council officers to review the future flood risk issue and have further regard to allowing for climate change. Indeed the submitted flood risk assessment has already taken into account climate change. This would be a reasonable position to take given that the planning application process started in June 2021, it was determined in March 2022 and the Notice of Review lodged in May 2022.”
Councillor Douglas Dodds said he was “minded to overturn” the decision to refuse the application.
However, he failed to get backing from councillors Brisley and Preston, with the latter saying: “I feel it would be irresponsible to do this while the SEPA holding objection is in place.”
Councillor Brisley initially considered asking for a further delay to provide an opportunity for a further flood risk assessment to be submitted by the applicants, who are under no obligation to do so.
However, she said: “I must admit, having looked at all the information, this is another bit of information we don’t have, and I would move refusal at this stage because we have deliberated quite a long time and on balance have spent hours reading over the information. I’m inclined to come down on the side of the planning officer and the various reasons they have given for refusal.”
The planning application included a distillery and visitor centre for production of whisky and other spirits, a still house, workshop, distillery shop, events space, cafe, restaurant and car and coach parking plus a new access road on land 465 metres south of Craigforth.
Council planners refused the application in 2021 saying the scale and nature of the restaurant/café, event space and shop was likely to “detract from the offerings within Stirling city centre” and that there was “insufficient information” to back the applicant’s claims of city centre benefit. They also cited the “sensitive location”, saying the proposal would be “a significant intrusion into the open landscape”.
Developers Wolfcraig, however, claimed the distillery and visitor centre would be a “visitor destination target” for tourists to Stirling and could generate a staggering £1billion knock-on effect for the local economy over the next decade, and said they even had backing from local business organisations.
They argued there would be a direct investment in Stirling of around £18m and the creation of up to 50 jobs along with “spin off” benefits for Stirling and the city centre. Stirling’s MP Alyn Smith also voiced support for the distillery.
North Kersebonny Residents’ Housing Association, however, objected to the application on behalf of 10 owners at nearby North Kersebonny Steading citing grounds including that the character of the area would be irreversibly changed and reiterated their concerns during the appeal process.
