South Lanarkshire councillors have deferred a planning application for housing in Law over development conditions.
At the planning committee meeting on Tuesday, August 16, councillors discussed the application and ultimately deferred the 31 home development in the village due to developers not adhering to conditions.
The development at Bourtree Crescent in Law has previously been approved, but developers have since split the site into two and further planning permission is needed for the last undeveloped area.
The second site would be largely the same as the previously approved area, and officers recommended approval of the site.
However, previous and similar cases led councillors to take the decision to a future committee meeting due to developers not adhering to conditions set by the planning committee and the council’s planning department.
Councillor David Shearer (Clydesdale West), said: “An issue I’d be very worried about is Persimmons has a development nearby and we have had issues, which I have raised, and it’s been discussed at committee, where the conditions that were placed on Persimmons were not being adhered to.
“This includes vehicles leaving the site with mud on their wheels scattering it up and down Station Road, the times of the site’s activity were not being adhered to, so I’d like to ask that officers make sure these conditions are adhered to and if they are breached that they are quickly dealt with and not left to constituents to come back and complain and only then does persimmons actually comply with the conditions that we have placed upon them.”
These thoughts were echoed by councillor David Watson (East Kilbride West), who said: “It’s quite disturbing developers are getting away with this, and even when we are catching them not adhering to planning conditions.
“I don’t know if this is possible but could we maybe put some of these planning applications through and put bonds on the developers and if they don’t adhere to the conditions they forfeit the bond, I don’t know if that’s legal or not but I think it’s something worth looking at because it’s getting ridiculous that communities are getting disrupted and developers are not adhering to what were asking them what do and they’re basically sticking two fingers up at us.”
In response to these concerns, chairman of the planning committee, Gerry Convery (East Kilbride Central South), said: “I’m giving you the assurance that you’re right because we get too much of it once they get planning permission, let’s take this away and come back at a future meeting.”
Councillors on the planning committee agreed with the chair’s proposal and agreed to discuss the matter, in depth, at a future planning meeting, deferring the application until more detail is provided.
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